Interview with Max Green from Escape the Fate

Escape the Fate Interview With Max Green in Support of Dying Is Your Latest Fashion

By Nattalie Tehrani

PunkTV.ca: Hey, this is Nattalie Tehrani from PunkTV and I’m here with Max Green from Escape the Fate. So I saw you guys back in April at Bamboozle and it was one of the greatest sets I’ve ever seen, but I have to ask you though, what was going through your head when Craig climbed the side of the stage and dived into the crowd and didn’t come up for a while?

At Bamboozle, when he jumped out into the crowd? Yeah that was kind of intense, I had seen him do it before and I’d seen him do that when he was in Bless the Fall a couple of times, but yeah, he wasn’t getting out. I was like, yeah he jumped but then I was like, “Where’s he at? Why isn’t he getting up?” I thought he had broken his legs or something.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, that was a good three or four minutes of you guys just playing and him disappearing in the crowd. Definitely intense. So, considering all of the speculation on the net, our readers totally want to know, could you please set us straight on what happened with Ronnie, why he left, and about the decision to move forward…

Absolutely. Okay, so the deal with Ronnie, that guy, everybody has problems, nobody’s perfect, okay. That’s what I want to get across right now. Ronnie was battling issues, and I was down that road battling issues, too. But the difference is, when it comes down to change and do what’s right, you got to do what you got to do, and Ronnie made some bad choices along the path, and we totally gave him an ultimatum. We said, “Hey man, you either have to clean up your act and do what you got to do, or we can’t have you in this band. We can’t have one person in control of the lives of four other people. It’s just not fair, it’s not right.” And he just refused to do that. Then he got involved in some other bad things and had some legal issues going on, and it was going to stop us from doing what we had to do as a band. We just decided, well, it’s come to the point where either we hit the ditch and move on with a new singer and lineup or there could be no more Escape the Fate. We all love what we do and we all love playing together, so we decided to suck it up and continue on.

PunkTV.ca: Exactly, and like you said, sometimes you have to do what you have to do, it was the best for the band. If you have the passion, you can’t let it go.

The thing is that the fans, they don’t know that side. They just speculate, and listen to what Ronnie has to say and it makes us sound like bad guys. Since I’ve met that guy, which was in high school, since day one, we’ve been in a band together and if we weren’t in a band together, we were hanging out, or living together, or were on a tour together. When shit went down and he got out of the band, I still tried to get him back in and it just didn’t work out. He had other plans or whatever. Everyone thinks we’re awful, but we gave that kid way more chances than anybody deserves.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, and if you guys hadn’t done that, then there would be no fans because there would be no Escape the Fate.

Yeah.

PunkTV.ca: So you guys had thousands of options I’m sure, tell us about choosing Craig Mabbit.

Um, we took Bless the Fall out, and toured with us. We saw him perform every night and watched him on Warped Tour. And he is a crazy, cool dude. He has such a big powerful voice and when shit went down with Ronnie, us and our management tried to think about who to pick and we wanted to have someone in the band that wasn’t just some random kid or whatever. We kind of wanted someone who had the experience and knew what they were doing and what they wanted to do and shit like that. And Craig crossed our minds and we had him try out and I’m going to be honest, at first, we weren’t really feelin’ it. We were like, “oh I don’t know…” and he came from a band with a scream-o vibe and we wanted to get away from screaming so much. We still love rock and we want to be badass but we wanted it to be big. We want to play to as many people as we can. So we played with Craig a little bit, he got used to our style, we got used to his style and one day at practice it just clicked. And we were like “This is Escape the Fate now.”

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, and I saw you guys live, and it was awesome and you guys clicked, so it worked really well. I think everything just takes some getting used to. And we read varying reports on whether or not he will be staying with the band, but your May 6 Myspace announcement told the world that you were entering the studio and Craig would be singing with you...

Actually, we’re at the studio right now. With Craig and John Feldmann, and he’s recording right now, and after he’s done recording his stuff, I’m going to go in there and lay down my vocals.

PunkTV.ca: Oh nice! And you chose John Feldmann, who’s producing and songwriting, so can you tell us how the direction of the whole production is going?

Oh my gosh, the album is just amazing. This past year we’ve just been through so much shit, having him in, having him out, having to cancel tours, having to lie to cover up for things, just sick and tired, sick and tired. Sick and tired of being pissed, and sick of being hated on, sick of having a bad reputation, and so we took all of those emotions and put it into an album. We’re not going to try and write a metal album, we’re not going to try and write a pop album, we're going to write what we feel, like we did in the beginning. The songs were just coming out and so we literally just took it back to a garage where we started, and that’s how we work. We took the songs to John Feldmann, showed him what was going on and he dug it and now we’re working together and it’s just amazing. I’ve never been so proud of anything in my entire life.

PunkTV.ca: Oh my God, that sounds so awesome. So would you say that this one is rawer, or how would you describe this album?

