Turning The Page

Currently on tour in the northern reaches of America with Kills & Thrills and The Chariot, a bill that the frontman admits he “would take all over the world”, Keith Buckley is in a buoyant and talkative mood. He's got a few gigs left on this run of dates, a festive break back in his home of Buffalo, New York with family and friends, and then it's back Down Under for the band's first Australian shows since 2011, “The first tour after the supposed apocalypse”, he remarks, “so we'll have to reward you with something.”

Although the idea of some custom merch designed by guitarist/artist/brother Jordan is always exciting, most fans will simply be happy with a hit of the group's incessant live show. Since forming in New York state back in 1998, the five-piece have barely come up for air. Although metalcore is the overarching banner that their work is classed within, Every Time I Die take cues from southern rock, thrash, hardcore and more, creating a musical storm that rolled out onstage simply rains down. Their latest record, Ex Lives, is yet another triumph from the tireless group, the 11 album tracks coming together to create their most consistent work cover to cover, a fact Buckley is quick to agree with.

But although the vocalist was happily married to his high school love and his side project The Damned Things (with members of Fall Out Boy and Anthrax) was going strongly, the 33-year-old was in a bad place personally. It's these themes of repentance and redemption, leaving your old, your Ex Lives behind, that drove the vocalist's verses across the LP.

“I was kinda angry,” Buckley begins. “I think that a lot of things that I had planned for were not really panning out, and it's one thing to keep up appearances but I knew personally things weren't falling in a row like I'd hoped them to, there was a lot of transitional phases going on both in and out of the band. It was a weird growing up, rite of passage sort of thing where I just had to let go of that really stubborn anger like, 'Err, this is mine, I want this'. And I actually figured out why things weren't working by going back to the drawing board. A lot of different things came out.

“I definitely think that once you take responsibility for [your life], and it is a really hard thing to do, but as soon as you say, 'Hold on, this might be all my fault' – because you never want to think that, you never want to be at fault – but as soon as you take a step back and first accept the fact that it is you that's causing it all, you can work out how not to do that anymore. But it's a slow process so I'm still going through it.”

The frankness Buckley shows regarding the matter is refreshing, and it's a large part of what makes the lyrics across Ex Lives so stimulating and rich. However, as far as his bandmates giving him any positive affirmation... C'mon, would you really think so?

“There's never that reinforcement of, 'This is really good, I like these lyrics' – nobody says that,” he laughs. “It's not the way this band works. We don't really compliment each other very much. But as long as they didn't tell me to change it or anything then they must have liked it.”

A big part of Every Time I Die's constant momentum is due to the fact that the band have maintained the status quo with each of their six releases. Put simply, their music is unrelenting, the remorseless sensorial attack choking you out while simultaneously beating you, all delivered with a grin and a laugh. Buckley concurs that this energy has been vital to the band's continued relevance and longevity, all the while keeping things interesting for the members behind the madness.

“It has to be because I don't know what else to attribute it to,” he ponders. “There's not too many other bands that I can think of with this kind of music that has such stamina, and I'm thankful for it. The shelf life of bands now is like a few months, maybe a few records; they come out, make a big impression and then you never hear from them again. But these shows on this tour are selling out, and we're headlining, and it's weird to think that we've been doing this for so long and people are still interested, so if it's not the energy that we have then I don't know what it is... It's definitely not our looks. We're not cute, young hunks.”

Fresh-faced studs they may not be, but that hasn't hindered them from hitting the upper reaches of the charts. Ex Lives marked their highest ever position on the Billboard 200 (number 20), not that the quintet are interested in capitalising on such results.

“I don't think that fazed us at all to be honest,” Buckley informs. “It was cool but it doesn't change anything about the way we do things. I believe that people are so quick to pander to the short attention span of the music industry; they don't really spend enough time focusing on the fact that they put out a really good record and they don't tour on it enough because [people] want something new, so then they've got to go back and then the really good one they put out is forgotten because there's something on top of it. I think it's unfortunate, but I'd be okay with putting a lot more space in between the records.”

Becoming poster boys has never been on the agenda for Every Time I Die. They're more committed to expanding their fanbase, changing attitudes and challenging perceptions, which is why they're so eager to arrive this summer and come face to face with plenty of strangers at Australia's favourite travelling circus.

“We have a lot of things on Big Day Out that we want to accomplish, fans to win over – we're one of the only heavy bands on the bill,” he affirms. “So, you're going to have to barter with the intensity and how you work the big stage, because it's not going to be in your face with people stage diving and moshing – you can't go to play that card... we'll just have to figure it out. It will probably be trial and error for more of those days, which is unfortunate because it's so short; by the time we lock in a great set the tour will be over. But we've done things like this before so I'm not worried about it, I know it's a new game to play and I just gotta figure out the rules as quickly as possible.”

Every Time I Die will be playing the following dates:

Friday 18 January - Big Day Out, Sydney NSW
Sunday 20 January - Big Day Out, Gold Coast QLD
Friday 25 January - Big Day Out, Adelaide SA
Saturday 26 January - Big Day Out, Melbourne VIC
Monday 28 January - Big Day Out, Claremont WA