|| The Sound Faction (dot com) ||

You know how sometimes you have dreams? You keep hoping and wishing that they'll come true and when they do you don't know what to do with yourself? Well, let's just say when I got the go ahead to interview The Academy Is... that was one thing I could check of my list of dreams. Most people think that my music genre is heavy and loud and just the obnoxious stuff that your parents hate. Well, just so you know Natty does have a softer side and a huge piece of me belongs to The Academy Is... I've been a fan since someone made me listen to Black Mamba, and of course then I made sure I had a copy of Almost Here and they became a listening staple for me. I've followed them from Almost Here to Santi and then onto Fast Times. Each album was amazing and showed a growth in the band. When I got the chance to sit down and talk to the guys, I learned how they felt about their fans, each other and who would win the battle between pirates and ninjas.

Ladies and Gents, I give you William Beckett and Adam Siska from TAI!

"Just to get up and go to the studio every day, because it's hard to wallow in self doubt and self reflection when you're in an environment like that. There's just so much movement and so much ambition surrounding you, with the people in the city."
- William Beckett: The Academy Is...

First off, for our readers who don't know who you are, can you introduce yourselves and tell us what you do for the band?

William: Yeah! I'm William Beckett and I sing in The Academy Is...

Adam: I'm Adam Siska, and I play the bass. I'm also in The Academy Is...

William: Yes! He is.

Adam: We're in the same band.

William: Yeah, we're in the same band!

I know you guys just released your third full length album, was there a difference between the recording process for this one compared to the last two?

William: Yes!

[Moment of Silence]

(Laughter)

William: Oh! Elaborate, right?

Please!

William: Well, yeah, there were a handful of differences. I think one of the biggest differences was the environment that we recorded in. If you look at which cities we recorded each album in, our first CD was recorded in Saint Cloud, Florida, which is like-

Adam: Old folks...

William: Yeah! It's like a retirement community. So very laid back. And then our second album, Santi, was recorded in Silver Lake, in Los Angeles-

Adam: Which is like an early retirement community.

William: Yeah... it's like where artists... go to thrive or die depending. It's like a very fine line. That one's also very laid back, and this album, "Fast Times at Barrington High" was made in New York city, right in the heart of the city.

So it's more fast paced?

William: Much more fast paced. And much more inspiring, just to get up and go to the studio every day, because it's hard to wallow in self doubt and self reflection when you're in an environment like that. There's just so much movement and so much ambition surrounding you, with the people in the city.

Adam: Being in New York put us in the best personal state that we've been in, in a long time. Ultimately it leads to making best music, because when you're feeling the best, you're going to work the best, and you can communicate with your band better and... we had been writing for awhile in Los Angeles, and there's something about it there- It's a great place to relax, but not really to... not relax. That's not the best work environment to produce something in. As soon as we got to New York, we broke a lot of walls down, even walls that we didn't know about, walls we didn't even know were there. We just felt like ourselves... and friends, and we were coming together on a special level... and I think New York was definitely a big part of that. We could have stayed in Los Angeles, but...

William: Yeah, I wouldn't have made the album in Los Angeles. I definitely didn't enjoy the time that I spent there at all. A lot of the writing actually took place in Chicago actually, where I really felt back in touch with my roots, and where the band came from, and that's essentially why the album's titled "Fast Times at Barrington High". Barrington High is the high school that we both graduated from and uhm, it really just... encompasses our roots in a way that... I think we may have lost along the way. But we reconnected with it, and I think we're stronger as a band, and stronger friends, and stronger songwriters... I think it really helps your modesty as well.

Have you noticed any changes in the response you get from the fans from each album?

William: Yeah, absolutely. It seems like... well this album has gotten the best critic reviews, which I didn't expect it to get good critic reviews, but it's actually getting quite good reviews. From our fans, the response live- I guess that's the best way you can gauge how songs are reacting to people-

Adam: It's been the craziest.

William: It's definitely been the craziest.

What's been the craziest thing so far on tour?

Adam: I think just playing our song, "About A Girl" every night has been wild. How many months? Like four?

William: Yeah, it's been crazy to see from the beginning of the tour up until this point, at the end of the tour, where people have had some time to sit with the album, or they just got the album, because, you know, just because a records been released doesn't mean they'll go get it that day.

Like I did (laughs).

William: Oh. Well thank you. Thank you very much. But you know, it's still building, word of mouth process that's taking place and it's so cool to see the difference in reactions to all the new songs-

Adam: (Yawns)

William: ... (Looks at him).

Adam: ...Sorry, I just woke up like, right before this.

William: Yeah, but you had to extenuate it.

Adam: Yeah, but if I'm yawning I might as well...

