Dan Andriano of Alkaline Trio has just released his solo album, ‘Hurricane Season’ under the moniker ‘The Emergency Room.’ He comes to The Academy on September 29th as part of The Revival Tour alongside Chuck Ragan, Brian Fallon (The Gaslight Anthem) and Dave Hause (The Loved Ones). Vanessa Monaghan caught up with Dan to find out about his solo work, Alkaline Trio’s ‘Damnesia’ and get him to answer a couple of readers’ questions.
What prompted you to record Hurricane Season now? Was it something you just had to do?
‘Kind of , you know it’s all about timing, everything in life has to find its place. I guess over the winter I had some time and I had been itching to get these songs recorded for a couple of years now , with some of them. Over the winter I had a little bit of time to do a little bit of stock taking and once I was confident I had the songs I wanted to record I locked myself in my little studio and got busy.’
This is a 100% solo record, how much pressure did you find in comparison to when you have a record that you’re recording with other people?
‘Very different, I guess I felt a lot of pressure but it was all pressure I was putting on myself, it’s a whole different kind of feeling. In the studio with Alkaline Trio, we’re very comfortable with each other, we don’t have a problem saying ‘Hey, That’s fine, let’s move on’ or ‘Hey, that part sucks! Let’s do it again.’ I didn’t really have anyone to tell me that when I was working by myself so it was just a matter of me going a little bit crazy and doing things two and three times and still not being sure if it sounded good, bad or what. It was a little weird, it was kind of an exercise in neurosis.
It was a weird head space but it was fun too. I like recording and I like getting sounds and all that goes along with being in a studio, not just playing and partying. I like the actual work that goes into it so it was fun and cool for me to do.’
Your solo work and the music you make with Alkaline Trio are very different. Have you found that when you’re writing for solo material you approach things differently?
‘Yeah I guess I do, I try and write the songs as quickly as possible. I don’t want to labour over structure or some sort of formulae and I’m not saying Alkaline Trio does that. Between the three of us if I write a song inevitably Matt (Skiba) and Derek (Grant) will have some suggestions of how to change it around and make it a better song. That’s what we do and I really appreciate that because those guys are two of the best songwriters I’ve ever known.
Matt and Derek write a song and it happens the same way. We finish the songs as a band and that’s what makes it sound like Alkaline Trio. With Me and The Emergency Room stuff, I’m not going to labour over it in my own head. I know I’m going to do that enough when I’m recording it so I try to things a little quicker, a little more stream of consciousness. I’ll think about how I’m doing to record it later on.’
Heather on Facebook wanted to know ‘What kind of themes and emotions were channelled in the making of this record?’ because it’s different to your Alkaline Trio material, does that make it more personal?
‘I suppose it does, it’s hard to say that it’s more personal because pretty much every song I write is a personal song and everything I’ve ever done with Alkaline Trio is personal but this record because of the theme that it took on became a lot more about me and my family than anything else I’ve ever done and I think because it was just me I felt more comfortable writing that stuff.’
You recorded ‘Hurricane Season’ yourself at home. Did you find it hard to keep disciplined and keep work time and play time separate?
‘It’s hard and it was weird knowing I had a few months to finish writing and start recording this and that was pretty much all the time I had, I knew I had to get it done but at the same time I also have a beautiful four year old daughter and a beautiful wife that usually when I’m not on tour and I’m not in the studio with the band, they become my life and they become what I want to spend my time… doing. So for me to be home and still working, it was tricky in that regard. It’s weird to be home with my wife and daughter but locked up in my studio.. you know? Basically every morning I had to say ‘OK, my daughter’s in school today, that’s the time I have to work, I have to get up and do it. That’s pretty much how it worked. I worked when she wasn’t around and when she came home I tried to pull myself away from it and spend the rest of the evening with her.’
You’re out on The Revival Tour gigging at the moment and it’s a bunch of people you’re not usually on the road with. How weird is that?
