Now, you may be familiar with Asking Alexandria. You may even have seen them live, own a shirt or two, and maybe own some of their music on something other than a Spotify playlist. But, unless you’ve caught wind of their latest, fifth full-length, self-titled release that dropped Friday, December 15, you don’t really know Asking Alexandria. Luckily for you, we have a review of that beautiful piece of craftsmanship coming down the pike, if you haven’t made your own judgments about it. Even luckier for you is what follows below…
We had the honor and privilege of sitting down and talking with James Cassells, drummer for Asking Alexandria about everything from Danny Worsnop’s (thank you, sweet eight pound baby Jesus) return to how the new album is so different from their other releases, tour insider information and how much the fans really mean to these guys who have been through so much, just to rise like the fuckin’ Phoenixes they are. Asking Alexandria may have had their fair share of licks, but as they say, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Suffice it to say, Asking Alexandria is stronger – and better – than they have ever been.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me today, James. I am honored. I’m a fan of your work, and I have to say, the new album is my favorite of your entire catalog, so well done.
Awesome, it’s definitely mine, too. Thank you.
So, how was producing and putting this record together different than what you guys have previously done? It feels different. I love it.
To start off, it was produced by Matt Good, who is a close friend of all of ours. It felt natural, and just right and fun. It was cool. It was like making music with your friends, and your friend is really good at doing it. (laughs) It was a good time. It was very laid back. We recorded in Arizona. I don’t live in Arizona; I live in Austin, Texas.
However, Ben, Sam, Cam and now, I believe Danny, all live there. At that time, it was very easy for them to go to the studio. If Ben had an idea, he could go over, put something down, and the next thing you know, I can be there in a day. It’s a hop, skip, and a jump for me to be there. I can be there in few hours. I was back and forth from Arizona, and we were in and out of the studio. It was not like, “Okay, sweet, it’s time to make this album. And we’ve got a start date and a finish date. And we’re recording it now, and that is what’s happening.”
It was sort of like, “Well, we’ve been making music for a while now. Some of the songs that made the album were actually written a really long time ago. And they’ve been adapted and changed. Maybe aren’t exactly as they were before a long time ago when we first made them. But, they definitely were in the process. The process was started.
It was nice to have that laidback vibe to it; it was refreshing. No pressure. It wasn’t like, “Oh, shit, well it’s fucking 8pm we’re all leaving.” Some nights, if we were there and still in the creation process, it might get to 6pm, and we’d be like, “We’re not feeling it. Let’s go out. Let’s get something to eat or chill and take our mind off of it.” And then there were some nights when it was like, fucking 2am, and we’re like, “No, let’s keep going. We’re on a roll. We can’t stop this.” And that is always a nice experience.
Creating music should always be fun. Same as recording. This process should be enjoyable, I feel. Regardless of whether the songs have come from a sound or a moving part of your life, I feel like piecing it all together in the studio should always be a good experience. Otherwise, it just doesn’t come out right, in my opinion.
You know, we were able to capture the best music we’ve ever done. Not just in terms of songwriting, I feel like the way we actually recorded and performed the music sounds really amazing. And we’ve never managed to do that before. So, you know, we’ve been around for a long time, and this time the recording process was absolutely amazing. This is my favorite album we’ve ever created, and the best time we have ever had working in the studio together. It felt great.
Do you think that the process behind recording it speaks to why the music is just so damn good?
Yeah! I mean, I think there are a lot of things that go into the creation of an album. We have had a lot of stuff happen to us, and it’s been a crazy few years. We’ve all got a lot of stuff on our chests that we need to get off, and Danny included, but then again it being the five original guys, we also have a lot to prove. We knew that we had good content. The first time Danny walked back into the studio when we decided we were going to play music together again and decided we were going to go back out on tour, none of us knew what was going to happen.
We didn’t know if it was going to work, were we going to be happy? Would it be weird after what happened? It was pretty instantaneous that we knew that it was going to work, and it did feel good and natural. And I think from even last year, we knew that we should do another album together. We agreed we could do this. And, it didn’t take long into the process of writing these songs that we knew we had some good material. It snowballed from there – it was exciting and thrilling, like, let’s go! It’s great; it’s great! It was all coming together and was topped off with the fact that it was so nice and chill in the studio.
It all paired well for a great album to come out. It all came together nicely. And it did. I am super proud of the album. We are all really stoked; we feel it’s been a long time coming. Soon, come Friday, it’s going to be out into the world. Everyone is going to be able to enjoy it and have their opinions on it. I think a lot of people might think it’s a bit different than our last few albums because we’ve got some different vibes on it. But, I feel it is the album that we wanted to write, and that we wanted to write for a long time. Now we have. We have come to the point in our lives where we are ready to release an album like this. And we’re about to.
