Alien Ant Farm took a new direction, new album coming early spring

Terry chatted with Beaumont Enterprise about the band’s new album, the success of “Smooth Criminal” and whether they’ll ever cover another song. “We took it in a new direction,” said Corso. “We worked with people from the hip-hop world, R&B world, rock world. We were having a lot of fun working with the hip hop world.”

The band’s set list for their Beaumont show at The Gig includes all the songs from their second studio album ANThology, which features their Michael Jackson cover “Smooth Criminal.”

Alien Ant Farm

And here’s the short interview:

Alien Ant Farm has been featured on a number of video games people play with the help of sites like Overwatchboostpros.com. Are y’all big gamers? Do you want to get to a high skill level on your favorite games?

I wouldn’t necessarily say that. I think out of everybody, I am probably the biggest gamer, I use all the possible types of games you can imagine, my favorites are the virtual games and you can Visit Our Website and get great options. I kind of only play like the first person shooter games like Call of Duty and I haven’t played in a really long time and games as League of Legends which I use services as ElitistGaming to improve faster in the game. Tye likes Rock Band He plays it all the time.

How is it to play Rock Band while you’re in a band?

I haven’t played it that much, but Tye has people over at his house and does Beatles Rock Band and I guess they have a lot of fun it. Tye is a perfectionist so he is probably all about it, honing his Rock Band skills.

I understand y’all will be playing Anthology on your tour of Texas. Why?

It’s kind of cool. That has been something that bands do now, because a lot of people didn’t get the chance to see whatever band playing all the songs [on] that one original record that they might have fallen in love with. It’s something we’ve talked about doing on a larger scale. It is going to be one of the last string of shows that we do of the year, this little Texas run.

I’m guessing your fans are excited about that?

The response has been killer just from what I’ve glanced on Facebook and it seems like they are really excited about it. I think I saw one negative comment. Some guy said, “Oh what a crappy set list. Now we know what’s going to happen.” I was like, “Okay, you got a point dude.”

What is your favorite song on that album to play?

Probably I’d say “Sticks and Stones” because it’s been a staple of our set for so many years. It’s just one of the band’s favorite songs only because we play it so much.

What’s cool is that we’re going to get the opportunity to play a lot of other songs that we haven’t played live for a very super long time. Those could be my favorite songs at the end of the universe, like the closing track on Anthology called “Universe.” It’s a song that we’ve regaled as one of our best songs. That should be fun to play. Some of those obscure tracks we never got to take to the road too much.

Is it ever painful to play “Smooth Criminal?”

It’s something that has changed throughout time. At the beginning we didn’t really care and then we were just having a great time. It got to where we probably started maybe getting sick of it a little bit when we went out on tour with Truant. It’s not that we were trying to be bigger, that made us what we are. We just wanted to be different.

Are y’all working on anything right now?

We’ve been living in Chicago for three months. We’re hoping to have a record first quarter – February or March. We recorded it in Chicago with producer Johnny K, who is famous for a lot of heavy rock stuff like Disturbed, Staind and he has done some alt stuff like Plain White T’s. He is a good tone guy. He is from the old school of recording and getting those tones that we really knew we needed to get as a rock band.

What band are you digging right now?

I love a band called Off. They’re like an old punk band that I would’ve grown up on, but they’re now. Keith Morris has come out with this new band that crushes anything punk for the last 10, 15 years. I have been working on a pop record for three months and I am just kind of an old punk and metaler.

Would y’all ever cover another song?

When we tried “Smooth Criminal” thing, we didn’t even play the whole song at first. We were just jamming the riff on stage for about five minutes and everybody just loved it. As far as what the future holds, I can’t give out any secrets. We’re not exactly rushing to do one but there are always lots of opinions flying around the room. We actually tracked a song last year – I can’t say which one it is. I think it would be fun to do it with a guest. I’m not saying we’re doing it, but it would be fun to do.

Source: Beaumont Enterprise

Interview: Terry @ Maximum Threshold

If you missed the interview with Terry and Maximum Threshold you can click on the link to listen now!

If the link ever goes down it’s rehosted on our site (go to Downloads section under 2012).

Don’t have time to listen to it? Lets sum it up:

  • studio in Chicago, working with Johnny K
  • Michael Forever Tribute
  • the new record
  • management and label changes
  • why did he left the band
  • future tour plans
  • the band wants the record to come out in early February 2013
  • they’re going to do a christmas concert for charity with symphony from Riverside Community College (old, new and christmas songs)
  • who did the yelling (OOoo!) on Smooth Criminal (it was Tye)
  • Michael Jackson and his feedback on Smooth Criminal back in 2001, what made the band chose Smooth Criminal over any other MJ song
  • the largest crowd AAF played to was 60 000 – 80 000 people
  • 71

Studio recording from last night, first single of the new album is “Let Them Know”!

Go ahead and see the recording of the stream from last night (the stream went offline for me for a couple of minutes, it’s almost the whole thing though).

The recording can be downloaded from the Downloads section under /2012/

 

Here’s some info on the new record:

  • record is coming out in early 2013
  • single is called “Let Them Know”
  • the record is being produced by Johnny K (Staind, 3 Doors Down, Disturbed, Plain White T’s, Drowning Pool, Machine Head and more)
  • AAF recorded around 60 songs for the record, the list has 45 songs but they are still recording more as you read this

Fun facts from the stream:

  • Dryden used to work at pizzeria
  • Tye gets shit faced first
  • at some point they will tour in Europe, there is a chance for November-December 2012
  • you can call Dryden on Skype drydenpuppy
  • RHCP is better than Nirvana
  • they will be streaming more of these so stay tuned

Remember that www.alienantfarm.eu redirects to their official USTREAM channel in case you need to get there fast it’s easier to remember when you’re using your phone or a mobile device.

Circle of Friends (Edie Brickell cover)!

Hey we’ve got an exclusive thing right here! This song comes from the times of the movie 50 First Dates (so sometime between 2004-2005), as far as I know it has never been online, it was recorded with a little help of Nick Hexum. Check it out!

You can download the song in MP3 format by coming here or using SoundCloud’s download icon.

Dryden Mitchell and Nick Hexum – Circle of Friends by alienantfans

Here’s the original song by Edie Brickell.