Interview: Attack Attack! vocalist Phil Druyor and drummer Andrew Wetzel on the band's future

Yesterday, we revealed “No Defeat,” Attack Attack!'s first new song featuring the band's new lineup. Following the recent departures of vocalist Caleb Shomo and bassist A.J. Holgado, the band bounced back quickly, recruiting I Am Abomination vocalist Phil Druyor and their roommate/merch-guy Tyler Sapp to take over their respective positions. What resulted was a sound no one could have predicted from AA! AP spoke to drummer and longtime member Andrew Wetzel and new vocalist Phil Druyor yesterday about the changes, the new sound and Attack Attack!'s future.

INTERVIEW: Cassie Whitt

First of all, logistically, will you introduce the new lineup?
ANDREW WETZEL: Andrew Whiting and myself are still in the band. I’m still playing drums. He’s playing guitar, and Phil Druyor is now doing vocals. And then Tyler Sapp—Andrew and my roommate/merch-guy for Attack Attack! since 2009—is going to be playing bass.

I listened to the new song, “No Defeat,” and I actually emailed your manager back asking, “Wait, is this the right song?” Because it sounded so different.

BOTH: [Laugh] Yup.

What can you say about the new sound? Obviously, whenever someone is involved with something artistically, they bring in their influences, so what do you think the new lineup will mean for the sound and what direction are the band are heading in?
WETZEL: Well, I mean, you’ve heard firsthand the direction that we’re going in now. As you can see, Phil’s voice obviously adds, like, a whole new spin on our music that literally was never even remotely possible before. We just want to write music that is fun and makes us happy. We just want to write the music that we want to write, and we didn’t really know what that was going to sound like until all of us got together in a room and made this song. And, I’ve gotta say, I’m really happy with it.

AA! have experimented a lot over the years. You’ve gone in several different directions. Would you consider Attack Attack! a work-in-progress, or do you think this new thing that you’ve hit on is something you’re going to pursue?
WETZEL: We will always be a work-in-progress. You always want to try to outdo the work that you’ve already done. This sound is definitely going to be more like what the future is going to hold, but at the same time, I couldn’t tell you. It’s just, like, if we wake up tomorrow and suddenly feel like writing a different style of music,who knows what can happen, then. That’s the beauty of Attack Attack! and how we’ve covered so many different genres and have done as we pleased artistically. I think that’s a really important reason why we’ve been successful. And I think that’s an even more important reason why we can continue to be successful.

Phil, regarding your other band, I Am Abomination, with your new role in Attack Attack!, how much focus are you able to put on it? What’s the balance?
PHIL DRUYOR: It’s extremely easy, to be honest. I Am Abomination are really just a studio project. We had some plans to tour this year and were actually going to be on the Attack Attack! tour, but for the most part, we’re very much just a studio project. My other guitarist is a producer, who will also be doing the Attack Attack! record, so he has a pretty grueling schedule in terms of what he’s working on. We usually just take a couple months out of the year to make an album and then it’s on the internet. So, it won’t really change much in terms of me being in Attack Attack! now. I can pretty much do Attack Attack! full time and I Am Abomination.
 

You mentioned I Am Abomination were going to be on the Attack Attack! tour? Is that how you guys met?
DRUYOR: That was really just an idea that didn’t ever really come into play. We just talked about it. We’ve known each other since, like, the beginning of both of our bands’ careers, pretty much. I think each band might have been a band for, like, six months before we met each other. [We met] at a summer show or something.
WETZEL: Yeah, we played at a coffee shop together in Michigan. I want to say it was 2007. We met them and all became really good friends and then just stayed friends ever since.

How much can you say about your recent member departures?
WETZEL: I don’t know what to tell you.
DRUYOR: It was just something that happened. There’s nothing more and nothing less to it. The statements that have been released were pretty self-explanatory. It was just time, and it happened. I really think that out of any band right now that’s even close to being relevant, I think Attack Attack! have been the band to just not stop when something like this happens. And, to be honest, every time something like this happens, the next album is more successful. I’m pretty excited for it, and I wish Caleb [Shomo, former AA! vocalist] the best. He’s a really cool guy, and he’s been a really good friend to me over the past years.

