Armor For Sleep isnt a progressive rock band but they have just created their story album called What To Do When You Are Dead. This idea came out of a very emotional period for their vocalist Ben Jorgensen. I got a chance to talk with Jorgensen about what put him in that state of mind.
Buy What To Do When You Are Dead
Daniel Robert Epstein: You at home today?
Ben Jorgensen: No. Were on tour right now. We have a day off and were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
DRE: Hows that?
BJ: Its pretty cool. Im psyched to have the day off. I just got out of the shower, trying to do some laundry.
DRE: You havent reached the point where you dont have to do your own laundry.
BJ: No. Still got to go through all my dirty laundry myself.
DRE: What else are you doing on your day off today?
BJ: Theres a Waffle House, which is an American delicacy that I dont get to see much anymore because were on a bus. We dont get to go into every Waffle House that we see, which we usually do when were in a van. Theres actually one next to our hotel, so its definitely high up on my list of priorities. Theres a movie theater. We might try and watch a movie. Maybe go to the mall and buy some DVDs.
DRE: Did you play a show there this week?
BJ: No. We actually played in St. Petersburg, Florida last night and tomorrow were going to be in Houston. So this was like the middle point. Were probably much closer to Houston than we are to Florida right now, but its just on the way. Whats really weird is that it was really hard for us to book a hotel in advance around this area because a lot of the hotels are still booked up from people who lost their homes from the hurricane.
DRE: What inspired the new album?
BJ: If youre talking about the whole idea of the album of being written through the perspective of someone being dead then it was a lot of different things. At the time I was feeling like I was kind of a displaced person. Since we started the band I had to get used to this new lifestyle of being on tour and saying bye to all my friends back home and losing touch with everybody. Its like youre growing into a new shell when you decide to make a band your life. That was a contributing factor. Around the holiday season, I had to buy books for some of my friends and I found myself in the occult section of all these bookstores. They are full of guidebooks for what to do after youve died. I was amazed that people spend so much time thinking that they have it all figured out. I just started writing songs from the perspective of me being dead. It seemed to make me get a lot of things off my chest that I dont think I would have if they werent written from that perspective.
DRE: What kind of things are we talking about?
BJ: I guess the whole kind of like Patrick Swayze Ghost mentality. If I was absent from peoples lives and could just see them as a ghost. I felt like me staying in touch with them was me haunting them. I felt like there were certain things I wanted to tell people and I couldnt get through to them because there were certain walls that we built up in our lives. I felt like they had moved on and gotten over the fact that I wasnt around anymore.
DRE: Some people are calling it a concept album. Do you see it in that way?
BJ: Weve stayed away from calling it a concept album. I think it can be taken that way but we also made it open ended so if you have no idea what were talking about, youll hopefully get something out of each of the songs individually. We wanted to set it up in a way where it is a story but at the same time its just a rock album. We didnt want to make a strict story line and you need to know all of the characters. We werent interested in that. Its a loose story and theres a theme, so maybe you could call it a concept record. But at the same time, we dont want to bore people with some insane story.
DRE: Car Underwater is a pretty catchy tune. What went into making that specific tune?
BJ: That was actually one of the first songs we made. I actually brought in the chorus to practice. I was like, You guys are going to fucking hate this. Its like really poppy and its really stupid. They wanted to hear it anyway. I played it and they were like thats awesome. I was like, Are you serious? So from the beginning I kind of hated that song, but everyone else encouraged me to finish it. So lyrically it was one of the first songs that I wrote and it was like an introduction to what I was going to write after that. But in terms of the melody I kind of feel like its a rip-off of something that Saves the Day wouldve done or something.
DRE: Do you still hate it?
BJ: No, I dont hate it anymore. When we did a video for it and when that song got played on Fuse a lot of new people were finding out about the band and I was like, Fuck. I dont want to be the Car Underwater band. But now I feel that people like that song and a lot more people who love the album dont like that song as much as the other ones, which is good. I'm glad we got over that hump of being the Car Underwater band.
