Commitment, thy name is Underoath.
Since they embarked on their Rebirth Tour last year, American band Underoath have been on the up and up: That infamous hiatus, some much needed respite, now reunited not only as a band but with their fans – it all has a lot to do with just how fresh and well-received their sixth studio album ‘Erase Me’ has been since its release in April.
“Without reuniting and doing that world tour, we would never have made the record,” lead vocalist Spencer Chamberlain says.
“The fact we were out there playing together again, meeting the fans and listening to their stories and how important we’ve been to people’s lives, let alone our own. "It was really reassuring to know that we were doing the right thing by reuniting – that was the deciding factor.”
“There are a lot of songs in the Underoath catalogue we hate.”
Spencer says Underoath now understand just how much the band means and how much they mean to each other. “That was the first thing we had to do,” Spencer begins firmly.
“Before we even played, we had to remember why we started to play together in the first place – we had to let what happened in our 20s go. It wasn’t easy, but I think we definitely learned a lot about each other and ourselves.”
There’s been one word in particular floating around in recent interviews with Underoath – change. It’s a word that carries a lot of weight not just for Spencer personally, but for Underoath as a unit too.
Change, it seems, is the mantra by which the Florida outfit now live. “We all fear change,” Spencer says, “and I think that’s what makes people so upset when they experience it. I don’t know, man, I feel like without change you’re never gonna grow, you’re never gonna experience new things.
“I think this band is constantly trying to evolve, constantly trying to grow – if we keep having the same experiences, writing the same music, putting out the same album, doing the same tours, over and over again, we’re just gonna be very unhappy.”
Of course, compared to their early years, most of Underoath’s members now have families at home, a massive factor to consider and a lot to miss when they’re out on the road. You can’t experience a bigger change than having children, that’s for certain. “We’re not one of those bands who does it for the money,” Spencer says candidly.
“We’re out here because we believe in each other, we believe in what we’re doing, and we believe in our fans.
“We believe that we have a purpose to be here, that people want us here, that we want to be here. We’re always going to be changing, though, along our path, as people and as musicians.”
That’s another lovely word – ‘purpose’. Purpose and change, particularly for Underoath, go hand in hand. Underoath have tapped into a new branch of honesty over the last year or two, talking about their grapples with their Christianity among other things.
Spencer agrees that, particularly when discussing purpose, everything has culminated into what we hear in ‘Erase Me’. “It’s the most honest record we’ve ever written,” he says brightly.
“Whether it’s one listener’s favourite or another listener’s least favourite, it is the most honest thing we’ve ever done.”
When Spencer and drummer Aaron Gillespie started writing ‘Erase Me’, they had no idea it would be an Underoath album. “We had a conversation very early on, going ‘Hey man, I don’t know if we’ll ever make another record again. So whatever we have to say, let’s say it now.’ So we put it all out there – everything is real.
“As a songwriter, the least we could do is be honest with the people that are listening because we’re lucky enough to have people listening and we’re lucky enough to be able to share our pain and our stories and our struggles – we’re the lucky ones, I get to write and sing about it and that’s therapeutic for me. But if I’m not honest about it, what’s the f...king point?”
That branch of honesty we hear in the album has not only been a personal liberation for Underoath, but a musical one too. “We had a thing in the studio [where] we decided we were going to stop saying – every record we made until ‘Erase Me’ after ‘They’re Only Chasing Safety’ [2004] we’d say ‘That doesn’t sound like us. That doesn’t sound like us.’
"No matter how good it was, it could have been the best thing on the record, but we would take it off because it didn’t sound like 'us'. To me, that was making our box a lot smaller. We were really stifling ourselves with that attitude.
“When we made this record we stopped saying that. We said, ‘Whatever we’re gonna make, whatever we’re gonna play, it’s gonna sound like a group so let’s stop'.
"That’s where bands stop growing is when they’re afraid of change. You’ve gotta be able to spread your wings – as cheesy as that sounds – try to touch different walls. That’s musical freedom, that’s being an artist, that’s everything music is supposed to be.”
Who knows how far change will take Underoath with this attitude. That’s the exciting thing about their brand of metallic rock and it being expressed in the most honest way possible – who knows. “You never really know until you get there,” muses Spencer, “and that’s a beautiful thing about it. We have no idea what the next record will sound like, who knows. But I guess we’ll find out when we get there, won’t we?”
Change, purpose, honesty; had you asked Spencer three years ago if he ever envisioned that adopting those three elements into a musical mantra would see Underoath embarking on an Australian tour, taking the headlining slot on the opening day of January’s UNIFY Gathering no less, he’d be reluctant to be enthused.
These days he’s far more open-minded to the excitement of possibility and opportunity, particularly as Underoath have never performed at UNIFY before. “We don’t know what to expect, we had no idea we were being considered as headliners, it’s very nerve-wracking,” Spencer finishes with a giggle.
“When I sat and listened to this record, I wanted to, every time I heard it and played it, to feel like it’s the best heavy rock record – that’s what we tried to create.
“I think when you’re creating that way, even though it sounds really selfish, it becomes super honest. People really gravitate toward honesty, I truly believe that, in all facets of life.
“There are a lot of songs in the Underoath catalogue we hate, but for the first time on ‘Erase Me’ we all love all the songs, because we really had time and were allowed to do things our way.
"And if that means we’re growing, going to places like Australia and all over the world, then hell yeah, man! If we weren’t growing, I’d still be happy.”
