The Used: "I quit drinking, I replaced alcohol with books"

It’s been three years since The Used released 'Imaginary Enemy', and in that time the band have lost and gained a member, released the magical and catha...

It’s been three years since The Used released 'Imaginary Enemy', and in that time the band have lost and gained a member, released the magical and cathartic Live & Acoustic at The Palace, and now, what is arguably the best album they have ever put out. 'The Canyon' is their seventh full-length, and a behemoth 17 tracks of pure heart-wrenching honesty and celebration of peace and pain, recorded directly onto tape. It’s the most intimate The Used have ever been. Choosing to start this album’s cycle with ‘Over and Over Again’ might seem like a strange choice when looking at the album as a whole. Its blinding joyful pop beats are strikingly different from the sheer punk and rock angst that drives the first half of the record. “The reason we went with ‘Over and Over Again’ first," frontman Bert McCracken explains, "was because of the underlying message of the importance of being yourself. That’s a really generalised, true-to-the-point-of The Used theme that has been persistent since the beginning." “Also, it’s a great time of year for cowbell, and a poppy reminder that songs are fun and they should allow you to feel everything and anything,” he says with a smile. The music video accompanying the track is weird and avant-garde, with balloons, interpretive dancing, a hedonistic buffet, and a headless figure wearing a suit. “We look at avant-garde in a post-modern clichéd way, and I think that clichés have gained the notoriety that they have because they’re so absolutely true," says Bert. "[We don’t want to] take ourselves too seriously. We wanted to make a video that was fun and not slapstick camp, but also something that represented truly emotionally telling and riveting. I think that comes through, even though it’s symbolic and metaphoric - which the record is in its entirety, very much so.” 'The Canyon' is undeniably a rock record. It’s the truest punk and rock the band have been for years. “Starting from the last thing we did, which was 'Live and Acoustic', everything about that rang true to why The Used still exist, because we still make music and play it live in a way that connects to the bigger picture that has evolved beyond the individual. "The place the band is coming from [now], we’re proud of what we’ve done, but at the same time, we understand that inspiration and creative insight comes from what you digest. You can think [that] everyone I’ve ever loved and looked up to and devoured their art and worshipped, that’s where I came from. So in this bigger way, we’re paying as much attention to how important our words are reflected through our inspirations, and how we’ve gotten to the place.”

"When you find out your parents don’t know everything, it’s hugely distressing."

The poetic lyricism of the record is unlike anything The Used have done before, partially inspired by the passing of Bert’s good friend Traegan a year ago. “'The Canyon' is a big metaphor," he says. "It started as a literal double meaning. What it takes to make a canyon is hundreds and thousands, if not millions of years of water cutting into rock and stone like a knife - pretty heavy imagery. "It’s really hard for humans to understand that kind of deep time. We live in these short mortal lives. Provo Canyon [in Utah] where I grew up was the place where my whole childhood developed all the systems of thought. I grew up very religious, and a big part of my religious fervour and my feeling of spirit was appeasing the parental securities of the confines of family as a kid. When you find out your parents don’t know everything, it’s hugely distressing, and that’s the moment that God is dead. "[With] this canyon, I not only found my own peace of mind as far as what I had been taught growing up and my beliefs, but I also discovered music there and other ways of freedom. I spent a lot of time with Traegan up there and a lot of other heavy moments. I’ve had really, really heavy moments there with my dad, maybe within a mile of where Traegan took his life, so it represents something that’s so tip-of-the-tongue. "Like what I said about clichés, they’re clichés to a certain point, but when something is said with true emotion behind it, you can sink into those words and draw on how you want to take it. We wanted to make something so honest that it exposes people who have the freedom to shit all over everything and not do anything with themselves.” “There was a big part of the process of the record where ideas came so frequently, and you get on this routine, and it involves hard work and persistence, [your] mind opens up like a river," Bert continues. "There are so many ideas that we decided - whether it’s a guitar part that’s been recorded and [Justin Shetoski, guitarist] playing another part - it’s worth it to stop and record that small idea. "I drove a lot in LA while I was recording, and whenever I’d have a sentence come to mind, that I thought was important, I’d pull over. I think a big part of it has to do with the growth as humans. [Five years ago] I quit drinking, I replaced alcohol with books in a big, big way, and I wanted to think about this record more like a book, and I wanted the story to be cohesive and have a different feeling; we needed to climax at the end. "I feel like the Apotheosis is ‘Upper Falls’, and in a big way, the first half is the story of Traegan, and how he got to where he got to. The last half is about me, and thinking about what that means in my life, how I could possibly not be there, or will I or would I? It’s just a crazy thing, because I’ve never listened to The Used's music more, and this record has done something for me that is more of a religious experience than I’ve ever had in my life. It’s more cathartic than I’ve known music to be. "We talk about it a lot, how music can save lives, but even just thinking about the record I get emotional, because I can only hope that what I’ve done, what I’ve put on there, is so honest that I hope it could possibly help someone like it’s helped me in my life and will continue to help me in my life.” “The greatest stories are always retold," Bert says of his literary inspirations. "Homer’s a perfect example of some of the best retellings, [so are] Ulysses and [the band’s 2013 EP] ’The Ocean of the Sky’. We are what we eat, there’s a lot of reflection of the world as it is, and how that affects humans created boredom and mortality. I feel like if you have the time, take the time. "Some of my favourite books, they force me to, like a physical painting, sit and stare at them and take them in. [Then] art becomes something else. Infinite Jest [by American writer David Foster Wallac] is a book that I always go back to over and over, and when I read it, it’s hard work. “I wanted people to maybe take a look at the talismanic numbers and The Book of Revelation, and why the Syrian civil war is like the Spanish civil war is like the war in the Bible in the battle of Armageddon. If you have the time, it’s worth it.”

