(Chris Johnson (vocals/guitar), Chris Hughes
(guitar), Rob Kucharek (Bass), Phil Robinson (drums))AUTOPILOT OFF By Nikki Neil
(Chris Johnson (vocals/guitar), Chris Hughes
(guitar), Rob Kucharek (Bass), Phil Robinson (drums))
So you think you know Autopilot Off? Well, unless you already own a copy of the band’s long awaited debut, Make A Sound, (Island Records) you don’t know jack.
Blistering hard, yet blissfully catchy this searing debut showcases the quartet’s greatest assets and will give music lovers a reason to crank it to 11.
So, where are you at right now?
Chris Hughes: I’m sitting in the parking lot of a club in San Antonio, Texas.
Are you getting ready for tonight’s show?
Yup.
And who are you on the road with?
We’re doing a tour with Rufio, Senses Fail, and Don’t Look Down.
That’s a good line-up.
It’s been a really good tour so far. Everyone has played good shows, and everyone on tour has been really cool. It’s fun.
What has been the most memorable show so far on this tour?
This is our fifth show, but we did a show in Calabasas, California, and I saw a girl beat the shit out of a guy in the crowd. I thought that was amazing and rightfully so too. He was stage diving, and he flopped on to her so she just beat his ass. I said at the show, “I don’t promote violence,” but there’s something to be said about that.
I can’t blame her at that point.
Exactly. That is the way I felt about it. I even said it on stage, “Look, I normally don’t promote violence but you just beat his ass,” and that was amazing. So, that has been the most memorable show on this tour so far, but I’m sure there is more to come. There always is.
I wanted to mention that I think Autopilot Off is a great name, especially since so many people seem to go through life with their autopilot on…
You get it, nice.
The name just kind of tells people to stop and smell the roses so to speak.
Exactly.
Looking back, are you happy the band changed the name from Cooter?
Oh my god. If we hadn’t we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now. We needed to do it. When you start a band you just need a name, so you are not really thinking about it because the band always develops after the name. So, with us we were thinking of TV shows and stuff for a name. When you name your band you never really think its going to go…when you name your band you are just hoping to play a show. But, when you start becoming a band and start finding out what you are all about you start to realize, “Oh my god, this name doesn’t even fit us. It doesn’t even make sense.” So we decided at one point that it was is time to make a change, and there was a bunch of other bullshit going on. And, honestly, for a second we realized that all we had was our name. We wondered if we should even keep going on because it would be too hard to start over. So we just all sat down and within in five minutes we decided that we were going to do it. We changed the name. We basically said, “We’ll find a name that fits the attitude and mantra of the band,” and we did and here we are. We’re stoked.
Do you think having the right name is almost as essential as playing good music?
I would never take away from the music. The music is really key because a lot of times you think of band names and they don’t sound corny until you really think about it because you love the band. I don’t want to call anybody out on a bad band name, but if you think about it, some bands that you like their name doesn’t really mean anything. Like The Clash. It’s a great name that made sense for that band, or A.F.I. – A Fire Inside – that is totally what that band is about. So we’re kind of psyched that we had a chance to give our band a name that means something. We’re lucky that we got that opportunity.
It’s really about finding the perfect match.
Exactly.
How long have you guys known each other?
We’ve known each other for about eight years. We were all friends in school. I met Chris and Phil though my sister. She went to school with them, and she introduced me to them because she knew they played music. When we met Rob he was in another band and they were breaking up, so we scooped up Rob and have been doing it ever since. We’re all friends and everything and it’s the same way with our crew. They are all our buddies. We all met though music, so we have this appreciation for the same things. And, at the same time, we can all work together, which is cool. Rob just looked at me and said, “Fuck You.” (We laugh) He’s kidding around obviously because he heard what I was saying.
I was just going to say that it seems like there is a good family bond going on.
There really is. I’m not trying to act like it is all roses. We get into it a little bit, but it is never about personal shit. It is always about what is the right thing to do for the band. Everyone has their ideas, and Rob usually is the one who screws everything up but we just ignore him. It’s cool. Naw, I’m just kidding buddy.
Don’t break up because of the interview.
No, no. The thing that keeps it light is that we constantly make fun of each other. We’re always giving each other a hard time because it keeps everybody in check. We have fun with it.
Are you excited about the release of Make a Sound?
Oh my god. We’ve had an EP out for like two years.
