Post Hardcore/Melodic Hardcore/Screamo
About :
I would like to preface this bio by saying I hate band bio sheets. They are boring, self-congratulatory, tripe, filled with all sorts of overdramatic adjectives and if I never have to read another band bio sheet again, I will die a relatively happy man.
With that said, my name is George Pettit and this is a brief biography of Alexisonfire.
Alexisonfire is the product of five kids from the liberal, suburban paradise of Southern Ontario. The band started as an escape from the banalities of adolescence; basically, it was something to do on the weekend. All five of us were active in our local music scene, which consisted mostly of kid promoted shows at local union halls.
I think it is important to note, that we were hardly ambitious. Most of our success was a product of our own dumb luck. When the band started in 2001 there was no future in playing "screamo" music. No chance of getting our song on the radio. No chance of making a video or getting it played. But who cares about that stuff anyway. We were drunk on youth and invincible in our own minds. Times eventually would change in our favour.
Our first demo was the culmination of our very different influences at the time. Dallas (guitar vocals) had just left a kind of grungy alternative band. Wade (guitar vocals) and Chris (bass) had been playing together in a punk band since they were 14 and were looking for something new. I was playing bass in a metal band that I had very little interest in. Alexisonfire was a welcome change for all of us.
I like to think of our first demo as a mash up of Level-Plane Records' era screamo and At the Drive In / Refused era post-hardcore. It's hard for any of us to listen to our first demo and full length, without a certain degree of humility. Imagine the art you created as a teenager, put on display for all to see when you are in your late 20's.
It is a disturbing thought for most, but in all honesty, those recordings served their purpose. They allowed us to tour the United States and Canada. They afforded us the luxury and comradery of impoverished van touring, sleeping on people's floors in strange and terrifying new cities and playing in dingy basements with piss soaked washrooms and hot sweaty clubs filled with alienated youth. We would eat two meals of breakfast a day, to stay within a $10 budget. Those early recordings gave us a real taste for the nomadic lifestyle. I look back on those days with extreme fondness.
When we returned from the road, we began work on our second record entitled Watch Out! It was a musically ambitious record, but when I listen to it now I still feel like we were struggling to find our niche. At this point, things were getting much bigger for us in Canada. Our music videos were getting played and we were given something called a JUNO Award (kind of like a Grammy but more Canadian). We were awarded for our efforts as Best New Band.
More touring ensued. We branched out across the ocean to the United Kingdom. The shows got bigger, but there were always new places to go. We got to enjoy the sheer volume of playing in front of thousands and at the same time, playing in halls and bars with no crowd barriers. I will never forget playing to a packed house of 2000 in Vancouver, BC then driving to Olympia, WA to play in front of nine kids in a pub.
Fast forward to the summer of 2006 and a record called CRISIS. It was an arrival of sorts. Years of hard touring had carved our abilities and tastes as musicians. At this point, we had been all over the US dozens of times, not to mention Japan, Europe and Australia. We wanted to return home to our jam space in the back of an insulation factory in St Catharines, ON.
CRISIS was the beginning of our disconnect from the tired screamo bands of today. We weren't interested in falling in line and damning our records to a legacy of largely forgettable hair rock. We took the best of what we liked about punk and rock and roll and applied it to the genre that gave us our start. Crisis also marked the addition of Jordan Hastings on drums. Our original drummer was killed in an avalanche while snowmobiling. (That's a lie. the true story of why our first drummer left is long and uninteresting)
Even more touring ensued - about nine months straight. It was a rigorous stint that stressed our home relationships to near breaking point. It was a long and beautiful adventure filled with exquisite highs and dreary lows. Touring took us to new places and we got to see our crowds grow in the old places.
The tour was followed by a long and introspective hiatus from the road. Readjusting to home life took some time and this was when the majority of our fourth record, Old Crows/Young Cardinals, was written.
We recorded the instruments at Armory studios in beautiful Vancouver, BC. The vocals were recorded at our producer, Julius Butty's (Watch Out!, Crisis) home studio in Stony Creek, ON.
Old Crows/Young Cardinals was built on the foundation of CRISIS. Musically, it moves at a feverish pace. The lyrics span a wide range of topics, from metaphysical rebellion, to living as a nomad. It is the culmination of the history of our band. Personally, I feel it is our best record yet, but you get to be the judge of that.
That's the short and skinny of it. All the names and dates may not be there but that's about the best I can do to squeeze the last 7&1/2 years of my life onto two sheets of paper. The long and fat of it involves a sorted tale of conflicting personalities, brotherhood, tossed tie rods, barbarism, hospitalizations, dry Canadian wit, and a cast of sultry women.
