Red Jumpsuit Apparatus's 'Don't You Fake It' turns 10 this year
On July 18, 2006, the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus released their first record for Virgin Records, Don't You Fake It. Led by a powerful debut single (“Face Down”) that unflinchingly addressed domestic violence, it launched the career of the Florida quintet into the stratosphere seemingly overnight, helping land them on tours with everyone from My Chemical Romance to 30 Seconds To Mars. AP recently caught up with the band's founding member, Ronnie Winter, to talk about how this album came together, what it was like to recently see it achieve platinum status and where he believes Don't You Fake It ranks in his band's discography.
Don’t You Fake It went platinum in May. How did that feel?
It felt great. It was kind of a random thing. I don’t really believe in coincidence, but it was great for it to happen the year that we’re doing our 10-year anniversary [tour] of the record and playing the full album. We actually found out about it while we were touring the record.
What do you remember about the songwriting process that went into making the record?
I’ve always been the primary songwriter. I started the band back in 2003 with some of my friends from high school. Right off the bat, our original drummer and our original bass player [left] before we even played our first show—one joined the military and one went to college. So the actual original lineup never even performed. From there, I just started writing songs, recruiting my friends. It was more of a side project—something I started on the side because I loved pop-punk and I loved hardcore. Almost all of these songs were written by just me with an acoustic on my couch. It was how I learned how to write.
You put out a self-titled record before this, even though Don’t You Fake It was your first for a major label, so this was not the first time you did studio work.
Correct. A lot of people don’t know about that first album. We all worked day jobs, 40 hours a week, and as I said, this band was a side project. Anytime we got a chance on a weekend, we would go record a few songs, a couple here and a couple there. By the time we went in with Dave [Bendeth, producer] to record Don’t You Fake It in New Jersey, the lineup had already changed about three times, and I specifically had at least 25 or 30 sessions under my belt. I was definitely not a pro, but when it comes to small-town recording studios, I had seen it all. But it was a completely different world, walking in with Dave and all them.
What was it like working with Bendeth? Did you guys have a good relationship?
It was fantastic. Virgin was cool about letting us meet with a lot of producers. Dave was one of the guys where we only knew him by his work. We had never spoken to him or met him. We met with all the other producers first and the last one we met was Dave. He said he wanted to meet the full band, in person, with everybody set up. It was interesting to me because most producers just want to meet for dinner and talk about music or whatever. But he actually wanted to jam. I thought that was really cool. He’s actually a really amazing guitar player. Dave can shred with the best of them. Actually, the label wanted to put out the self-titled album—they loved it—and I insisted on re-recording it. My whole perspective was, “I really believe that most bands only get one shot once you decide to sign that deal.” I wanted to record it with somebody who had success, and when we met Dave, he played guitar and that sold me. A lot of producers don’t play an instrument and for me, that was a deal-breaker.
“We were definitely not a band that was put together by a label; we were a band that fought, scratched and clawed our way to the top.”
When the record came out, it blew up. Do you remember what it was like when everything started to break through and things were picking up for the band?
I remember every inch of that crawl. We were definitely not a band that was put together by a label; we were a band that fought, scratched and clawed our way to the top. For the year-and-a-half, two years before we were talking to labels, we could only play on the weekends. We did the weekend warrior thing because we all had to pay bills. Then, when we signed to Virgin, nothing happens overnight, so there was a lot of excitement. We got flown out to New York and LA with all these executives and we had to do all these showcases. It was weird because a lot of people didn’t like the band. We were turned down seven or eight times in a row before we were told yes. We signed in October of 2005 and then we were in the studio by December, so between October and December, it was kind of torture. I was sitting at work—and I worked in construction—telling people, “Hey, we got a record deal!” and they were like, “Whatever, I’ll see you tomorrow.” I remember that we finally did get a little bit of an advance and we were able to quit our full-time jobs, but we were nervous about that. And then we all bought laptops because that was a new thing. We also got cellphones, because before that, none of us could afford the payments. When the album came out and the single went to radio, we were lucky enough to just have a great reception. We were pretty sure nobody was going to like the band name, but we didn’t know if “Face Down” would go over people’s heads or not. It was a lot of luck.
“Face Down” left a big impact on a lot of people. How important do you think that song was for the band?
The truth is it became the foundation of the band. I really believe that if you focus on songwriting, no matter what genre you pick, and you just keep writing and only keep the ones that you think are fantastic, then you’re going to be okay. One of those is going to break through. It just so happened to be that our first one was the one, and it was spectacular, really. People said, “Oh, you’re one-hit wonders,” but then we had four hits after that, so luckily, that kind of went away pretty quick.
The fundamental foundation behind the band was we wanted to be more edgy than your average pop-punk band, but less hardcore than your average hardcore band. We somehow wanted to sit in the middle of those two. And I think we accomplished that. We didn’t want to be a rip-off band; we wanted to have our own identity, and I really truly believe that “Face Down,” more than any other song, coined our sound. I think about “Face Down” before I record every Red Jumpsuit song, no matter what, at least for a second. It’s the foundation of the band and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. If I could pick one song that someone would remember us forever by, it’s that one. My mom was a severe drug addict and my dad was a severe, full-blown alcoholic and they were in the depths of their addiction. I just wrote what was happening in my life. Domestic violence was just a constant in my household. For some reason, when I wrote that song, I tapped into that. It’s a snippet into my life from the age of zero into about nine. What’s funny is that it wasn’t the original single. Everybody liked “Guardian Angel,” but the label said that starting with a ballad was too risky. That one decision right there—“Face Down” could have never been heard. If “Guardian Angel” would have come out and flopped, we never would have gotten a second single.
“Sometimes, in the past, it seems like people feel we have this burden of outselling Don’t You Fake It, or we have this burden of trying to top ourselves. We’ve never tried to do that.”
In your mind, where does Don’t You Fake It stand in your discography? How important do you think this record is to the legacy of the band?
Sometimes, in the past, it seems like people feel we have this burden of outselling Don’t You Fake It, or we have this burden of trying to top ourselves. We’ve never tried to do that. Our second record was completely different and our third record was completely different. The only thing we’ve ever been consistent about is inconsistency. I would put it at the top of the list. If an alien came down from space and said, “You could play me one record of all the records in the last 13 years, which one would it be?” of course, I’m going to play it this one. It doesn’t matter if it sold a million records or if it sold a thousand because when we came out, people stopped buying CDs the next year, anyway. I don’t think that we ever need to top our first album. I hope that it’s always regarded as our best album. If we ever accidentally do top it, I’ll say the same thing I’ve always said: Whoops, thanks, right on.