DRE: How was it working with Machine as your producer?
BJ: Hes a really cool guy. I think he got pinned into doing a lot of metal albums in his career. I guess its just one of those things where he did a metal album and other metal bands found out about it but I think hes trying to get away from that. Everyone was like, Was he like this scary metal dude? But hes just a really talented guy who has a good ear for music and all his records are awesome. Im really happy that he wanted to take a chance on us. The record he did before our record was the Lamb of God record. So I think he was excited to work with a band that was singing even though he has fun doing all the metal stuff too.
DRE: Did he bring a harder idea to what you were doing?
BJ: No, not at all. He produces albums based on what the albums have to be and he just wanted our idea to come across. He wanted us to be the best Armor for Sleep that we could be. He didnt try and put any kind of metal spin on it.
DRE: How was it shooting the video for The Truth About Heaven?
BJ: It was actually a living nightmare. The guy who directed it, Alan Ferguson, is a genius whos a good friend of ours. Hes one of those guys who used to do videos for Jay-Z and then he got really jaded by the music industry so he stopped doing videos and started taking pictures. To make a long story short, he works in the same building as our management company and we became friends with him. He really liked our band so he wrote this really long treatment for The Truth About Heaven. Since were on Equal Vision Records, we dont have $500,000 to make a video. So we had this elaborate storyboard and just two days to shoot it. It ended up being a three day shoot and towards the end we had stayed awake for 48 hours. It was really challenging to do a video of that size when you only have a certain amount of money. You can only have a certain amount of people on the set and everyone has to work like five different jobs. It was just really brutal, but Im really amazed that Alan pulled it off and that nobody died or passed out.
DRE: If someone died then it would really keep in with the theme.
BJ: Yeah, thats true. Maybe someone shouldve died.
DRE: Sometimes people dont like when videos are too literal. Did you like the fact that it kept in with the theme of the album?
BJ: Yeah. For the Car Underwater video, it had nothing to do with the song. So for The Truth About Heaven, we were like, Lets make it something about the song. Especially when the song is so literal and its talking about one thing, its kind of hard to make it a video where were playing craps in Vegas. That totally wouldve been off with the lyrics of the song. So we thought the best thing to do would be to make a direct translation of the lyrics.
DRE: Ive read a lot about many of your shows selling out in the US, that must be amazing.
BJ: Its insane. Weve always been pretty well received, but weve never really done that well on tour for some reason. Some bands dont sell many records, but sell out shows. Im happy with how many records weve sold, but weve never really seen like huge turnouts. But with this tour maybe somethings catching up to us. Ive been like Where have these kids been all these years? But I guess somethings working.
DRE: You also just came back from the UK, where you had another bunch of sold out shows.
BJ: Thats fucking weird to me because we dont even have one album released over there. These labels wanted to release our CDs over there and they were just bad deals. So we said fuck it. The kids that come out to the shows are kids who just found out about us from the Internet.
DRE: Do you guys get back to New Jersey often?
BJ: Yeah, we all live in Jersey. When we have time off, were there but even when we are home everything we do is band related. Whether its being in the studio or writing new stuff. Its almost like we dont exist outside of Armor For Sleep anymore.
DRE: You guys are already writing the new album, right?
BJ: Yeah. Hopefully were going to start recording it in like a month or two.
DRE: Are you going with an overarching theme again?
BJ: I dont think so. I think were going to do something new this time.
DRE: I read you still live at home.
BJ: Yeah I do.
DRE: Whats your mom think of the big rock star now?
BJ: Shes real excited. She sends me emails all the time. She emails everyone in their office about when were going to be on TV. Shes a good mom. Shes always believed in me. When I decided that I didnt want to go to school anymore and start a band, she was like, All right. She trusted me. Shes great.
DRE: Does she like the music?
BJ: I dont know. She comes to our shows and shes like, It was too loud. I couldnt hear anything.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Buy What To Do When You Are Dead
Daniel Robert Epstein: You at home today?
