“In the last ten years I’ve learned a lot of things about the music industry and about people in general,” says vocalist/guitarist Nick Diener. “The one thing I learned about music is that it doesn’t matter how good the song is, how good you are on guitar or vocals – it all just has to do with who you know in the industry and how much money you have. That’s what it takes in most cases as far as wanting to ‘make it’ as a musician. If that’s not an option for you, then the best that you can do is be as real as possible and as smart as possible. We’ve been in this band for a decade and we’re still here doing things only on our terms and we are as successful as we possibly can be. We were just a small local band when we started, now we are traveling the world! It definitely beats making cheeseburgers for a living.”
Which brings Diener to his second point “about people” – something that the singer certainly has authority to comment on.
“I’ve been all over the world, and you know what? People are the same wherever you go. Every time we come home from a big tour, people are always wanting to know about how great it was and then they start telling you know much they hate our hometown and they can’t wait to move somewhere else… That’s all good and fine, but I’ve been all over the world and it actually sucks everywhere. No matter where you go on the planet, there are always going to be terrible people that you’ll run into, I guarantee it! You think you can escape it based on where you are or where you move to? No way. It’s totally delusional. My advice has always been to make the best of where you are living now. It’s your home and it’s probably the one place where you’ll always feel the most comfortable in, so don’t run away from your problems because you’ll continue to face it no matter where you go or how far you run.”
It may sound a little gloomy but it’s reality, according to Diener. In fact, the singer says he finds himself often fantasising about coming home when he is away – despite how glamorous and exciting the concept of touring and constantly being away from home might sound to others’ ears.
“A lot of the time I can’t wait to get home, it’s probably the only time when my life feels like it’s even slightly normal,” Diener laughs. “Not that I don’t appreciate the experience of touring, it’s a lot of fun but too much of anything is never fun in the end, is it? I have to say, though, that spending time in Colorado with Bill Stevenson was really enjoyable, I wouldn’t mind doing that again! Fort Collins is this super-nice little college town, it’s a beautiful place! We actually lived there for three weeks while we were working with Bill. He is just a musical genius, it’s as simple as that. And when you’re a genius, you’re usually totally nuts too! We really needed him to delve into our songs and become the fifth band member which he totally understood. He’s wild and he’s a great drummer and a producer and he definitely helped make our songs even better.”
With Stevenson recently undergoing major life-saving surgery to remove a tumour from his brain, Diener says it’s like a lightswitch got flipped in the producer’s head and his entire approach to life changed completely. The results, according to Diener, are written all over Good For Me.
“Just before Bill worked with us, he actually worked with Rise Against on their new album as well, so we’ve both experienced this new, reenergised version of Bill,” says the singer. “It’s amazing to think that he had brain surgery only recently – he said they removed a tumour out of his head which had caused him to blow up to 400 pounds! He just wasn’t even mentally the same anymore. Once the doctors finally removed this tumour, he said it’s been like someone just came up and flicked this switch in him and he’s now like a brand new human. He’s seriously like a 20-year-old. A lot of people had been worried about him for so long. It was a scary time for everybody but I think all of his friends are very happy to have him back and just with a whole different attitude to life. We feel very privileged to be able to say that our record is one of the very first records that he’s worked on since this massive change in his life.”
