Agony & Irony

The Long Awaited Return of Alkaline Trio

It’s been about three years since the Alkaline Trio last released any new music, and frontman Matt Skiba is ready to get their next record out there.

But the days between Crimson and the new Agony & Irony have not exactly been smooth.  The Chicago natives left their longtime label, Vagrant, for V2 Records, only to see their new home close up shop almost overnight.  While looking for a new label, the band wrote a new record, then eventually scrapped the songs and started all over again.

Just months before the new record is released, Skiba is sanguine about the new songs and almost grateful for all the band has gone through. He took time recently to speak with us about the new album, the band’s new home at Epic Records and the future of Heaven, his side project with F-Minus bassist Josiah Steinbrick.

Let’s start out by talking about your new record, Agony & Irony?

We’re really excited about it. There were definitely some bumps in the road making it.  It took us basically about two and a half years to write the record, but it only took us about six weeks to record it. We had a record written and done and ready to go and we had some label complications, but we also knew in the back of our minds that we weren’t making the best record that we could make.  Though the label shit and all the pitfalls we had to go through were actually a real blessing in disguise because we now have a record that all three of us are really proud of. We feel pretty strongly that this is our best record.

Were you able to salvage any of the songs you had from the first writing session?

Some of the original ideas were there, but we started from scratch and some of the ideas got recycled and turned into something better. I think of the 10 songs on the record, maybe two of them were from the original demos. We weren’t really sure when our record was going to come out, so we just used that time to write and write and now you have “Agony & Irony.”

You worked with Josh Abraham on this record. Had you worked with him before?

We have not. It took us awhile to find him but we’re glad we did. We had such a great time working with him and the engineer Ryan Williams, who is sort of Josh’s right hand man. Both of those guys have amazing ideas and their approach to the studio is very laid back. We worked hard, but they had a laid back approach. The record was recorded initially live and then we went back and started mixing everything and adding in things. They have a really great sense of humor. They’re super sweet guys, but also have a good work ethic. It happened really organically. I mean we haven’t made a record in six weeks, in years.  It was a good time.

What was it about Josh and Ryan that made you pick them?

Well, we liked some of the records Josh has done. He did “Christ Illusion,” the Slayer record, which is one of my favorite Slayer records, and I think the Velvet Revolver and the 30 Seconds to Mars records both sound great. I’ve listened to a bunch of the stuff he’s done, even the stuff that wasn’t my cup of tea, sonically they sounded great. We also had a lot of mutual friends. Our manager, who is also our friend and we really trust his opinion, said Josh was an awesome guy and would be great to work with. We started hearing more and more of that from friends and musicians who have worked with him. He is super sweet, super funny and makes killer sounding records, and that’s what we were looking for.

You mentioned your label troubles early on.  When V2 shut down, did you consider going back to Vagrant or another indie label or just releasing this one on your own?

Yeah, we kind of went through every option. Going back to vagrant wasn’t one, because we wanted to take a step forward and that’s what V2 was supposed to be.  We didn’t really have a rule that we needed to go with an indie or a major, we always just wanted to work with people that we liked and that we trust and be on a label that puts out records. We considered putting it out ourselves, but because we’d never done that it felt like we were biting off a little more than we could chew. Writing a good record was the A, number one priority for us and I felt like if we started getting ourselves a little too heavy into the business side of things it might get too distracting.  So obviously it’s not the greatest time for the music industry, but when you have someone that you trust and that you know is a genuine fan of the band and a friend, it feels a whole lot better. Luckily we found out that our friend Andy Gershon was going over to Epic and he invited us along. We were very fortunate in that regard.

I interviewed the guys in Against Me! last year and one of the reason they said they went to Sire was that more people would have the opportunity to hear their music.  Was that a factor at all in signing to Epic?

I definitely think that’s a plus. I really feel like – and maybe I’m jinxing myself saying this – we started this band because we wanted this to be our career. There are bands like Social Distortion and Rancid, that as long as they keep making great records, people will keep coming to their shows. I feel like as long as we keep throwing down, we’re going to keep having people who come to our shows and maybe a few people picking up our records, I feel like we would do that regardless. But with Epic, we now have the potential to reach a lot more people and for the band to take the next step. I am more than thrilled and thankful for where I am in my career, but certainly the more the merrier and having that chance to grow is very inviting. So our buddy went over to this label and we knew he knew what he was doing and everyone we worked with on the business side had great relationships with the label, so everything was sort of in place for us. It’s been really unscary for us. Not having that glass ceiling that a lot of Indies have is nice. It will be interesting to see what happens.

As a fan, I was excited to see Asian Man re-release Goddamnit with some extra songs and a DVD.  Do you plan on re-releasing other early records?

Not yet, but we’ve definitely thought about it. “Goddamnit” came about because it’s about the 10 year anniversary of the record and there was a lot of extra content because when we did that record we were just getting the band off the ground. “Goddamnit” was something special and people who bought the re-release have suggested we do it for other records, so we’ll see. Shit, if we can keep putting out records we put out 10 year ago, I’m down.

Do you have plans to record again with Heaven?

We do. I’m already really busy working on Alkaline Trio stuff, but I was with (Heaven bandmate) Joe (Steinbrick) doing some stuff last night. The way we did the last record is he would send me the music and I’d write to it. And as I travel this time around, he and the drummer Cornbread will write some stuff and send me the tunes and I’ll take some sketches with me and write from the plane and when we can get together we’ll go into the studio and make sure everything fits. It’s a process because I’m gone all the time, but it’s also fun because there’s no pressure. We don’t have a label, we don’t have any time constraints and it’s just fun for us. We’re thinking we’re going to do a record and at this point it will probably be a digital only and maybe even a free release. Who knows it might not be put for five years, but we’re at least working on it. It’s a nice kind of side outlet.