JP CARROLL of ARMED IN ADVANCE: The Live Music Commodity
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Since emerging onto the New Zealand music scene just over a couple of years ago, Armed in Advance have amassed a rather formidable legion of fans thanks to their well written heavy rock songs with thought provoking and often topical lyrics.
Now with both an EP (Stitches, 2014) and the brilliant debut album Change/Evolve released just last year under their belts, Armed In Advance are back bigger and better than ever with their brand new single ‘Pain’ – a powerful track with a down and dirty guitar riff and memorable chorus.
This weekend sees Armed in Advance play the iconic Kings Arms stage as part of a staggering ten band line-up; Auckland City Rock Fest offering an absolute feast of musical talent on which to gorge upon. I caught up with lead vocalist/guitarist JP Carroll to discuss the new single, upcoming gig and just how hairy their drummer Ryan Thomas really is.
A little bit of background for our audience – what first inspired you to play music and have you always gravitated towards the genre of rock?
“I fell in love with music when I was 13 and hit my first Big Day Out – always been into rock, and I am famously narrow minded (laughs)”
For the fans of the technical – what is your current set up?
“I’ve got a Telecaster – I had to put it together because I’m left handed – and I whacked a humbucker in there for the riffs. Left handers get dicked by guitar manufacturers which is sad, so I had to make my own, but it’s pretty cool!”
Armed in Advance originally began as Stitches, what prompted the change and how did you arrive at your current name?
“The name Stitches we found out was shared with a rapper from the States with AK47’s tattooed on his face. Eventually our songs ended up under his Spotify profile, and as funny as it was, we needed to create some distance from the guy screaming “I love selling blow”. Armed in Advance is derived from the term ‘forewarned is forearmed’ – through the horrendous process of trying to find a replacement name we resorted to looking up clichés on one of many long car rides on tour. We aren’t into guns or anything”
You have just recently released the fantastic new single ‘Pain’ – the accompanying visuals for which is a gritty little lyric video. With the emphasis that this can place on the actual lyrics of the song, what prompted you to create this kind of video?
“The thought was just to accompany the release with some visual content – the brief we gave Poseidon Media who created the video was to create something similarly stark to the single cover. People seem to like it which is cool.”
There is one line in particular – “These are the best years of our lives, why’d you invest yours into ruining mine” – which is particularly hard hitting; what’s the story behind these words?
“Bullying is a recurrent theme in my lyric writing. That line in particular questions the motives of an individual who would focus their intent and efforts on putting another down. Why do humans put their energy into hurting other people when it could be spent helping? Sometimes people are dicks I guess – but it makes for good lyrics by the looks of it (laughs)”
Drummer Ryan Thomas has been with the band for a while now, but ‘Pain’ is his debut in regards to the recording process?
“Ryan ‘Smokey Jesus’ Thomas has been killing it on the drums for more than a year now, and this is the first time he’s been involved in the writing and recording process. He had a lot to do with the arrangement and structure also. He’s a talented fella; as talented as he is funny … and as funny as he is hairy.”
The new single is the first offering from your (future) new body of work; is it a hint of what is to come both sound and theme wise?
“We’ve started working with Greg Haver; we’ve written a bunch of new tunes with the main goal of really upping the ante in the song writing department. The new tunes are lower, dirtier and hopefully better”
You mention working with Greg Haver [who has worked with such bands as Bullet for my Valentine and Manic Street Preachers] – how did this relationship begin?
“We met Greg through our friends in Ekko Park – Greg produced their second album Know Hope – and he’s a brilliant producer and a great dude, as is his engineer Nick Poortman. The whole team who worked on the single are legends [Clint Murphy mix and Ryan Smith master] so we hope to continue working with this group for sure, really excited about the prospect!”
Do you feel that you are becoming a bit of a veteran now in regards to the recording process? Do you feel that you have gained learnings as well as grown since releasing the EP Stitches in 2014?
“Every recording process had its learning curve; the thing I’m most excited about is I feel I get better as a musician every time, and every time I finish I want to challenge myself to improve more. As long as I keep getting better I’m stoked!”
Armed in Advance is one of ten outstanding acts that are playing this weekend as part of Auckland City Rock Fest – who came up with the concept and what has been your involvement?
“Both myself and Nikko from Echo Park; I’ve been doing my best to organise everything with help from Nick and Craig from BV Entertainment – so if it’s a shit show I guess you know who to blame! I’m pretty sure it’ll be good though”
The ticket price considering the calibre of the bands playing is an absolute steal – and yet simultaneously a travesty. Do you believe there is apathy in the local scene in regards to people getting out and seeing live (local) acts?
“Absolutely, the quality of rock music under everyone’s nose in Auckland is ridiculous – but this is a great opportunity to highlight the fact. If you can make it past your iPhone or the couch and Netflix on any given weekend you’ll find a wealth of talented humans putting themselves out there on stage in one of Auckland’s venues and these bands deserve people in front of them to give back some energy. Twenty bucks; get down and watch some talented people do their thing and lay waste to your eardrums”
Do you believe the apathy is a big city trait (i.e. Auckland) or a genre trait?
“Or is it a sign of the times? Hard to know; big cities seem to offer the benefit of volume, i.e. there are enough likeminded people in an area to warrant putting on a show, but as a band member I wonder what bands need to do to reach audiences that want to see live music. Are they still out there? Hopefully! It’s great that all these awesome bands joined forces for this night – really celebrating this scene that is developing which is awesome”
Armed In Advance are just one of the amazing bands on the bill of this weekends ‘Auckland City Rock Fest’, being held at Auckland’s Kings Arms Tavern. The very last of the tickets are available from UTR, but get in quick as this is looking like it will sell out!
