IPOD
RADIO
Boy Sets Fire
By Daniel Robert Epstein
Mar 18, 2006
Boy Sets Fire has got a busy year so far. Not only have they re-released their classic album The Day the Sun Went Out but they just put out an all demo album called Before the Eulogies and they have a new album called The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years. It’s a little Dostoyevsky sounding but hey they had a rough couple of years. I got a chance to talk with their vocalist Nathan Gray.
Check out the official website for Boy Sets Fire
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey man, are you guys touring?
Nathan Gray: We just started touring at the beginning of March.
DRE:
Tell me about the new album.
NG:
It’s called The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years.
DRE:
Who produced?
NG:
We did.
DRE:
Did you guys always produce?
NG:
No, the last album we did was actually produced by Dave Fortman and was executive produced by Jay Bumgardner who screwed the whole thing up. Now we’re burnt on producers now.
DRE:
How’d you like producing then?
NG:
Loved it. It was great. It’s very freeing.
DRE:
Do you guys sit through the whole thing?
NG:
No, we produced and one of the engineers was Nick Rotundo from our home town who’s a good friend of ours and recorded a lot of our old albums with us. For the most part everything was just down on our own. We went through three different studios, like we did the drums in Pennsylvania, we did pretty much everything else in Delaware, Newark, and then the final touches we did by ourselves in our own studio in Elkton, Maryland.
DRE:
Are you guys in Delaware right now?
NG:
Yeah, I’m in Newark, Delaware. I live here.
DRE:
You like Delaware?
NG:
Yeah, I’m fine with it. It’s home and it’s been home since I was a little kid. We tour a lot so it’s nice to go somewhere where you just know everything.
DRE:
All I know about Delaware is the joke in Wayne’s World.
NG:
Yeah, that’s all anybody knows about Delaware. Seriously, when I moved to Florida when I was a little kid with my parents for a couple of years, Pensacola and I swear there were people who actually asked me what state Delaware was in. That may just have been the bad schooling system in the area.
DRE:
They sound retarded.
NG:
Absolutely, I think they may have been. Well it was Pensacola Florida and I lived in a trailer park so put it together, you know.
DRE:
Oh so you’re a real trailer park guy.
NG:
Oh yeah.
DRE:
Does Boy Sets Fire get you out of the trailer park a little bit?
NG:
Well yeah. It’s not like anything lucrative or anything, we’re not U2 but it does enough to pay the bills.
DRE:
Are you guys are all communists or what?
NG:
No. There’s actually more of a story behind that. That is, me and Josh are guitarists were both members of the communist party for a little while. I got out of it because we were having meetings at my house and stuff like that with people and after a while I realized it was just as dogmatic and boring as any other party.
DRE:
I rarely ask about people’s politics but I was leading to asking if you could send me a check for half your money.
NG:
Right, well we definitely have a leftist politics and all that but it was very boring. We got involved and we thought maybe we could make a difference in the world around us but they were still fighting about the same old shit. I got involved in this because I didn’t want to do things the way it’s done. So the more I tried to get involved with leftist politics and the whole communist thing the more I feel for the anarchist. So I just gave up on all politics completely.
DRE:
What you guys do is close enough to anarchy right?
NG:
The problem with us is that not only are we more political but being in a band that talks about revolutionary politics and stuff like that, you get a lot of shit. Not only that, but I’m a smartass and I talk way too much and I’m sort of a dick and so it gets us in a lot of trouble. We mentioned our beliefs right after 9/11 and military personnel threatened to kill us.
DRE:
What military personnel was threatening to kill you?
NG:
I’m not saying as a whole. The army didn’t put out a threat. Some of the people who came to the shows were military and they came up to us after a show and tried to fight. Fortunately none of us ended up in a fight somehow. I don’t know how that’s happened but for some reason it never did.
DRE:
How do you think you guys would do in a big fight like that?