It seemed really sudden, and then boom! You guys picked it right back up.
WETZEL: Yeah, well I mean this didn’t exactly just come out of nowhere. Obviously, like Andrew and I being in the band this whole time, we’ve been around Caleb and A.J. [Holgado, former bassist] both for quite some time. So, it wasn’t that one day, everybody woke up and it was like, “Here’s the problem.” It was just sort of a steady chain of events that lead to them deciding that they should re-prioritize their lives, and that’s part of growing up.

DRUYOR: There was a point when it was certain that an adjustment was going to have to be made—it was on Scream It [Like You Mean it tour], I think, toward the end of Scream It. It was something that they saw coming and they knew they were going to have to plan accordingly for.

WETZEL: You know, I don’t want to give the false impression that we, like, know what we’re doing. You know, Andrew and I, we get really lucky, and we just kind of take everything a day at a time. We’re just lucky enough to have people like Phil and Tyler in our lives to where, you know, you just sit down… I call Phil whenever I have huge problems in my life—which aren’t even really that big, but whenever I’m really embarrassed about somethingor something’s happened. I always call Phil; Phil has the best advice. The whole idea of Phil being in the band just sort of happened almost by accident because he and I were talking about it, and then the more I thought about it, I was like, “Hey, why don’t you just join the band. Let’s just give it a shot. I mean, What the hell? What do we have to lose? Nothing. If it’s good, it’s good, if not, you know we’re right back where we started.”

And, I mean, the song that we wrote… Whiting and I actually sat down and immediately started writing. We have 14 songs written, which is the most material that Attack Attack! have ever had at any point, ever. And it just sort of happened. We just started writing and we stopped when we were out of ideas. And then when we got together with Phil and Nick in the studio to work on picking a song to release, this one [“No Defeat”] just sort of floated to the top and we just did it. So it’s been really nice to have everything just sort of happen, you know—as much as I hate the word—organically.
 

You said that you have 14 songs written. You fulfilled your contract with Rise, so are you guys thinking of doing an independent release any time soon?
WETZEL: Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a large possibility. I mean, we haven’t really thought that far in advance, which is really nice. That’s one of the best luxuries I think you can have as an artist and a really lucky thing. We’re not the biggest band in the world, but we’re not exactly a local band either. So it’s like having that kind of freedom and being able to be on the phone with you and say, “You know, we just don’t have any plans for that. We’re just gonna see what happens.” But, I’m going to lean toward saying that if at all possible, and if it makes sense, we would love to self-release and do everything on our own, because that freedom is worth everything—especially when you’re trying to really write music that you believe in. And a lot of times when that happens, other people don’t believe in it right away. It takes time. So, being flexible is really important.

Is there anything else you think the world should know about this next step in Attack Attack!?
DRUYOR: I have no words. I feel like it could be one of those things that’s talked about, but I just really hope people understand that we’re not really asking for permission. We’re just doing it because it’s the music that we like, and I’m very proud of the song we made, and I hope people are, too.

WETZEL: I want everybody to just know that we’re doing this because we love to and we love writing music, and this is what we want to do with our lives. And, people shouldn’t… Don’t take it too seriously. If the music makes you happy, then it makes you happy and that’s all that really matters. So, I would just love for people to get that feel. In that statement that we wrote, Andrew and I [wrote] like six or seven different [versions] and ended up on that. I don’t know if you saw it or not-…

Yeah, you basically said, “Here it is. We don’t give a fuck. Listen to it. We hope you like it.”
DRUYOR: The first draft was so funny, but it was probably a bit too much. So, that’s the one we ended up with.

WETZEL: We don’t know what we’re doing. We just write music and we like it, and just don’t ever take us too seriously, but don’t dismiss what we’re trying to do, either. alt.

You can stream and download “No Defeat” exclusively here on AltPress.com right now.