After a quiet 2011, the Used are getting ready to re-emerge in a big way in 2012. For starters, they’re partnering with Hopeless Records to release their fifth studio album,Vulnerable, which is due March 27. And that’s not the only development: While it was widely reported the band were starting their own label, Dental Records, frontman Bert McCracken reveals they’ve instead started “a group that involves everything from managing to production to art design” called Anger Music Group.
Earlier this week, AP reached McCracken at producer John Feldmann’s studio, where the band were mixing the 14 songs they tracked for Vulnerable and recording two more on top of that. In a typically candid interview, he promises Used loyalists that they’ll hear music soon (“Right at the beginning of next year, we’re going to be putting out a song and some secret other stuff, too—songs for the fans—to get everyone excited about the record,” he says) and assures that the long-awaited Vulnerable will live up to expectations. “I am just as excited as [fans], maybe more [so],” McCracken says. “I swear to God, no one’s going to be let down. It’s the best music the Used have ever made. All of the anticipation and waiting will be well worth it.”
Now that you’re in the mixing phase, what is the record sounding like?
It’s got a lot of everything that you love and associate with the Used. It was written in a whole different process this time around. The majority of songs I wrote on a keyboard, just structuring out beats and bass lines, instead of really approaching the songs as guitar-piano. It sounds really modern and very futuristic. I’m not trying to say we’ve bought into any dubstep nonsense, hipster bullshit. It’s just a good, emotional, rock ’n’ roll record with edgy, synthetic [sounds] and maybe touches of hip-hop and drum ’n’ bass and a lot of cool sounds. It’s definitely still the Used.
It’s got a lot of everything that you love and associate with the Used. It was written in a whole different process this time around. The majority of songs I wrote on a keyboard, just structuring out beats and bass lines, instead of really approaching the songs as guitar-piano. It sounds really modern and very futuristic. I’m not trying to say we’ve bought into any dubstep nonsense, hipster bullshit. It’s just a good, emotional, rock ’n’ roll record with edgy, synthetic [sounds] and maybe touches of hip-hop and drum ’n’ bass and a lot of cool sounds. It’s definitely still the Used.
It’s been interesting to see a lot of bands incorporate those elements into their music lately.
We all love tons of different styles of music. For me, I wanted to approach it a different way other than getting the four of us [together] and jamming like a rock ’n’ roll band. We get a cool rock ’n’ roll sound approaching it writing on a computer or on a keyboard. It’s been really exciting to do it this way, too.
We all love tons of different styles of music. For me, I wanted to approach it a different way other than getting the four of us [together] and jamming like a rock ’n’ roll band. We get a cool rock ’n’ roll sound approaching it writing on a computer or on a keyboard. It’s been really exciting to do it this way, too.
What made you want to do it this way?
A combination of everything. The last record was really basic, and we got into writing songs, just the four of us. All the songs came from guitar ideas, and we wanted to completely switch that up. This record, everyone’s got their own thing going on. When we first started to jam, our guitar player just got married, our drummer just had a baby. Everyone was really in their own little world, which freed me up to take a lot more time for myself to create sounds and make things that are different than what we’ve done in the past.
A combination of everything. The last record was really basic, and we got into writing songs, just the four of us. All the songs came from guitar ideas, and we wanted to completely switch that up. This record, everyone’s got their own thing going on. When we first started to jam, our guitar player just got married, our drummer just had a baby. Everyone was really in their own little world, which freed me up to take a lot more time for myself to create sounds and make things that are different than what we’ve done in the past.
That’s so freeing to do different stuff, too, especially after being in a band for so long.
We’ve been working on this record for so long, stories continue to change. Last March, I fell off the stage, and it was a huge, huge disaster. I broke my elbow, I broke my hand, I had two surgeries. I was really down for the count for three months—I couldn’t do anything but eat pain pills and get addicted to pain pills again and become fat. [Laughs.] After a couple of months, after I started to get better, I realized, “Holy shit, I haven’t done anything creative in months.” I got on this really positive inspirational kick. The record came out very positive, actually.
We’ve been working on this record for so long, stories continue to change. Last March, I fell off the stage, and it was a huge, huge disaster. I broke my elbow, I broke my hand, I had two surgeries. I was really down for the count for three months—I couldn’t do anything but eat pain pills and get addicted to pain pills again and become fat. [Laughs.] After a couple of months, after I started to get better, I realized, “Holy shit, I haven’t done anything creative in months.” I got on this really positive inspirational kick. The record came out very positive, actually.
Just because I know fans freak out—did you really get addicted to pain pills again?