NG:
It depends on how many people they’re going to use and how many people we’re using. If it’s like five against 2, we’ll win. If it’s 10 to 5, they’re going to kick our asses but we’ll put up a good fight. We haven’t had that problem recently. We actually have a pretty strong fan base within the military especially overseas. Here we have people who got into the military and don’t necessarily agree with what we’re saying but are a lot more laid back about being able to accept what people are saying.
DRE:
Well if we’re talking about Bush, I think he’s alienated even his own party.
NG:
I just feel if your dad doesn’t even like you, it’s just rough.
DRE:
I’m sure even the Ku Klux Klan would say that he messed up Katrina. That was a really horrible thing he did.
NG:
Oh absolutely. He’s done it with a lot of things, with education, with the economy, environmental issues. It runs the gamut. Overall he’s screwed things up.
DRE:
He doesn’t seem to think he screwed up that much anyway.
NG:
I don’t think he gives a shit. If you were George Bush or any of his cabinet members, you’re paid, you don’t give a shit. You’re just up there trying to make face time and trying to get your money. It’s possible that some of these politicians at one point came in with good ideals and good reasoning for what they’re doing but for the most part they are just making a paycheck just like anybody else. They don’t really give a fuck about anybody.
DRE:
They only care about lining their own pockets really.
NG:
Bush has nothing to worry about now. He’s not going to get reelected anyway. So it’s not like he has to prove anything or really try. George Bush is going to be one of those guys that goes down in history as the worst president ever to some and to other people as the best president ever. There’s not going to be a lot in between.
DRE:
It’s very depressing. Let’s talk about something else really quick.
What was the inspiration for The Misery Index?
NG:
We were with Wind-Up Records where we did one album and it flopped. After that they were very concerned about us writing a hit single because other than radio, they weren’t really sure what to do with us. We’re not really a band that writes for the radio. So they were asking us if we could use a co-writer and they were holding us back from touring and all this shit. Finally we were like “look, we’re not going to write your hit single. You’re miserable, we’re miserable, why are we doing this?” To their credit, they let us go when we were like a million dollars in debt to them. They let us have all our songs so we went and signed with Equal Vision in North America Vision and then licensed out with Burning Heart to the rest of the world. We just started re-doing the songs. The title alone The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years is an overview of the stuff that we went through, not only through the music industry but also politically, emotionally and personally. The album is that frustration and that anger that we’re trying to get out to heal ourselves.
DRE:
Is the album much different from when you guys started on it three years ago?
NG:
Absolutely. That period was actually very helpful for us. Once we got off of Wind-Up, we were stoked. We were ready to go because there was nobody forcing our hand or controlling us in any way. We were just able to do it ourselves so re-wrote all the songs and did them how we wanted them to be and then just went into the studio.
DRE:
You also just re-released two of your albums.
NG:
We re-released The Day the Sun Went Out and Before the Eulogies is all demos. It used to be on Initial Records but they went under.
DRE:
How much time went into Before the Eulogies turning it into an album?
NG:
We didn’t even worry about it. We were just like “Well we’ve got all these demos, that either people have never heard or will never hear again. We should throw it on a CD so everybody can get it.” It gives people a timeline for where we came from and where we’re going.
DRE:
Where was all this stuff?
NG:
In our vaults. Chad, our other guitarist is very meticulous. He collects everything we do so it’s very easy to find every little demo and every little thing that we had done.
DRE:
Is this stuff you’ll ever play at shows?
NG:
I doubt we’ll ever play any of the demo stuff at shows. It’s more like historical stuff.
DRE:
Did you guys clean up The Day the Sun Went Out?
NG:
We cleaned up the artwork. The artwork was a bit lacking and there wasn’t much I could do with it but I did what I could to make it a little bit better.
DRE:
Where are you going on this tour?
NG:
Through early April we’re going to be over in Europe and then late April to early May we’re going to be back in the States touring around.
DRE:
What do you know about SuicideGirls?