‘It’s gonna be fun,it will be a little different travelling. Chuck and Brian and Dave and me, we’re all old friends and we’ve toured together quite a bit in different bands. I’m really looking forward to it, I love those guys. It’s going to be really fun. Chuck is the mastermind of the whole thing and I think he really thinks long and hard about who he invites to be a part of it. It’s got more to do with the people than it does the music, it’s about this camaraderie and friendship that we’ve got. Then it’s also about the reason why we all play music.
The reason Alkaline Trio started playing music as a band is kind of similar to the reason Hot Water Music (Chuck Ragan’s Band) started as a band. We all wanted to do something special and different and it was all about touring and making friends and bringing something into the world than it was trying to make money and be rock stars.’
Alkaline Trio are together fifteen years now, you’re with the band fourteen years. The new Alkaline Trio album ‘Damnesia’ is a celebration of that but why did you want to rework the track and do them differently?
‘It kept getting suggested to us that we should do a hits record, that just didn’t sound like a good idea to any of us in the band. It seems kinda pointless. I’m not a big fan of greatest hit records, most of the artists and bands that I like, I listen to their albums the way the bands intended when they recorded them. It’s not just about one song here or there it’s about an album, a whole piece of music. Also its 2011, you can go on iTunes and make your own greatest hits record just by picking the songs you like.
Anyway, we didn’t want to do that, we didn’t want to do just an acoustic record, I don’t think that would be very interesting. We came up with the idea of doing a “Unplugged” style album, like MTV was making in the nineties, like Nirvana did and The Cure did. That was exciting to us, to think about stuff we could do. Yes, it’s acoustic based but we started thinking about what we could do with drum loops and electronic stuff and sound effects and pianos and keyboards, we started to get way more excited about that.
Once we were in the studio, it became more of its own album, less of a greatest hits rehash of the songs. I think, that album could stand on its own and we’re really happy with how it turned out.’
Cathal on Twitter wants to know why is it great songs like ‘Burnt is the House’ and ‘Kick Rocks’ don’t make it on to ‘real’ albums?
‘We like the records to be concise and have a certain flow. I like to think of it as a thirty or forty minute piece rather than song after song. I guess when we’re deciding about what songs are going to be on an album we’re thinking of the flow and those songs didn’t fit. It doesn’t mean we don’t like them, it doesn’t mean we didn’t want them out. That’s why we put them out as B-Sides or something else.’
You’re back on tour with Alkaline Trio in October/November, what versions of the songs are you going to play live?
‘We’re kinda doing a little bit of both, we just finished a tour and what we did was try to play a set of songs that we don’t really play too often on tour, that people always ask for and people want to hear and we don’t reallyplay the. Then everyone left the stage, I would stay up there and do an acoustic song by myself then Matt and Derek would come out, then we did some of the stuff from Damnesia, the way it was on that album. Like ‘Clavicle’ and ‘You’ve got so far to go’ and stuff like that and we built it back up for a few songs of a rock set for the end.
It was kinda cool, we had a good time. That’s probably what we’re going to do when we head over there in November.’
You haven’t announced any Irish dates yet for the Alkaline Trio tour that’s coming up, will there be any or will we have to wait til next time round?
‘Honestly, I didn’t even know that there wasn’t any dates yet, I’ll have to talk to our folks.. We love going up there, we always have a really cool time in Dublin and I really want to get to Belfast. I’d like to go and do more than just one show in Ireland, personally.’
Final Question, If there was a movie of your life, which actor would you like to play you?
That’s a good question, I have to pick a great Irish actor right (laughs)
That’s up to you, who’s going to represent you best?
I dunno, a true American hero like Andy Dick would probably be good, I’m just kidding, of course. It’s a tricky question because if I say someone like Brad Pitt everyone is going to think I’m hot shit.
Brad Pitt is a seriously underrated actor, he gets a lot of stick because he’s good looking!
‘I agree 100%, I really enjoy actors so much, there’s so many good ones out there… Maybe someone like Gary Oldman, that guy is a chameleon. He can pretty much play anyone. He’s obviously played a real punker before in Sid Viscous so maybe he could play less of a punker like me (laughs).’
The new album by The Emergency Room, ‘Hurricane Season’ is out now. The Revival Tour comes to The Academy on September 29th, tickets are €20 and are available from ticketmaster.ie
Thanks to our readers for sending me their questions.