I know.
So we can’t wait to finally have people hear our full-length record.
What can we expect?
You can expect not our EP. I can tell you that much. It’s always hard for me to describe music. Music is something that needs to be heard, and everyone gets something different out of it. I’ll read reviews that say, “Sounds like whatever,” and I’m like, “Oh my god. Where did they get that?” But, the one thing that people will get out of it, is that it’s an album. We don’t care how they get it, as long as people get our music. The record label isn’t really psyched about that, and obviously selling records helps us to have a career. In the long run, as long as people are into our music we are psyched, but we do hope that everyone gets our album because what we really tried to do was make an album. We didn’t just want to write songs and put them all together. When we were writing the songs we were thinking, “How is one song going to work into the other song.” We didn’t make a concept album or something weird, but we definitely tried to make an album. So I hope that when everyone gets it they put it on from song one to the end. I hope they don’t just go to the single or something like that. We want them to put it on and check out the whole feeling because [the album] kind of takes you on a bit of a journey, which is what we tried to do. So hopefully that is what everyone will get out of it.
So there’s a flow from beginning to end.
Exactly. It’s not in your face the whole time, and it’s not some mellow emo record. It’s not emo at all. We get all those different labels, but it has a little taste of everything. We just did whatever felt right.
Did you encounter any problems while making the record?
Oh my god. We experienced anything from problems with the gear to getting in slumps with writing and the sound not being right. But the struggle is what makes great things happen because if it were all going easy you’d make a shit record. You have to struggle to make it work. That is part of it. It makes you a stronger person.
How did you guys get over the slumps?
I don’t really know, to be honest. We just kept pushing through. When you feel like you can’t do it, is when you can usually find the best things in yourself. So we just kept pushing because we knew that we had to get it done. We weren’t under a time constraint because the record label was really good. They let us do whatever we wanted. It was amazing. They didn’t say it has to be done by this day. They said, “just work,” and that is why it took so long because we really did take the time to do what we wanted. There was some blood, sweat, and tears involved but it was worth it.
Now what are you most proud of in regards to the album?
All my guitar parts, obviously. (laughs). No, no, no, I’m just kidding. What I am most proud of is the album overall – not any songs in particular. I’m really just proud of the final product. We finally made a record that, for as long as we have been a band, people are going to finally know what we are all about. I think people don’t know. I think they know some of our songs, and I think a lot of people know our name because we’ve been on a lot of good tours. But, people don’t really know what we are about as a band, and they are going to find out when they hear the album.
What influences your guitar playing?
You know what is funny, it’s not so much playing as much as people’s attitudes. I love Mick Jones and Joe Strummer form The Clash because I loved the way those guys played live. When it comes to playing, I don’t think about other players. I’ll admit, I love all the stuff that The Edge from U2 does. He does so much creative stuff. I can’t do any of that. I always try to emulate him and think about all the cool little parts that he puts in that makes it really interesting, so when I’m writing stuff I think about that a little bit but when you are writing music you are really just going on your own thing. When it comes to playing live I love the attitude and energy that certain people put off and the two guys from The Clash were always amazing. I also think that Pete from Sick Of It All…in regards to the punk world…you’ll never see a guy that is more into playing guitar than him – just the attitude and the energy. I feed off those kinds of people. They don’t have to be like these virtuoso players. I personally don’t get into any of that. I appreciate it, but it is not something that really inspires me. I get inspired by the vibe that people give off. The Edge doesn’t smash his guitar around, but he is into those songs and you can see that when they play live. So, it’s really about the feel and the energy that people give off.
What was it like working with Tim Armstrong?
Tim is another one. To see him play live…he just takes his guitar and flails with it and does all this stuff and notes are still always coming out. I’ve been on stage while he is playing, and no one else is playing that shit. He’s playing it. But, working with him was just like a dream come true. It was out of the blue. We were working on our record and he had heard some of it and he called us up and said, “I think you guys are great. I really like your songs. Come write with me,” and we did. Just to be asked to do that was an honor in itself, and it was inspiring because we had to come up with songs. We were like, “We’re not going to be here with Tim Armstrong and not write music.” So we started banging out some songs and both songs wound up on the album. We actually went back in the studio to record them because they were really good and everyone liked them and for us it was, “Fuck, we just worked with Tim Armstrong. We have to put these on.” So, again, the label stepped up and said, “No problem. Go back and do it.” Tim became our friend and all The Rancid guys were so nice to us because Chris Johnson and myself went out to the Warped Tour and rode with Rancid and worked on the back of their bus. Matt Freeman also recorded the bass tracks on the demos. So, it was really cool and it was a wild experience and those guys were so nice and enthusiastic.
