Damian “Pink Eyes” Abraham is one busy guy.
We aren’t even saying that lightly. Not only is he finishing Fucked Up‘s David Comes To Life, the follow-up to 2008′s Polaris Music Prize-winning The Chemistry Of Common Life, but he’s also set to start hosting a new version of The Wedge on MuchMusic at the end of January, is helping produce some of the relaunched RapCity on the network, and he’s raising a son.
Despite having all that on the go, he says David Comes To Life could — fingers really, really crossed! — come out in May.
“It’s so weird with this record because of starting [at MuchMusic] and having the baby this time, it’s been a very different experience,” he tells CHARTattack.
“I was a lot more hands-on with The Chemistry Of Common Life. Now I’ve pretty much just placed my faith in the hands of Mike [Haliechuk], our guitarist, and Jonah [Falco], our drummer, who are kind of, I guess for lack of a better term, executive producing this record. And I can’t believe I’m doing that ’cause I don’t trust them with anything, let alone my career!”
David Comes To Life sounds — to make no exaggeration whatsover — completely massive. Fucked Up are finishing the album right now. The record is a rock opera, and will come out as a double LP, complete with a 12-inch EP and a seven-inch that Abraham says will serve as a “prologue” of sorts to the album’s story and plot (and sub-plots). It’ll also include an epitaph. Abraham says the whole kit and kaboodle, when you put it together, is about “29 songs or something.”
“As I’m talking about it, it sounds more like a marathon of music,” he laughs.
“If we’re going to fail on this, we’re going to fail swinging,” he continues self-deprecatingly. “We’re going to fail so big it will be ridiculous. Now that I’ve written my lyrics and done the best part I can with that, I’m just thinking, ‘Let the chips fall where they may with this record,’ ’cause I have no idea what people are going to make of it.”
Speaking of lyrics, Abraham says he’s found them more difficult to write this time, mainly because of, well, that whole rock opera thing. There are multiple characters and plots he has to keep track of and remember, which makes David Comes To Life sound much, much more complicated than anything Fucked Up have done before.
You might have already started wondering: “Wait, if Fucked Up are still recording the album and Abraham’s going to start hosting The Wedge at the end of January… does that mean the album will be done by then?”
Well, hopefully. And actually, Abraham’s started already putting together the show and has been working on parts of RapCity, too, and he’s been doing it while recording David Comes To Life.
Yes, he’s balancing all three of these things and a family.
“The whole show came together so quickly, like in a matter of weeks, so it kind of came up,” he says. “I would have liked to have scheduled it slightly different, where I wouldn’t be recording the record and working on this show.
“But everyone at Much has been, from the first time I came in to talk to them, they’ve been like, ‘We don’t want to take you away from Fucked Up. Obviously, you can still do everything you’re doing with them and we’re going to work around your schedule.’”
The Wedge premieres Jan. 26 at 10 p.m. ET on MuchMusic.
- Fucked Up — “Son The Father” (Live In Brooklyn, N.Y.)
- Fucked Up — Couple Tracks: Singles 2002-2009
- Fucked Up Annual Halloween Festival Taking Shape
- Fucked Up Record Daytrotter Session
- Free Fucked Up Mix Tape