History :
Alexisonfire: 2001–2003
Alexisonfire was formed in late 2001 as the result of a three-band break up. Pettit was playing bass in a tech-metal band called Condemning Salemn, Green was a lead singer and guitar player in Helicon Blue, and MacNeil and Steele played in a Pop-punk band called Plan 9. These bands broke up at more or less the same time, and Pettit, Steele, MacNeil, and Green all still had the drive to play and succeed. They recruited drummer Jesse Ingelevics, and formed Alexisonfire. The band's name was derived from Alexis Fire, the world's only lactating contortionist stripper. This caused problems when she discovered that they were using her website name as their band name, and she threatened to sue the band for copyright infringement. However, it was discovered that the moniker was not registered, and no further action took place. The band released its first EP, Math Sheet Demos in 2002, so named because the CD was wrapped in former drummer Jesse Ingelevics' math homework. The group caught its first break when they caught the attention of recording engineer Greg Below andMontreal journalist Mitch Joel. The pair were setting up a record label called Distort Entertainment at the time, and coincidentally they were looking for artists. Below was working with EMIat the same time and he used this to record the band at the company's in-house studio and land them a co-publishing and distribution deal.
On September 9, 2002, Alexisonfire was released, the cover art featuring two Catholic school girls engaged in a knife fight, which was also the band's description of their music.Although there was a distribution deal with EMI, the album's success was mostly attributed to word-of-mouth. The band proceeded to tour support their album, crossing Canada twice, and began stepping into the United States and European scenes, playing with Billy Talent, GWAR, Juliana Theory, Godsmack, and Glassjaw. Alexisonfire was certified gold in Canada, marking 50,000+ sales.
Watch Out!: 2004–2005
Article Album Watch Out!:
Watch Out! is the second album released by the post-hardcore band Alexisonfire. It was released on June 29, 2004. It was certified platinum in Canada in April 2007. The cover art for this album is based on the lyrics from "That Girl Possessed", and was illustrated by Justin Winstanley, a tattoo artist who has done many of Dallas Green's tattoos.
This album is more structured than their debut CD, and features an additional emphasis on guitarist Dallas Green's vocal contributions.
The tracks on this album cover a variety of subjects. "'Hey, It's Your Funeral Mama'" is about go-karting, and "White Devil" is about cocaine and the band's previous experiences with friends who used the drug. "That Girl Possessed" is mainly about the girl played by Linda Blair in The Exorcist, and what she experienced during her possession. "Happiness by The Kilowatt", "It Was Fear of Myself That Made Me Odd", and parts of "No Transitory" are based on short stories by Kurt Vonnegut from his collection entitled Welcome to the Monkey House. The stories are "The Euphio Question" / "More Stately Mansions", "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" and "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow", respectively.
Two songs from this album are covered by indie-rock band Moneen in a conjoined EP release, The Switcheroo Series: Alexisonfire vs. Moneen.
Alexisonfire had attracted considerable attention from major record labels, due to the success of their self-titled debut. However, when they started considering making a second album, the band felt that, for artistic reasons, they should remain independent, as it would give them better chances of developing and deciding their direction. They would remain with Distort Entertainment, and instead of using a famous producer, they recorded the album with Julius Butty at his studio near Hamilton, Ontario.
Watch Out! was released on June 29, 2004, and was immediately successful. It debuted at #6 on the Nielsen Soundscan Top 200, and received gold certification in Canada in twelve weeks. The good critical reception came from the fact that the band was more focused from the eighteen months of touring, helping them harness more aggression, release more emotion, and fine-tune all the tracks. This lay in comparison to their debut album, which was mostly first drafts.
| “ | I think if you do it long enough, then you get better at it. You're on the road a lot and you just get better. Also, we had a great producer, Julius Butty. We learned what we like to play. We're no longer virgins to the studio. We're just not quite the band we were a long time ago. | ” |
—George Pettit, MusicEmissions.com interview | ||
While touring in support of the album with Johnny Truant and The Blood Roses in Glasgow, Scotland in October 2005, each member of all three bands had the word "Yeti" tattooed on themselves. On an episode of the MuchMusic program The New Music, Pettit and Green revealed that the inspiration for their "Yeti" tattoos came from the 1988 Gary Oldman film The Firm.
Crisis: 2006–2007
Article Album Crisis :
Crisis is Alexisonfire's third studio album, and the follow up to Watch Out!. The album was released in the UK on August 21, 2006 on Hassle Records and on Shock Records in Australia. Distort Entertainment released the album for Canada a day later than the UK release date, andVagrant Records followed suit for the US market. The album debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling over 22,000 copies. Crisis was certified platinum in Canada in May 2007. It is also the first Alexisonfire album to feature a title track.
This is the first album to feature Jordan Hastings on drums, replacing founding member Jesse Ingelevics. Ingelevics was no longer a part of the band as of June 14, 2005, according to a statement on Alexisonfire's official website. The post cited that the band and Ingelevics had slowly grown apart, and that he wanted to spend more time with his family and his fiancée. The song "Keep It On Wax" is about his departure, and his alleged trash-talking of the band that followed. The album also features Planes Mistaken for Stars frontman Gared O'Donnell singing on the track "You Burn First". The single "Boiled Frogs" refers to George's dad, whose boss tried to cheat him out of a pension, and refers to the incorrect though popular theory that frogs, if placed in a pot of water and have the temperature slowly raised, will not notice that they are being cooked.
The album art for Crisis features aftermath of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 that hit the Niagara Region and Western New York. The main cover features the famous picture of a frost bitten man, a snowblower clearing the large accumulation of snow, and bare trees during the blizzard. Additional pictures of the event are included inside the album's booklet. The lyrics from the song "Crisis" are based on this event.
