Circa Survive
Interview with Brendan Ekstrom
Words: Christian Crider
Photo: Chris Crisman

Appearing:
April 27, 2008
House of Blues, Orlando

April 29, 2008
Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale

April 30, 2008
Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg

In anticipation of their upcoming tour with Thrice and Pelican, REAX took to the phone lines to speak with Circa Survive’s guitarist, Brendan Ekstrom.

REAX: There seems to be a thematic structure linking the songs together throughout both albums. How does this come about?
Brendan Ekstrom: I think in general there’s a lot of concepts of letting go and us dealing with some of our inner and outer struggles as people. I think that we’re all in this space…in our mid-twenties where you’re kind of between being a young adult and being an adult, and trying to figure out where you actually fit in to the world right now. So I think a lot of it is trying to figure out who we are, and a lot of that comes through in Anthony Green’s lyrics. We all live together, and work together, and eat together all the time, so I guess it’s similar because of that. It’s hard to say, really. There are times I wish we would have gone a little bit more astray from that, but I don’t feel too bad about it. I think we have a lot more time and a lot more room to grow, so it’s kind of exciting.

REAX: How does cinema influence Circa Survive’s creative process?
BE: It’s definitely a big part for me because I love going to the movies. We have a huge movie collection. When we were writing the first album, we became obsessed with trying to synch movies up with albums. We did all the obvious old stuff like Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon. And then we would just do really ridiculous stuff. Anything that had a certain mood to it we would try to fit with something else. We did this Dredg record with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and it synched up almost perfectly. So we see a lot of similarities in visuals and try to take that into our music, I suppose.


REAX: Tell us about the Invisible Children Organization, and what do you hope to accomplish by bringing them along on your upcoming tour?
BE: Thrice is very involved with them, so I think they’re the ones who organized the whole thing. But we met The Invisible Children on Warped Tour, and some of the guys reached out and talked about working with us at some point. And we are going to be, hopefully, auctioning off a guitar at some point on the tour, selling tickets. Anthony and Colin will probably paint the guitar and try to raise some money. The organization is really amazing, and they’ve accomplished a lot of things for the war that’s happening in Africa right now Darfur.

It’s pretty amazing, I was just talking to them the other day and it seems like they’ve really helped take it in a positive direction through just a small organization. So it’s really cool to be a part of something like that. To me, it’s really important to be involved with anything like that that I can, being in a band. Because sometimes I wake up and I’m like, “What the hell am I doing with my life?” I’m almost thirty, and I play guitar and live this lifestyle that is basically like I’m still a teenager. It’s ridiculous, you know? So it’s important for me to be able to feel like I’m actually having a positive affect on the world through what we do. It’s really cool that we can do that. Otherwise, I would feel like I was wasting my time, a lot of the time.

REAX: The band keeps an online journal, how does this factor into your overall mood on the road?
BE: The journal seems to be updated as soon as somebody has any kind of inspiration, really. It’s really just a good outlet, and a good way of keeping in touch with the fans, and what the fans are thinking. And I think a lot of bands are really missing out on how important it is to have that contact with their fans. And it’s such a simple way to do it, you know? Like, take ten minutes out of your day, and go up there and write a couple things, and then the fans immediately feel more connected to the band. I think it’s really powerful in that sense. It’s usually Colin Frangicetto, and Anthony, and I that write on there, but we all love to write, so it’s really an outlet for us, you know?

REAX: Are there plans to enter the studio any time soon?
BE: Yeah, we’ve been talking about writing this summer. Like actually taking a good amount of time off to write a record. So, it’s possible that we could get into the studio by the end of the year, but that depends on a lot of things. Pearl Jam might come along and ask us to do a tour, or something. That’s pretty unlikely, but hey, it’s as good an example as any. We’re all ready to write a new record, you know? We had fun doing the last one, and the one before that. For me, the creation is the most exciting part. I like playing shows, but I would spend my all my time in a studio if I could. I mean, it’s like the ultimate goal for us, to be a band like Radiohead that can do one tour on an album, and then afford to be off writing for the next two years, or something like that. It’s crazy.

I think that everybody has a thousand things that they would like to try. We keep telling each other that we don’t feel like we’ve scratched the surface of our potential. And after a while of telling each other that, we’re like, “Why the hell haven’t we?” So I feel like it’s time for us to do that, and I don’t think our next album will come out until we’re one hundred percent certain that it’s the next level. I’ve been listening to a lot more grunge, so I’d like for it to be a little more raw, a little more in your face. But who knows what the hell that means, anyway?

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