"A lot of it was really painful…"

Recording the songs onto tape was a new experience for the band that contributed massively to the album’s feeling. The record’s opening seconds are a raw experience of Bert crying for Traegan. “There’s this process of recording vocals that’s really special with [producer] Ross Robinson - we’ve called it psychic surgery in the past, it’s really on a psychic level of mental and emotional connection to the vibrations of music. It’s a special thing that it does special things, and usually the little “sessions” we’d have would be about an hour or longer before I’d end up singing any words or notes. "Everybody was in the session that night [they recorded the emotional opening on ‘For You’], the whole band was sitting on the floor, our good friend Ryan Muirhead was taking photos - you can hear the photos being taken. "From when we first started to put the record together, when I was at Justin’s and mapping out vocals, the idea of this song came to us in a moment. It was very heavy at his house. He lost his dad ten years ago, and I never really thought about writing about Traegan until that night. "For me, it was so much of what the record felt like, but also why I fought for it to be on there, is my obsession with annular connections, and Hamlet’s peak of the ghost, that I think it sets the precedence for the record. At the beginning of the play, the ghost appears out of nowhere and then the play starts, it’s the same with Infinite Jest, the beginning is really, really telling, and I really wanted to encourage people to take the whole record in.” 'The Canyon' seems like a rebirth, especially considering the inspiration Justin Shetoski has brought to The Used since he joined in 2015, it’s like an injection of new life. As this record is such a monumental point in the band’s career, was there any point where things felt like they were faltering? “Things always go in waves, and there are plateaus, and I think with art especially, you have your moments of what you’re into at the moment, and it reflects in what you create," Bert ponders. "But as far as personal relationships, it’s always tough, and I’ve always wanted to keep all the love and respect in my heart for what The Used is, and every member being an important part. "The Used is bigger than the four people who started it, and the four people that are in it now. I don’t know if losing the passion is ever something I would say because I’ve never taken a moment away from what I know I was born to do.” “Making 'The Canyon' feels like what I imagined the greatest artists in the world in my childhood did - when I first heard Pink Floyd or Michael Jackson or The Beatles or anything great. This is what it looked like, in an old room that smells a little bit like mould, and for some reason is freezing cold one minute and so hot the next, and it’s full of gear, and it’s brown, and it’s orange and it’s literally old. "There’s something so magical about feeling for what the song is, and knowing taking tracks to tape is a performance, so you start to play, and it’s a show, and allowing the band into my psyche of what these songs are meant to me. There are moments in the drum tracks were all four of us have lost control of our emotions, and it’s never felt like that before recording. I love a new chapter; the book is getting really exciting at this point.” “In the last five years, not drinking has allowed me to have a really clear vision of myself," Bert continues, "and the people around me, and “self” and what that means, having a daughter. Making this record, I’ve never worked on anything harder, and that’s when I’ve felt closer to peace. I feel like maybe peace is this aggressive, passionate drive, endless hard work that’s selfless. I think The Used fans and anyone else who listens to this record would with an open heart, hear that music can portray things that maybe we can’t talk about that are so tip-of-the-tongue, hearing it is worth more than you can talk about.” “Everything I’ve ever loved is in [the record]. Kurt Cobain is all over the place, it’s unavoidable for me, and with this record, I tried just to let it come out and not think about it and not think about what other people might think. As an artist, it’s always the correct path. A lot of it was really painful, so it’s impossible to think. For me, the idea is as honest as it could be, to not fix anything was portraying all my heroes, and that’s the fun part for me. There are shout-outs to everyone I love. It’s bigger and better live, and we did a little acoustic version of ‘About You (No Songs Left to Sing)’, and these songs are so emotionally connected to something bigger that it’s an overwhelming experience.” Taken from the November issue of Upset, out now. The Used's album 'The Canyon' is out now.

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The Used: "I quit drinking, I replaced alcohol with books"

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