Photo by Shervin LainezRed Sun Rising is back with the follow up to 2015’s Polyester Zeal! Their upcoming album, Thread will be released via Razor and Tie Recordings on Friday, March 30th. Our staff writer, Kinsey, spoke with lead singer Mike Protich about the new album, new tours, and the meaning of Thread. Be sure to check out this exclusive interview, only at RockRevolt Magazine!
You just released two singles “Deathwish” and “Fascination.” How has the response to those been?
It’s been phenomenal. I think people are definitely seeing how different those two songs are which is creating a lot of buzz for what the rest of the record is gonna sound like. Because those two are so different, it leaves it open ended to what the rest of the record will sound like.
I know Thread comes out at the end of this month; what can we expect from it? I mean we already have kind of a little teaser for it with those two songs and those are vastly different, so what can we expect from the rest of the album?
I think just that. It’s gonna be different from song to song which is what’s gonna make the record cool. We gave each song its own identity and we really concentrated on making sure each song is different and there’s a little bit of something for everybody on there. I truly believe that. It definitely has a more raw sound that’s more authentic to the way we sound live than the first record did, so that’s gonna be cool.
How will this album be different than Polyester Zeal?
It’ll be a little more raw. We also had two years to write this. For Polyester Zeal, we had 15 years to write it, so [Thread] is a lot more in the moment and a lot more inspiration from playing live over touring Polyester Zeal.
So the album is called Thread, and I know y’all use that a lot on social media as a hashtag. What does thread actually mean?
Thread is kinda like an “anti-genre genre” if that makes any sense. We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves to a certain genre, and we don’t want to write for a genre. We don’t want to be an alternative band, or a rock band, or a metal band. We just want to be a band, and whatever that sounds like is what it sounds like. We just want to write really good songs. Whatever you want to call it, that’s up to you, but we’re gonna call it thread.
I like how with “Deathwish” it sounds, not to put it in a genre, but it sounds like it could really crossover well on pop radio, more like modern Alt-Nation® kind of pop. I think that’s awesome because a lot of bands can’t do that. So I think that’s really cool. How do you how do you try to make your sound stand out?
We don’t try. We just write music that we love and believe in. So, I think if you stay true to yourself, just like as you said, you hear that “Deathwish” has crossover ability. We love melody. We love songs where, even if the lyrics are really dark, they have beautiful melodies that people can sing along with because that’s what music is all about. We just write music that we love and we believe in, and if you do that, then you can never be wrong.
True. I like that answer. I know y’all have several upcoming festivals and tours including the World’s Loudest Month shows and a new tour that was just announced with The Used. How did those come about, and what can an audience expect from those?
The headline tour is something we’ve been talking about for a while. We’ve just been wanting to get out there. We’ve been doing so much support over the last few years now. We want to go out there, even if it’s just playing some club shows, which a lot of these are. Really just meeting and connecting with our fans. We’re really looking forward to that. With The Used, they asked us to do the tour, and we said yes. [Laughs]. With the festivals, obviously, we’ve had some success with the first record, so it was good to be asked back to play those, and we’re super excited. I think what you can expect is now we have two records to choose from and we’re gonna be trying out different songs, and the setlist might be a little different every night. Some of the old songs from Polyester Zeal we might take a little bit of liberty on and change them up a little bit just because we’re musicians, and it’s fun that way. It’s gonna be a fun spring.
You mentioned the setlist. How do you go about making a setlist? Some bands play the same thing every night, some bands change it up. A lot of people have different opinions on that. You have Polyester Zeal, but y’all had other stuff before that some die hards like to hear. How do you go about making it to where it pleases everybody, or do you just not care?
I wouldn’t say we don’t care. We know the songs that have been more nationwide. Obviously the singles, we’ve got to play those. People want to hear that, and maybe initially it’s what brought them there. You got to give them what they want because they paid money to come watch you, and they deserve that, but other than that, it’s what we want to play. We’re going to give you what you came for, but we’re gonna play what we like and what we play. A lot of times with the band we just say, “what are we gonna play on these these shows?” It’s really that simple. [We ask] what does everybody feel like playing? The meat of the set is the popular songs, if you will, or the radio singles, and then everything else is whatever we want.
Does that include cover songs too? I know y’all have several.
The only one we really do is “Uninvited,” and that’s a favorite of ours. We might try another one on this tour, too, but we’re not sure yet. I mean we love doing covers, but we obviously love playing our own music more.
Is there like a particular song you personally like to play live?
Right now, it’s been really fun to play “Deathwish.” We’ve only played it a handful of times so far, but it’s been really fun and hearing the crowd sing, which we love. At the end, we kind of built it into the record where we had a group of people who came in to sing the end with us. So it’s kind of encouraging for the crowd to sing that part. When you hear a crowd of people sing back like that, it’s moving.
Are there any songs that you just absolutely will not ever play again, or do you not feel that way?
I’m getting that way with “The Other Side.” It’s a great song, obviously. I mean, I was part of writing it, but it’s one of those songs. But, again, when a crowd is singing it back to you, it breathes new light into it every night, so you can’t really complain about that.
My personal favorite is “Awake” from Polyester Zeal. Where do you stand on that song?
It’s a fun rock song. It’s got a lot of energy. I remember the writing process for that one. It’s one of the more cool, guitar driven riff songs we have on that record. We pull that one out every now and then. That one is definitely a banger!
After all of the new album stuff and all the touring, what’s next?
What’s next? [Laughs]. I think we just continue to grow and continue to connect more and more people and keep writing music that we love. I guess whatever that brings, we’ll see.
Okay. What is a fun fact about the band that not many people know?
[Pauses] I’m always bad at these. [Pauses] This is tough. Oh! I guess this is kind of interesting. We spend a lot of time like on the road just writing really funny, well, we think are funny, really ridiculous country songs.
Oh my God. Can you please release those? Because that is perfect.
We’ve talked about doing it under an alias, just releasing a country album and just being ridiculous. We spend a lot of time doing that, and it’s just hilarious. It’s another way to write and be creative, but it’s carefree because the lyrics are so dumb and so hilarious. That’s one thing we do on occasion instead of playing video games together or something. We’ll sit down and write a really stupid country song.
Is it like those Bro-Country songs where it’s all about tractors, trucks, and the dollar store?
Sometimes. [Laughs] It depends on the mood we’re in. We’ll go old-school country. Sometimes we’ll go new school and you know whatever we’re feeling.
That is amazing. Well, is there is there anything else you want to add?
I just want to thank the fans for their continued support and get out and see us live because it’s gonna be fun. It’s gonna be a fun tour, and we’ll be playing a lot of songs, so come see us and grab our record!
Photo by Shervin Lainez