It’s real easy when you have two broken bones and doctors giving you 40 Percocets, Percodones, Vicodins a day, just to sit around and eat ’em all the time. Yeah, I definitely noticed a dependency start kicking in, and I really had to kick it by myself. It’s a horrible thing to try to come off three months of pain pills just on your own, but I had a record to make, and it was perfect timing and John Feldamann’s a beautiful influence. And I got my friends. So I’m all good. Pain pills are fun, definitely. But they’re for pain. [Laughs.]
It’s real easy when you have two broken bones and doctors giving you 40 Percocets, Percodones, Vicodins a day, just to sit around and eat ’em all the time. Yeah, I definitely noticed a dependency start kicking in, and I really had to kick it by myself. It’s a horrible thing to try to come off three months of pain pills just on your own, but I had a record to make, and it was perfect timing and John Feldamann’s a beautiful influence. And I got my friends. So I’m all good. Pain pills are fun, definitely. But they’re for pain. [Laughs.]
What kind of direction did John Feldmann give you guys this time? You’ve worked with him for so long.
We just have this relationship with him where I can come into the studio and sit down immediately and say, “What have you been listening to, what have I been listening to?” and get a cool vibe just to have a starting point from. Feldmann’s so open and so creative, that it’s anything goes. Which is really cool, we can really think outside the box.
We just have this relationship with him where I can come into the studio and sit down immediately and say, “What have you been listening to, what have I been listening to?” and get a cool vibe just to have a starting point from. Feldmann’s so open and so creative, that it’s anything goes. Which is really cool, we can really think outside the box.
Did the stuff you write at the very beginning of the cycle make the record? How did it shake out?
I tend to really like to write about those failing experiences in life, the moments where you fall down and decide to get back up or not. A lot of people really need to hear that kind of thing; nowadays, at least, everything feels so uninspired. Kids really should have something positive to think about. The whole idea of calling the record Vulnerable is kind of like—the only way I’ve ever been able to accomplish anything in my life, whether it’s falling in love or daring to dream to be in a rock ’n’ roll band and succeed, you have to be at those vulnerable moments in your life to allow these things to happen. It’s really important for us to put a positive twist on the word vulnerable. A lot of people think it’s a bad thing, but it’s actually something that allows you success in life.
I tend to really like to write about those failing experiences in life, the moments where you fall down and decide to get back up or not. A lot of people really need to hear that kind of thing; nowadays, at least, everything feels so uninspired. Kids really should have something positive to think about. The whole idea of calling the record Vulnerable is kind of like—the only way I’ve ever been able to accomplish anything in my life, whether it’s falling in love or daring to dream to be in a rock ’n’ roll band and succeed, you have to be at those vulnerable moments in your life to allow these things to happen. It’s really important for us to put a positive twist on the word vulnerable. A lot of people think it’s a bad thing, but it’s actually something that allows you success in life.
That is very true. When you let yourself go and open yourself up fully, you can absorb everything and get to another place.
Exactly. Be that person that you constantly are dreaming about every day, just allowing yourself to be that unprotected and that vulnerable always [accounts] for moments in life. Some of the best things can come out of that, for sure.
Exactly. Be that person that you constantly are dreaming about every day, just allowing yourself to be that unprotected and that vulnerable always [accounts] for moments in life. Some of the best things can come out of that, for sure.
What are your favorite songs, lyrics-wise, on the record?
There’s a lot of playback to the emotion on the first record. There’s a lot of talk about shining and burning, and standing up for yourself and becoming more powerful than you ever imagined. There’s a song called “Machine” about really becoming more than who we think we are on the outside. Let me think of some specifics… [Whistles.] Man, it’s so hard—there’s so many of ’em, and I’ve just been in the jumble of all of it.
There’s a lot of playback to the emotion on the first record. There’s a lot of talk about shining and burning, and standing up for yourself and becoming more powerful than you ever imagined. There’s a song called “Machine” about really becoming more than who we think we are on the outside. Let me think of some specifics… [Whistles.] Man, it’s so hard—there’s so many of ’em, and I’ve just been in the jumble of all of it.
True—you have no distance right now, you’re in the middle of mixing it.
[Laughs.] Yeah, exactly. It’s all kind of a big blur. [But] there’s some dark subjects covered on the record as well, it’s not just corny [and] cheesy. It’s a really good mix of contrasts.
[Laughs.] Yeah, exactly. It’s all kind of a big blur. [But] there’s some dark subjects covered on the record as well, it’s not just corny [and] cheesy. It’s a really good mix of contrasts.
Which is good: Sometimes the records that are all very dark and deep are right for a mood, but at other times, it’s like, “I can’t listen to this right now, because it’s too heavy.”
Between me, you and everyone I know, my last record, Artwork, is my least-favorite record I’ve made. Its’ really hard for me to listen to it, because I let myself be that negative, and I let myself have those moments of, “Awww, fucking, blehh.” And it’s kind of a bum-out to go back and listen to it. The record sounds great; I don’t hate it, by all means. I needed something a little bit more inspiring and positive for me in my own personal life.
