Re-Inventing Their Entrance…
By: homie
Tampa’s Underoath sets the stage to return to the US as spot lit headliners.

I’ve never been overseas and perhaps with the exception of leaving a voicemail for a friend in Prague, I’ve never even spoken live to someone outside the continental US. Tonight would be different. Somewhere on a road that leads to London, three bands share a bus and a lead vocalist shares his experiences, via telephone, in a new country, culture, and new found level of dominance in rock music.

Underoath’s (uO) Spencer Chamberlain is only four years a resident of Tampa, Florida. He’s only spent half of that time as the front man for his current band. And in less than a year, the pious piper and his priestly pack have swept the country and kids from all corners of the globe with the June 2004 release of “Their only chasing safety.” A departure from much of the music commonly categorized as “Christian Rock,” uO’s release certainly has undertones of that message but can be enjoyed on a more pop-enthused level by all. On their last tour of the US, it was commonly argued that as many people were arriving to see the opening act uO, as were there to see headliners Coheed and Cambria. As debatable as it may be, one thing remains certain, the passion that the band pours into its live performance and the returned energy from the crowd that adores them is a rarity in today’s image conscious, concert crowd experience.

But that was then and this is now. Now finds an entire band that’s never so much as held a single passport amongst its six members. Now finds fans in the UK adjusting to the southern US accent of a band they previously only knew through the universal language of music. Now literally finds Chamberlain amidst late night tour bus hi-jinx with band mates, tour mates, and crew. When the tour manager calls me, there is an unidentified friendly sort of ruckus going on in the background that presumably takes Chamberlain to the back of the bus for our interview.

“It’s a little different but it’s cool,” he says of the two weeks he’s experienced across the pond thus far. Different most certainly from home which he admits the band hasn’t gotten to spend much time at. Perhaps anything would be different from what’s been happening in Florida the past few years. With a range of successful rock artists from New Found Glory and Less than Jake, to Nonpoint and Poison the Well. Commercial success has been anything but a stranger to the sunshine state. Likewise, a host of successful underground followings have built roots in the state including both Eulogy and Fueled by Ramen records. “There’s definitely been a lot of good bands out of Florida. It’s a big state and a lot of people like to move there. You know, I’m not originally from there. It’s just a pretty sweet place I guess.”

As is presumably the rest of the south. Camaraderie has been built amongst a circuit of touring bands in the south. “…Beloved, Norma Jean, and others. We’ve just kind of grown up with them and it’s just awesome to have friends that are like the same age and doing the same things that you are. Just about any band we’ve toured with has become our best friends but those two in particular I think were key in helping us out.” Surely as important as the other bands that have helped uO along the way has been their record label, Solidstate. But the tale is frequent, especially these days. Little band on smaller label does big things that wind up placing them with a major label. Yet when asked if uO has any aspirations of moving towards major label stardom (or sometimes shelf-dom) Chamberlain speaks matter-of-factly in saying, “We’re definitely content where we are. We never expected to get this far. We definitely like being on a label where we can write what we want to write and don’t have any people telling you what to do (because) every record we do is going to be totally different. The stuff we’re writing right now is definitely something we’ve never done before. It’s really heavy stuff and it’s cool to have a label that-we have a really good relationship with those guys. Our A&R is one of our best friends now. We’re very content with where we are. We’re definitely not looking for anything else.”

Just what are they up to then? “We’re just into playing…hanging out with the kids and stuff like that.”

He attributes the majority of the bands up-swell in fans to the previous summers Warped Tour where the band found itself pounding parking lots on a daily basis finding ways to promote themselves and the smaller side stage they were playing. “It just kept getting better on Warped Tour. Our cod came out while we were on Warped Tour and we were on a smaller stage to where we just had to get out and flyer. We weren’t even on the blowup calendar. We had to go make our own flyers and go out there to hand them to kids and post up where we were playing, posters and stuff. It just grew over warped tour and I think that made a big difference. It really started happening on that tour.” At the same time, the band isn’t so quick to recognize the following they’ve developed. “We really haven’t been out on our own headlining tour yet so it’s hard to tell who’s out there for what but it’s been awesome. Since the album’s come out it’s just been really fun.”

Some say their faith but certainly their fun is what’s kept the band grounded in a time that proves so trying for most. “We’re just six best friends; we try to hang out with everybody. We’re definitely not one of those bands that will retreat to our van or whatever after playing. We’re all about meeting everybody and hanging out. I think kids can tell when you’re out there playing for the right reasons. We really want to be out there playing for those kids, we’re not just like ‘this is our job’ or whatever. That’s the most important thing to us. The kids that come out. Hanging out with people is just something we’ve always done and we’ll always do.”

Tonight he hangs out with Victory records artists Silverstein and The Hurt Process on a tour bus (Roses are Red in tow in the van) inbound to London and we chat for a bit on the foreign exchange that’s taking place on the tour. “We’ve been over here for about two weeks and I think we have 9 or 10 shows left.” The band has had a lot of time on the road to discuss some of the weirder aspects of being on the road and being half way across the world. “I really think the weirdest thing to me and I know some of the other guys, we were talking about it, is how far we are, away from home and how we’ve never been over here. None of us have even visited over here like with our families when we were little or anything. Most of these shows are sold out and the kids are singing along and know who we are and know what we look like when we’re hanging out before the show. It’s just really weird because we had no idea what goes on overseas…We went and got our passports at different times. Me and Tim did it and a couple of other dudes went at different times, and one of us might have forgotten it at home and had to have someone send it to us before we flew out, but I’m not going to name any names!”

If you’ve made it this far into the interview, we know one thing is certain; these guys hang out…a lot. So why would it be any different in another country? While taking in the sites and sounds of the UK (well, at least those sights and sounds around the venues) they’ve befriended some of the traveling fans that have been to more than one show and hung out on more than one occasion, familiarizing themselves and teasing each other with respect to much of the dialogue that differs by country. “We’re really southern and say a lot of dumb stuff, I’m sure…but they say cheers after everything and I know they call bathing suits, swimming costumes? Its pretty funny stuff man but its good times though. They laugh at me because I have a pretty bad southern accent. When I ask how they’re all doing I’ll ask ‘how ya’ll doin’?’ it’s just how we grew up I guess.”

Inevitably the land of Tea and Crumpets will return the Floridians in time for what’s next. “We’ll be back (in the US) just in time for the Taste of Chaos tour. We’ll have like 2 days off or something and then we’ll be back on the road. We’ll be doing our headlining tour right after that.” The headlining tour at interview time will include The Chariot, Hopesfall and Fear Before the March of Flames with Hopesfall dropping off at some point to be replaced by These Arms are Snakes. “A lot of those dudes are our really close friends so we’re looking forward to hanging out with friends and playing some shows.” Shortly thereafter the group hopes to return to the studio either late in 2005 or early in 2006 to record the next release. “We want everything (in the recording) to be just as important. If we took the vocals away a lot of people would just have chord progressions but we want to be just as intricate with or without vocals. We’re just trying to write what we really, really want to play…We love recording but I couldn’t see it happening until at least after summer. We’re just going to be pretty solid out on the road.”