Riot! In The Boulevard: Studio Time!



Location: Capitol Studios, Los Angeles, California
Dates: 25 – 29 March, 2013
Present: Amy Meyer, Justin Mullen, Adam Benjamin, Jason Greenberg, Nathan Mullen

Justin: “The demo sessions are always hugely important. They’re a whole lot more important than people probably realize, I mean certainly for us at this moment in time, it’s very important … we’re in the middle of a world tour that’s gonna last until September. So the little free time that we’ll get, to put together and plan the next record is really important and this week of working on demos of new songs will give us a good idea of the direction of the next record and perhaps even discover some sort of underlying lyrical theme. It’s important to be productive and I think that we manage to do that.”

The lead guitarist is often a quiet and reserved person, when pressed to speak he takes his time to collate his thoughts and often displays mannerisms that make you feel like he doesn’t really want to be talking, it’s not a personality trait that is intended as an arrogance but rather as someone who isn’t entirely comfortable with fame or at least not yet anyway. But when he does speak he tends to show himself to be a self-conscience and relatively intelligent young man, serious? Yes but there’s a sense of humility and a laid-back nature that he exudes.

Amy: “I don’t want us to re-create what we did last time we made a studio album. I don’t think anybody does … at least not anybody who likes good music.”

A surprising statement from the person very much recognised as the band leader, her red-hair almost covering her eyes, something that becomes irritating to her in a matter of moments. She makes these bold statements about the bands previous studio album ‘Crossroads’ with a wry smile and a large sense of honesty and self-deprecation.

Amy: “It’s not something that I’d say I was proud of. If we could go back and take that record off of our history then I’d certainly consider it because it’s not a great album. There’s a couple of decent tracks in there, well I’d say there’s a couple of decent verses somewhere in those eleven songs. But the end product is poor, obviously it’s a matter of opinion. The record went to number #1 and has sold over three and a half million copies, there were two number #1 singles from it too! But I don’t like it, I loved it at the time when we were recording it, I thought this was a great collection of songs that differed from what we’ve done previously and now I listen to it or a couple of tracks from it and I don’t know how we thought it was good enough to release. But again, it’s all subjective, it would appear that people did think it was good and that in itself is a beautiful thing about the music industry. There’s no right or wrong, there’s just doing it.”

That statement may very well be the case, certainly deep inside the studio based in Los Angeles is the tools for the band to ‘Just do it’. It’s a large area of the building that is currently being occupied by the band, a number of guitars are available, a drum kit is set up in the far left corner of the room and the recording booths are currently empty with the exception of the solitary microphone stand. The place has started to become personalised by the band already, as I entered the room for the first time this morning, rhythm guitarist Adam Benjamin was busy placing a poster on the wall, that poster was one of their flame-haired lead singer with words scrawled across the middle that reminded the band members that to get to work, it stated, “I’m always watching”.

Adam: “We are a band. Absolutely and our fans know this and they’ll fight you to the death if you believe otherwise. I believe they can get pretty protective over us, I’ve been fan sites and the likes in the past and I’ve read negative comments about us and the I’ve seen the reaction from the passionate fans. It’s funny.”

While he’s talking about the fans, Adam Benjamin is constantly smiling. His phone buzzes a couple of times while he’s talking and he quickly responds to the message, he shakes his head as he reads whatever it is that’s been sent to him, before swiftly placing the phone back into his pocket and continuing where he left off.

Adam: “We don’t get an awful lot of negativity surrounding the band though. It’s usually the occasional thing here and there but nothing that particularly affects us or what we do. We work hard at what we do, we don’t want to become the poster kids of modern culture, we’re in this because we want to make great music, music that affects people’s lives in a positive way. So many band’s start out with that aim, but then fame comes and screws up their vision in a way that makes them lose sight of why they picked up a guitar in the first place.”

Bass guitarist Jason Greenberg spends large amounts of time on his mobile phone, the large figure is in a long-term relationship and is recently engaged to his childhood sweetheart. So the travelling lifestyle is perhaps more difficult for him than any of the other members of the band, but this doesn’t faze him because he himself knows the magnitude and power that music can have on a person’s life.

Jason: “Life can be pretty testing. When you’re young you try to find the answers and when you get a little older you realise that there aren’t any answers. You’re always being tested, whether that’s being ridiculed for the way that you are, struggling to find your own voice or dealing with abandonment and loss. It’s a challenge, it’s a daily challenge. Don’t just think because the guy's in one of the biggest rock groups in the world that he’s got it figured out, he really hasn’t, trust me and neither of us have anything figured out. You go to one of our concerts and you look at the faces in the first few rows and you see every possible situation, there’ll be kids who are struggling to find happiness, kids being bullied, kids dealing with their parents’ divorce or even death but for the two to three hours, they’re jumping up and down with the biggest smiles on their faces and that’s what makes me feel great about what we do. There’s no barriers between the band and our fans, we are all one and the guys onstage aren’t so different from the people in the crowd, we’re just as screwed up as they are and the show is our way of forgetting whatever is going wrong in our lives if only for a night.”

The band begin to assemble in position with their instruments, warming up at the drums is Nathan Mullen, he’s playing softly as he listens to Jason speaking. He’s nodding along to what the bassist says and he’s messing around with the various elements of his drum kit, the quiet natured drummer then chimes into the conversation from behind his drum kit.

Nathan: “That’s exactly what it’s about.”