WIlliam: Yeah. I love it. And it's a good segue to the next question, because I was talking to much.

Adam: Right! Well, I wasn't trying to imply something.

William: Alright. See? See? Communication.

Exactly! There's been a steady growth in your success, how do you feel you've handled the success so far?

William: I think very well, in a way that like, we notice it, but it's not like it's something we're constantly reminding ourselves of. Like I said before, this album has definitely brought us back down to the basics, and what we're good at, and why we're in this in the first place. We're not in this to get famous.

Just to make good music.

William: Yeah. And to have a really strong relationship with our fans.

Adam: I think the fact that it's been a steady thing, y'know, we started five years ago to join a band and play shows, and each time we come through somewhere, the crowds a bit bigger. That keeps it feeling like we're working towards something. Every time we come back there's more people then there were the last time, and we're more excited then we were the last time, and that feels really good. As opposed to- I feel really bad for some bands that start, and they're an instant thing, like a smash success, because they don't get to see what goes into it.

William: The work that goes into it.

Adam: In that case, if they loose that, they don't know how to get it back, because they don't know how they got it in the first place, and I can see that being a really hard thing.

William: You can't build a house without a frame, and I think that's essentially what we have. We built from the ground up.

While listening to "Fast Times..." you can hear your growth from the previous albums, how have your life experiences shaped your music? How have they shaped the music you create?

William: Well I think... I don't know, I think it was sort of a product of the environment, I think, and living in Chicago, like, with the music scene that was happening in Chicago around the time that we were starting to really love music, really helped shape our work ethic. Cause a lot of it... we really got into a lot of underground punk and indie, (mocking) emo music, whatever you want to call it. We'd go to small shows and see our favourite bands play in front of 20 kids, and be one of those kids singing along to every word at a Thursday show. So we saw that. We saw those bands and how they worked. The same with Fall Out Boy, like Fall Out Boy saw how you can build a band from the ground up and as like, really good friends of theirs from when we were both playing shows together in front of ten people in the suburbs of Chicago, and you know, that was it. At that point it was like none of us were relying on anyone but ourselves. We weren't expecting to get some big contract, we weren't expecting radio, we weren't expecting anything like that. All any of us wanted to really do was get a band, go on tour, and play music for people everywhere. I think that that's a fundamental difference between a lot of bands that are just made for the radio, that don't have any ground work put in. Even if they're big now, they won't be big next year, or they won't be big in two years. There aren't real fans that are devoted to it, you know? And I think that's one of the biggest differences between our band and a lot of bands that are maybe more successful for the time being.

What inspires you to make music?

Adam: I think everything. I think that when you're a real person out there, living every day life, that's what music is all about. Music could be this scenario, that's so simple...but... you may think they're hard to put into words, but others do, and they're right there for you. On this record we were really inspired by each other, and I guess, the promise that was made when the band started, that we're going to be together, and that's our biggest inspiration now, you know, thinking back to where we come from, why we started playing in the first place, and... that's about it. Being inspired from where you've come from and where you're going and all those other things in between. That's what inspires you. Or, at least me.

How did you decide which songs make the cut for the album?

William: It's real hard to do that. Because there's a couple of songs that didn't make the album that I'm really a big fan of. It's hard, but with an album like this- For the last album it was a lot different because we were questioning everything that we did, I was questioning everything I wrote, so it was like, we were happy to get the songs that we did. Probably the most enjoyable song to write and record was made after Santi was finished, 40 Steps is one of my favourite songs that we've ever written. And one of the main reasons it turned out the way it did was because it was fun. It was fun to write, it was fun to record, it wasn't like this... insurmountable pressure, and on the album, on Fast Times, that same feeling was there. We had fun making the album and there were so many great songs that we really loved, but since it was such a focused album, thematically, there were certain songs that story was already told in a different song, for instance, or the subject matter might have a little too dark for what we were trying to go for for the album, like there's a song called, "Every Burden Has a Version" which is my favourite song that didn't make the album, but it was a conscious choice, it wasn't like, a label choice, it was our choice to leave it off the album purely because of the subject matter was a little more... I guess dark is one way to say it, I don't think it's a disheartening song by any means, but I didn't think that it fit. But it's still a great song, if anyone can download songs not on the album I'd download that one.

What is it about your music that you think keeps bringing people back for more?

Adam: I think there's a lot of things about it. I think we've gotten to a point where our live show's pretty consistent. I think that we go out there and there's nothing too crazy happening other than us just playing the songs.

William: ...Are you kidding? You were there last night.

Adam: Yeah, but what I'm saying-

William: It's pretty unpredictable I think.