Ben Jorgensen: No. Were on tour right now. We have a day off and were in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
DRE: Hows that?
BJ: Its pretty cool. Im psyched to have the day off. I just got out of the shower, trying to do some laundry.
DRE: You havent reached the point where you dont have to do your own laundry.
BJ: No. Still got to go through all my dirty laundry myself.
DRE: What else are you doing on your day off today?
BJ: Theres a Waffle House, which is an American delicacy that I dont get to see much anymore because were on a bus. We dont get to go into every Waffle House that we see, which we usually do when were in a van. Theres actually one next to our hotel, so its definitely high up on my list of priorities. Theres a movie theater. We might try and watch a movie. Maybe go to the mall and buy some DVDs.
DRE: Did you play a show there this week?
BJ: No. We actually played in St. Petersburg, Florida last night and tomorrow were going to be in Houston. So this was like the middle point. Were probably much closer to Houston than we are to Florida right now, but its just on the way. Whats really weird is that it was really hard for us to book a hotel in advance around this area because a lot of the hotels are still booked up from people who lost their homes from the hurricane.
DRE: What inspired the new album?
BJ: If youre talking about the whole idea of the album of being written through the perspective of someone being dead then it was a lot of different things. At the time I was feeling like I was kind of a displaced person. Since we started the band I had to get used to this new lifestyle of being on tour and saying bye to all my friends back home and losing touch with everybody. Its like youre growing into a new shell when you decide to make a band your life. That was a contributing factor. Around the holiday season, I had to buy books for some of my friends and I found myself in the occult section of all these bookstores. They are full of guidebooks for what to do after youve died. I was amazed that people spend so much time thinking that they have it all figured out. I just started writing songs from the perspective of me being dead. It seemed to make me get a lot of things off my chest that I dont think I would have if they werent written from that perspective.
DRE: What kind of things are we talking about?
BJ: I guess the whole kind of like Patrick Swayze Ghost mentality. If I was absent from peoples lives and could just see them as a ghost. I felt like me staying in touch with them was me haunting them. I felt like there were certain things I wanted to tell people and I couldnt get through to them because there were certain walls that we built up in our lives. I felt like they had moved on and gotten over the fact that I wasnt around anymore.
DRE: Some people are calling it a concept album. Do you see it in that way?
BJ: Weve stayed away from calling it a concept album. I think it can be taken that way but we also made it open ended so if you have no idea what were talking about, youll hopefully get something out of each of the songs individually. We wanted to set it up in a way where it is a story but at the same time its just a rock album. We didnt want to make a strict story line and you need to know all of the characters. We werent interested in that. Its a loose story and theres a theme, so maybe you could call it a concept record. But at the same time, we dont want to bore people with some insane story.
DRE: Car Underwater is a pretty catchy tune. What went into making that specific tune?
BJ: That was actually one of the first songs we made. I actually brought in the chorus to practice. I was like, You guys are going to fucking hate this. Its like really poppy and its really stupid. They wanted to hear it anyway. I played it and they were like thats awesome. I was like, Are you serious? So from the beginning I kind of hated that song, but everyone else encouraged me to finish it. So lyrically it was one of the first songs that I wrote and it was like an introduction to what I was going to write after that. But in terms of the melody I kind of feel like its a rip-off of something that Saves the Day wouldve done or something.
DRE: Do you still hate it?
BJ: No, I dont hate it anymore. When we did a video for it and when that song got played on Fuse a lot of new people were finding out about the band and I was like, Fuck. I dont want to be the Car Underwater band. But now I feel that people like that song and a lot more people who love the album dont like that song as much as the other ones, which is good. I'm glad we got over that hump of being the Car Underwater band.
DRE: How was it working with Machine as your producer?
