Anti-Flag Still Fighting Bush

07/09/09 1:44pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Anti-Flag recently released their ninth studio album, The People Or The Gun, through SideOneDummy.

It's their first record on an independent label since 2003's Terror State, and although some people might say George W. Bush's departure as U.S. president and the election of Barack Obama mean things are looking up for the country south of the 49th parallel, bassist Chris #2 says current events emphasize things are far from wine and roses in the States.

CHARTattack spoke to Chris #2 about Anti-Flag's exit from RCA and how Bush's legacy influenced The People Or The Gun.

CHARTattack: You guys left RCA, and I know you guys only had a two-album contract, right?
Chris #2: The deal essentially from the beginning was a two record deal, and we had a mutual option for a third record, where, you know, if they wanted to do it, they could say, "Let's do it," and we could say yes or no. Essentially, really, neither of us wanted to do it.

The last album, The Bright Lights Of America, they really had a lot of internal changes at that company, and the people that were with us when we signed were no longer there. There was really very little vested interest in us from the employees at RCA, so it was a difficult situation for us because we'd never been on a label that didn't really want to work with us, you know?

It's been our mantra in our whole entire lives as a band to really only work with people that cared as much about the band as we did. So to be in that situation with the last album was… there was a bit of soul searching that had to go on, but essentially, we planned for the disaster.

You know, it's not like it was shocking news that people got fired at a major label to us, so in our contract we had these protections and these freedoms that allowed us to just sort of walk away in case of an emergency.

How would you say this album differs from Bright Lights?
The last record was way more meticulous and way more over-dramatic than it maybe needed to be. But at the same time in our lives, we had written two records about the George W. Bush administration and we were looking for some grander ideas. For some people, they got it; for others, they didn't.

For us, it's a document of our lives and where we were at that point. I mean, we were going through a lot. My sister had been murdered a few months before we recorded that record. There was a lot of shit happening in our lives that sort of dictated the pace and the attitude and maybe the — I'm not a dude that uses this word, but I will anyway — maybe the "vibe" of the album. It's certainly darker.

But with this record, I think we were able to get together, the four of us, after being on the road non-stop for almost five years. Once we got together, we said, "What do we want to do as a band? What are we trying to accomplish? What are our goals?" The four of us just said we wanted to make a record that we wanted to listen to right now.

What do you think are the world's biggest problems right now?
Actually, I don't think there's any! Since Barack Obama has been elected in America, everyone has a hundred dollar bill in each pocket and we get to make out with anybody we want to. It's awesome. Mandatory makeout Mondays. He signed that bill yesterday. It's great.

Fuck, dude, it's like, the legacy of George W. Bush is great. I mean, it's a tremendous shadow. It's a tremendous dark cloud over humanity. However, that dark cloud — in my eyes — has a very great silver lining.

That silver lining is the fact that he was able to mobilize people against him and never before has — well, not never before. There's been many anti-fascist movements throughout history, but in my lifetime, I've never seen such a mobilization of people where this one character became such a cliche and it was almost like anyone with a beating heart and a functioning brain knew that that asshole was bad for the world.

So I think that, you know, that's the best thing that could have come out of George W. Bush, 'cause now that he's gone, a lot of these problems still exist. I still don't have a proper healthcare system in my country. I still don't have a proper education system in my country, and I've been to [Canada]. That shit ain't bad. I want to party with that! But I can't.

It's extremely frustrating to see these politicians dictate to us what we get versus vice versa, which is what I believe what a democracy's about. It's about accountability, it's about the votes being the power of the people. That's not what we have in America. Now that George Bush is gone, I would love to write an album called Flowers And Puppies and it would be a hit, but there's too much.

You walk down the street, and you live in Canada, it's great there, but there's still people knocking books out of each other's hands and calling each other faggots and using someone's sexual orientation as a derogatory statement. You still have a culture where racism runs rampant, sexism runs rampant.

These are fundamental problems that need to be looked at and we need to challenge these people because if we let them run wild, we're never going to get anywhere. We're always going to be taking great steps backward instead of a huge leap forward.