The musician Jadea Kelly also appears on the track; can you tell us how this collaboration came together? She has also appeared on some earlier material as well, right? Correct! She also sang on our first record. I've always had a certain affinity for male/female duets, and although I don't think a full song would be entirely appropriate for our band, a feature at the end of this track suited it quite nicely. We grew up with Jadea, and it seems as though we've always known her. We tried another girl for the part, she had a more Paramore-esque kind of thing going on, and she was great, but Jadea brings a certain maturity to the part that we just couldn't deny.
Chris Hannah also appears on the new record; can you tell us how this collaboration came together? Since the dawning of our stupid band's creation, Propagandhi have always been our biggest influence, and though it's not always incredibly apparent, it's always there. We had the opportunity to open for them in the UK in 2010, I believe, and we struck up a pretty good friendship with the fellas. One night during the recording of 'Scurrilous', Luke and I had a few drinks and sent Chris a ridiculous email, essentially begging him to sing on the record, and he responded quite quickly, and to our surprise was willing to do it! It's my favourite thing that I've ever been a part of, and I'm still pissin my jeans that it's on there!"
The front cover artwork for 'Scurrilous' is really amazing; can you tell us the story behind where the image came from, and what you wanted it to mean to your fans? The art was done by Arif's grandfather (Jafar Petgar) some 60 years ago. We had all grown up practising and playing at Arif's parents' house and we were surrounded by his paintings, including the one that adorns the record's cover. It seemed fitting, based on the themes of the record, that it should be the cover. Also, it's kind of a neat little piece of our history, and something of an ode to Arif's family, and his family's history!
At this point, what songs have you enjoyed performing live the most from the new record and why? We haven't yet played all of the songs on the record live, but at this point, my favourites to perform have to be 'Hair-trigger' and 'Dunsel'; they're both quite challenging vocally, but still fun to play. However, 'Tongue-splitter' is proving to be quite the challenge for me; it may be my opening to a blossoming rap career (joking of course). I'm sure when I've fully mastered that one it will become one of my favourites because I seem to be drawn to the more difficult songs.
We must ask, what's it like to have your songs feature on the legendary video game, 'Guitar Hero' ? It's cool, I suppose it's somewhat of an honour, we're all quite fond of video games to some degree; however, none of us have ever really been much good when it comes to playing 'Guitar Hero', and I think it's pretty hilarious to see kids playing the songs better on a video game than we could ever hope to do live!
How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what should attending fans expect? I'm excited to get back out on the road, we've had quite the long break, and I'm sick of sitting around with my thumb up my ass. I know some of the guys like sitting at home and biding their time, but I can't fuckin' stand it. We've afforded ourselves the opportunity to travel the world and get paid while doing it. Not many people can say the same, so when we sit around for lengthy periods I feel as though we're wasting an amazing opportunity. That being said, I'm very excited to get back to the UK where my drinking habits are not considered anything out of the ordinary, and where I can gorge myself on chips and cheese until I want to shit my bed, but can't due to dairy product-induced constipation.