BJ: Hes a really cool guy. I think he got pinned into doing a lot of metal albums in his career. I guess its just one of those things where he did a metal album and other metal bands found out about it but I think hes trying to get away from that. Everyone was like, Was he like this scary metal dude? But hes just a really talented guy who has a good ear for music and all his records are awesome. Im really happy that he wanted to take a chance on us. The record he did before our record was the Lamb of God record. So I think he was excited to work with a band that was singing even though he has fun doing all the metal stuff too.
DRE: Did he bring a harder idea to what you were doing?
BJ: No, not at all. He produces albums based on what the albums have to be and he just wanted our idea to come across. He wanted us to be the best Armor for Sleep that we could be. He didnt try and put any kind of metal spin on it.
DRE: How was it shooting the video for The Truth About Heaven?
BJ: It was actually a living nightmare. The guy who directed it, Alan Ferguson, is a genius whos a good friend of ours. Hes one of those guys who used to do videos for Jay-Z and then he got really jaded by the music industry so he stopped doing videos and started taking pictures. To make a long story short, he works in the same building as our management company and we became friends with him. He really liked our band so he wrote this really long treatment for The Truth About Heaven. Since were on Equal Vision Records, we dont have $500,000 to make a video. So we had this elaborate storyboard and just two days to shoot it. It ended up being a three day shoot and towards the end we had stayed awake for 48 hours. It was really challenging to do a video of that size when you only have a certain amount of money. You can only have a certain amount of people on the set and everyone has to work like five different jobs. It was just really brutal, but Im really amazed that Alan pulled it off and that nobody died or passed out.
DRE: If someone died then it would really keep in with the theme.
BJ: Yeah, thats true. Maybe someone shouldve died.
DRE: Sometimes people dont like when videos are too literal. Did you like the fact that it kept in with the theme of the album?
BJ: Yeah. For the Car Underwater video, it had nothing to do with the song. So for The Truth About Heaven, we were like, Lets make it something about the song. Especially when the song is so literal and its talking about one thing, its kind of hard to make it a video where were playing craps in Vegas. That totally wouldve been off with the lyrics of the song. So we thought the best thing to do would be to make a direct translation of the lyrics.
DRE: Ive read a lot about many of your shows selling out in the US, that must be amazing.
BJ: Its insane. Weve always been pretty well received, but weve never really done that well on tour for some reason. Some bands dont sell many records, but sell out shows. Im happy with how many records weve sold, but weve never really seen like huge turnouts. But with this tour maybe somethings catching up to us. Ive been like Where have these kids been all these years? But I guess somethings working.
DRE: You also just came back from the UK, where you had another bunch of sold out shows.
BJ: Thats fucking weird to me because we dont even have one album released over there. These labels wanted to release our CDs over there and they were just bad deals. So we said fuck it. The kids that come out to the shows are kids who just found out about us from the Internet.
DRE: Do you guys get back to New Jersey often?
BJ: Yeah, we all live in Jersey. When we have time off, were there but even when we are home everything we do is band related. Whether its being in the studio or writing new stuff. Its almost like we dont exist outside of Armor For Sleep anymore.
DRE: You guys are already writing the new album, right?
BJ: Yeah. Hopefully were going to start recording it in like a month or two.
DRE: Are you going with an overarching theme again?
BJ: I dont think so. I think were going to do something new this time.
DRE: I read you still live at home.
BJ: Yeah I do.
DRE: Whats your mom think of the big rock star now?
BJ: Shes real excited. She sends me emails all the time. She emails everyone in their office about when were going to be on TV. Shes a good mom. Shes always believed in me. When I decided that I didnt want to go to school anymore and start a band, she was like, All right. She trusted me. Shes great.
DRE: Does she like the music?
BJ: I dont know. She comes to our shows and shes like, It was too loud. I couldnt hear anything.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
courtneyriot:
Armor For Sleep isnt a progressive rock band but they have just created their story album called What To Do When You Are Dead. This idea came out of a very emotional period for their vocalist Ben Jorgensen. I got a chance to talk with Jorgensen about what put...