March 28, 2025 • 22 mins
Drummer, singer, and songwriter for the legendary metalcore band Underoath is here to discuss their new album, The Place After This One , which is out now! Actually, it came out today, or should I say the same day as this conversation's posting. Underoath is one of the originators of a genre of music that has millions of fans worldwide, and after taking a bit of a hiatus, they came back in 2018 to a ton of fanfare. The Place After This One is their 3rd full album since coming back and after touring for a year in honor of the anniversary of the genre's most influential albums, Their Only Chasing Safety. You can almost hear it yet another metalcore masterpiece.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Attention please, and no, it's Cutters rock Cast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Now we can have a conversation about under Oath. Aaron
from under Oath joining us for the cutting his countown
and Cutters rock Cast. It's good to hear from me, man,
it's good to have a new under Oath record coming out.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you. Yeah, we're excited about it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You should be excited about it. Actually, by the time
anybody hears this, we're recording this conversation earlier in the
week the album's actually out. Let's celebrate. Hell yeah, and dude,
I know you guys have always done stuff in the
electronic world, but man, the way this kicks off just
blast you with under Oath using electronic elements, but with
(00:44):
all the heavy you could absolutely expect. In fact, when
you listen to the album, I think my initial takeaway
is it's like everything under Oath has ever done thrown
into one big sandwich with quality songs written underneath.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Oh thank you man. Uh, you know we've always had
keyboard player, right, so we've all right electronic elements. But
you know, I think that in a world where music
is kind of disposable and it's so fast, you know
what I mean, Like I remember when our last album
came out. I was at a meet and greet in
the album come out twenty four hours before, and you
(01:22):
know the kid, this kid said to me, like, your
last album was great, you know, and I was like, wait,
it came out two days ago, you know, and it's
just so fast. So I think for us, we still
we still try to make albums, and we still try
to make records that have songs that have breadth and
(01:43):
with you know what I mean. So I think, you know,
that's sort of why it feels like it's everything unders
ever made smashed into one, because you know, undera to
such an Amoga nation of who the five of us are?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Right? Well, yeah, and the the place after this one
it's your tenth album, so you would imagine, right, there's
all those different elements are going to start showing up eventually,
all in the same place. Not that they haven't before,
but it just seemed almost even more so this time
around ten studio albums. Though, go ahead, our.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Eighth, it's our it's our eighth. Yeah. The first two
things were EPs that were like when we were a
local band, you know, in the early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Oh, I suppose you're gonna get all technical about it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, I just yeah, I guess it's yeah, I don't
I don't know. I it doesn't feel like that many
I guess, you know, could it feels like feel young
and old at the same time, you know what I mean,
like like it was a really inspiring album to make,
sus that you know, when you make those type of
(02:51):
albums that really kind of scratch the inspiration part of
your brain, you know, they give you life, sure you know?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So, yeah, well it is you touched on something there
eron It's I mean, I've been following you guys since
the beginning obviously, and you know, we've had plenty of
conversations over the years, but it is kind of amazing
to me to think, Wow, under Oath that has really
been around that long?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, twenty five I mean, I mean touring for twenty
one years, you know, yeah, touring for twenty one years,
but yeah, twenty five years. Really thinking about the inception
of it, you know, as at least kids in high school, you.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Know, and obviously, I mean obviously there was a period
of time that we can probably not talk about.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But it's fine, I don't lie.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, you know. I mean, obviously you guys did the thing.
You went away for a little bit, you came back,
you had a little mainstream success, maybe even more so
than you did. But it's it. It's the fact that
you're hearing you're doing this and what you're doing now,
and this is this is what I hear when I
hear that album. That's why I kind of said what
I said about it's this sure, you know, culmination of
(04:04):
all these different elements that under Oath has been over
the years in the place after this one, which again
is now out and available for your listening pleasure. Well,
it's it is taking all that history that the band
has had, and you know, there's still an angry and
there's still of a lot there's still like this, I
don't know, there's still this angry kid in there coming
(04:25):
out Aaron, is what it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I guess, yeah, you know, I think for us we
kind of had to bring it all all the way
down to build it back up. You know, like the
way that we started and how we had success surely
was just beating the pavement. That's what you did. You
know this you know, pre pre TikTok and pre you
know labels, giving Tiktoker's record deals and all of those
(04:49):
things that you know, we go to Detroit and therebe
five people there, and you go back two years later
and there'll be fifteen. You go back three years later,
there'll be five hundred, and now there's thousands. That's the
way that we it. And I think what happened to
us is we just we went too hard for too long,
you know. And I think that we kind of just
burnt ourselves out, you know, when we get back together
(05:10):
and we started making record. This is our third record,
and to get back together, and I think we kind
of we have a vowel, you know, it's like an
unspoken vowel. But it's just we make wherever we want,
you know what I mean, Like we don't you know,
I live in natural writing and I write songs for
other people. That's my votation fingers gay job, you know.
