Where would the music world be without Chiodos and their masterstroke, Devil? It has been awhile since Craig Owens has graced a Chiodos record but he is back now and the wait was more than worth it. Devil is perfection in a more than imperfect musical world and we are a better place now for having it on our record players. On a recent stop on their Devil’s Dance tour, Craig took the time to talk to Metal Exiles about how and why Devil happened and the hard journey that brought the material out of him.
An interview with Craig Owens of Chiodos
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You have been back in Chiodos for over a year now. Is everything falling into place, does it feel right for you?
Craig Owens: It feels right but that’s a difficult questions because there are so many parts to it. Toward the end of our last run it wasn’t right. Even in our best moments it wasn’t right. We are better now than we have ever been, our communication is through the roof. Our music is great but that was never the hard part, that is what we really did well. The hard part was coexisting for long periods of time and remaining respectful of other people’s ideas and learning to communicate when we needed to. Things are great right now but I cant predict the future and where as I know it will never be rainbow’s and puppy dogs it will still be Chiodos.
Metal Exiles: It is like a marriage.
Craig: It is like a marriage and when you get back together its easy to forget the hard times and its easy to fall back into the old habits. We just remain conscious of all of that and move forward.
Metal Exiles: Was it awkward to come back to the band and tour considering the animosity beforehand or did you use that to your advantage?
Craig: I never lived with the animosity.
Metal Exiles: Some people do, some do not.
Craig: To me holding onto that would have done nothing but hurt me so I let go of it a long time ago. I was hurt and it was awkward the first time back in the room and I did stare at the ground because all of the stuff that people said out of animosity while you are apart is resonating in your head. You just have to have conversations and push forward because I was confident in who I was as a human being and if they were not of with that they would have to live with it.
Metal Exiles: You did the Black Veil Brides tour in the UK but your major splash was the WARPED tour 2013. How did that go for you guys?
Craig: It was great, it was a learning experience. It was exciting and scary and exciting at the same time. It was scary because we did not want to fall into the same habits but it was rewarding because we were on the main stage bringing it every day.
Metal Exiles: Were you ever apprehensive because the last album had a different singer that some of the fans would not welcome you back?
Craig: No, never and not that it wasn’t a bad record I was just confident in who I was. I started this band when I was 15 and Chiodos never felt odd to me. They were done with music when I came back and they decided to give it another go because it felt right.
Metal Exiles: To me this is the best album to date, the most diverse. Where are the roots of this album?
Craig: It comes from the fact that we are fans of all kinds of music and Chiodos has never 12 songs of the same thing, we don’t want to write a record that is the same song all the way through.
Metal Exiles: I know some bands push themselves to be different, do you guys push yourselves or is it natural?
Craig: No, its natural.
Metal Exiles: How much of you is in Devil?
Craig: All of me, I am still rebuilding as we speak but that is all of me. I have more that I want to say at this point but Devil is me, it’s the last two years of my life. The lessons I have learned, the things I have gone through, its honest, vulnerable, its real. It is my battle with my belief in God, if I believe in myself, my battle with being a better human being, coming to terms with my childhood.
Metal Exiles: What about your childhood that you came to terms with?
Craig: Lots of stuff. I grew up in a poor household and I envied my friends that did not have to ration food, not knowing if I would go to bed hungry. They always had the perfect family and that’s what Sunny Days and Hand Grenades was about, the real truth of the suburban family, not everybody had it perfect.
Metal Exiles: I detect a lot of hate in Expensive Conversations in Cheap Hotel Rooms.
Craig: I wanted to do a song that was from anger and I went in to it as angry as I could be.
Metal Exiles: So you went in the vocal booth with that frame of mind?
Craig: that song was played on WARPED last year before we recorded it but during the demos it was very raw and sometimes when you are recording it is almost acting in a way and it may not be exactly what you were thinking of when you wrote it but you have things that take you back to it, you choose what takes you there and you go there.
Metal Exiles: What about 3 AM?
Craig: I woke up one night after doing a lot of work on myself and I realized I was not happy. I was wondering what was wrong with me and I realized I had been womanizing. I never realized it because I always had good intentions but you can have good intentions and its still manslaughter and it doesn’t mean you’re not hurting people. I took some real inventory of my life, took some real responsibility with my life and when I came to terms with things it really was 3 am, I could hear the faucet dripping, I could hear the clock ticking. I started thinking about all of these things and I thought I could write about what was happening right now.
Metal Exiles: Did you write this stuff when you cane back to Chiodos or beforehand?
