On the road, many bands deal with the pressures of touring almost every day of their lives for long periods of time. Set Your Goals isn’t just another one of those bands, having problems with their label, while being on tour for almost three years straight. At the end of it all, the band isn’t in their business for the money or fame but for their love of touring and making music that fans (and themselves) will enjoy. That music can be heard on their latest record "This Will Be The Death Of Us," which was released in July.
Recently, UG got to talk with guitarists
Daniel Coddaire and
Audelio "
Junior"
Flores. The two discussed their troubles from the last few years, the state of the music industry, and the making of their new record "
This Will Be The Death Of Us."
Dan and
Junior also shared experiences from the road, how they learned to play guitar, and about their love of music.
UG: It’s been three years since the release of “Mutiny!”, but within these three years, the band has gone through quite a bit. To start, you guys had some troubles with your former label, Euglogy Records. What were some of the problems that you had to deal with on Eulogy?
Dan: You were there for more of it.
Junior: The majority of the problems were that we didn’t have the support we wanted. We were always the band that you tell us to be on the road the whole year, then we’ll be on the road. We just needed someone that would back us and be behind us 110%. We got on a lot of great tours, some were bigger than others, and they never did anything to push us. They kind of took credit, I think, to use getting bigger tours, but it was all about bands liking us and wanting to take us out. It’s the same thing when we take out other bands. We don’t care that they don’t have a label, but if we like them, we’re going to take them out on tour. The label just never backed us at all, that’s the main thing.
UG: You guys signed to Epitaph Records recently, what were some of the reasons you guys decided to go with Epitaph?
Junior: They loved our band. Some of the people at Epitaph had been calling us for awhile, and a few of them saw us play at Vans Warped Tour last year on the last date, and they were super stoked about us. From there on, our management kept in touch with Brett (Gurewitz), and he knew we wanted to get bought out. Brett invited us to his office, we all met him, and he was stoked on the band. He said he wanted to bring a band like us back to Epitaph, like back to the roots of what Epitaph was about. We didn’t really have any other label interest besides Epitaph. There were other labels that kind of showed interest, but we had to get bought out, and they weren’t too into that. Brett was just like, “I like your band, I want you on my team, and let’s make it happen.” It just went off from there.
Dan: It was a no-brainer too. They’re just such an established label, that it really wasn’t that hard of a decision. When a label like that comes your way and is offering to do whatever it takes to put you on their label, then it’s not a hard decision to make.
Junior: And they push all their bands equally, like if you want to be on the road, they’ll support it. They won’t be like “sorry, you guys do it on your own.” They’ll make sure they promote you. We just felt at home.
Dan: It’s a real label too. They have the means and desire to push you as far as they can.
"We were proud of it, but we just didn’t know what was going to happen when it hit people’s ears."
Junior: I don’t think he was going to leave; it’s just none of us wanted to do anything with the band on Warped Tour. Our morals and everything just went down. We didn’t want to be on the tour, but we had already committed, so we weren’t going to back down on a commitment we made already. It wasn’t because of Warped Tour, we were just wrecked out. We had been touring nonstop, and we had label problems before Epitaph came in the picture. Eulogy wanted us to release something, and we didn’t want to. If we had to release a record with Eulogy, we had already hit the roof, so we might as well just stop doing it. Why bust our ass when they’re not going to do anything for us. I guess it hit Jordan the hardest, because he had put a lot of work into the band, as much as everyone else did, and he was very passionate about everything. It just caught up to everyone. None of us wanted to do anything. We didn’t do any interviews or any press, nothing on that Warped Tour. We went home, and none of us talked to each other for awhile. It was almost for the better for the better of the band, because we kind of needed to regroup and live a normal life for a bit and realize that this sucks. We needed to get back on the road, and that’s when Epitaph started coming around. We just started getting more excited in the band. We didn’t have any demos, nothing recorded or wrote. We just got that spark back in our band.
UG: The band recently released “This Will Be The Death Of Us” on July 21, after a three year wait what do fans have to look forward to on the new album?