That’s awesome.
Yeah it was a great experience, and we made a new friend out of it, which was cool.
Even better. Will you guys be on the Warped Tour this year?
We’ll be playing the first two weeks. Our first day is in Texas and we’re playing all through Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California and I think Vegas too.
You’ll be hitting some prime markets.
Definitely, and those are spots that we need to hit. Since we are from the East Coast, we play a lot of shows on the East Coast and we don’t get to do as much as we’d like to on the West Coast. We always get asked to do East Coast, Mid-West, and South-East parts of tours because that is where we do a lot better, so we never get the opportunity to do a lot of West Coast stuff. So it is cool that we get to do that, which we are happy about.
Besides the great show story that you shared, do you have any good or bad road stories?
Oh there’s millions.
Have you ever been stalked by a fan?
Yeah, but nothing too bad. Not to the point where it is out of control. I don’t really hide my phone number. A lot of people call me just randomly and it’s always cool. No one just calls me and gives me a lot of shit. People just call to see what is up and that is fine. They leave me voice mails and stuff and that’s cool. We get some people that are pretty fanatical. They are at every show and they always come up and talk to you. And, we’re fans too so we don’t try to draw a line between the band and the fans. We are always hanging out talking to everybody, but some people get bummed because…like maybe one show you will talk to someone for 20 minutes and then at the next show if something is going on you can’t do it. So then that person gets bummed out. I just want people to understand that it’s not that we don’t want to talk to you. It’s just that sometimes you have something else to do or somebody else is talking to you and you want to spend the time with them. And it gets hard because sometimes people are like, “Well, I know the band and the last time I talked to them for 20 minutes and now all they did was say, ‘Hi’.” And when that happens, it doesn’t mean that we like anyone any less, we just have to be fair to everybody.
That is true. And sometimes you have to get on the bus right away in order to make it to the next city.
Or sometimes you are talking to your girlfriend on the phone and she doesn’t want to hear that you have to go talk to your fans for an hour.
I don’t know anything about those guys. I swear to god. We played a show with them.
So it was the label’s idea to release the split 7”.
Yeah, it was their idea and we were like, “Cool, let’s do it.” I don’t know who is listening to 7” records but…
I admit that I haven’t listened to it because I don’t want to dig out the record player.
You and everybody else.
But I’m going to hold on to it. Hey, you never know, it might be worth some money one day.
That is what we are hoping. But Fall Out Boy are a good band. We played with them once and they were cool, so we said, “Yeah, it’s fine.” We knew that they weren’t Nazi Skinheads, so it was cool.
Awhile back you guys put out the Regenerator EP and how did you decide on which songs to cover?
As long as we have been a band we have not done any covers because we always sucked too bad to do other people’s songs, so we had to do our own. We’ve always been an original band since the beginning. The whole idea around it was that the EP’s had been out for so long and we didn’t want to give anybody any new songs because we wanted the album to be really fresh so we said, “Let’s do some cover songs. It would be fun to explore that, and we’ll give it away as a bonus item,” because you can’t charge people for other people’s songs. It’s ridiculous. So we decided to pick bands that we really liked and then we took some requests from people like that Guns ‘n’ Wankers song wasn’t our idea. A friend of ours, actually the guy that signed us to the label is a fan, and that band is cool. They are really unknown and they have a great self-titled EP on Fat WreckChords. It’s really hard to get, but it’s an awesome record. So he was a fan of theirs and he said, “I think you should do that,” and he’s been so good to us so we said, “Yeah, let’s do the song for this guy. But the U2, Bad Religion, and Quicksand, those were all bands that influenced us, so we tried to pick a song that we felt we could recreate the best.
Those were all bands that influenced us, so we tried to pick a song that we felt we could recreate the best and something that would be fun for us to do. The idea of doing it was not to put our twist on it. We tried to recreate it exactly as they did it. We didn’t want to make the songs the Autopilot Off versions. We wanted to make them tributes to the bands – to do the songs exactly as they did them, even down to the recording style. We think we did okay with it. We play the Quicksand song live. It’s really fun because we are all big Quicksand and Snapcase fans, but our music isn’t really like that. We never got to do the fun, heavy breakdown, and that song is a B-side song. It is not on any of their albums, so it is a unique song to do and it’s got the best hardcore breakdown in the middle that we never get to do so it is really fun to play.