Craig: Coming back to Chiodos was a long process. We did not all want to do a record we just wanted to do some shows for closure of the group but once we decided to do a record I was already writing. I am an artist above anything else, I write all the time, I wrote today, its just me. I wrote a majority of that when we were getting back together, when I was getting sober and as I was living those songs out. A lot of that started before we started doing the original shows and after.
Metal Exiles: If you guys were done with music and the shows were just for closure then what sparked the album?
Craig: I think because we were having such a great time we thought we had a chance to do it right because we never did it right before. We were young and we did not have management that would lead us where we needed to be led. In the rock world it is difficult for young bands, I don’t think they realize what the people around them are doing to them. You have to make money off of touring and everybody does nothing but tours tours tours and then you get two months to make the next album when it should be the other way around, the focus should be on the art, not the next tour. You’re on the road so much because you have to maintain and push the band and make money that enables you to be an artist but you sacrifice the ability to process what you are going through and I think it is a bad thing that happens to musicians. It happened to us but we were lucky enough to have a second chance to do it right.
Metal Exiles: With that in mind are you going to eschew more touring and go back and do another record?
Craig: We do not have any plans right now; we only have the goal of reconnecting with our fans. We want to reconnect with our fans because as a fan of music I do not trust bands that are inconsistent like we are. We have had our ups and downs and I am grateful for any fans that we have who gave us another chance. We are gonna show each and every fan that we care and we want to be there for them as a band and after we do that we will take that next step forward with our fans and then decide what is next for Chiodos.
Metal Exiles: Going back to the album, what is behind Looking For A Tornado?
Craig: My battle with whether or not I believe in God or not. I was raised religiously but also not. My grandparents went to church every Sunday and I thought they were the greatest people in the world so I would give any excuse to be with them to get out of my house. So I would go with them every Sunday but after a while I became jaded and did not understand things with religion. It was my battle with being a strong individual but also believing, that is what a lot of that song is about. There are hints that I was brought away and wanting to live the lifestyle I want to live while still believing. I think religion is mostly guidelines for being a good person, that is what it is to me.
Metal Exiles: The thing that kills me about religion is that people use it to kill in the name of God, declare war in the name of God.
Craig: People take it and use it to their advantage, rationalize it however they want but I think religion is set up for the overall good of man and I back that part.
Metal Exiles: I Am Everything That’s Normal closes out the album, is that where you are at right now?
Craig: Lyrically that is about me getting sober and fixing my life. I scream I am different now and I really now. I like how we ended the album because only time will tell, I can mess up or I can do really well. I am confident that I am headed towards the good and remain consistent.
Metal Exiles: I noticed with this record you pushed your vocal range, was that on purpose?
Craig: I am always pushing myself to be better and I added falsetto and grit to my vocals and I tried to perfect the flip into the falsetto like my hero Jeff Buckley could. I also wanted to add the grit to the choruses to make them hit harder, like punching you in the face. For anybody listening to my records from first till now can see the progress and I will continue to try and get better.
Metal Exiles: How did you feel when you were done recording some of the darker material?
Craig: Awful, I would have to sit and let the mood wash over me, it was really difficult. I was not joking around, I would put pictures up before each take of things I was ashamed of, pictures of things that I loved, things that would bring the emotions out of me.
Metal Exiles: I know your label Razor & Tie loves vinyl and you love vinyl so were you stoked that this came out as a vinyl release?
Craig: Of course, vinyl is the #1 selling physical release at the moment, it is up higher than it has been in a while. I like the vinyl resurgence and I like the fans that started collecting vinyl based on the fact that we released our new album on vinyl. It is the best way to get and listen to music and it is also a very special way.
Metal Exiles: I know, I bought it on vinyl as well as the special record store day 45 release R2Me2/Let Me Get You A Towel.
Craig: What matters to me about record stores is that there is not many places for us crazy individuals who are obsessed with music can feel like they belong. I would never want to be responsible for wiping out a place that we can go to and buy real music.
Metal Exiles: Why do you still like vinyl?
Craig: I love the sound, the sonic quality to it and the nostalgia that’s attached to it as well as the memories that you make from it.
Metal Exiles: Why did you guys decide to do Record Store Day with the extra tracks?
Craig: Because we grew up going to local record store called Wyatt Earp’s so we could have a personal experience, we did not go to the bigger stores, we wanted to talk to someone who knew what was going on and could order stuff for us. It was a special place and we wanted to be a part of it.
Metal Exiles: What’s on tap for Chiodos now?
Craig: We are doing some festivals in Europe and another big tour coming up at the end of summer.
Metal Exiles: Any last words for your fans?