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To All Of The Names Written On The Inside Of My Arm (Preview)

As all five members of the band assemble make their way through the glass doors and into the recording area they find their positions and instruments, lead guitarist Justin Mullen picks up a deep red Gibson Les Paul and places his fingers high on the neck of the instrument before striking repetitively at the strings creating a heavy guitar introduction to the song, this is quickly pounced upon by the rhythmic section as Nathan, Jason and Adam all join in on the action which increases the volume and intensity of the song with a rapid energy, as all instrumentalists are playing the opening to this new song, Amy Meyer is standing, microphone in hand as she patiently awaits her arrival into the rock heavy track, it doesn’t take too long before her time comes.

Standing beside the microphone stand as the band lead into the opening verse of the song, Amy’s left foot is stomping up and down against the floor which adds an additional beat into the background of the song, this became a topic of joyous discussion between the band after they ran through the songs and will evidently be included when the fully begin recording this song later in the year.
The powerful guitar lead and the persistent drum beat continue as the opening verse of the track comes into focus and Amy grips the microphone stand tightly with both hands and spits out the opening lines of the song with an aggression and energy that you’d imagine only Riot! could provide, she brings the microphone closer to her mouth and moves it slightly further away as she sings the songs opening lyrics and the band continue to back her up with an instrumental backdrop that proves that rock and roll music still does exist.

As the band and Amy fire through the pre-chorus the music slows down for a brief couple of moments but quickly builds up again with the drum beating furiously like footsteps walking up the stairs of a haunted house, the guitars are simmered down slightly to create an eerie nature to the instrumental and then all of a sudden the bellowing voice of Amy Meyer hits focus as she yells out the chorus with a large amount of passion, “This one goes out to all of the names written on the inside of my arm/From the cheaters and liars/To the good guys that never meant any harm.” and the guitars drive forward with a heavy almost classic rock style riff from Justin Mullen.

“Say what you will about the urgency to kill
But when you’re young you go too fast and it can be a long way down when you fall
But when you crash to the ground you feel nothing at all
And you’ve been writing your name beside your lovers in a notebook
Suddenly he leaves and finds someone new
She loves all of his records that you used to laugh about
And she’s perkier too

Then you’re sat alone on your bedroom floor in the middle of the night
All you have is the company of the blue moonlight
And you’ll begin to wonder about the deepest meanings of love
You’ll start singing out the songs that fill up your heart
Lyrics about how letting go is the hardest part
But that beautiful soft voice quickly changes its tone
And it’s now just became this relentless narcissistic drone

This one goes out to all of the names written on the inside of my arm
From the cheaters and the liars
To the good guys that never meant any harm
But they turned bad and caused so much distress
But I loved them all I guess
So just remember all of the words that you had spoken
Because they all had an effect
And remember all of the beating hearts that are now all broken
A long list of former lovers all filled with regret”

In A Separate State Of Mind (Preview)

The second of the songs that the band preview is a slightly more melodical rock track, An opening piano introduction from Amy Meyer that brings to mind the introduction to Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls, lyrically it’s not a million miles away from the angst and confusion driven lyrics of that popular track but it’s uniquely and unashamedly Riot! In The Boulevard. It’s lyrics come straight from the heart of what the band are all about and what they have been ever since breaking into the industry, self-deprecating and doubtful with a personal touch and honesty that not recent bands have been able to encapsulate in their music. Instrumentally it’s almost like a pop-punk ballad, with three driving guitars and another seminal drumming performance from Nathan Mullen. It’s the piano introduction that starts things off with Amy painting the picture with her opening verse.

But as the second verse arrives, it ups the ante and the lyrics turn to the afore-mentioned self-deprecating, it’s backed by a modern rock fusion, all guitars fitting into place from the leading riff by Justin to the rhythmic but highly energetic playing by both Adam and Jason and it all moulds around the piano keys and the emotive but still powerful vocal of Amy Meyer as she sings, “Here we go again/Just take a moment to think about me/What is the first thing that comes to your mind/Take a pen and cover these walls with all of my flaws/I won’t be surprised by the answers that I find/Now I’m in a separate state of mind.” and the feeling within the room is that these are words taking directly from the red-haired lead singers high school journal, if you’ve struggled to fit in at any point in your life, then the line “Take a pen and cover these walls with all of my flaws.” may be something that you can relate to quite powerfully, it’s certainly a song that would sound spectacular in a stadium environment.

And that thought continues with the next verse as its drum and guitar backdrop gives it a chest beatingly anthemic quality, especially as Amy shouts out the lyrics in a vocal delivery that I believe even surprised the band members, it’s certainly perfectly set for a stadium environment and you can already imagine the hordes of teenagers and young adults singing, “A perpetual loner/Arrogant and hopeless/An unlovable freak/Unsociable geek/Talentless with nothing to say/Never one to find her way.” and it looks from these two previews that the band are planning on making the next record, their best yet. The downside, however is that the fans of this band will have to wait until winter before they get to hear what the next album from Riot! will sound like.

“The writing is on the wall, all of the stories have been told
The lies are no longer said in hushed tones
They’re bellowing out deep into the dead of the night
And everybody knows the truth about me now
Yeah, everybody knows the truth about me now
They all know the truth about me now
And there’s nothing I can do
There’s nobody that I can run to

Here we go again
Just take a moment to think about me
What is the first thing that comes to your mind
Take a pen and cover these walls with all of my flaws
I won’t be surprised by the answers that I find
Now I’m in a separate state of mind

A perpetual loner
Arrogant and hopeless
An unlovable freak
Unsociable geek
Talentless with nothing to say
Never one to find her way
Unattractive
Too thin and too small
Forever alone
It’s gonna be a big fall”