NG:
The only thing I know about it is that it’s a website and it’s got naked girls on it. I mean any dude gets excited about that.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Boy Sets Fire has got a busy year so far. Not only have they re-released their classic album The Day the Sun Went Out but they just put out an all demo album called Before the Eulogies and they have a new album called The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years. It’s a little Dostoyevsky sounding but hey they had a rough couple of years. I got a chance to talk with their vocalist Nathan Gray.
Check out the official website for Boy Sets Fire
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hey man, are you guys touring?
Nathan Gray: We just started touring at the beginning of March.
DRE:
Tell me about the new album.
NG:
It’s called The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years.
DRE:
Who produced?
NG:
We did.
DRE:
Did you guys always produce?
NG:
No, the last album we did was actually produced by Dave Fortman and was executive produced by Jay Bumgardner who screwed the whole thing up. Now we’re burnt on producers now.
DRE:
How’d you like producing then?
NG:
Loved it. It was great. It’s very freeing.
DRE:
Do you guys sit through the whole thing?
NG:
No, we produced and one of the engineers was Nick Rotundo from our home town who’s a good friend of ours and recorded a lot of our old albums with us. For the most part everything was just down on our own. We went through three different studios, like we did the drums in Pennsylvania, we did pretty much everything else in Delaware, Newark, and then the final touches we did by ourselves in our own studio in Elkton, Maryland.
DRE:
Are you guys in Delaware right now?
NG:
Yeah, I’m in Newark, Delaware. I live here.
DRE:
You like Delaware?
NG:
Yeah, I’m fine with it. It’s home and it’s been home since I was a little kid. We tour a lot so it’s nice to go somewhere where you just know everything.
DRE:
All I know about Delaware is the joke in Wayne’s World.
NG:
Yeah, that’s all anybody knows about Delaware. Seriously, when I moved to Florida when I was a little kid with my parents for a couple of years, Pensacola and I swear there were people who actually asked me what state Delaware was in. That may just have been the bad schooling system in the area.
DRE:
They sound retarded.
NG:
Absolutely, I think they may have been. Well it was Pensacola Florida and I lived in a trailer park so put it together, you know.
DRE:
Oh so you’re a real trailer park guy.
NG:
Oh yeah.
DRE:
Does Boy Sets Fire get you out of the trailer park a little bit?
NG:
Well yeah. It’s not like anything lucrative or anything, we’re not U2 but it does enough to pay the bills.
DRE:
Are you guys are all communists or what?
NG:
No. There’s actually more of a story behind that. That is, me and Josh are guitarists were both members of the communist party for a little while. I got out of it because we were having meetings at my house and stuff like that with people and after a while I realized it was just as dogmatic and boring as any other party.
DRE:
I rarely ask about people’s politics but I was leading to asking if you could send me a check for half your money.
NG:
Right, well we definitely have a leftist politics and all that but it was very boring. We got involved and we thought maybe we could make a difference in the world around us but they were still fighting about the same old shit. I got involved in this because I didn’t want to do things the way it’s done. So the more I tried to get involved with leftist politics and the whole communist thing the more I feel for the anarchist. So I just gave up on all politics completely.
DRE:
What you guys do is close enough to anarchy right?
NG:
The problem with us is that not only are we more political but being in a band that talks about revolutionary politics and stuff like that, you get a lot of shit. Not only that, but I’m a smartass and I talk way too much and I’m sort of a dick and so it gets us in a lot of trouble. We mentioned our beliefs right after 9/11 and military personnel threatened to kill us.
DRE:
What military personnel was threatening to kill you?
NG:
I’m not saying as a whole. The army didn’t put out a threat. Some of the people who came to the shows were military and they came up to us after a show and tried to fight. Fortunately none of us ended up in a fight somehow. I don’t know how that’s happened but for some reason it never did.
DRE:
How do you think you guys would do in a big fight like that?