The fans are not just going to feel a different vibe. I think the fans are going to just devour it.
From the snippets we’ve released like “Into the Fire” and “Alone in the Room,” over in London, the response has been amazing. I think people are going to back this album. I feel like it’s an honest album. The songwriting is there. We have catchy melodies, and they are good songs to listen to. But, beyond the music, there is a message to the songs. There’s themes and things running through them that have been going on in our lives and going on in the world today. There is definitely a message, and it’s going to hit a lot of people.
So, you said that some of the songs have been around a while, so what is the writing process like for you? How do you pick what you want to keep and release and what gets tossed aside?
(laughs) That’s the million-dollar question, right there. There really isn’t a process. It’s all just a lot of discussion. We don’t have criteria to evaluate them. For us, we leave the studio with more songs than we came in with. Even if you go into the studio, and think, “we need twelve songs for an album, and we’ve got these twelve songs,” sure as shit another song is going to come out when you’re in the studio. That’s just how it works.
We had the album written, and then our label wanted another song. Then, we went in and wrote and recorded “Hopelessly Hopeful.” That song came out of us after the fact of us already creating the album. And actually, that’s one of my favorite songs on the album. We went in with songs that nobody has ever heard and may not hear for a while. So, there’s always a bit of agreement.
It’s not easy – but we have to have a lot of discussion. The five of us talk, and then we add in our label and our manager and producer, and everyone has a talk. All opinions count. And it boils down to we five dudes need to come down to a decision. It usually ends with us all being happy. We usually come to an agreement. We don’t nitpick and demand things from each other over what tracks we want on the album. We’re all in agreement, and we all would like to have other songs I am sure.
But there is no point in having an album that is twenty songs long; that’s just too much. People don’t want that. People want a certain amount. Songs are usually three and a half minutes long because it feels right and feels good. If all songs were fifteen minutes long, it would be a bit much. People wouldn’t listen to the whole thing. We have to work within the constraints of how the music industry is. I feel like we’ve put together the album we want.
Maybe after the album cycle comes to a close, we could issue a rerelease where we add extra footage and extra songs, who knows. There are always new opportunities to release new stuff. I mean, shit, we could go back to our back catalog and have multiple albums’ worth of our songs that are finished, mixed, and ready for the world. We’ve never had the chance to show them. So, maybe one day we will release four albums’ worth of shit that no one has ever heard. (laughs) You never know.
That would be one hell of a boxed set.
Ha! Yeah, for sure, for sure. If you’ve got all of our albums from day one, now you’ll get even more!
I love it. This album, lyrically, is some of the best writing you guys have done. You aren’t shying away from the darker side of life and the emotional bullshit we all deal with. So, what precipitated that? Is that a conscious effort or an organic byproduct of where you are in life now?
Danny has always been very, very clever with his lyrics. They have a lot of meaning, and he takes pride in creating these stories. And yes, there are a lot of things in there. For instance, in “Into the Fire,” the song we released first, one of the big songs with a big chorus and larger than life sound, that song tells a story. There are a few on our new album that tell a story of like what’s been going on in Danny’s head.
Obviously, he stepped away from the band for almost two years. And then coming back, some of the songs are about what’s going on in his head. “Alone in the Room” is very much all about how Danny has been coping, alone and away from the group, and what has been going on with him personally. There is a lot of stuff, and people can really read into it. For instance, in “Into the Fire,” we visualize the ideas behind good and evil and what has been going on with the group. And other times people need to just be able to read the lyrics, listen to it, get a feel for the song, and make their own decisions on what’s being said.
Yeah, that’s what I have always appreciated about you guys is that I can take the lyrics for what they are and just enjoy the song, or I can dig in and find a hidden meaning, and either way, it’s still a good damn song. It doesn’t matter.
Yeah, that’s the way we have always written as a group. We write songs that, musically, are entertaining and good. And when Danny adds his lyrics, they become something great and amazing, you know? That’s the way we piece together music as a group.
It’s got to feel great having Danny back. What’s the dynamic like, and how does it feel to you guys?
It’s a whole array of feelings. But, to boil it down, it just feels right. It’s great having him back. And like I said earlier, that first practice when he walked in the door, I literally had not seen him since the last show we did together. And it was like, instant. It felt right, and it felt good, and we rolled together like, “We can do this! We should do this!”
It’s just great. And to be honest, it’s a great big relief. Like, back a few years ago, it was a bad time for us. We were imploding as a group and very self-destructive. But now, we couldn’t even be more different than we were then. We needed that time to come away more mature and more sensible. And we just realized we are a band, five guys working together, and we need to work as a group.
