Escape The Fate’s new bassist is Thomas “TJ” Bell, previously of Motionless In White. Having filled in for the band on past tours, there was a certain level of comfort—after awkwardness—in bringing him on to permanently replace Green. Ortiz beams when asked about Bell. “He's amazing and he's helping me grow as a person,” he says. “I'm used to goofing off and partying and it ending up in tragedy, but he's showing me that you can be a rational human being and still have fun. He's bringing the excitement back to Escape The Fate.”

“He's fucking awesome, and he fucking writes and he sings really well and he cares,” Ortiz continues. “He gets mad when a song isn't up to standard and calls it out when something sucks. That's what makes us better and more successful as a band. It'll be weird for our fans at first, those who've been around, but those who've yet to hear it aren't gonna know what hit 'em. It's gonna be awesome.”

Mabbitt speaks to the weirdness of the situation. “It's been real awkward and it's felt like we've had two bassists over the past year,” he explains. Bell’s schedule with ETF led to his exit from Motionless In White and a lengthy, accusatory note from his former band on his departure. According to Mabbitt, it’s something that ate away at Bell a little bit after the band wrapped their first run of dates with him. “The night after that tour we were supposed to go to Australia,” he explains. “We asked him if he was gonna be able to go to Australia with us and he said yes. Apparently he didn't even bring it up with his band and they had a tour coming up, and [at that point] he just said, ‘Hey guys I'm going with Escape The Fate, sorry.’”

“So his band's kind of pissed off and I have a talk with their singer Chris and I say ‘Hey man, you're doing us a favor. If you let him come, we'll owe you guys a favor. If not, just let us know because if not we might have to cancel Australia because we have no one else that's available last-minute.’ He says it's cool and that he [TJ] can go with us. TJ comes with us to Australia, [we get back to L.A.], then we're in the airport and he has to run to grab his bags to get to another flight to the other side of the country and get back on the road with Motionless In White. He runs away, I'm waiting for my bags and he starts walking back all hunched over and I say, ‘Don't tell me you missed your flight,’ and he says, ‘No, look at this.’ He shows me an email on his phone from the band saying they didn’t want him in the band anymore, and they put up this whole thing online where it was like TJ was never really part of this band.”

“[I told him], you know how bands get, sometimes they say stupid shit—I definitely have been through this kind of shit even still with Escape The Fate, even though I've been in the band for 4 1/2 years—we're getting ready to release our third record with me on it so I definitely don't feel new anymore—you take this career, that's what you're gonna get, people talking shit about you whether you're the nicest dude in the world or not, that's just how it goes and you gotta deal with it.”

In addition to Bell, the band has officially added Michael Money as a fifth member. Money, younger brother of Bryan "Monte" Money, filled in as an offstage rhythm guitarist in recent years, something that negatively affected Monte, according to Mabbitt. “We have a rhythm guitarist that’s always been a part of the band so to speak, he's just only now officially part of the band,” he explains. “He's been a part of Escape The Fate since the beginning, since before I was even part of the band. He's helped write music, he's sold merchandise, he's Monte's little brother so they grew up playing guitar together.”

“When the band became a four-piece we still wanted rhythm so he was never officially given a spot in the band [because] some other members that aren't in the band anymore didn't want him to be,” he continues. “It got to the point where we were on a tour and he was playing behind the stage, then we got to Warped Tour and he was restricted to this little box and I'm sure it had some effect on Monte as well, [his brother] being in a band but not being an official part of it, so to see them happy and see that camaraderie, it's nice. We'll be stronger moving forward.”

Speaking of moving forward, the band’s immediate plans include a co-headlining tour with Attack Attack! and a new album likely to be released in September. From the sound of it, they’re chomping at the bit to play live again. “We've gone back into the studio and that's the first step, but almost more than our fans needing to see us onstage, we need to get onstage for ourselves to have that feeling and connection with each other,” says Ortiz. Mabbitt adds, “We just did a few rehearsals for our South American tour with Attack Attack! which got postponed, but just being there we got these shit-eating grins on our faces, like, ‘Oh man, we're a band again!’ [As a musician] you get in the mood of touring all the time, and to have five, six months off it drives you crazy. I'm so excited to head back out there and get it going again—every time a band goes through something like this I feel like they come out stronger.”

It’s likely fans will hear all the old favorites on this upcoming tour, as well as a new song. “It's gonna be a lot of stuff from This War Is Ours and the self-titled, and I know we're gonna play a new song,” says Mabbitt. “This tour is introducing the new lineup and I think people are gonna be blown away by the live show, and [it’s about] just getting the band back out there and start promoting this new album we just finished.”

“With all this inner turmoil, you add to that Interscope Records thinking rock and roll is dead and firing all the people at the label and dropping all the bands, so now there's no one helping to promote our band,” he continues. “Losing management. If you're not a fan on twitter or Facebook it seems like nothing is happening. People can be expected to be blown away.”

Ortiz adds, “It's a good chance to get back to our roots. [That’s] the best part about this tour. We've been doing [shows with] all the huge bands and the radio shit and all that, and that's cool but it limits you—you have less time and you want to make sure you play all the songs everyone knows. But this tour is for the fans that actually love and care about us and want to hear us. One thing about Escape The Fate is we always bring it live, no matter how chaotic it is, it's always a spectacle, there's always something to be seen there even at our worst shows.”

Ortiz has no delusions about the importance of the band’s new album to the future of Escape The Fate. “Right now we're hoping for late summer/early fall,” says Ortiz. “We don't want to keep it waiting too long but we want make sure it's done right. Nothing left untouched; everything has to be looked at. This is an important record for us—[as in], ‘Alright, are we going be a band? Is this going to be our career? Or is it time to move on and do something else with our lives?’ It needs to be done well but it has to get done so that's a good target date for us.”

Mabbitt adds, “I feel like this might be—and I know a lot of bands say stuff like this—I feel like This War Is Ours was our statement that we weren't dead and that we were gonna make it through this change [in vocalists] and we did, and the self-titled was kind of a progression, we sounded ourselves, now going back with John Feldmann [as a producer on the new album], I feel like this album has a mixture of the past two just taken to the next level.” alt

[Editor's note: In the original version of this story, guitarist Michael Money was mistakenly referred to as Bryan "Monte" Money. The text has been corrected.]