Interviews

 

THE USED

 

Words: Rod Yates

 

Should you want to find Jeph Howard when The Used land in Sydney in a few weeks’ time, look not to the city’s pubs, strip clubs or tattoo parlours. Instead, try Taronga Zoo or, at a pinch, the Natural History Museum.

 

“I went to the zoo in Sydney, which was one of the best times I’ve ever had,” says the bassist of the band’s last trip to Australia in 2005. “I love archaeology too, and I went to a museum when I was down there, and there was a mummy, which was fucking incredible. I’ve never seen a mummy in person before, so it was like, incredible. It was one of the most incredible times of my life. I just said incredible three times, that’s how cool it was.”

 

Though you sense Howard could happily spend half an hour discussing his museum adventures – he also saw a 30,000-year-old fish and an early kangaroo with a pug nose instead of a long one, in case you’re interested – there are, of course, more pressing matters at hand, namely the band’s soon-to-be-released third album, Lies For The Liars. There’s also the business of selling it to a public growing increasingly sceptical about all things “emo” and “screamo”, which is why Howard is currently sitting in a truck stop in the middle of America ordering a waffle sandwich “with no dairy” because he’s “kind of allergic”. The Utah quartet are half way through a promotional tour of the US where each day brings with it another city, another faceless gaggle of press and, to top it off, an assortment of anonymous radio stations, all of whom The Used need to shake hands with to ensure their new single finds its way onto the airwaves. Only they can’t help but subvert the situation slightly.

 

“We’ve been doing stuff we shouldn’t be doing like playing songs on the radio that we’re not supposed to yet,” boasts Howard defiantly. “Whatever, it’s better that way. We should be able to do what we want to do, so we’re going to.”

 

Have the powers-that-be at Warners had anything to say about that?

 

“Yes,” he chuckles. “They want us to play certain songs and we’re like, ‘Fuck you guys, we’ll play what we want.’ So we did and they called. And then the next day we did the same thing and they’re like, ‘Goddamit!’, getting pissed. In the end it doesn’t matter. We’ve gotta do what we want.”

 

Ask Howard how The Used are different to when they recorded 2005’s In Love And Death, and rather than philosophise about their increased maturity, musicianship and creative goals, he instead starts with the obvious: they have a new drummer. For some, the 2006 departure of sticksman Brandon Steineckert represented the first serious crack in a band famous for its internal struggles.

 

“It was definitely a weird time in our lives,” says Howard. “It was definitely one of the most challenging times The Used has ever been around. A lot of ups and downs.”

 

Though admitting he’s happy for Steineckert (who’s since joined Rancid) – even if you sense it’s through gritted teeth – Howard is unable to control his excitement about new recruit Dan Whitesides, who he describes as one of his “top three best friends”.

 

“He’s one of the most incredible drummers I’ve seen play. He actually made us tighter as a band, and I’m talking personally tighter and musically tighter. I’ve never had anyone push me that hard musically. He’s so good as a drummer that he makes me want to be so much better as a bass player.”

 

Steineckert’s departure may also be indirectly responsible for the band’s decision to record album number three with long-time producer and mentor, Goldfinger frontman John Feldman. Having initially decided to work with someone new on the album, the familiarity of Feldman at a time when they were still adapting to the line-up change proved too hard to pass up.

 

“We looked through a list of names [of producers], but it was weird, it was like pointing at a name in a phone book,” muses Howard. “Do we pick a random name from this phone book or do we go with John, who we know and understand and love as a person? Spin of a wheel or a friend?”

 

The results will be on show for everyone to hear when Lies For The Liars is released on May 19. For now, though, the only hint as to what the album will sound like has come in the shape of the song Handsome Awkward, which was released on the recent Berth live album and DVD, and new single The Bird And The Worm. The latter’s experimental edge combined with its disturbing film clip suggests a darker offering.

 

“I don’t even want to say that’s a hint,” says Howard. “Every song on it is very us, and it’s very different from anything else on the record. In Love And Death was lyrically the heaviest thing we’ve ever done. It was heavier on the soul than the ears, if that makes sense; just the shit that Bert [McCracken, vocals] went through with Kate dying [McCracken’s former girlfriend was pregnant with his child when she suffered a fatal drug overdose]. Looking at the new record, it’s so much more energetic, so much more fun, so much easier to get into and so much more powerful. I feel that Quinn [Allman, guitar] has gone far past his ability. He’s one of my favourite guitar players, and I don’t really tell him that as much as I should, but the stuff that he’s done on this record and the musicianship, and him and Bert together, I’ve never seen a team like that. The melodies Bert comes up with and sings fit more than anything I’ve ever heard.”

 

All of which may explain why Howard admits to being “fucking awesome” at the moment, despite the punishing promo schedule he’s facing. Helping his mood is the fact that The Used will be returning to Australia in a few weeks – a country Howard lists as the band’s favourite alongside Japan – followed by a longer tour in October when they headline the Australian Taste Of Chaos run.

 

“I’m so excited,” gushes Howard. “We’ve been talking about it, freaking out that it’s been so long. Australia’s been so good to us and they’ve treated us so good. There’s not many places that we can say it’s been that good of a time that we’ve been there.”

 

 

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