There are limited editions of the album which include a USB flash drive containing bonus material. It includes the live performances of "Accidents" and "Mailbox Arson" at the SCENE Music Festival in St. Catharines, Ontario, the making of the videos "Passing Out in America" and "This Could Be Anywhere in the World", and a slide show from their trip in Europe to the audio of a new song called "Thrones". There is also an extra song called "My God is a Reasonable Man". The Vagrant Records version has an insert between the jewel case and original album cover, the insert changed the cover art for the US release, this was not done in any other market.
Crisis was voted 50th in the 50 Greatest Albums of the 21st Century in Kerrang!
A poster of the album is shown on the pilot episode of Chuck, in the scene in which Chuck takes Sarah to listen to a local band. The poster is to the right of Sarah when they sit on the couch.
On August 22, 2006 the band released their third studio album, Crisis, which Allmusic considers their best to date. The album was marked with a CD release party, where the band performed on a boat in London, England. In support of the album, the band toured across most of Canada with Every Time I Die, Cancer Bats and Attack in Black; the latter was signed to the band's independent label Distort Entertainment. Immediately following that was an American tour with Moneen, Cancer Bats, and A Change of Pace.
In a recent interview, vocalist George Pettit states that he is unaware of the direction that the band will head in for their next album, but that "The next record, I think, is us pretty much wanting to put the knife in screamo. I don't want to be the band that saves it, I want to be the band that kills it."
Though they were usually on tour with Anti-Flag, Norma Jean was their replacement for a short while, however Anti-Flag returned, alongside the bands Saosin, and The Bled. On their UK tour in November 2007, the band was supported by Saosin, The Ghost of a Thousand and Your Rigamortus.
Old Crows / Young Cardinals: 2008–present
In July 2008, rumors were circulating about Alexisonfire on the verge of a breakup. Comments jokingly made by Wade MacNeil in an Australian interview on Triple J's short.fast.loud caused a stir with fans of the band:
Since Dallas moved to Los Angeles we don't really talk anymore. So I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. I don't want to say Alexisonfire is breaking up on your radio show. But ahhh..... I'm just going to say Alexisonfire is definitely breaking up.—Wade MacNeil, triple j interview
MacNeil's joke was later explained in a press release from Distort Entertainment and the band:
What started as a couple of jokes to the media has definitely escalated into something bigger. We thought it would be time to send out a little press release to set the record straight. Alexisonfire IS NOT breaking up. We are currently writing new material for our next record and we are all deeply in love with each other.
Alexisonfire revealed the title to their new album at a show in Hamilton, Ontario on December 20, 2008. The album, due for release in 2009, was called Young Cardinals at that point in time. The band discussed the musical direction of the new album in an article:
Fans have a chance to hear Alexisonfire on the boundary of a "new, weird" stuff. [...] Alexisonfire is really heavy and that's what we love about it. But I've got a bunch of new ideas that I think will fit with us that are a lot different. I kind of want to try and make these slower songs I've written seem really heavy atmospherically. [...] On our last album, I never would have thought to try that because the record was so aggressive, but I'm going to try and take us into some new, weird territories.
Alexisonfire began recording Old Crows / Young Cardinals (with slightly altered title) on February 1, 2009 and by March 1, 2009 the recording process was near completion; Only leads, overdubs, and vocals were left before mixing and mastering. As of March 11, 2009 the studio blog confirmed 2 track titles: "Midnight Regulations" and "Emerald St."
On March 31, 2009 it was confirmed that Alexisonfire signed to Dine Alone Records. The band is confirmed to play Warped Tour 2009.
Alexisonfire was a part of Warped Tour for the 2009 season. During that tour they did signings for the non-profit organization Music Saves Lives where they met with fans who gained special access to the band by donating blood.
On April 20, 2009 Alexisonfire released their first song "Young Cardinals" from their forthcoming album. It was further announced that the album would be released on June 23, 2009.
On September 22, 2009 at the XM Verge Music Awards, Dallas Green announced that Alexisonfire will be releasing an EP titled "Dog's Blood" in the Spring of 2010.
During the Autumn of 2009 the band embarked on the Eastpak Antidote Tour in Europe along with Anti-Flag, Four Year Strong and The Ghost Of A Thousand, and in October it was announced that they were also joining Billy Talent and Against Me! on tour in Canada in March 2010.
Playing a free all-ages show at the 2010 Winter Olympics venue Live City Yaletown on February 16th, the band was forced to cancel their show 10 seconds into the first song after the crush of the audience broke a barricade and people were trampled. 19 concert-goers suffered injuries including broken bones.
George Pettit : Lead Vocals (2001-present)
Dallas Green : Lead Vocal , Rhythn Guitar, Piano (2001-present)
Wade MacNeil : Lead Guitars, Vocals (2001-present)
Chris Steele : Bass (2001-Present)
Jordan Hasting : Drums, Percussions (2005-Present)
Former Member :
Jesse Ingelevics : Drums , Percussions (2001-2005)