(05:31):
And I know how to make a song that's commercial,
you know what I mean. I know that's something I
understand how to do. But with under Oath, we just
do whatever we want, you know, And I think that
that's what makes it makes it us, you know what
I mean, Like that's what that's what is that feeling
you feel when you listen to the album and you
(05:51):
feel like it's all a bit mashed together. We just
make whatever we want, you know, when you.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
When you when you talk about metalcore, obviously you can't
do so really without the name under Oath, but you
mentioned you know how to do you obviously write commercial
music and in songwriting and all that. But but what
under Oath has done is you're well respected amongst your peers.
Bands coming up, bands that are bigger than you are,
(06:19):
but also guys still in their in their garage, right,
I guess now it would be bedrooms of the pro tools, right,
But either way, it's it's under Oath is this sort
of well respected band amongst anybody who does anything in music,
it feels like, and that's saying something.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, I don't know. I think that we've tried to
give everybody a fair shake, you know, from bands that
open for us, to blue people to whatever. You know
that that's been our thing this whole time. And I
don't know how much of what you're saying has to
do with you know, our music or who we are
(06:58):
as people. You know, Well, I don't really know what
we're amalgamation of the two.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It can kind of beea depending, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I think maybe that's part of it, you know, Like
I think that life is too short to be an asshole,
and I also think, like you know, and then I
also think that like we make a brand of music
that I without sounding cocky, that only we can make. Yeah,
I mean, I think that music is cyclical, especially in
(07:28):
like the heavy music, rock and roll, matter four or
whatever space you want to call it, where something becomes
something becomes successful and then everybody tries to do that.
You know, that's sort of been a cycle in our genre,
I feel, and I don't know that we've I do know,
(07:49):
we've just never done that. We've never I've never been
interested by that. And I think a big piece of
that is because the five of us separately don't really
consume much heavy news. If we do, it's like a
legacy thing or something new and completely off the wall
from what we make, you know what I mean, I
think we all consume five different types of music that
(08:10):
we have the desire to play heavy music, so those
things get kind of pushed into a popper if you will,
you know, and which is what makes the under oath
sound man.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I gotta I gotta be honest. I've been having these
conversations with musicians and rock stars alike for probably twenty
five years at this point, and I have heard that
a lot, even to the point where I was, I
play in a stupid bar band, right, just just for
fun with friends and my wife and are on our
way to a gig this past Sunday for like a
(08:42):
Sunday fun day thing, you know whatever, and and uh,
you know, for one hundred people on a Sunday whatever.
And uh, anyway, we're on our way to the gig
and she's listening to some pretty easy listening stuff, you know,
piano driven, you know whatever, and she's like, I'm sorry,
this probably is gonna get you fired up for your
rock and roll show or whatever. And I'm like, no,
(09:04):
this is this is perfect. Actually, oh we got it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah. You know, we do listen to heavy music, but
just not the brand that we make, right, you know
what I mean? Like, like the music that got us
going wasn't didn't the music that got us inspired us
and got us moving, doesn't, you know, isn't what we play?
The music that we play and music that's popular now
in our genre didn't exist when we got going, you
(09:30):
know what I mean, Like it was created off the
backs of everything that came before it, right, So like
when we got when we got started, we weren't listening
to bring you to the rising because they didn't exist, you
know what I mean, Like we weren't listening. We weren't
listening to you know, slip choking because it didn't exist.
Not get anything's wrong with us those things, but that
(09:50):
stuff didn't exist for us. It was Blast Straw and
at the Drive In and Jimmy World. And that's why
under Earth existed because you have heavy music mixed with
rockmusic and that's why the songs are the songs and
the heavy right. So like and then everything everything is
just it's like you have a foundation or something and
you build and build and build and build a metalcore.
(10:11):
Now it doesn't resemble anything it started as, which I
think is really cool, you know with bands like Sleep
Token and whatever else, Like it doesn't it has nothing
to do with what it started with. Because different influences
beget different influences and you end up with a cocktail
that no one's ever tasted, right, Right, Like the person
that invented vodka, never thought about espresso martini. But you know,
(10:33):
people are breaking the shit out of those things. So
it's like, it's just it's that's kind of the vibe,
you know what I'm saying, Like, that's that's just that's
that's it. It's not that we hate heavy music. It's
just that, you know, I I don't consume much new
heavy music, is what I should have said, I guess,
and not because there's not great stuff out there. It's
(10:56):
just because when I think about heavy music in what
we started as, it doesn't resemble that anymore, which is fine.
It's just we won't know. You got to go back
and listen.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We won't let the headline be Aaron from under Oath
hates heavy music, so don't that's not that's not what
we're saying.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
No, we all, we all love it. It's just we
all love it a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's just yah, I get it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's it's when you're when you're around it every day.