I would describe this album as…it’s not going to be a mellow album where there’s break downs everywhere or anything like that, and it’s not going to be an album where it’s full of pop songs. We’re not going to pull one of those things where we’re like “We’ve been through enough this past year and we just want to experiment as musicians, and show our artistic side.” No, that’s bullshit and that’s not what we’re about. We write what we like, and we rock, and that’s it.

PunkTV.ca: That’s an awesome mentality right there.

Yeah, that’s what we’re known for. We write songs like “The Guillotine” but then we have songs like “Reverse This Curse” which is a straight up pop song, you know?

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, it’s very melodic.

We write about a lot of different things, and the songs we put together, we just write because it sounds cool to us. And we just got lucky enough that the fans like what we’re into.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, it just clicked. And when you guys are in the recording process, what medium of art inspires you, if any, like movies, books, music, etc.?

Personally, I read a lot of lyrics, like we all kind of do, I mean personally, I get inspiration from everything, from dreams that I’ve had, and real life experiences that I’ve been through, to video games. We’re doing a part 2 to “The Guillotine”.

PunkTV.ca: Oh my God, that’s awesome!

Yeah, it’s going to be on Halo 3.

PunkTV.ca: So growing up did you always know you want to be in a band, or did that just accidentally happen?

Originally when I was growing up I was into soccer, I was playing a lot of soccer. I played up until my freshman year. I used to travel around and do tournaments in different states, like mostly on the west coast. I wanted to be a professional soccer player for a long time, and then I got into theatre and I got into music and I wanted to be an actor. Then um, when I was in 7th or 8th grade, I got a guitar for Christmas and my step dad wanted me to go to college or be a teacher or some shit. So my mom’s brother gave me his guitar, and from then on, like the second I touched the guitar, I was like, oh my God I want to do this so bad, I’ve never felt anything like this in my whole life. I used to lock myself in my room with just a radio and this sounds so stupid but, I would play air guitar and listen to the song, and listen to the tone of them. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before in my life. I can’t explain it. Something inside you just… it brings something out of me that nothing has ever done before.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, you found your passion, and it felt right, and I think that’s when you know you’re on the right path.

Yeah, I live my life by two mottos. You read what you say, because whatever you put into something is exactly what you’re going to get out of it, and it’s either all or nothing. If you do anything in your life, it’s either all or nothing.

PunkTV.ca: Exactly, and did you have to give up a lot to be in a band? You know, socially, relationship-wise, is there a lot that you just have to sacrifice?

Yeah, there definitely, definitely is a lot. When we got signed to Epitaph, I was like, “Oh we worked so hard, and we put on these local shows and we’re a local band.” I had been in five bands before that really didn’t get anywhere and didn’t even get close to the amount of success that escape the fate has. We just kept trying and put in a lot. After we got signed I thought it was great, and we were going to make money, it’s going to be awesome, I can do what I love and make a living off of it. I learned really quickly that that’s not how it is. Once you get signed it’s like starting over from the very bottom. You have to work your ass off to get up there because you’re going places where kids have never heard your name, they have no idea who your band is and they could care less because half the shows you’re playing at, they’re there to see some other band. So you really have to work hard at performing and playing your music well. I think the thing that really helped us out, that we learned early on is that…well what’s wrong with music today is that some bands just go up there, play their songs and some bands might get luck and have a hit song on MTV and the next time you see them, they’ll half ass it on stage. But we agreed that we are performers above musicians. People who come to see our show, they are paying to be entertained. Nowadays, the songs they hear is the music they steal, straight up.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, I definitely agree. I think some bands, you go to see them and that changes the whole meaning of the band for you because they have such an impact on you, whereas you would from some other band standing there and trying to play the same thing you would hear on the CD. Well, kind of change of subject, but what’s been the craziest thing a band has done for you?

Lots have done crazy things. There are a lot of cool things, like they’ll bring cupcakes or cookies, or big things of lasagna or gift bags with pillows or teddy bears or candy. There was this one thing that a fan sent a picture of to me over Myspace. This girl had carved my name into her arm. And I wrote her back right away, said it was flattering but please don’t hurt yourself. It’s cool that you’re passionate about us, but go get a tattoo or something, don’t carve my name in your arm. But it’s cool that you’re passionate about the band.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, a compliment in the weirdest way. If you were to ask a fan one question, what would you ask them?

If I was to ask a fan? Hm, that’s a good one, no one has ever asked me that before. That’s a really good question.

PunkTV.ca: Why, thank you.

Yeah. I would say if you could have one of your favorite bands do anything for you, what would it be? Like what do you expect when you go see your favorite band, like what is you idea of a perfect show?

PunkTV.ca: Out of your entire career has there been one specific lesson that you learned or a moment that changed the way you think about life, or the way you live?

