The Word Alive @ Marquis
by Max Giffin
The Word Alive from Phoenix, Arizona, formed in 2008. Their latest album Deceiver has been a great success and the band has traveled countless miles promoting and performing the music from it. They are currently on the Fearless Friends Tour where we got to talk with Tyler “Telle” Smith at the Marquis in Denver. Telle, formally of In Fear and Faith and Greeley Estates, has been with the band for about two years. In one of the basement dressing rooms we had a few moments to chat with him as other band members listened in about new music, interesting moments on tour, and some streaking incidents!
Telle began by telling us about how the band’s most popular song from the Deceiver album, “2012,” came to be after watching the movie “Law Abiding Citizen,” giving us a rundown of the movie’s plot and the inspiration it gave him to write this song. We asked about touring, what it was like being with band members 24/7, and what happens when they aren’t performing. He told us about how the tour has been, and Salt Lake City had been the best city to perform in so far (until Denver, of course! The crowd was insane!) Telle actually crowd-surfed at the Salt Lake City show and was awed by the response to TWA’S music. The tour has been great for the band and they have gotten to know each other better, especially since the band sleeps naked on the van! They are definitely like family. The way they would joke around with each other, even telling us about how Telle went streaking during the New York City gay pride parade, made it a really comical and easygoing environment.
When asked about his fans, he told us that the most meaningful thing that they’ve ever done is get lyrics from the song “Like Father Like Son” tattooed on them. Telle really showed his softer side with the next few questions. He told us if he only had 30 days left to live he would spend it recording and spending time with family and friends. He would also end world hunger and make sure his family is financially taken care of, if given wishes from a genie. We had a great time with them, but unfortunately we had some malfunctions and were unable to record the interview. Thankfully, Telle was kind enough to give us a second interview after the concert.
CMB: For those who have never heard of your band, would you introduce yourself and explain your sound?
Telle Smith: My name is Telle. I sing for The Word Alive. I guess you could say we are a melodic Metal band. We have lots of influences of different genres that we kind of put into a hodgepodge and call it music.
CMB: Which one of your lyrics has the most meaning to you?
TS: From the song ‘Like Father Like Son’: ‘If you’re not my blood, you’re my bones.’ It’s the start of the song and it’s the first line I wrote about that song. It’s about my relationship with my dad. He’s not my biological father, but he’s the only dad I’ve ever known and would ever care to know. That song means a lot to me, so that one.
CMB: How do you plan to make future music stand out from what you’ve done before?
TS: I feel like just from touring and practicing and working to improve on not only our sound, but also individually, that there is a natural progression and growth, that’s going to lend itself to our CD being stronger naturally. I feel like we’re just growing together and we have a better idea of what we want in our music now than we did even before. I think it’s just always going to grow and get better and better.
CMB: Do you have a zombie apocalypse plan?
TS: My plan is, more or less, to just kind of run for the hills and try to live a ‘Little House on the Prairie’ life if I have to. If I have to blow off some heads of some zombies, I’ll do it. I’m not afraid.
CMB: Whose ex-girlfriend is “The Wretched” about?
TS: “The Wretched” actually isn’t about an ex-girlfriend. It’s about an ex-band mate, which is even better, I think. I’ll be straight up; it’s about our old drummer. After he was kicked out of the band, for many, many, many justifiable reasons, he decided to write a blog, which he really directed towards me even though I wasn’t the one who kicked him out of the band. Basically what happened was our guitarists were so tired of not being able to have someone who can play the songs that they wrote, let alone progress to more complicated things. They pretty much said, ‘Either we’re out of the band or he is.’ So we were all like, ‘Well, you guys write all the music and are killing it so we’re gonna stay with the core of the band and we’re going to get a drummer who actually cares to practice and has a strong work ethic and wants to be a part of the family that is the band.’ He took it and assumed that I do all the business stuff for the band. So he took it as me who weeded him out which isn’t even true. I wasn’t even in the country when he got kicked out of the band, actually. I just kind of took it to heart – some of the things he said about me – because while some of them might have been true to a certain extent, it wasn’t for lack of trying. Some of the things he said, like about me struggling, he would say, ‘How am I kicked out of the band when he struggles?’ Well, it was because he would struggle and make excuses and not practice. I would say, ‘I’m sorry. This is my best, I’m going to continue to try and work at it and get better.’ That’s why I’m still in the band and he’s not.
CMB: What is your favorite song to play live?
TS: We just started playing “Lights and Stones” on this tour. I always like playing the new songs. It’s fun to learn what to do while on stage to a new song. My favorite that we’re playing on this tour of the older songs would probably be “Epiphany.” I just think it’s a song that’s really easy for kids to move around to, and for people who even don’t know us; it’s easy to catch on to the chorus and to sing along. So, I like that song a lot.
CMB: What’s the craziest thing a fan has ever said to you?
TS: Oh, this is kind of an inside joke. I won’t go into too much detail because this person probably will read this interview. We were doing a signing on Warped Tour and this very . . . eager fan, who definitely writes all of us very often and our crew, came up and he asked me specifically, ‘When is the last point in your day that you take your dog to do her personal business?’ And I thought that was the weirdest, creepiest question ever. I’ve been asked some weird things. I’ve been creeped out several times, but the fact that he wanted to know when I took out my dog to s*$& last at night . . . I don’t know if he wanted to be there while it was happening or if he wanted to collect a sample? I have no idea, but I just said, ‘So you’re asking me when my dog s*@ts last at night?’ And he’s like, ‘Well yeah, I guess.’ And I said, ‘I don’t know, whenever she has to go, she scratches at the door and I take her out!’ It was just really weird. Most everyone is cool, though.
Category: Planet Buzz
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