Hardcore legends, The
Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, came to London’s Borderline at the start of the month
and we were honoured to sit down with guitarist Randy Winter before their nostalgic
and impressive set. Of course, Randy faced the Louder Now Grab Bag, but luckily
for him he grabbed some of the more sensible questions.
What is your
favourite memory of being in this band?
That’s sort of a tough question because there’s so many. I
would say one of my top ten favourite memories, because I can’t really narrow
it down to one, would be a collage of a few. My favourite memories of this band
will always be travelling the world. It’s awesome to be blessed to even break even,
or be able to make money for a living being able to travel the world doing
something you love.
What country would
you most like to visit?
I really enjoyed the Phillipines but as far as where I have
enjoyed the most it would probably be Australia. It’s so similar to America and
the UK. It’s like a hybrid of the two, if you took both and slammed them in to
one and added awesome coast lines, with good waves all the time. I surf all the
time so that’s a big thing for me.
We have never been to Alaska though, but that will probably
change next year. We’re going to be doing an anniversary tour for our debut
record Don’t You Fake It. Next year
it will be exactly 10 years since it came out. So we’ll probably stretch out to
some spots we haven’t been to, intentionally.
On a scale of 1 – 10,
how weird are you?
Judging myself I would probably say a 7, being realistic. I’m
really picky about stupid things. Be it, OCD, a ridiculous sleeping disorder
that I’ve had ever since I can remember or food. I’m a low card guy, I’ve been
doing that for almost 11 years. To an average person I guess those three things
really add up because it’s something that reoccurs every day.
My sleeping schedule is literally non-existent. I can’t
sleep longer than 2 hours sustained. I randomly get two hour sleep bursts
whenever I get a chance. It’s actually optimal for this occupation but it was
definitely a hard time whenever I was in school because my brain wasn’t getting
REM sleep so whenever you’re not doing anything that requires a lot of
attention and physical exertion my brain is like “alright, nap time!” I’m
always a hands on person otherwise my brain is going to shut off.
Have you ever had an
epic fail on stage?
Not really an epic fail but near epic fail, that’s for sure.
Where monitors aren’t pinned down correctly and they’re hanging off the edge
and you’re up there playing and, woosh, there it went! A couple of times I’ve
almost flipped forward but I’ve caught myself with my left hand and caught the
next note.
Sound tech issues with mic’s not even being on. I’ll just
back hand it and then they figure out, oh there must be something wrong with
that mic because he just threw it away. Sometimes they can’t hear what you’re
hearing on stage or they’re working on a different part of the mix. Engineers
get really into their job and I respect that a lot because I am also an
engineer. They’re not just staring at one guy the entire time you’re listening
to the mix as a whole.
This is really the fourth version of The Red Jumpsuit
Apparatus. There were three different versions with different names and I think
we got all of the epic fails out of the way then. The closest thing we’ve had
to a disaster was recently when one of the strings broke on my guitar that’s
tuned to C. I looked around and there was nobody there so I just threw it back
into the boat and had to grab another guitar that was tuned to a completely different
key and had to transpose, on the fly, and move everything up a full step. If someone
would have told me that I was going to be thrown under the bus like that then I
would have been freaking out and would have to think it through and maybe give
it a test run but I just had to do it.
What’s your favourite
album?
Again, this is one of those questions where I’m going to
have to avoid answering with just one because that’s impossible. My absolute
favourite would be, off hand, the one that I’ve probably listened to the most
would be The Wall [Pink Floyd] and then probably from that point Final Cut,
which was supposed to be part of The Wall. Anything Pink Floyd, I’m a stupid
fan boy for Pink Floyd, David Gilmore and Roger Waters. It’s a shame that they
couldn’t just make things work and continue on but I’m sure it was a pride
thing. That happens when you have two amazing singer/songwriters in the same
band, that’s rough I’m sure.
If the question was what album have I listened to the most
than it would be The Wall. It’s definitely a favourite of mine but I can’t say
it’s THE favourite because it’s very mute. If that was your favourite album,
and that’s all you ever listen to, then you would be depressed and locked in an
insane asylum. But it’s so perfect for when you feel that desperation when you
feel that need for a light at the end. That’s the one.
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