Do the fans just go off when you play that song live?
Oh yeah. It’s fun and it is a little self-serving, but we like it.
What is the strangest thing that a fan has ever done to get your attention?
That is a good question, hmmm. Well, I don’t know if there has been a strange incidence. If I can twist the questions just a bit, I’d say that the coolest thing people have ever done, or a lot of people have done, is gotten Autopilot Off tattoos. And I think that is the best thing a fan has ever done. I can’t think of anything really strange. Fans draw crazy pictures or send you crazy stuff in the mail, but I’m crazy so I don’t think any of that stuff is really crazy. But, I think the tattoo thing is amazing. When people do that… when they dedicate themselves that much to the band to get a tattoo of the band that is the highest form of flattery that a band can get. I don’t have any band tattoos, so for someone to do that they must be really into and I think that is really cool.
Because that is permanent.
Exactly.
Pennywise played a show in Hollywood and they brought a tattoo artist with them and if any fan wanted to get a Pennywise tattoo they paid for it.
Really.
Yup.
Anyone that has a tattoo of our band gets into the show for free.
That’s cool.
Yeah, that is the rule. They just have to e-mail us with a picture of their tattoo and they are a lifer – they get into the shows for free.
What are some of your favorite clubs to play at?
There are a lot of good ones. There are a lot of good ones in New York City, which I’m a little partial too because we’re from there. But Roseland in NYC is one of the best. Irving Plaza in NYC is also great. The House of Blues venues are really cool. I like the 930 club in Washington, D.C. It’s a perfect club. The Rave in Milwaukee – it doesn’t have the best sound but the backstage, you can’t touch it. So as far as backstages are concerned I have to give it up to The Rave. The Metro in Chicago is a real pain in the ass to get you gear in and park, but the shows there are off the hook. Oh, and Slims in San Francisco is one of my favorites. In fact, it is one of my top three. San Francisco is one of my top three cities. I also love Toronto. I love all the venues in Toronto. Toronto is a great town.
What do you like most about New York?
I think just because I grew up going to shows there that being on stage there is really exciting. It just feels really weird. I’ve never seen a show in San Antonio Texas until I played one. But growing up in New York and always going to shows there and wishing you could be on that stage and then being up there and people are in the crows going crazy for you, you can really relate to that because it feels like you have accomplished something. So that is why I’m partial to New York. It’s nostalgia. With those shows your family and friends are always there and you want everyone to have a good time, so it gets really hectic. I kind of hate that aspect of it because it is really overwhelming, but when you are up on stage it is just so good.
What advice do you have for bands that are just starting out?
Play any show you can. Don’t stress money. Make the band your main goal and you will be good. It won’t happen overnight—maybe it will, maybe it won’t—but if you are into it let time take its course. And, take all the opportunities that are presented to you. Don’t think you are too big for things.
What should new bands look for when signing a record deal?
Don’t give your life away for a record deal. If someone wants everything and you are desperate for a deal don’t do it because if you are a good enough band someone will offer you what you deserve. So, don’t just sign just to get a record deal. Put the record out yourself, which is easier said than done for me because we have a record deal, but trust me, we’ve made those mistakes. I know that if we waited we may have found ourselves in a little bit of a better position. Although, we got lucky. We landed somewhere that is really great, but it almost didn’t happen because a lot of the bad decisions we made in the past. So, the one thing that I learned is if someone can take advantage of you they will, so don’t let them do it. Always give yourself a lot more value than you do.
Anything else that you would like to add?
Just check out our website, come say “hello” at the show, and check us out live that is all we ask. Have fun. Don’t be a jerk at the show, and don’t punch anybody.
No fights.
No fights, and don’t pee on the bathroom floor. I have to use that bathroom too.
And buy the album.
Yes, it is called Make a Sound. At least check it out. I’m not asking everyone to like. I’m just asking everyone to give it a chance. If they don’t like it then we will fight at the club. (laughs)
For more on Autopilot Off visit www.islandrecords.com/autopilotoff/site/home.las
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