You know, I'm a bus headed to an arena where
it will be loud at ship all day, right, you
know what I mean? So like in my own extracurricular
listening time, it just doesn't seems kind of antithetical to
listen to that music.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, and I get that. You know, you listen, you
listen to music. And for the longest time, obviously you know,
my job was going through music and figuring out what
was right for a radio station or multiple radio stations. Yeah,
so I'd go, I'd go get on my motorcycle with
no music and no headphones and no whatever. And that's
that's the downtown interesting because it's to listen to anything,
you know at that point. But with that being said,
(12:02):
I am curious with you as a songwriter. Uh. And
we'll get we'll dig bigger dig. Excuse me, I've been
talking all day, so this is coming out weird. We'll
dig further into the into the place after this one
in a little bit. But uh, I am curious for
you as a songwriter because I know you're in Nashville,
and I know that you've worked in oother genres of music, uh,
(12:24):
specifically country even And how do you like as a songwriter,
Like how difficult is it to wrap your brain around? Okay, well,
now I need to write this poppy sounding thing with
a twaying guitar. Now I need to write this breakdown
like you know what I mean, because that's always an
interesting place to be as a as a creative person,
(12:47):
to to go back and forth between these things.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
They don't really differ to me. It's crazy as that sounds,
you know what I mean. Everything needs a push and
a release, right, even if it's just a guitar and vocal,
and even if you're doing the push and release with
the lyric, you know, just in in in in heavy music,
the push is typically to break down the releases, the
moment before it, or the indo a song or the intro,
(13:12):
you know what I mean. Like everything is the same.
It's like it's like you're painting a picture and you
have charcoal for one day, you have watercolor for one day,
but you're painting the same thing. You know. Someone's like,
you got to paint a picture of a tree and
you're gonna get charcoal one day, and you're gonna get
water called that you're gonna do it on digital and
that it's that's that's what it is. But you're really
(13:33):
doing the same thing, right, You're just using different tools
to get there. Right, you can make somebody feel just
as angry with the right tweak of a lyric and
a country song as you can with a huge breakdown,
you know what I mean, Like, that's that's the whole thing.
You can make somebody feel, like running through the wall
with saying certain thing about your your your feeling, your
(13:55):
heart or what you feel as you can with the
deep has Dropped and crazy guitar, right.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, yeah, And that makes perfect sense. So yeah, I
like that analogy of using You're using different tools, but
you're creating the same thing or the same type of thing.
I guess I should say, Okay, so let's dig further
into the place after this one. We talked a little
(14:21):
bit about Generation No Surrender, which is the song that
kicks off in a very electronic song. But I want
to All the Love Is Gone as a radio single
and dig further into this song for me, if you
don't mind, just kind of what you guys were thinking,
what you guys were looking for when you wrote it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I was getting out of the shower. We rented this house,
Oh tell me more in mountains. Were rent of this
house in the mountains in Georgia to make this record.
I was getting out of the shower of Spencer Knox
on the door, he goes, I got or we're right
in the day. I said what it was? All the
love was gone? Said that to me was sentenced to
me okay, and I said, that's interesting. What does it mean?
(14:57):
It's like, I don't know yet. And we went upstairs
and kind of started messing around with you know that
breakbeat kind of East London thing, and Tim came up
with that down band on our own thing, and then
we had the chorus melody whoa, you know, the whole
the whole clay was done, and like a bunch of
(15:22):
ideas kicking around for the verses on how we wanted
it to lay out, and I just I didn't like
any of it and I couldn't figure it out. And
I was I was like, what if we did like
a talkie thing? And they were like, what are you
talking about? And we had been listening to a lot
of like London East London drum and bass kind of
that you know that thing with this record, this band
called Noisy, we listened to a lot. But in the
(15:44):
late nineties early two thousands, there was this rapper from
the UK named the Streets and he doesn't really wrap,
he just kind of talks. And I was like, this
is insane. What if the verses were sponsored doing that
and it just stuck And that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That's the song that's interesting again, finding that influence in
random spaces.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, And I had no idea, no implanation, or any
idea that that would become what was shipped to radio,
you know, And I still, I still I think it's
that's an interesting choice, but I think it's the right choice.
And you kind of see it every night. You know,
we're on tour with popa Roach right now and Rise
(16:33):
Against and we're playing for a bunch of audiences that
don't know us. You know, that's not the world we
come from, you know, sort of that radio rock world.