Between me, you and everyone I know, my last record, Artwork, is my least-favorite record I’ve made. Its’ really hard for me to listen to it, because I let myself be that negative, and I let myself have those moments of, “Awww, fucking, blehh.” And it’s kind of a bum-out to go back and listen to it. The record sounds great; I don’t hate it, by all means. I needed something a little bit more inspiring and positive for me in my own personal life.
You have to go out and perform that stuff, too. If it’s just all a bum-out, then—man, what a tour. Doing those night after night on tour would be just kind of a downer.
The whole idea of Vulnerable ties in with our debacle with [our former label] Warner Bros. They tried to put in too much input to our last record-making [cycle]. They’re not artists, but they feel like they should put in their two cents everywhere. That stifled my creativity on the last record as well, to where songs that I started loving at the beginning that were recorded and manipulated to the nth degree, [by the end] I was just like, “Fuck that song.”
The whole idea of Vulnerable ties in with our debacle with [our former label] Warner Bros. They tried to put in too much input to our last record-making [cycle]. They’re not artists, but they feel like they should put in their two cents everywhere. That stifled my creativity on the last record as well, to where songs that I started loving at the beginning that were recorded and manipulated to the nth degree, [by the end] I was just like, “Fuck that song.”
There’s that negative connotation now. When you listen to that song now, you hearthat stuff—you don’t hear the original intent and the creativity.
In this moment of vulnerability for us—starting our own record label and having to do it all ourselves and figure out how we’re going to make it happen for us, I think we found this stride of positivity. We’re so fucking stoked to be a band still. We feel really blessed we have so many fans. This is just a new beginning, even though it’s been 10, 11 years, we’re pumped.
In this moment of vulnerability for us—starting our own record label and having to do it all ourselves and figure out how we’re going to make it happen for us, I think we found this stride of positivity. We’re so fucking stoked to be a band still. We feel really blessed we have so many fans. This is just a new beginning, even though it’s been 10, 11 years, we’re pumped.
How much of an ordeal was it getting off of Warner Bros.?
It wasn’t an ordeal. They picked up the option for us to start making our fifth record, and then about a month later, they dropped us. That was it. We didn’t have to fight or anything. It was nice.
It wasn’t an ordeal. They picked up the option for us to start making our fifth record, and then about a month later, they dropped us. That was it. We didn’t have to fight or anything. It was nice.
It’s kind of like one of those situations where you’ve been waiting to break up with your girlfriend so long, and then she’s like, “We need to break up.” So you’re like, “Fuuuuck, that’s not fair.” [Laughs.] “I was about to break up with you!”
What is the relationship between your own label and Hopeless? How is that going to work?
[The name] Dental Records was taken, so instead of starting a label, we’re starting more of a group that involves everything from managing to production to art design. It’s going to be called Anger Music Group. We negotiated a distribution deal through Hopeless. They’re going to distribute the record worldwide, and it all comes out on Anger Music Group.
[The name] Dental Records was taken, so instead of starting a label, we’re starting more of a group that involves everything from managing to production to art design. It’s going to be called Anger Music Group. We negotiated a distribution deal through Hopeless. They’re going to distribute the record worldwide, and it all comes out on Anger Music Group.
Why did you decide to go this route?
We just don’t want to have to answer to anyone. We really wanted to do it all ourselves, put it out all ourselves, pay for it ourselves—but with the distribution. We looked into a few different distribution companies, but we cared for Hopeless the most. They had the most charitable minds and we’re really into giving money back at this point in our careers. They’re hugely passionate, and they have a great distribution team worldwide, which is amazing. It’s all we could’ve asked for. I think it’s going to work out great for everyone.
We just don’t want to have to answer to anyone. We really wanted to do it all ourselves, put it out all ourselves, pay for it ourselves—but with the distribution. We looked into a few different distribution companies, but we cared for Hopeless the most. They had the most charitable minds and we’re really into giving money back at this point in our careers. They’re hugely passionate, and they have a great distribution team worldwide, which is amazing. It’s all we could’ve asked for. I think it’s going to work out great for everyone.
What else do you want people to know about Vulnerable?
I wrote this record for all the outcasts in life. Growing up in school, I was always picked on and kids made fun of me—they called me gay because I painted my nails. There are so many kids out there who are special in their own way, and I want people to understand that this record is for the misfits and for the outcasts and for anyone who’s never really fit in. There’s a place for all of us in this world. We can all find it if we just keep looking.
I wrote this record for all the outcasts in life. Growing up in school, I was always picked on and kids made fun of me—they called me gay because I painted my nails. There are so many kids out there who are special in their own way, and I want people to understand that this record is for the misfits and for the outcasts and for anyone who’s never really fit in. There’s a place for all of us in this world. We can all find it if we just keep looking.
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