Cone Interview

[Kristin]

http://media.dailytelegraph.com.au/mult ... tml?id=249

It's really shitty quality but i don't think i've ever heard cone do an interview all by himself. and lol at their tour manager wanting to quit during the first tour. sorry if it's been posted.

[MissWhibley]

cool. thnaks for posting.

[Tiny *[Banned]*]

Its says Kone instead of Cone.

[Lithium]

let me see it

[Phili]

lol, Cone sounds so funny. He sounds like a fuckin' robot.

I've been seeing a lot of Steve-only interviews lately.

Perth! Curtis'll be happy.

Hmm, that's the first time I've heard Cone actually say what Deryck's been saying regarding Dave's participation.

Cone has a lot to say, it's actually really funny to hear him alone in an interview.

[TomiT14]

For me it's really hard to hear what he's saying, especially when English isn't my native language.
Could someone sum up what Cone said? It would be greatly appreciated :)

[Phili]

I'll do a transcript.

[TomiT14]

I'll do a transcript.

Thanks! You're my hero! :)

[Phili]

Interviewer: We’re joined with Cone from Sum 41. Hi Cone, how’re you going?

Cone: Good, how’re you doing?

I: Pretty good, thanks. Now you’re known for your epic tours with Sum 41, with tours that can last an entire year. How’s this one going?

C: This one’s kind of, just started and it’s going to go, probably, even longer then we’ve gone in the past. Uh--

I: How long have you--

C: Well, I think we started playing shows in May. And so, we’re actually gonna… just recently we’ve been doing sort of one-offs around the world, big promo shows… Which we’re doing in Sydney and Melbourne, just kind of like, “Hey, we’re back” kind of shows. And then we’re actually starting our world tour in September, which will take us everywhere, hopefully to places we haven’t been before, either.

I: Well I was going to ask you, why you’re only coming to Sydney and Melbourne, you’re coming back to Australia?

C: Oh yeah, for sure. And I know, like, a lot of people from Australia, a lot of our fans were kind of pissed off that we only did Sydney last album, and so we’ve, we’ve all talked about it and it’s like you know, we have to really go back to Australia a few times just cause we owe you guys one. And I mean we’re doing Sydney and Melbourne this time, but this is just, like, one of those one-off shows. We’re actually going to book a real tour to come back early next year, like a full Australian tour. Like we’ve done in the past.

I: So the other states don’t have to beg you to get over there.

C: [laughs] No. Actually we’ve never been to Perth before and a lot of kids from Perth are always like, “You guys are assholes for never coming” so, uh, I really, like personally, I would push to go to Perth, um… Hopefully we can make it.

I: What’s the most interesting thing that’s happened on tour so far?

C: The most interesting thing… Well, you know, like, we all thought that this album we were all gonna, you know, we all have girlfriends, Deryck’s married now, we were all like, “Wow, maybe the tour’s going to start to be a little more mellow”, but, the first tour that we did we went to Germany to do some press, and we ended up, like, smashing up a hotel room, like, kinda like old times, like 5 years ago when we used to do that all the time, and like the first tour back, we smashed this hotel room. I put my foot through a painting in the hallway, and we’re never allowed to go back to this hotel in Munich, Germany, and we got a hefty, hefty hotel bill because of it, and, we all woke up in the morning, thinking “Oh man, great, we’re back, is this what it’s going to be like?” [laughs]

I: Very rock and roll, and did you pay for the damages?

C: Yeah, and our new tour manager, his first tour with us too, and I think he maybe had a little bit of reservation about maybe continuing with us but our manager kind of assured him that it wasn’t going to be like that all the time. He’s a good liar.

I: So you’re going to relax?

C: [laughs] Well, no, our manager’s a good liar.

I: Well you’re in Australia next week, have you got any plans for while you’re here?

C: Well, I think we’ve got a couple of days, we’re going to be there for 4 or 5 days so, I dunno, we’re just going to play the couple of shows that we’re doing and hopefully get to see parts of Australia. We never really get to see a lot of stuff, but we’re actually going to be there for a couple days off, so hopefully we’ll get to go out and see a little bit of it.

I: In your Still Waiting video, you famously parodied the Strokes. Do you have anyone in your sights for this new album?

C: A parody?

I: Yeah.

C: Not out there yet, but I’m sure something could come up really fast, I mean there’s a lot of crap out there that we could parody. Not saying the Strokes are crappy, ‘cause I actually really like the Strokes, but there’s a lot of shitty music that we could probably parody.

I: Who would it be?

C: [laughs] I knew that question was going to come. I dunno, I’d have to sit down and think about it. There’s the obvious bands that we hate like Simple Plan, there’s endless bands, I guess.