So we're playing for these arenas full of people, and
you can tell if that's the song can accidents. It's
just strange that it does, you know what I mean,
Like I think that, you know, I don't know if
(16:54):
it's the chorus or if it's just how different the
song is, but that became sort of the cornerstones for
the album commercially, which I just I still don't really understand,
but I'm glad it works here we are.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It's better not to try to understand, just enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
No, I mean that was never you know, it was
that was never the song that I would pick as
a writer is like, that's the one that went a
ship to the FM stations, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Like I never Yeah, okay, Well then let me ask
you this question. What would have been your choice if you.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Could guilty, Survivor's Guilt or lost probably you.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Know, survivors Guilt has a little bit of that pop
punk chorus if I'm remembering correctly, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, okay, I get that a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
but you know what I mean, I think you're right
because All the Love Is Gone does sound a little
bit different than what you if you're tuning into, whether
it's FM radio or satellite or some random, you know,
expert picked playlist and use that in quotation marks. But
it does sound it doesn't sound like everything else that's
(18:06):
within that world, and that does end up shining through
a little bit. Plus us catch you as hell man,
it really is thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I mean I do love this song, and I
think that, you know, in playing it live, you know,
we're out on this tour and we just you know,
last year, all year we did like our twentie anniversary
of our first album, and we've played all over the
world headlining, you know. So we're out here now playing
it for thirty minutes before broach and it's mainly new songs,
(18:36):
you know, because we were trying to promote this record,
and you know, none of these people really know who
we are, or they've heard our name but have never
seen us or listened or whatever. And you do see
that that people kind of wirk up on that song.
They don't know anything about the band. Still, it's interesting
for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
What's it. I don't know that I've ever seen an
Under Oath headline show, and I'm thinking about it because
I didn't make that tour when you guys are celebrating
that album, and back in the day it was always
package tours. And you know I've seen I've seen you
mentioned bring Me the Rise in earlier. I mean I
saw that tour. There was a showcase thing when you
(19:13):
guys first came back, but that was a shortened thing. Yeah,
so yeah, man, I don't I don't know that I've
ever actually seen a full headline Under Oath show, which
is wild change that for you someday. Hell yeah, we better.
I'm gonna see you guys in a couple weeks though.
On this, on this tour of Papa Roach and Rise Against,
I'm looking forward to is this.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I don't think we're going to headline twenty six but
at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So I don't know. You never know, man, things blow up.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'm serious, I don't think we will. No, I mean
we're just booked out. Yeah, on not not headlining.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Right, yeah, I know, I got you did in a
weird this is this is how long I feel like
we've always been doing this. And I actually text this
Jacobe from Papa Roach because I'm like, my my kids
at or go, hey, can we go to that Papa
Roach Rise Against the show? I'm like, really, that's awesome.
So like this is this is like we went from
(20:10):
like all right, we'd go, we'd hang out. You know. Uh,
maybe it was just as fans, maybe it was as
you know, as a as a radio host, whatever it
may be. Maybe my band was playing in the bar after,
but you you'd go, you'd have some drinks, you'd hang out,
you'd you'd watch your friends, you'd you know whatever, you
watch your favorite bands. And now it's well, let's get
the family together and go see the rock and roll
(20:32):
concert and it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, I mean, we just you know, we're celebrating our
first album. We just did we we just did the
longest of the longest tour we've ever done and the
most the most tickets you've ever sold too over over
the course of the tour, and we saw that so much,
you know, especially like at VP in the afternoons, you'd
see so many families, yeah what I mean, and so
(20:58):
many like we're you know, with the record coming out
with and doing like these pop up kind of signings
in cities, you know, along this tour. And we were
in Dallas the other day and you know, a couple
hundred people come to the door of this hard everyone's
drinking and having a good time, and there's all these
little kids, you know that you know, the even smaller
(21:18):
than you would see at the show because the parents
are like, oh, I have a chance to go hanging
with the guys and buy a vinyl or T shirt
or whatever, and I don't have to deal with a
sitter or the loudness of a show, right, you know,
And there's coming out of the woodwork doing that. I think
it's pretty cool, you know what I mean because we all,
you know, the five of us all have kids, so
I get that.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You know, it's this feeling of we all kind of
grew up together a little, you know, and became adults.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And it is it is really cool. And I think
that's what you know, that's why you have bands like
Rise Against Pop Coach and there's still a lot of
them obviously, and I think we're part of that echelana
bands who who lasted through the buzzy years. Yeah, your
your album comes out and you have some success and
and you're still around, you know, because people are bringing
(22:05):
their kids to your show, and I think that's cool. Man.
I think that that to me is like I would
I would rather that than just have like a tip
top of it or about that, you know, one song
and then it's over and then you're you know, you're
trying to scrape nickels together to play shows. Like I'm
just I'm thankful for that, above and beyond all of that,
I think, because it's just a it's just a cool
(22:27):
feeling too to grow with your people, you know, or
or have your people grow with you, whatever, whatever way
you want to put it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I love that I can't think of any better way
to end a conversation Aaron from under Oath. Uh, dude,
I always appreciate your time, of course, and you know
I'll be there with the kids in a couple of weeks.