Adam: Yeah, but what I'm saying is like a band that really goes out there and it's really plugging into their amplifiers and playing their guitars just as they should. There's no gimmick. I think that's one thing that you can say, you go, and you see us, and you see us as humans, you talk to us outside our bus, we come on stage, we play the songs you came to see, and that's that, and then we're on to the next city. It's something that people have grown attached to, because it is something we're continuously doing, and we always come back to the cities and I think we've built a relationship with our fans, even if they haven't met us outside, just from coming in and sharing the experience of the show with them. That's what keeps them coming back, that's what's exciting.

Now TAI TV has become a big success in terms of response from your fans. Did you expect it to get as much reaction as it did?

William: No. Uh, I don't think we really cared if people liked it. In the beginning, It's been around since we started essentially, I used to film and edit stuff we were doing backstage or whatever and out it on the internet and called it TAI TV. And not until suddenly recently did they start getting a little more professional, because our good friend Jack, from high school actually, he went to Barrington, he was the f*cking prom king at Barrington, he's one of the coolest and most creative people an one of our best friends in the world, and he's out here on tour with us, like, the last couple years.

Adam: Two years?

William: Yeah, two years.

Yeah, he was walking around outside and everyone was screaming for him.

Adam: Yeah, he's a superstar.

William: So he's been filming and editing them, and we have a lot of fun with it every week. We collaborate, or a few of us collaborate on what it's going to be and we just film it and have fun with it. That's what started it.

Adam: Which is fun because it's not some guy that someone at the record label was like, "Oh we got this guy to come in and make TAI TV now, people like it! We're going to be writing the scripts and..." It's our friend Jack from high school we brought on tour with us.

William: It's more ours than anyone even realizes. It's all us. And that's the thing, I think that's another thing that's helped our band so much, is that we're completely self-efficient. We don't really rely too much on outside sources for things to get done. For...the creative decisions are completely on us, which is great. We love our labels for giving us that freedom.

What is the best piece of advice you wish you had been given at the beginning of your career?

William: I think we got all the advice we needed. We're really good friends with Fall Out Boy, like I said, and Pete really helped me mentally and all of us mentally early on, that it's going to be a grind and you're going to have to work hard. They... it was essentially like, a couple years after... we were a couple of years after they started doing it, and I guess it was like one year after they signed to Fueled By Ramen that we signed to Fueled By Ramen.

Adam: Yeah, almost exactly.

William: So you know that plus our families have been incredibly supportive and have been there for us but when it comes down to it I mean it's essentially... we have to rely on each other. That's one thing that we learned, and any advice that I could give a band is that you make sure your band is stable before you go anywhere. Even if you're best friends, if you don't gel creatively, and be best friends, it's hard to make a band work, it's hard to make it happen. Marriages are only with two people and that's hard to make it work, now imagine five people, and you don't have the benefits of sex. (looks at Adam) Right? We don't have sex with each other.

Adam: .... ... ... no. ....That's right. (laughs)

Jen: (laughs) Five years later!

William: So that can't even save us! But in all seriousness, we lean on each other, and we let our ambition, and our creativity do the driving.

Now us at The Sound Faction are five of the most random people you're probably ever going to meet, so with every interview, we try to end it with five of the most random questions you've ever been asked-

Adam: Yes!

Are you up for that?

Adam: Probably!

First one, if you could have lunch with any fictional character, who would it be and why?

Adam: Fictional character? Moby Dick! Next!

(Laughs) If you were a scented candle, what would you smell like?

Adam: Grandma's homemade cookies!

WIlliam: (Nods)

The same?

William: Oh! He's going to answer these for us. He's our voice of just... random answers. He's got them.

Oh, alright! Would you rather be a pirate or a ninja, and why?

Adam: Pft-

William: Pirate! Hands down. I can answer that for him. He's disgusted by the question.

Adam: Yeah. I mean, I've been fighting that battle for a long time, and you know, I think that the days have come where the pirate ninja wars are no longer raging. I mean... we traveled to Asia as a band and well... it was kind of like a homophobe going into a gay bar, like, walking around and seeing all these ninjas walking around doing all they're flying and stuff and dagger throwing and all those things! But after awhile I started to appreciate it, I like ninjas now, but ultimately...pirates are where it's at.

William: It's in your blood though, Adam.

Adam: We recently found out, that contrary to what I thought growing up- I was pretty ignorant, there are pirates who do practice martial arts. Surprisingly. ...But it's pretty weird I think.

What's your favourite five-letter word?

Adam: Uhm... horse.

Who would you want to win a date with?

Adam: Tad Hamilton. Or I guess... Keira Knightly. I like her.

We'd like to thank William and Adam once again for taking the time to talk to us! If you'd like to check out The Academy Is... you can find their MySpace here, their homepage here, and the episodes of TAI TV on the Fueled By Ramen YouTube page, which is here!