I: Your new album, Underclass Hero, comes out today, I believe.

C: Yeah.

I: What’s changed in 3 years since Chuck?

C: Well, this album, ‘cause it did come out 3 years ago, we actually had a lot more time to write it and record it and, like, sit with it. This album’s just, like, for me, I listen to it now, and Underclass Hero, just, lyrically it’s a lot better and it’s more personal. Like, Deryck wrote the lyrics and it’s really personal to him. There’s a lot of personal stuff on it. We really thought out this album and we put it together, it’s not just 14 songs thrown together. Like, everything flows into each other, like some songs connect and like, we just really thought this one out and tried to make it… we looked at all our albums and thought, “What do we do, what do we do best as a band” and then we, you know, we talked about it, and then we just kind of made the album from our strengths. I mean, I think, melodically and lyrically it’s definitely one of our best.

I: Now, for the first time in your career you’ve got a line-up change, you’re using a new guitarist, um, Tom from Canadian band, Gob, how’s that changed the sound or the dynamics of the band?

C: I don’t think it changed it much because we recorded Underclass Hero as a three-piece. Deryck just played all the guitars… I mean, Deryck always wrote all our guitar parts anyway and Dave would just play them, so, I mean, the sound really hasn’t changed… Thatcher doesn’t really bring that much… I mean, Thatcher’s a great singer ‘cause he’s actually the lead singer of his band in Canada called Gob and we’ve known them for like 8 years and we’ve like toured with them and that’s kind of why we asked him to try out to tour was because we know he’s a great guitar player. He can play everything Dave can play, and he can sing everything Dave can sing, and he’s actually a lead singer so his vocals are really strong. So I think, live, we sound better than ever.

I: Chuck was named after UN peacekeeper Chuck Pelletier who took you guys to strife-torn, civil war front of the Democratic Republic on Congo…

C: Yeah…

I: And the new album’s Underclass Hero, obviously it’s following a political vein. Can you explain that a bit further?

C: Yeah, well, Underclass Hero kinda came in a couple ways. Dave left our band in early 2006, and then we also parted ways with our longtime manager and he was our producer, Greig Nori, and, you know, we fired our business manager. All these people left our organization and then when we really sat down and thought about it we felt like it was just the 3 of us left, and we were kind of starting at a low point, it felt like, we were just 3 guys, we didn’t really have a manager, we lost a guitar player, um, blah blah blah blah, so we all kinda sat down and just felt like we were just the 3 of us doing so for the first time in about 6 years since All Killer came out, it was like, we were kind of starting over again. And so, Underclass Hero just means, we started at this lowest point that we had in our career and we think we’ve made the best record of our career. And so, we’ve actually, like, exceeded through it all.

I: So it’s a very inward looking album, is it?

C: Yes.

I: Less than out, like Chuck for instance.

C: Yeah, I think we felt like we had a lot to prove to people and a lot to prove to ourselves, because when Dave left, and we fired our producer and manager, everyone had a lot of doubt… And we kept hearing all this doubt, like, we couldn’t move on, we couldn’t move on, we’re not going to be the same. And I think, just, hearing all that, day-to-day, we just really put our minds to making the best album we could, and, I dunno. I mean, I think we did, I hope everyone else does too, I dunno.

I: Well how do you think the new album’s going to be received? Any idea, any indication?

C: I think, we were talking about this before, and it’s hard to say what people are going to think about it, because Chuck was such a heavy album and this one’s not as heavy as Chuck, so, I was thinking that people who like Chuck might not like it because it’s not as heavy. But, then, you know what? You can’t start thinking like that because we feel like we made the best album we could, and we like it, and if we’re going to continue as a band, we can’t just always be thinking about how people are going to receive it, we have to think about, we want to enjoy doing it and that’s the only way we’ll continue on. And we hope our fans like it too, but, I mean, we gotta enjoy what we do, we can’t just put out stuff we don’t like. And, yeah, I mean, from reading stuff on the website once and a while, it seems like everyone’s liking it, I mean the album’s not out yet, it’s just out today, so it’s hard to tell what people are going to really think about it.

I: Well, we wish you and the band the best of luck with the new album and the tour, and I hope it goes very well for you. Thanks for joining us.

C: Oh, cool. Thanks a lot.

[poups41]

that part about trashing the hotel room and 'being back' was awesome

[washburn]

great :) and thanks for the transcript!

[charle22]

great
thanks :)

[TomiT14]

Great interview! And huge thanks to Phili for the transcription!

[Jonny]

thank you Phili.

[Pull_The_Curtis]

YES PERTH!!!! HAHA too right Phili. Fuck yes...love you Cone :)