Rock Cast, don't forget to tune in exactly
Attention please, and no, it's Cutters rock Cast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Cool.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Now we can have a conversation about under Oath. Aaron
from under Oath joining us for the cutting his countown
and Cutters rock Cast. It's good to hear from me, man,
it's good to have a new under Oath record coming out.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Thank you. Yeah, we're excited about it.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You should be excited about it. Actually, by the time
anybody hears this, we're recording this conversation earlier in the
week the album's actually out. Let's celebrate. Hell yeah, and dude,
I know you guys have always done stuff in the
electronic world, but man, the way this kicks off just
blast you with under Oath using electronic elements, but with
(00:44):
all the heavy you could absolutely expect. In fact, when
you listen to the album, I think my initial takeaway
is it's like everything under Oath has ever done thrown
into one big sandwich with quality songs written underneath.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Oh thank you man. Uh, you know we've always had
keyboard player, right, so we've all right electronic elements. But
you know, I think that in a world where music
is kind of disposable and it's so fast, you know
what I mean, Like I remember when our last album
came out. I was at a meet and greet in
the album come out twenty four hours before, and you
(01:22):
know the kid, this kid said to me, like, your
last album was great, you know, and I was like, wait,
it came out two days ago, you know, and it's
just so fast. So I think for us, we still
we still try to make albums, and we still try
to make records that have songs that have breadth and
(01:43):
with you know what I mean. So I think, you know,
that's sort of why it feels like it's everything unders
ever made smashed into one, because you know, undera to
such an Amoga nation of who the five of us are?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Right? Well, yeah, and the the place after this one
it's your tenth album, so you would imagine, right, there's
all those different elements are going to start showing up eventually,
all in the same place. Not that they haven't before,
but it just seemed almost even more so this time
around ten studio albums. Though, go ahead, our.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Eighth, it's our it's our eighth. Yeah. The first two
things were EPs that were like when we were a
local band, you know, in the early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (02:26):
Oh, I suppose you're gonna get all technical about it.
Speaker 2 (02:30):
Yeah, I just yeah, I guess it's yeah, I don't
I don't know. I it doesn't feel like that many
I guess, you know, could it feels like feel young
and old at the same time, you know what I mean,
like like it was a really inspiring album to make,
sus that you know, when you make those type of
(02:51):
albums that really kind of scratch the inspiration part of
your brain, you know, they give you life, sure you know?
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So, yeah, well it is you touched on something there
eron It's I mean, I've been following you guys since
the beginning obviously, and you know, we've had plenty of
conversations over the years, but it is kind of amazing
to me to think, Wow, under Oath that has really
been around that long?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, twenty five I mean, I mean touring for twenty
one years, you know, yeah, touring for twenty one years,
but yeah, twenty five years. Really thinking about the inception
of it, you know, as at least kids in high school, you.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
Know, and obviously, I mean obviously there was a period
of time that we can probably not talk about.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
But it's fine, I don't lie.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Well, you know. I mean, obviously you guys did the thing.
You went away for a little bit, you came back,
you had a little mainstream success, maybe even more so
than you did. But it's it. It's the fact that
you're hearing you're doing this and what you're doing now,
and this is this is what I hear when I
hear that album. That's why I kind of said what
I said about it's this sure, you know, culmination of
(04:04):
all these different elements that under Oath has been over
the years in the place after this one, which again
is now out and available for your listening pleasure. Well,
it's it is taking all that history that the band
has had, and you know, there's still an angry and
there's still of a lot there's still like this, I
don't know, there's still this angry kid in there coming
(04:25):
out Aaron, is what it sounds like.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I guess, yeah, you know, I think for us we
kind of had to bring it all all the way
down to build it back up. You know, like the
way that we started and how we had success surely
was just beating the pavement. That's what you did. You
know this you know, pre pre TikTok and pre you
know labels, giving Tiktoker's record deals and all of those
(04:49):
things that you know, we go to Detroit and therebe
five people there, and you go back two years later
and there'll be fifteen. You go back three years later,
there'll be five hundred, and now there's thousands. That's the
way that we it. And I think what happened to
us is we just we went too hard for too long,
you know. And I think that we kind of just
burnt ourselves out, you know, when we get back together
(05:10):
and we started making record. This is our third record,
and to get back together, and I think we kind
of we have a vowel, you know, it's like an
unspoken vowel. But it's just we make wherever we want,
you know what I mean, Like we don't you know,
I live in natural writing and I write songs for
other people. That's my votation fingers gay job, you know.