NG:
It depends on how many people they’re going to use and how many people we’re using. If it’s like five against 2, we’ll win. If it’s 10 to 5, they’re going to kick our asses but we’ll put up a good fight. We haven’t had that problem recently. We actually have a pretty strong fan base within the military especially overseas. Here we have people who got into the military and don’t necessarily agree with what we’re saying but are a lot more laid back about being able to accept what people are saying.
DRE:
Well if we’re talking about Bush, I think he’s alienated even his own party.
NG:
I just feel if your dad doesn’t even like you, it’s just rough.
DRE:
I’m sure even the Ku Klux Klan would say that he messed up Katrina. That was a really horrible thing he did.
NG:
Oh absolutely. He’s done it with a lot of things, with education, with the economy, environmental issues. It runs the gamut. Overall he’s screwed things up.
DRE:
He doesn’t seem to think he screwed up that much anyway.
NG:
I don’t think he gives a shit. If you were George Bush or any of his cabinet members, you’re paid, you don’t give a shit. You’re just up there trying to make face time and trying to get your money. It’s possible that some of these politicians at one point came in with good ideals and good reasoning for what they’re doing but for the most part they are just making a paycheck just like anybody else. They don’t really give a fuck about anybody.
DRE:
They only care about lining their own pockets really.
NG:
Bush has nothing to worry about now. He’s not going to get reelected anyway. So it’s not like he has to prove anything or really try. George Bush is going to be one of those guys that goes down in history as the worst president ever to some and to other people as the best president ever. There’s not going to be a lot in between.
DRE:
It’s very depressing. Let’s talk about something else really quick.
What was the inspiration for The Misery Index?
What was the inspiration for The Misery Index?
NG:
We were with Wind-Up Records where we did one album and it flopped. After that they were very concerned about us writing a hit single because other than radio, they weren’t really sure what to do with us. We’re not really a band that writes for the radio. So they were asking us if we could use a co-writer and they were holding us back from touring and all this shit. Finally we were like “look, we’re not going to write your hit single. You’re miserable, we’re miserable, why are we doing this?” To their credit, they let us go when we were like a million dollars in debt to them. They let us have all our songs so we went and signed with Equal Vision in North America Vision and then licensed out with Burning Heart to the rest of the world. We just started re-doing the songs. The title alone The Misery Index: Notes from the Plague Years is an overview of the stuff that we went through, not only through the music industry but also politically, emotionally and personally. The album is that frustration and that anger that we’re trying to get out to heal ourselves.
DRE:
Is the album much different from when you guys started on it three years ago?
NG:
Absolutely. That period was actually very helpful for us. Once we got off of Wind-Up, we were stoked. We were ready to go because there was nobody forcing our hand or controlling us in any way. We were just able to do it ourselves so re-wrote all the songs and did them how we wanted them to be and then just went into the studio.
DRE:
You also just re-released two of your albums.
NG:
We re-released The Day the Sun Went Out and Before the Eulogies is all demos. It used to be on Initial Records but they went under.
DRE:
How much time went into Before the Eulogies turning it into an album?
NG:
We didn’t even worry about it. We were just like “Well we’ve got all these demos, that either people have never heard or will never hear again. We should throw it on a CD so everybody can get it.” It gives people a timeline for where we came from and where we’re going.
DRE:
Where was all this stuff?
NG:
In our vaults. Chad, our other guitarist is very meticulous. He collects everything we do so it’s very easy to find every little demo and every little thing that we had done.
DRE:
Is this stuff you’ll ever play at shows?
NG:
I doubt we’ll ever play any of the demo stuff at shows. It’s more like historical stuff.
DRE:
Did you guys clean up The Day the Sun Went Out?
NG:
We cleaned up the artwork. The artwork was a bit lacking and there wasn’t much I could do with it but I did what I could to make it a little bit better.
DRE:
Where are you going on this tour?
NG:
Through early April we’re going to be over in Europe and then late April to early May we’re going to be back in the States touring around.
DRE:
What do you know about SuicideGirls?
NG:
The only thing I know about it is that it’s a website and it’s got naked girls on it. I mean any dude gets excited about that.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