We can’t be selfish and do our own thing. We have to compromise and work together, which is something we didn’t really get for a lot of years prior. It was a toxic way of being in a group before, whereas now, it’s five friends back together, writing and playing music, and totally stoked to get back on the road, ya know?
So, you’re heading out on the road in the new year. What can fans expect to see from you guys that they may not have seen before? How is the live show different now that the five of you are back together?
To start off, this is going to be the biggest production that either of the bands (Black Veil Brides and Asking Alexandria) have ever put on. We are putting a lot of time, effort, and money into really building our stage show in a big way. It’s going to be impressive. We will be playing a lot of the new songs and definitely old ones that people have heard. And then maybe a few more. We are going to be on stage for a good headliner slot.
We, and Black Veil [Brides] are both headlining. So, we both get a lot of time. It’s just going to be a great show. If people have seen us before on previous tours with Danny, you will see our old stage antics are back. The shows are fun. The shows are laid back. But, we bring it the best we can with our performance. I feel a lot of people are going to enjoy it. The shows are selling a lot and will likely all sell out. I would recommend getting a ticket if you haven’t yet. Selling out is coming quick.
You have a loyal, solid fanbase. They have loved you guys from good times to bad and all in between. How does it feel to have so many people honestly look up to you?
It’s crazy feeling, to be honest. It’s not overwhelming, but we have some insanely loyal fans. And I feel like what we want to keep that momentum going and to always let them have Asking [Alexandria] in their lives, and we’re always trying to bring out new content and songs and snippets and let people tell us what they want. There is so much going on in the world today, and it’s so easy to get lost in the whirlwind, and we don’t want that to happen with us.
Our fans have been with us through thick and thin, and there has been some crazy shit happen to us over the years in the Asking World. And we still have those loyal fans and are gaining new fans. We are always trying to find new ways to do cool stuff for them, you know? We can try to do as much as we can, like little acoustic shows and working with local street teams to do special things in certain towns. We try to keep up with that stuff as best we can.
It’s obviously quite a daunting task when you’re a global band and travel everywhere, but we for sure try to do that. And we interact with our fans a lot online with social media and try to do cool things for them. We try to find ways to keep the fans engaged with us as a group both personally and on social media.
I am so glad you said that because my next talking point is social media. It’s almost like you have my list of notes in front of you. (laughs) Do you feel like social media is a help or a hindrance when it comes to your everyday lives and also connecting with the fans?
(laughs) It can be both, for sure. Sometimes, a lot of us are open with our personal lives. But, some people do like to have a private life, and that should be respected. I feel like in some respects, social media can be a big hindrance because some people assume that because someone is quite open, then everything else should be. They want everyone to be like that, and I don’t think that’s fair or that should happen. If someone wants their privacy, they should have that privacy.
If someone comes to your house and starts taking pictures and asking you personal questions, you call the police and that person is going to go to jail. So, why should that be able to happen online? So, in some respects, social media can be a problem. Sometimes people use it negatively and say stuff that is negative or untrue on purpose. In those circumstances, it can be terrible.
But, on the whole, it’s a great way to connect to people from all over the world. And we try to be open with people a lot and go live and give those fans an insight into our lives, and what we are doing, but that’s a choice that people should be able to give. And no one should be able to say that it’s bullshit if someone doesn’t want to do that – we can all use it the way we see fit. There is no reason to attack people with it.
And it gives you the chance to interact with the fans.
Yes, it allows us to get information! If we post a song or something, and the fans react well, we can know it’s something that they do like and we should do more often. It gives us an insight into what they want, and it shows us their preferences. It’s a tool, and it should be used correctly.
Absolutely, I agree. And that’s the perfect spot to end our chat with that kind of message because people will be reading this on the Internet where they should be engaging correctly and properly with it. (laughs)
Exactly! And they should have a good time doing it, too. I have a lot of fun getting to know what the fans like and seeing what they’re doing. It’s cool to see the comments and opinions, and I like it.
Yeah, I agree. It’s neat to discover new things from around the world instantly and find bands I have never heard of, thanks to the Internet. Full disclosure, I am 36, and we never had this instant access people have now. We had to wait until our favorite bands came on MTV to see what they even looked like, and then to record their songs, we had to use a tape player and pray the DJ didn’t talk over the track on the radio while we were recording. So, kids have it really easy these days when it comes to music.
(laughs) They do, for sure. For sure.
What would be your last words today for the fans?
Thank you all for your support; we appreciate. Go check out the new album; check us out on tour next year, January through March. See you all at a show sometime soon!