(05:31):
And I know how to make a song that's commercial,
you know what I mean. I know that's something I
understand how to do. But with under Oath, we just
do whatever we want, you know, And I think that
that's what makes it makes it us, you know what
I mean, Like that's what that's what is that feeling
you feel when you listen to the album and you
(05:51):
feel like it's all a bit mashed together. We just
make whatever we want, you know, when you.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
When you when you talk about metalcore, obviously you can't
do so really without the name under Oath, but you
mentioned you know how to do you obviously write commercial
music and in songwriting and all that. But but what
under Oath has done is you're well respected amongst your peers.
Bands coming up, bands that are bigger than you are,
(06:19):
but also guys still in their in their garage, right,
I guess now it would be bedrooms of the pro tools, right,
But either way, it's it's under Oath is this sort
of well respected band amongst anybody who does anything in music,
it feels like, and that's saying something.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah, I don't know. I think that we've tried to
give everybody a fair shake, you know, from bands that
open for us, to blue people to whatever. You know
that that's been our thing this whole time. And I
don't know how much of what you're saying has to
do with you know, our music or who we are
(06:58):
as people. You know, Well, I don't really know what
we're amalgamation of the two.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
It can kind of beea depending, Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
I think maybe that's part of it, you know, Like
I think that life is too short to be an asshole,
and I also think, like you know, and then I
also think that like we make a brand of music
that I without sounding cocky, that only we can make. Yeah,
I mean, I think that music is cyclical, especially in
(07:28):
like the heavy music, rock and roll, matter four or
whatever space you want to call it, where something becomes
something becomes successful and then everybody tries to do that.
You know, that's sort of been a cycle in our genre,
I feel, and I don't know that we've I do know,
(07:49):
we've just never done that. We've never I've never been
interested by that. And I think a big piece of
that is because the five of us separately don't really
consume much heavy news. If we do, it's like a
legacy thing or something new and completely off the wall
from what we make, you know what I mean, I
think we all consume five different types of music that
(08:10):
we have the desire to play heavy music, so those
things get kind of pushed into a popper if you will,
you know, and which is what makes the under oath
sound man.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I gotta I gotta be honest. I've been having these
conversations with musicians and rock stars alike for probably twenty
five years at this point, and I have heard that
a lot, even to the point where I was, I
play in a stupid bar band, right, just just for
fun with friends and my wife and are on our
way to a gig this past Sunday for like a
(08:42):
Sunday fun day thing, you know whatever, and and uh,
you know, for one hundred people on a Sunday whatever.
And uh, anyway, we're on our way to the gig
and she's listening to some pretty easy listening stuff, you know,
piano driven, you know whatever, and she's like, I'm sorry,
this probably is gonna get you fired up for your
rock and roll show or whatever. And I'm like, no,
(09:04):
this is this is perfect. Actually, oh we got it,
you know.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah. You know, we do listen to heavy music, but
just not the brand that we make, right, you know
what I mean? Like, like the music that got us
going wasn't didn't the music that got us inspired us
and got us moving, doesn't, you know, isn't what we play?
The music that we play and music that's popular now
in our genre didn't exist when we got going, you
(09:30):
know what I mean, Like it was created off the
backs of everything that came before it, right, So like
when we got when we got started, we weren't listening
to bring you to the rising because they didn't exist, you
know what I mean, Like we weren't listening. We weren't
listening to you know, slip choking because it didn't exist.
Not get anything's wrong with us those things, but that
(09:50):
stuff didn't exist for us. It was Blast Straw and
at the Drive In and Jimmy World. And that's why
under Earth existed because you have heavy music mixed with
rockmusic and that's why the songs are the songs and
the heavy right. So like and then everything everything is
just it's like you have a foundation or something and
you build and build and build and build a metalcore.
(10:11):
Now it doesn't resemble anything it started as, which I
think is really cool, you know with bands like Sleep
Token and whatever else, Like it doesn't it has nothing
to do with what it started with. Because different influences
beget different influences and you end up with a cocktail
that no one's ever tasted, right, Right, Like the person
that invented vodka, never thought about espresso martini. But you know,
(10:33):
people are breaking the shit out of those things. So
it's like, it's just it's that's kind of the vibe,
you know what I'm saying, Like, that's that's just that's
that's it. It's not that we hate heavy music. It's
just that, you know, I I don't consume much new
heavy music, is what I should have said, I guess,
and not because there's not great stuff out there. It's
(10:56):
just because when I think about heavy music in what
we started as, it doesn't resemble that anymore, which is fine.
It's just we won't know. You got to go back
and listen.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
We won't let the headline be Aaron from under Oath
hates heavy music, so don't that's not that's not what
we're saying.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
No, we all, we all love it. It's just we
all love it a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's just yah, I get it.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's it's when you're when you're around it every day.