Junior: There were a lot of positive and negative things said about us. We started by releasing a punk song on Myspace, and then we put up our heavier song. We didn’t want to release our single, we just wanted to throw our curve ball out. Kids were like “they changed, this is bad,” and we kind of just kept our mouths shut. We love the record, it still has the Set Your Goals sound, but it’s more mature. Everyone uses that word, but we didn’t change our sound. The record goes from the more melodic Set Your Goals to heavier to poppier, it’s all combined. It’s riffier.
Dan: It’s way riffier.
Junior: More melodic, but not in the metal way, kind of like a Strung Out kind of tightness.
Dan: We each have a couple solos.
Junior: We’re using pedals now. We’ve never used pedals. But it’s just to give it a little bit of flavor, nothing too crazy. We’ve been selling the record on tour, because Epitaph allowed us to sell it before the release date, and there has been nothing but positive feedback from it. It’s kind of rough for us, because we’re playing seven new songs on stage, so a majority of the time, kids just look at you. I know when I used to see some of my favorite bands, and they played new stuff, it’s cool, but you want to hear the older songs. Kids are into it though, they’re clapping and moving. We feel that hopefully it’s going to catch on. We’re still playing a lot of old songs, but like I said, it’s been nothing but positive feedback from everyone. It feels good, but at first it was kind of nerve wrecking.
Dan: Ya, we didn’t know what to expect. We were proud of it, we still are, but we just didn’t know what was going to happen when it hit people’s ears.
Junior: We were like “what if it’s outdated?”
Dan: It’s easy to be proud of something even if it’s not that great. We were like “are we proud of something just because we did it or is it really awesome?”
Junior: It was either kids were expecting us to go heavier or poppier.
Dan: We never really went any one route. There are plenty of poppy parts; there are plenty of heavy parts.
Junior: Some skate punk
Dan: Ya, plenty of fast parts.
UG: What was the overall writing process of the album?
Dan: Basically, Jordan (Brown) and Mikey (Ambrose) started it off. Jordan plays guitar too. They started off everything, just the bare bones or everything. Then, we went in with them and producer Mike Green. He helped those two solidify the structure of the songs. When it was time to lay down the guitar work, it was just me and Junior in there, and we kind of just came up with a bunch of cool licks. Jordan was in there too, because he likes to have a lot of input on things.
Junior: This was definitely a group effort. Everyone spoke on their part, and we went with it.
Dan: It was awesome too, because for “Mutiny!” Jordan pretty much played all the lead and rhythm guitar parts, but this time me and Junior did the recordings. It really has our own individual flavors this time, as opposed to just two guys playing somebody else’s parts. It comes across a lot clearer live after listening to the record.
UG: The band’s sound has definitely matured since “Mutiny!”, but what were some of the influences that pushed the band to write some “different” material?
Dan: A lot of Meshuggah
Junior: Ya, a lot of Meshuggah and a lot of Pennywise. I remember one time on Warped Tour when all our morales were down. Jordan and I were talking, and we were like “let’s just write a hardcore record.” We literally just wanted to write a hardcore record. It ended up coming down to what do we like, why are we into this, and it just went from there on. Everyone listens to different types of music.
Dan: We’re all over the board.
Junior: We just wanted to put it into writing and shows. Mikey was really into Meshuggah, and it showed on his drumming as well. We just wanted to become better musicians, and Mike Green really helped us out, to push ourselves and become better guitarists. There’s a lot of weird time signatures, not too many, but there are.
Dan: There’s some weird riffs too, that we never would’ve written.
Junior: He took the band’s idea and kind of ran with it in a different direction.
Dan: He really pushed us to. He didn’t let us slack on anything. I remember we were just sitting back on the couch so many times. He would just be like “alright, stop recording, get up, and play this like you mean it.”
Junior: And he is an insane guitarist. He could’ve just recorded all our guitar tracks in one day. He pays attention to detail.
UG: The new album features various guest vocals, but who would be your favorite guest vocal spot on the album?
