Following two years solidly touring the states, supporting bands including Fall Out Boy, Midtown, Taking Back Sunday and Something Corporate, and releasing two albums, Armor For Sleep have finally made it over to the UK, to support Fightstar. The band has just released it’s second album, ‘What To Do When You Are Dead’, an atmospheric collection of songs that charts the journey from dying in a car crash (‘car underwater’) through the afterlife. Norwich Gigs caught up with Ben and PJ.
The band started back in New Jersey, following the break up of several other bands, as Ben explains: ‘the band kinda started a while a go, it was just one of those things, i guess. we had all been friends in high school, cos we all played in bands together, in new jersey. I had just quit the band that i was in, and
i thought up the name ‘armor for sleep’ and wrote a bunch of songs, and called everyone else up, and all of their bands were kinda falling apart, so we decided to do this thing together.’
‘What To Do When You Are Dead’ has been described as a concept album, something the band are unsure of, however the album was always intended to be different from the average emo record, from the theme of the songs (no songs about your average break up etc) to the choice of Machine as the producer of the album.
pj: ‘We tired to get away from what people would think it would be on this record. We tried to make a record that wouldn’t just be another emo record, we didn’t want it to be easily categorised.’
ben:’I don’t think it’s a concept album. I think we are never gonna write an album that just a collection of songs of what we are going through, and just have random artwork or whatever. Our albums are gonna kinda be themed, cos that what i latch onto, my favourite records were things that followed one stream of conciousness or whatever. I dont know if it’s a concept album or if its all done out of one breathe or whatever.’
‘I guess it’s like, i feel like in the states, there’s a bunch of five stock producers who do every emo record,
like the guy who did the thrice record or whatever. We just wanted to go with someone like Machine, someone into music, who had a fresh prespective on music, who wanted to work with the band and
who just wanted to make the songs as good as possible, and the album as good as possible.
We didnt want someone who was like ‘this isn’t emo enough’. We didn’t want to make a ‘scene’ album, so we chose Machine cos his work is awesome, and he didn’t know about the scene and what was going on.’
The album flows from song to song, the way all good albums should, with ‘Car Underwater’, ‘The Truth About Heaven’ and ‘Stay On The Ground’ standing out. The artwork to the album also fits in with the dying and afterlife theme, with the artwork designed by Asterik Studio, who were also responsible for the New Brand ‘Deja Entendu’ cover. For an extra gift, the album also comes with a mini booklet which falls out as soon as you open the case. The booklet entitled ‘What To Do When You Are Dead: A Comprehensive Guide To Your Afterlife’ features 6 pages of diagrams and tips on how to survive the afterlife. The booklet was always planned as a bonus an extra way of getting people into the world of the songs.
ben: ‘It was an idea we had had since we came up with the idea behind the album, we just wanted something different, that people could get with the album and feel conencted to.’
PJ: ‘I think most people will have probably lost it, falling out of the case when they first opened it.’
ben: ‘I think it’s cool that it doesn’t say armor for sleep anywhere on it, it’s like a completely different thing.
I just feel like there’s certain records, i remember when i first got kid A (the Radiohead album, of course), and it had the booklet hidden anyway, and the normal booklet had the transparent paper, it might me smile, it made me want to go into that whole world, i think we wanted to suck
people into this world.’
This is the first time Armor For Sleep have played in the UK, which isn’t surprising considering the album is only available on import in the UK at the moment. Both Ben and PJ were pretty excited to be playing in the UK, playing infront of crowds that aren’t ‘jaded’ and to be playing with Fightstar.
ben: ‘We were invited and had never been over here before, so we thought why not come over here. I guess fightstar has been big fans of ours for a while, and wanted to take us out, and it was really cool of them to want to do that for us. I think it’s
better to go and play with a band that’s excited to see you play. We don’t want to be just put on a tour by our booking agent and play with a band that’s not interested in us. Fightstar are really happy to have us, so it’s fun to be here.’
pj: ‘It’s hard for us to grasp the size of charlies fame, it’s just cool to be playing infront of people, exactly the same as it is in america.’
ben: ‘We just wanna get out there and play music infront of anyone.’
pj: ‘It’s really exciting to be here in general, people seem really interested in bands over here.’
ben: ‘Coming over here it seems like, so many kids in america are jaded cos there are a billion bands, but over here there’s a level of excitement that’s hard to get out of american fans.’
For more information on Armor For Sleep check out:
www.armorforsleep.com
www.myspace.com/armor