You know, I'm a bus headed to an arena where
it will be loud at ship all day, right, you
know what I mean? So like in my own extracurricular
listening time, it just doesn't seems kind of antithetical to
listen to that music.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Yeah, and I get that. You know, you listen, you
listen to music. And for the longest time, obviously you know,
my job was going through music and figuring out what
was right for a radio station or multiple radio stations. Yeah,
so I'd go, I'd go get on my motorcycle with
no music and no headphones and no whatever. And that's
that's the downtown interesting because it's to listen to anything,
you know at that point. But with that being said,
(12:02):
I am curious with you as a songwriter. Uh. And
we'll get we'll dig bigger dig. Excuse me, I've been
talking all day, so this is coming out weird. We'll
dig further into the into the place after this one
in a little bit. But uh, I am curious for
you as a songwriter because I know you're in Nashville,
and I know that you've worked in oother genres of music, uh,
(12:24):
specifically country even And how do you like as a songwriter,
Like how difficult is it to wrap your brain around? Okay, well,
now I need to write this poppy sounding thing with
a twaying guitar. Now I need to write this breakdown
like you know what I mean, because that's always an
interesting place to be as a as a creative person,
(12:47):
to to go back and forth between these things.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
They don't really differ to me. It's crazy as that sounds,
you know what I mean. Everything needs a push and
a release, right, even if it's just a guitar and vocal,
and even if you're doing the push and release with
the lyric, you know, just in in in in heavy music,
the push is typically to break down the releases, the
moment before it, or the indo a song or the intro,
(13:12):
you know what I mean. Like everything is the same.
It's like it's like you're painting a picture and you
have charcoal for one day, you have watercolor for one day,
but you're painting the same thing. You know. Someone's like,
you got to paint a picture of a tree and
you're gonna get charcoal one day, and you're gonna get
water called that you're gonna do it on digital and
that it's that's that's what it is. But you're really
(13:33):
doing the same thing, right, You're just using different tools
to get there. Right, you can make somebody feel just
as angry with the right tweak of a lyric and
a country song as you can with a huge breakdown,
you know what I mean, Like, that's that's the whole thing.
You can make somebody feel, like running through the wall
with saying certain thing about your your your feeling, your
(13:55):
heart or what you feel as you can with the
deep has Dropped and crazy guitar, right.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Yeah, yeah, And that makes perfect sense. So yeah, I
like that analogy of using You're using different tools, but
you're creating the same thing or the same type of thing.
I guess I should say, Okay, so let's dig further
into the place after this one. We talked a little
(14:21):
bit about Generation No Surrender, which is the song that
kicks off in a very electronic song. But I want
to All the Love Is Gone as a radio single
and dig further into this song for me, if you
don't mind, just kind of what you guys were thinking,
what you guys were looking for when you wrote it.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I was getting out of the shower. We rented this house,
Oh tell me more in mountains. Were rent of this
house in the mountains in Georgia to make this record.
I was getting out of the shower of Spencer Knox
on the door, he goes, I got or we're right
in the day. I said what it was? All the
love was gone? Said that to me was sentenced to
me okay, and I said, that's interesting. What does it mean?
(14:57):
It's like, I don't know yet. And we went upstairs
and kind of started messing around with you know that
breakbeat kind of East London thing, and Tim came up
with that down band on our own thing, and then
we had the chorus melody whoa, you know, the whole
the whole clay was done, and like a bunch of
(15:22):
ideas kicking around for the verses on how we wanted
it to lay out, and I just I didn't like
any of it and I couldn't figure it out. And
I was I was like, what if we did like
a talkie thing? And they were like, what are you
talking about? And we had been listening to a lot
of like London East London drum and bass kind of
that you know that thing with this record, this band
called Noisy, we listened to a lot. But in the
(15:44):
late nineties early two thousands, there was this rapper from
the UK named the Streets and he doesn't really wrap,
he just kind of talks. And I was like, this
is insane. What if the verses were sponsored doing that
and it just stuck And that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That's the song that's interesting again, finding that influence in
random spaces.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Yeah, And I had no idea, no implanation, or any
idea that that would become what was shipped to radio,
you know, And I still, I still I think it's
that's an interesting choice, but I think it's the right choice.
And you kind of see it every night. You know,
we're on tour with popa Roach right now and Rise
(16:33):
Against and we're playing for a bunch of audiences that
don't know us. You know, that's not the world we
come from, you know, sort of that radio rock world.