Most definitely. It kind of happened recently, I mean I really hate to keep talking about everything that happened with us and Ronnie, because I truly, truly do love that person. I love Ronnie Radke to death. He has been a brother to me, and a best friend. Literally we have been attached at the hip since the day we met. And seeing all these things that he went through, and like I said, I’m no angel, I ain’t no saint. All the problems that Ronnie went through, with this and that, I was right there with him the entire time and I made the same decisions he did. The lesson I learned is that life is too short. I have a gift, you know, and I’m lucky enough that God gave me this gift, and people enjoy listening to my passion, and I don’t want to make that mistake. I want to keep going as long as I can and keep doing what I love as long as I can and I don’t want anything to get in the way.

PunkTV.ca: Exactly. You got to keep that motivation, and do what you have to do.

For sure, you only get one shot. I’m just going to hold on to that moment and never let go.

PunkTV.ca: Definitely. We have two questions that PunkTV usually asks all our interviewees. The first is, which of the following have you experienced: seen the face of God, seen a ghost, or had an alien encounter?

I was actually talking about this the other day with John. Okay well, I’ve never seen God; I have had vivid dreams, or nightmares. Okay well, here goes the story. I was possessed by demons. I used to sleepwalk a lot when I was a kid. I snapped out of it for a while, I stopped doing it. But I would do a lot of crazy things when I was sleepwalking. But this one time, I walked into my parent’s bedroom, this was before they were divorced, and I walked to the foot of the bed and I guess started talking in like strange language. And my mom was like “Max, honey, just go to bed, go to bed” you know, she was just sleep talking. And she said I was speaking in this weird language that she had never heard before and it kept getting louder and louder and she flipped on the lights and my eyes were open and my eyes were rolled to the back of my head and she woke up my step dad and he turned on his light on his side of the bed, and I guess he got up to get me and I guess I had, I don’t want to say a knife behind my back or anything like that, but I was holding something in my hands, and my step dad had to shake me to snap me out of my sleep and he said my eyes rolled forward, and I dropped whatever I had in my hands and I just kind of fell into his arms, and he put me back to bed.

PunkTV.ca : Whoa, that is crazy!

Yeah, the next morning my mom got all freaked out, was like, “We need to take you to a priest, we need to get you baptized, oh my God, you’re going to die!” I never did get baptized, but I also had an alien encounter. For real, I swear to god. We were driving back from Washington, and we were driving through these mountains and shit, and we see lights from the sky, and we thought maybe it’s like a power plant or something. We saw another light in the sky, we were like ‘Oh what’s that, what’s that?’ And we pulled over to the side of the road and we got creeped out, so we started driving. In the distance we saw faint blue lights, and as we kept driving, the blue light got closer and closer, and all of a sudden the blue light is right in front of the car, and we were going 85 mph and the light was maybe 10, 12 ft in front of the car. Not getting any closer, not getting any farther away. All of us were like, “What the fuck!?” The blue light was now around the car, like 3 or 4 times, and then it went behind us, and we were going 100 mph and the blue light is behind us, the entire time. Then all of a sudden, it vanishes.

PunkTV.ca: Wow, did you ever find out what it was?

No, that shit was so weird, and we told this story in another interview, and no one believed it. But I swear, I swear, I swear, it happened.

PunkTV.ca: So what would surprise kids to learn about Escape the Fate?

Well, I don’t really know, we’re always under the microscope or there is some rumor about us, so kids pretty much know everything about us already. Um, I hated Ronnie when I first met him. I met Ronnie when he was a freshman in high school, and he was in a band at the time, and he was the most cocky ass motherfucker I had ever met in my entire life. I actually changed seats in class because I didn’t want to sit next to him.

PunkTV.ca: Little did you know that you would be in a band with him.

Ha! Yeah, and after meeting him and getting to know him, I was like three years older than him or something like that, and after getting to know him and stuff like that, I realized, he comes across in certain way, but his problem is that he doesn’t think about things before he says it, but he really is a good honest person, and he has one of the best hearts of all the people I have ever met, and I’ve met a lot of people.

PunkTV.ca: So, it just took some getting to know him, and getting to realize who he really is.

Yeah, he really means so well.

PunkTV.ca: Is there anything I missed, or that you like to say to your fans?

Um, I have a lot of kids and a lot of fans write and ask me if there are any tips that I can give to those who want to start a band, and they look up to us and what can they do to get signed and getting touring and get their music out there. I usually just tell them to give it your all, every single day of your life, practice as much as you can, always put your heart in everything you do and you never know who’s watching and it sounds so cheesy, but it’s so true, I heard these lyrics and it hit me, and I took it to heart. I was listening to this Aerosmith song, “Dream on until your dreams come true,” and it really hit me and I always tell kids don’t ever stop because you can never know what will happen. I’m a kid from Ohio, in the country, in a small town, of like a population of maybe like 100 to 200 people. Then I moved to Las Vegas, picked up a guitar, picked up a bass, and now I’m lucky enough and be on world tours. And it's you know, keep on, keep on.

PunkTV.ca: Yeah, like you said, you just got to do what you got to do.

Yeah, and there is a lot of sacrifice. I was homeless for a while, sleeping on couches, sometimes crashing on bus stop benches in Vegas, it’s hard to have a relationship, you know, but if you want it bad enough there is nothing you can’t do.