“I would say Ronnie doesn’t want to limit himself to any specific genre… I feel like he wants to write whatever he wants to write, and so one day he might write like a sad song, or a country song, he might want to write hardcore, he just doesn’t want to put any limitations on his writing which I think is really awesome.”
From press release: Since forming in 2008, Falling In Reverse have racked up a fanatical fan base, so much so that the band’s legendary videos have been viewed over 30 million times. The attitude of the 1980’s Sunset Strip, the bravado of battle-ready rap, the take-no-prisoners bottom end of metalcore and the boundless revelry of underground EDM parties have all beautifully converged in this one band and this new album. It’s for everyone on Instagram, on Twitter, or anyone with a brain and two ears. With Fashionably Late, Falling In Reverse continues to push the envelope musically, while writing songs that are strong enough to cross over into the mainstream.
After making sure everything was in order, we had a chat with Falling In Reverse drummer Ryan Seaman about the new album and how it all came together as well as some hope for Australian fans… maybe…
The band is about to release their second album, the dreaded second album… are you nervous or excited to get it out there to everyone?
Yeah so far the response has been really great and we’re all really stoked that the record finally came out you know? So we can’t wait to tour on this stuff *laughs*
So, as it is your second album, can you give us two words that aren’t the album title ha ha that you think sum up the album perfectly?
Two words? Hmm… Fucking Awesome *laughs*
The title itself, is there a meaning behind calling the album ‘Fashionably Late’?
You really I really don’t know the answer to that question, ‘Fashionably Late’ was just kind of a fun song that Ronnie wrote, but if you read the lyrics you pretty much get the idea. I think it just sounded cool you know.
Song wise, obviously Ronnie took the lead with the majority of the album, but you got a co-write in there, nice work, so when writing ‘Born To Lead’ how stoked were you to get that included on the album?
Oh I was very stoked, honestly how it came about, it was really funny, so Ronnie and I used to work out together, like a lot, last year, and sometimes if I have ideas I just hum them into my phone and just for melody ideas, so I basically recorded a breakdown over the phone and I played it for him. He already had the song ‘Born To Lead’ kind of but was like ‘fuck man, I need a breakdown’ and I was like ‘check this out but maybe we should try speeding it up or something’ and then I showed the first half of the breakdown and he was like ‘that’s sick’ and then the second half of the breakdown we were sitting in a kitchen in Florida, during our record trying to come up with the other half of the breakdown and that was it, so that was my contribution I guess…
This is the first album you’ve played on for the band, so when making ‘Fashionably Late’, what were you able to bring to the table in the studio that may have been missing on the debut to help create the new album and make it what it was?
Well I’ve worked on albums before, I used to be in a band called ‘ I Am Ghost’, so he and I already knew how each other worked, and a lot of this stuff was already demoed out before we went into the studio, I think I just made the drum parts better, I think I brought more life into them. So I brought that to the table and I really feel like on this record my drumming was probably the best tracking I’ve done to date out of about eighty projects I’ve been a part of and I’m really stoked I got the opportunity to be a part of this record.
I’m actually surprised that your legs weren’t sore for weeks after recording, because some of the drumming is insane…
*laughs* oh you have no idea… I was tracking the song ‘Champion’ and there’s some blast beats and it’s definitely took some time to get my endurance up, it’s there now *laughs* but at first I thought man, this is crazy…
The balance between ball tearing heavy / hardcore and almost 80’s pop / rock is a great blend on the album, I mean an odd one, but it works, is there a method to the madness that is ‘Falling In Reverse’?
I would say Ronnie doesn’t want to limit himself to any specific genre… I feel like he wants to write whatever he wants to write, and so one day he might write like a sad song, or a country song, he might want to write hardcore, he just doesn’t want to put any limitations on his writing which I think is really awesome. We’re not in any sort of specific genre; we can tour with anybody from like Guns N Roses to Hollywood Undead…
That would be a good bill…
*laughs* that would be interesting…
The rapping element is extremely prominent throughout especially the heavier tracks… was this a conscious decision from Ronnie or did it just seem to play out that way?
I feel like it might have played out that way, he was experimenting for a while and then eventually it all just came together, he’s loved to rap ever since he was a child, but he really felt like he wanted to take a risk on this one and I don’t blame him ya know? Every artist wants to evolve… putting all your chips out and that’s what I love about him, he wears his heart on his sleeve.
The song ‘Game Over’ is too good! Just for some fun, what’s your favourite video game to play?
Well you know what man? *laughs* I’m like old school Nintendo games, honestly like NES, I never get into Xbox or Playstation, Derek and Ronnie are the only gamers I guess in the band. My favourite video game growing up was ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2’ it was based off the movie, it was the arcade game. That was my favourite one, early 90’s. All the Super Mario games, all those…
So I have to ask, do you think we’ll ever get to see you in Australia?
You know what, I’m not really supposed to talk about it, but you might see us, maybe… soon… maybe, who knows? I’ll leave you guys with that, you can do what you want with that. It might happen soon…
What does the remainder of the year have in store for Falling In Reverse?
I think for now we’re going to be doing some radio festivals and we’ll probably do another headliner at some point, so yeah. Then as far as Australia, we’ll see…
Well we’ll keep our fingers crossed as there are a lot of people that want to see you, so hopefully one day soon we’ll get to, so best of luck with the record and thanks for your time today Ryan.
Yes, sir. Thanks I really appreciate it man.
Essential Information
From: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Band members: Ronnie Radke – Vocals, Jacky Vincent – Lead guitar, Ryan Seaman – drums, Ron Ficarro – Bass / Backing vocals, Derek Jones – Guitar
Website: http://www.fallinginreverse.com
Latest release: Fashionably Late (June 21 – Eiptaph)