So we're playing for these arenas full of people, and
you can tell if that's the song can accidents. It's
just strange that it does, you know what I mean,
Like I think that, you know, I don't know if
(16:54):
it's the chorus or if it's just how different the
song is, but that became sort of the cornerstones for
the album commercially, which I just I still don't really understand,
but I'm glad it works here we are.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
It's better not to try to understand, just enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
No, I mean that was never you know, it was
that was never the song that I would pick as
a writer is like, that's the one that went a
ship to the FM stations, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Like I never Yeah, okay, Well then let me ask
you this question. What would have been your choice if you.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Could guilty, Survivor's Guilt or lost probably you.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Know, survivors Guilt has a little bit of that pop
punk chorus if I'm remembering correctly, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Yeah, a little bit.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Yeah, okay, I get that a little bit. Yeah, yeah,
but you know what I mean, I think you're right
because All the Love Is Gone does sound a little
bit different than what you if you're tuning into, whether
it's FM radio or satellite or some random, you know,
expert picked playlist and use that in quotation marks. But
it does sound it doesn't sound like everything else that's
(18:06):
within that world, and that does end up shining through
a little bit. Plus us catch you as hell man,
it really is thank you.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, I mean I do love this song, and I
think that, you know, in playing it live, you know,
we're out on this tour and we just you know,
last year, all year we did like our twentie anniversary
of our first album, and we've played all over the
world headlining, you know. So we're out here now playing
it for thirty minutes before broach and it's mainly new songs,
(18:36):
you know, because we were trying to promote this record,
and you know, none of these people really know who
we are, or they've heard our name but have never
seen us or listened or whatever. And you do see
that that people kind of wirk up on that song.
They don't know anything about the band. Still, it's interesting
for sure.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
What's it. I don't know that I've ever seen an
Under Oath headline show, and I'm thinking about it because
I didn't make that tour when you guys are celebrating
that album, and back in the day it was always
package tours. And you know I've seen I've seen you
mentioned bring Me the Rise in earlier. I mean I
saw that tour. There was a showcase thing when you
(19:13):
guys first came back, but that was a shortened thing. Yeah,
so yeah, man, I don't I don't know that I've
ever actually seen a full headline Under Oath show, which
is wild change that for you someday. Hell yeah, we better.
I'm gonna see you guys in a couple weeks though.
On this, on this tour of Papa Roach and Rise Against,
I'm looking forward to is this.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
I don't think we're going to headline twenty six but
at this point.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
So I don't know. You never know, man, things blow up.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'm serious, I don't think we will. No, I mean
we're just booked out. Yeah, on not not headlining.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Right, yeah, I know, I got you did in a
weird this is this is how long I feel like
we've always been doing this. And I actually text this
Jacobe from Papa Roach because I'm like, my my kids
at or go, hey, can we go to that Papa
Roach Rise Against the show? I'm like, really, that's awesome.
So like this is this is like we went from
(20:10):
like all right, we'd go, we'd hang out. You know. Uh,
maybe it was just as fans, maybe it was as
you know, as a as a radio host, whatever it
may be. Maybe my band was playing in the bar after,
but you you'd go, you'd have some drinks, you'd hang out,
you'd you'd watch your friends, you'd you know whatever, you
watch your favorite bands. And now it's well, let's get
the family together and go see the rock and roll
(20:32):
concert and it's awesome.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Yeah, I mean, we just you know, we're celebrating our
first album. We just did we we just did the
longest of the longest tour we've ever done and the
most the most tickets you've ever sold too over over
the course of the tour, and we saw that so much,
you know, especially like at VP in the afternoons, you'd
see so many families, yeah what I mean, and so
(20:58):
many like we're you know, with the record coming out
with and doing like these pop up kind of signings
in cities, you know, along this tour. And we were
in Dallas the other day and you know, a couple
hundred people come to the door of this hard everyone's
drinking and having a good time, and there's all these
little kids, you know that you know, the even smaller
(21:18):
than you would see at the show because the parents
are like, oh, I have a chance to go hanging
with the guys and buy a vinyl or T shirt
or whatever, and I don't have to deal with a
sitter or the loudness of a show, right, you know,
And there's coming out of the woodwork doing that. I think
it's pretty cool, you know what I mean because we all,
you know, the five of us all have kids, so
I get that.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
You know, it's this feeling of we all kind of
grew up together a little, you know, and became adults.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
And it is it is really cool. And I think
that's what you know, that's why you have bands like
Rise Against Pop Coach and there's still a lot of
them obviously, and I think we're part of that echelana
bands who who lasted through the buzzy years. Yeah, your
your album comes out and you have some success and
and you're still around, you know, because people are bringing
(22:05):
their kids to your show, and I think that's cool. Man.
I think that that to me is like I would
I would rather that than just have like a tip
top of it or about that, you know, one song
and then it's over and then you're you know, you're
trying to scrape nickels together to play shows. Like I'm
just I'm thankful for that, above and beyond all of that,
I think, because it's just a it's just a cool
(22:27):
feeling too to grow with your people, you know, or
or have your people grow with you, whatever, whatever way
you want to put it.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I love that I can't think of any better way
to end a conversation Aaron from under Oath. Uh, dude,
I always appreciate your time, of course, and you know
I'll be there with the kids in a couple of weeks.
Rock Cast, don't forget to tune in exactly
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