Junior: I would have to say Vinnie Caruana, because we all like listening to his music. He’s a big influence on the band. Because of him, we were able to be The Movielife “back-up band” for four shows. We got to do the Bamboozle festival and two England shows. We were going to be there already, and we asked if he wanted to do a Movielife set. It was kind of an honor for us to do it. He called Jordan, and Jordan was staying at my house, and he was like “I want to do the Bamboozle festival, would you guys basically be my backing band?” We asked him to do a guest spot on our record, and he was excited to do it. That would have to be my favorite guest spot.
Dan: Ya, I would probably have to agree. Hayley’s (Williams, of Paramore) part is awesome. She took it to a different level and made her spot kind of hip-hop sounding.
Junior: Also, Chad (Gilbert, of New Found Glory) on “Our Ethos,” for his part, we originally wanted Toby (Morse, of H2O), but he couldn’t do it. We asked Chad, and we wanted to have that punk sound. At first, we didn’t know how it was going to sound; we were just used to his vocals for Shai Hulud. When we heard it, we thought it was awesome.
Dan: It gave it extra balls, and it needed some.
Junior: Jon Gula’s (of Turmoil) spot was cool too.
Dan: And Jordan Pundik is on the b-side that’s on the vinyl and Japanese release. That’s a good spot too.
"We love the record, it still has the Set Your Goals sound, but it’s more mature."
Junior: Originally, the single was going to be “Like You to Me.”
Dan: We’ll definitely have something.
Junior: We haven’t really decided on anything. We’ve been talking about “Our Ethos” a lot. “Like You to Me” is another favorite song for all of us. We haven’t really decided. We might let the fans decide what will be the next single.
UG: The song “Gaia Bleeds (Make Way For Man)” is Set Your Goal’s heaviest track yet. What pushed the band to write a heavier track?
Junior: We wanted to write a hardcore record. That’s pretty much what it was. Jordan had been listening to a lot of Turmoil at that time, and that song was originally nicknamed “Turmoil.” We just wanted to write a heavy song. It wasn’t supposed to make it on the record, but we all fell in love with it and put it on the record. We wanted to see how kids would react to it.
Dan: Plenty of our fans mosh anyways, so it’s giving them exactly what they want. For at least one song, we can just go off and be crazy.
Junior: It’s also fun for us to play.
Dan: Ya, it’s a good headbanger.
UG: On the subject of genre, the band has been thrown into a genre dubbed “happy hardcore.” How does the band feel about this genre?
Dan: I don’t think they’re going to use that term as much after the new album.
Junior: People need to stop coming up with genres. It’s either you’re hardcore or you’re pop punk.
Dan: We just don’t care.
Junior: Everyone has an opinion. It doesn’t bother us anymore
UG: You guys have been on the road for pretty much three years straight since “Mutiny!” was released, what’s the craziest thing that has happened to the band while touring so far?
Junior: We lost our minds, when we did 54 shows straight with one day off in Europe. We did like nineteen countries. Toward the last two weeks of the tour, we were just losing our minds. If it wasn’t for No Trigger being on that tour, we probably would have flown home. We could only be with each other for so long. I think our most fun thing was that we got to cliff dive in Portugal, and I never thought we would play Portugal. We went to Italy, Australia, and Japan.
UG: What are some of your favorite bands to tour with?
Junior: Fireworks.
Dan: Fireworks.
Junior: Four Year Strong, we got to tour with them for the first time on the New Found Glory tour, and we got along super well. They’re super rad people to tour with. Definitely Fireworks, we do a lot of touring with them. They’re fun guys to be around. If you want to have a fun time, just hang out with them. You’ll be laughing all day.
Dan: Their new record is awesome, check that out.
UG: What is your favorite song to play live?
Junior: “Goonies” is always fun to play. It’s simple, and you’re able to just move around. From the new songs, I really like playing “Our Ethos.”
Dan: Ya, that’s a good one.
Junior: It’s just kind of an epic song.
Dan: Some of the new ones are fun to play, but they’re also pretty challenging.
UG: What is your current guitar setup?
Dan: We just got some new gear. Right now, I am running a Triple Rectifier through a Mesa 2x12 and a 4x12. I want to start playing the new Mesa Electra-Dyne head, because it’s fucking awesome. I just tried it out for the first time, right before we left for tour, and I was very impressed with it. Guitar-wise, I have a Gibson SG that I’ve had since I was 15 and a Les Paul. For pedals, I use a Boss delay, a volume pedal, and a Micro POG, which is awesome. I use it for one song, “Like You to Me,” and I love it.
