That's the long-lasting impression they've had on me. As people, touring with them even back then, they just had it together. For people my age, they were part of that contingent of bands like Born Against, who had that early, long list of contacts in every fucking place around the globe. They were more than happy to share where you could play in Little Rock, or some trailer in Missouri, or some kid's garage in Montana. I was always intrigued at how well they ran their band, which was something I picked up about them from touring. The way they worked their transportation and their money. They were one of the first bands that I was personally aware of that really knew how to handle their business well. Especially in the early 90's when all of a sudden there were the Green Day's, and the Rancid’s and a bunch of bands started to explode. Bands were suddenly dealing with bigger venues and managers and labels, and AVAIL were a band that you could talk to about these things. And they were always concerned to a certain point, with what steps they were going to take as a band. I just loved both their work ethic and their business sense. It seems like they had thought about this bigger picture stuff that hadn't even occurred to a lot of other bands, so they were better equipped to deal with these situations as they came up. They knew what they were doing, but also never seemed like a band that were looking to maximize their thing at any give point, which may be how they've stuck around for so long. Yeah, they maybe could have [maximized things] at any given point. But they were one of those bands that were actually insightful enough to say "Well, what do we want? Are we a band that wants to tour 250 days a year?" And the answer was no, they had relationships, kids, or other jobs. They are very keen on what will keep this interesting to them. So while other people over-sold themselves or embarked on careers, I never thought AVAIL were a career band. Especially looking back now, they have always just been a band that generates what they generate. Whether it be fans or music, or money, or touring, they're comfortable with what they're doing and I think it keeps other people comfortable with what they're doing. They didn't ever have to come back, because they never went anywhere. I've always gotten the feeling from knowing them as people that it's a simple thing. If they weren't still intrigued by it, then they wouldn't do it anymore. They don't have such a sense of ego, because they don’t need people to love them. They are the kind of band that does it because they love it, and they really don't give a shit if a bunch of people are paying attention. I've seen plenty of bands get jaded and lose that generosity that AVAIL has. I can think of times on tour, when they had a guarantee and the show really didn't do well enough to make that guarantee by a long shot. They would see that they've worked with this club or this
person over the years, and they wouldn't take all the money, even though they had the guarantee. I've been around long enough to know that most bands won't ever do that and take responsibility for something like that. Again, it endears people to the band over time and makes people want to work with them time and time and time again. They seem to have always seen the big picture, even when they're making these day-to-day decisions for the band. Exactly. That was difficult time for a lot of bands, in the early 90's. That's right when Nirvana really broke and people were thinking "Wow, could this happen to me?" It was almost a terrifying cliff that you were looking over. It's not like you want to jump, but what if someone pushed me and I suddenly landed on this pile of money? And it's very real because a lot of bands had friends' bands who this was happening to. What’s your favorite thing about 4am Friday? That’s a tough one. I was trying to figure this out earlier, and it's actually sort of difficult. I always loved "Monroe Park," and "Simple Song" I really like too. It's funny, with my age and being a fan of this band for 15 years or longer. And the albums start to sort of blend together. I actually think it's cool you're doing it on 4am Friday and not Dixie, because that seems to be the one that a lot of people still focus on today as the AVAIL record. 4am Friday is hardly transitional, but I see it as almost their middle record, with so many elements of their earlier and later sound. It's hard to imagine now, hearing Dixie and then
Over The James back to back and thinking it's the same band. I've never actually talked about this with any member of the band, but I've always felt like they almost scare themselves about things. They'd had some success, and they were on Lookout at the time, but when they made Dixie it became really a big deal. So then they went to make 4am Friday and it seemed like "Well, what do we do now?" It's a great record, but you're right; it is sort of like a middle record. Because then they came back with Over The James and it's like a gut punch right away. It's almost like they said "Well, fuck it, we tried and thought so much about it and now we'll just go back to not thinking about it and do what we do best." And I think that's reflected in certain songs and the lyrics. 4am Friday is definitely not a transitional record, but when you say "middle record" yeah, that really resonates with me. Any band that has a level of success early on, you can't help but almost be disappointed if you don't hear the same amount of acclaim right away for a new record, even if it sells more copies. I mean, still today Dixie is the record, Dixie is the tattoo that people have. That's it, so what do you make of that? It's only human nature to really care about that sort of stuff and try and gauge it. Every band wants to play mostly songs from their newest record. But AVAIL never really seemed to care much about that stuff, or get demoralized by people focusing on their older material some of the time. And maybe that's part of why the band has gone on for so long in as pure a form that it has.
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C—Trent Nelson
:: ISSUE 19 ::
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