There’s a metaphor in here somewhere
Brand New frontman talks music while watching python unleash the fury on a rabbit
Jen Zoratti

Musicians tend to get up to some pretty weird shit when I talk to them on the phone. Aussie neo-hippie Xavier Rudd got a full acupuncture treatment when we last spoke, for example — but Brand New frontman Jesse Lacey takes first prize.

“I’m watching a python eat a rabbit,” Lacey says. Disturbingly enough, he’s not watching TV. “We’re in South Carolina right now, in the swamps, and there’s this conservatory behind where we’re staying. This is pretty crazy.”

One can only guess Brian Lane (drums), Garrett Tierney (bass) and Vinnie Accardi (guitar) are similarly enjoying the show.

According to Lacey, such scenic perks make downtime on tours exciting, even when playing a couple hundred shows a year. Yes, the Long Island-based hardcore quartet has been on the road since February in support of third outing The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, and the tour dates will stretch well into August.

“When we first started, all we knew was touring. We thought, ‘When you’re a band, you play shows.’ We have done over 200 in the past year, and we’re already 40 days into this current tour.

“There are a million parts that are great and a million things that aren’t. You get to travel and you see things — like snakes eating rabbits — but being away from home gets hard.”

Released in November, The Devil and God… is the long-awaited follow-up to the band’s ultra-hyped 2003 sophomore outing Deja Entendu, a record that marked a changing musical trajectory for the band and sparked an insatiable hunger in fans and critics to see what would happen next.

However, much like the python with its rabbit, the media was given ample time to digest Deja Entendu. Alternative Press put the band on its cover in late 2004 as part of its most-anticipated-albums-of-2005 issue, but a new album didn’t materialize until late 2006.

“We took that time to just not focus on band stuff,” Lacey says. “The misconception is that we took three years to make a record. No, we took two years to live. The band just had to take a back seat for a while. I don’t think we’re the kind of people that would be able to make music if we couldn’t experience life in a normal way.”

Stepping away from the band and the buzz fuelled by Deja Entendu seemed to benefit Brand New. The Devil and God… is an atmospheric, genre-spanning record that manages to live up to the lofty expectations set upon it.

“I think we did cross the boundaries of what people think of Brand New. And there was no reason not to try stuff,” Lacey says. “We’re not in this for sales or fame or acclaim.”

Acclaim, however, is something the band is racking up — from four-star reviews to stupidly bold statements about Brand New being “America’s Radiohead.”

“That makes me think, ‘Why do we need to be America’s Radiohead?’” Lacey says. “In a lot of ways it’s a bummer because people start to think you’re trying for that.”

Still, Brand New hopes to draw one thing from the U.K.’s art-rock mopesters.

“Radiohead is a band that still manages to make valid, beautiful music without compromise yet still are able to appeal to so many people,” Lacey says. “That idea is what we aim for.”