Exclusive Interview: Escape The Fate on their new lineup and their make or break fourth album

“I don’t know how it works—I should probably ask my lawyer because you, you're the enemy, although I don't see you or Alternative Press as the enemy; I love Alternative Press. You're the enemy if I allow you to be, you know what I'm saying?” Escape The Fate drummer Robert Ortiz says, nervously laughing. It’s a good way to lighten the tension but it’s also true to a degree, given the band’s history. Ortiz is one of two original members left in ETF, along with guitarist Bryan “Monte” Money, and to say the band’s existence up to this point has been anything but perpetually tumultuous would be a lie (“Basically, we've gone insane [in the past],” Ortiz admits. “We've all dealt with a lot of crazy emotions and at some point all of us have ended up in the hospital. But at the end of the day we’ve all come back together as a team and said, ‘Let's keep it going.’”) From the acrimonious departure of original vocalist Ronnie Radke, to the exit of rhythm guitarist Omar Espinosa, to the troubles of now former bassist Max Green, an ominous black cloud has followed Escape The Fate wherever they’ve gone—even to unseen heights like lucrative tours and an album on a major label. Now though, after nearly a decade of ups and downs, the band appear stronger than ever, retooled as a quintet and ready to break their months-long silence.

Green’s departure was a tough reality to face for Ortiz and vocalist Craig Mabbitt. During this series of interviews they both emphasized their love for Max and their collective hope that he’d get better. “I love the kid. He's such a nice guy and he's super cool and everything, but your own inner demons work against you [sometimes] and there's just not much I can do to help him anymore,” Ortiz continues. “That relationship just can't work anymore and I can't put my personal feelings into mending that relationship, because I still have a band to think about, you know?” Mabbitt chimes in, “We cancelled tours for the guy and the shitty part about it is that for someone so self-destructive, he's also the nicest person. So it's a weird combination, because what do you do? You just feel horrible no matter what happens.”

What Ortiz and Mabbitt can publicly say about Green is a legal grey area—Green’s lawyers worked out a legal split with the band earlier this year so Green could release new music sans contractual obligation. What they do offer, however, are stories of tour cancellations, last-minute fill-ins and onstage tribulations. “We brought him [Max] back for the Uproar Festival and it was the biggest, most hyped tour we've ever been a part of,” explains Mabbitt. “We bring back Max but now Monte doesn't want to be on the road [with him] so we have a hired-on guitarist, Max back, and then during the tour Max flies back to L.A. to take care of a DUI and you know, here's another thing but we were just so used to it at this point. [But then] he just doesn’t come back; he said he didn't feel welcome, that everyone was watching him like a hawk when it's like, ‘Come on dude, obviously we're gonna be watching you—it's because we care about you.’”

“Luckily this band Black Tide was on Uproar, and their bassist had filled in for us numerous times before when Max was unable to perform, so luckily he was there to fill in but it was just a really gnarly point for us especially with only me and Robert being there. [After that] we played this festival in the band's hometown of Vegas, and I remember going up there onstage and being like, ‘What's going on, Vegas? This is the band's hometown where Escape The Fate originated—well, Robert did,’” Mabbitt continues, laughing.

“The first headlining tour we did for our self-titled album, obviously it was the full band, two weeks into it Max shows up 20 minutes before our set and we go on stage, and you can tell something's off. We get to the last song, the lights are going, and within the last 45 seconds I notice something's missing and I go ‘Where the Hell is Max?’ Like 45 minutes later there was a video up on YouTube of just him passing out [onstage]. You watch it and it's like he's not even playing bass, he's kind of standing there and stumbling and then all of a sudden he just kind of hunches over, our stage manager runs up and he just falls on the ground.”

“This event happened after we had cancelled a European tour so he could spend some time in rehab,” Mabbitt goes on. “We rescheduled a few shows, but we had already put the band on hold so many times before this. The tour before that we'd hired a—I can't remember what his official title was—but he was like a sponsor and he just stayed with Max all the time and talked to him, like a sober counselor almost. We had so much other stuff happen prior to this that our label and management flied out one night for an intervention. We just tried for so long, and after that night we just realized, you know, he's not gonna be getting better being out here on the road. We’d just had so many things come to us—we're on a headlining tour for our new album with Interscope, we’d just signed to a major label and we're already canceling tours, this label is already wondering what the hell is wrong with us.”

Both Ortiz and Mabbitt seem to be at peace with Green’s exit, and according to Mabbitt, they’re still on good terms—Green even attended a recent show by the band in Los Angeles. “I still send him emails saying, ‘Look man, just because you're not part of the band anymore doesn't mean you've lost a friend,’ and we're still on good terms—we actually played House Of Blues Sunset and he was there in the crowd and I was like, ‘That is so weird, what are you doing here?’”

“Basically right now for the band we're just cutting out all the shit we don't need anymore,” explains Ortiz. “We're no strangers to drama; we've done it all before and [know] what does and doesn't work and we tried to keep something going that wasn't working for so long. I feel for our fans but the reality is it just couldn't go on any longer with Max.”

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.]