Junior: I use a Stiletto Deuce head and a JCM800, then a volume pedal, Boss delay, and a Boss octave pedal, and I play a Telecaster Deluxe.
UG: How did you guys learn to play guitar?
Dan: When I was 14, a bunch of my friends were taking a classical guitar class, and they would always have their guitars with them. I would always ask if I could mess with them a little bit, and then I started taking lessons. A couple years later, none of them were really playing anymore. I kept practicing as much as I could, and now, here I am. I took a few lessons, but other than that, I’m just self-taught.
Junior: My grandpa used to play a lot of acoustic and classical stuff when I used to go to Mexico. When he passed away, he gave me his guitar, and I didn’t know how to play at all. I had a friend who would teach me single notes and tell me what to do. I remember my twelfth birthday; I had like $150 that I ended up spending on guitar lessons. They just helped me get better with my fingers, and from there on, I just tried to teach myself. It helps out to play with friends, people that are better than you that could teach you.
UG: If you could record a tribute album to any band, who would it be and why?
Junior: I would do a tribute to Pearl Jam, because they’re my all time favorite band.
Dan: Black Sabbath would be an easy one to pull off, it’s just there’s so many tributes though. I’d love to hear a Faith No More tribute record.
Junior: Pantera would be tight.
Dan: I would like to hear a more punk Police cover.
Junior: AC/DC would be tight too.
"People need to stop coming up with genres. It’s either you’re hardcore or you’re pop punk."
Junior: I love “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” just because it makes you head bang. I wish I would’ve wrote that.
Dan: Shit man, I can’t even think of one. I’ll just have to write my own song someday.
UG: How does the band feel about illegal downloading of music?
Junior: We illegally download. We haven’t said anything about not downloading our record; we knew it was going to leak. I’m proud it didn’t leak a month before.
Dan: It was only a week before.
Junior: We didn’t give it to anyone, at all.
Dan: You can’t avoid it. I mean, I’m going to download it anyways, and if I like it, I’m still going to buy the physical copy. I think artists just need to adapt to that, because so much of the music industry now is through the internet. It’s all changing right now; labels are dying because they can’t sell actual CDs and records anymore. It’s inevitable; it’s just going to happen, so you just have to deal with it.
Junior: I think band’s need to do interesting CD layouts. I’ve always been into that. We’ve always wanted to do a digi-pack, and we put a lot of thought into the layout of the new record. It needs to be where someone would collect a physical copy because it looks awesome.
Dan: You want to make people buy a record these days. You can’t just rely on putting a CD out to just make money off it. It just doesn’t work like that anymore.
Junior: We download stuff all the time. We’re always on It-Leaked and StrikeGently.
Dan: If I had to pay back all the money I’ve downloaded, I would be so broke.
Junior: Especially Matt (Wilson), he has like 800 gigs of music. Everyone that downloaded our record, go buy it.
Dan: Buy a shirt, come see us, fuck it, come hang out with us.
UG: How do you feel about the current state of the music industry?
Dan: It’s like I said, unless you’re ginormous, CD sales just don’t really count anymore. It’s changing; the face of it is changing.
Junior: If you’re a band that can make top 40 radio, then sign with a major label, do a 360 label, do whatever they tell you to do. All of us on this tour, we have to go out and have kids listen to our music at shows. Even if you’re on an indie label, they can only do so much. That’s why I think our band is so lucky, because we’ve always wanted to be on the road, and that’s our goal, to hold on to that as much as possible. If you know the songs, that’s what matters to us in the end.
Dan: I don’t care how much money I’d be making, if it wasn’t fun, I wouldn’t be doing it. That’s what it comes down to.
UG: Do you have anything to say to the readers of this interview?
Dan: We hope you guys check out and enjoy our CD. Come rock out when we rock out.
Junior: Also, we love snacks.
Dan: Ya, bring snacks, throw them on the stage even if it’s nothing too major.
Interview by Dylan Newell
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2009
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