Craig: Thank you for being supportive, thank you for caring as I know we have been inconsistent but I appreciate all of the support you are giving us.
Official Chiodos Site
BUY DEVIL!
BUY DEVIL ON VINYL!!
An interview with Craig Owens of Chiodos
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You have been back in Chiodos for over a year now. Is everything falling into place, does it feel right for you?
Craig Owens: It feels right but that’s a difficult questions because there are so many parts to it. Toward the end of our last run it wasn’t right. Even in our best moments it wasn’t right. We are better now than we have ever been, our communication is through the roof. Our music is great but that was never the hard part, that is what we really did well. The hard part was coexisting for long periods of time and remaining respectful of other people’s ideas and learning to communicate when we needed to. Things are great right now but I cant predict the future and where as I know it will never be rainbow’s and puppy dogs it will still be Chiodos.
Metal Exiles: It is like a marriage.
Craig: It is like a marriage and when you get back together its easy to forget the hard times and its easy to fall back into the old habits. We just remain conscious of all of that and move forward.
Metal Exiles: Was it awkward to come back to the band and tour considering the animosity beforehand or did you use that to your advantage?
Craig: I never lived with the animosity.
Metal Exiles: Some people do, some do not.
Craig: To me holding onto that would have done nothing but hurt me so I let go of it a long time ago. I was hurt and it was awkward the first time back in the room and I did stare at the ground because all of the stuff that people said out of animosity while you are apart is resonating in your head. You just have to have conversations and push forward because I was confident in who I was as a human being and if they were not of with that they would have to live with it.
Metal Exiles: You did the Black Veil Brides tour in the UK but your major splash was the WARPED tour 2013. How did that go for you guys?
Craig: It was great, it was a learning experience. It was exciting and scary and exciting at the same time. It was scary because we did not want to fall into the same habits but it was rewarding because we were on the main stage bringing it every day.
Metal Exiles: Were you ever apprehensive because the last album had a different singer that some of the fans would not welcome you back?
Craig: No, never and not that it wasn’t a bad record I was just confident in who I was. I started this band when I was 15 and Chiodos never felt odd to me. They were done with music when I came back and they decided to give it another go because it felt right.
Metal Exiles: To me this is the best album to date, the most diverse. Where are the roots of this album?
Craig: It comes from the fact that we are fans of all kinds of music and Chiodos has never 12 songs of the same thing, we don’t want to write a record that is the same song all the way through.
Metal Exiles: I know some bands push themselves to be different, do you guys push yourselves or is it natural?
Craig: No, its natural.
Metal Exiles: How much of you is in Devil?
Craig: All of me, I am still rebuilding as we speak but that is all of me. I have more that I want to say at this point but Devil is me, it’s the last two years of my life. The lessons I have learned, the things I have gone through, its honest, vulnerable, its real. It is my battle with my belief in God, if I believe in myself, my battle with being a better human being, coming to terms with my childhood.
Metal Exiles: What about your childhood that you came to terms with?
Craig: Lots of stuff. I grew up in a poor household and I envied my friends that did not have to ration food, not knowing if I would go to bed hungry. They always had the perfect family and that’s what Sunny Days and Hand Grenades was about, the real truth of the suburban family, not everybody had it perfect.
Metal Exiles: I detect a lot of hate in Expensive Conversations in Cheap Hotel Rooms.
Craig: I wanted to do a song that was from anger and I went in to it as angry as I could be.
Metal Exiles: So you went in the vocal booth with that frame of mind?
Craig: that song was played on WARPED last year before we recorded it but during the demos it was very raw and sometimes when you are recording it is almost acting in a way and it may not be exactly what you were thinking of when you wrote it but you have things that take you back to it, you choose what takes you there and you go there.
Metal Exiles: What about 3 AM?
Craig: I woke up one night after doing a lot of work on myself and I realized I was not happy. I was wondering what was wrong with me and I realized I had been womanizing. I never realized it because I always had good intentions but you can have good intentions and its still manslaughter and it doesn’t mean you’re not hurting people. I took some real inventory of my life, took some real responsibility with my life and when I came to terms with things it really was 3 am, I could hear the faucet dripping, I could hear the clock ticking. I started thinking about all of these things and I thought I could write about what was happening right now.
Metal Exiles: Did you write this stuff when you cane back to Chiodos or beforehand?
Craig: Coming back to Chiodos was a long process. We did not all want to do a record we just wanted to do some shows for closure of the group but once we decided to do a record I was already writing. I am an artist above anything else, I write all the time, I wrote today, its just me. I wrote a majority of that when we were getting back together, when I was getting sober and as I was living those songs out. A lot of that started before we started doing the original shows and after.
