PAUL: “Hi, please can you introduce yourself and your role in the band?”
WADE: “My name is Wade and I play guitar.”
PAUL: “Can you please settle an argument that has raged on our forums…how do you pronounce your name? Is it Alex-is-on-fire or Alexis-on-fire? Or something completely different altogether?!”
WADE: “Alexis. Who would name their band alex is on fire…”
PAUL: “Is it true the band name was inspired by a female contorting pornstar?”
WADE: “We are named after our singer’s deceased sister Alexis. God rest her soul.”
PAUL: “I’m sure you’ve been asked this question a billion times already, but what are your views on the recent ’emo’ explosion? Do you think you are an emo band, a hardcore band or a rock band?”
WADE: “It doesn’t matter to us what people want to describe us to their friends as. Recently some kid told me ‘he really doesn’t listen to power violence, but we are rad’.”
PAUL: “You’ve been touring across the US and Canada and playing sold-out shows…have you noticed a shift in the crowds (for example the ages of fans) that you are playing to?”
WADE: “Absolutely, as more and more kids come out it seems there are a lot more younger faces. But, we look at it positively it doesn’t matter how old you are as long as you love music. It pisses some of the older people at the shows off, but some of them need to realize dancing in a pit is about having fun – it’s not a cock measuring contest.”
PAUL: “I heard you opened for Disturbed and didn’t get on well with them and their fans? Given the chance again would you open for such a shitty nu-metal band or give them the brush off?”
WADE: “We were actually given that chance again and we opened up for Godsmack. It was better actually. I think people appreciated the fact we weren’t wearing makeup or relying on a light show, it was just us throwing our guitars around as hard as we could.”
PAUL: “While on the subject of touring, do you have any plans to come across to the UK? I swear hundreds of kids begged me to ask that question!”
WADE: “We certainly do, as soon as we finish our new CD we will be making the trip. So hopefully sometime around April.”
PAUL: “Do you realise you have quite a large fanbase over here, despite the record having not yet been officially released?”
WADE: “That’s what people tell us, I got a chance to spend some time in London last summer and I want nothing more than to come play there.”
PAUL: “Speaking of the record, are you pleased with the reaction that it has generated, both from fans and the critics? Are you surprised it has done so well?”
WADE: “Critics are weird. You get really excited when it’s positive and then get all defensive when some one says you’re shit. Really though no one’s opinion of music is worth more than anyone elses. As far as the sucess of the cd, none of us really had any expectations for it, so we are incredibly excited with how well it’s done.”
PAUL: “How much of an impact do you think the internet, and MP3 file-sharing, has had on spreading the Alexisonfire word?”
WADE: “I think file sharing and mp3s have helped us incredibly, our first US tour people came to our shows and sang along, when there was no way of getting our cd there, so that’s amazing. And if people dig us in the UK the internet must be doing something.”
PAUL: “Do you think your fans would be quite so passionate if Alexisonfire became a mainstream band in the same way that the likes of Brand New and Thursday have been pushed in?”
WADE: “I think both those bands have played constantly and built themselves up by being good live bands. We played with Brand New a year and a half ago and there was 70 people at the show. All we can try to do is put on the best show we can regardless if we are playing to 30 people or 2000.”
PAUL: “Would you be happier to have a smaller, more passionate following or a huge, less passionate following?”
WADE: “I don’t think by playing huge shows you need to lose the intimacy with the crowd. But we would rather be playing to people who are music fans not people who care about singles and videos.”
PAUL: “You’ve filmed two videos now I think as well…how much fun have they been to make?”
WADE: “They are tons of work to do, we aren’t working with lots of time or money so we end up working on them at weird hours of the night and filming for 16 hours straight.”
PAUL: “What plans do you have for 2004? Are we likely to see another release or will you continue to tour the album?”
WADE: “We are currently taking time off from touring to write and record a new album. We should be back on the road in March, hopefully get across to the UK, do some bigger US tours and do Warped Tour this summer.”
PAUL “If there is anything you wish to add, or any messages you have for our UK readers, please say!”
WADE: “Thanks to steve, lee, boa and all the other cats who took me out drinking in London when I was there, and also cheers to that dude I gave my hat to at the biffy cloride [sic] show. Also Camden Town is fucking scary.”