Metal Exiles: If you guys were done with music and the shows were just for closure then what sparked the album?
Craig: I think because we were having such a great time we thought we had a chance to do it right because we never did it right before. We were young and we did not have management that would lead us where we needed to be led. In the rock world it is difficult for young bands, I don’t think they realize what the people around them are doing to them. You have to make money off of touring and everybody does nothing but tours tours tours and then you get two months to make the next album when it should be the other way around, the focus should be on the art, not the next tour. You’re on the road so much because you have to maintain and push the band and make money that enables you to be an artist but you sacrifice the ability to process what you are going through and I think it is a bad thing that happens to musicians. It happened to us but we were lucky enough to have a second chance to do it right.
Metal Exiles: With that in mind are you going to eschew more touring and go back and do another record?
Craig: We do not have any plans right now; we only have the goal of reconnecting with our fans. We want to reconnect with our fans because as a fan of music I do not trust bands that are inconsistent like we are. We have had our ups and downs and I am grateful for any fans that we have who gave us another chance. We are gonna show each and every fan that we care and we want to be there for them as a band and after we do that we will take that next step forward with our fans and then decide what is next for Chiodos.
Metal Exiles: Going back to the album, what is behind Looking For A Tornado?
Craig: My battle with whether or not I believe in God or not. I was raised religiously but also not. My grandparents went to church every Sunday and I thought they were the greatest people in the world so I would give any excuse to be with them to get out of my house. So I would go with them every Sunday but after a while I became jaded and did not understand things with religion. It was my battle with being a strong individual but also believing, that is what a lot of that song is about. There are hints that I was brought away and wanting to live the lifestyle I want to live while still believing. I think religion is mostly guidelines for being a good person, that is what it is to me.
Metal Exiles: The thing that kills me about religion is that people use it to kill in the name of God, declare war in the name of God.
Craig: People take it and use it to their advantage, rationalize it however they want but I think religion is set up for the overall good of man and I back that part.
Metal Exiles: I Am Everything That’s Normal closes out the album, is that where you are at right now?
Craig: Lyrically that is about me getting sober and fixing my life. I scream I am different now and I really now. I like how we ended the album because only time will tell, I can mess up or I can do really well. I am confident that I am headed towards the good and remain consistent.
Metal Exiles: I noticed with this record you pushed your vocal range, was that on purpose?
Craig: I am always pushing myself to be better and I added falsetto and grit to my vocals and I tried to perfect the flip into the falsetto like my hero Jeff Buckley could. I also wanted to add the grit to the choruses to make them hit harder, like punching you in the face. For anybody listening to my records from first till now can see the progress and I will continue to try and get better.
Metal Exiles: How did you feel when you were done recording some of the darker material?
Craig: Awful, I would have to sit and let the mood wash over me, it was really difficult. I was not joking around, I would put pictures up before each take of things I was ashamed of, pictures of things that I loved, things that would bring the emotions out of me.
Metal Exiles: I know your label Razor & Tie loves vinyl and you love vinyl so were you stoked that this came out as a vinyl release?
Craig: Of course, vinyl is the #1 selling physical release at the moment, it is up higher than it has been in a while. I like the vinyl resurgence and I like the fans that started collecting vinyl based on the fact that we released our new album on vinyl. It is the best way to get and listen to music and it is also a very special way.
Metal Exiles: I know, I bought it on vinyl as well as the special record store day 45 release R2Me2/Let Me Get You A Towel.
Craig: What matters to me about record stores is that there is not many places for us crazy individuals who are obsessed with music can feel like they belong. I would never want to be responsible for wiping out a place that we can go to and buy real music.
Metal Exiles: Why do you still like vinyl?
Craig: I love the sound, the sonic quality to it and the nostalgia that’s attached to it as well as the memories that you make from it.
Metal Exiles: Why did you guys decide to do Record Store Day with the extra tracks?
Craig: Because we grew up going to local record store called Wyatt Earp’s so we could have a personal experience, we did not go to the bigger stores, we wanted to talk to someone who knew what was going on and could order stuff for us. It was a special place and we wanted to be a part of it.
Metal Exiles: What’s on tap for Chiodos now?
Craig: We are doing some festivals in Europe and another big tour coming up at the end of summer.
Metal Exiles: Any last words for your fans?
Craig: Thank you for being supportive, thank you for caring as I know we have been inconsistent but I appreciate all of the support you are giving us.
Official Chiodos Site
BUY DEVIL!
BUY DEVIL ON VINYL!!
