Singer Vincent Bennett and guitarist Tom Smith Jr talk us through the two decade and 10 album long career of The Acacia Strain.
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00:00It feels like home.
00:07Started the band, we just wanted to be a band.
00:28We had no outlying goals, it was just playing music.
00:37Local shows were like a thing.
00:40For pretty much my entire teen years and into my 20s, there was a show every single Sunday.
00:46We wanted to play music. We didn't care what it sounded like.
00:48We didn't really necessarily care if people liked it, we just wanted to play it.
00:51The internet wasn't really a thing, so regional music was big.
00:55I took pride in being from where I was from, because music there sounded like it was from there.
01:07We were listening to At The Gates, and Throwdown, and Every Time I Die.
01:10We were listening to all of that, and we were trying to take it all in at once.
01:13Our first record, if you listen to it, it's fucking terrible.
01:17We were searching for a sound, and we just couldn't find it.
01:22It was translated at the time, but I don't think it aged well.
01:30It was a sign of the times kind of record, where everybody was trying to do crazy Dillinger stuff.
01:37We just wanted to do things that all of the bands that surrounded us were kind of doing,
01:42and we tried to do them all at the same time.
01:44How about the follow-up, 3750?
01:51Honestly, still, at that point, I don't think we knew what we were doing.
01:54I really don't. We just wanted to be heavy.
01:57That was the big thing in 2004. You just wanted people to march for your band.
02:02You didn't care if they liked your music, you just wanted people to hit each other.
02:06Nobody leaves here without getting hurt.
02:19A lot of people still ask us to play songs off that record.
02:22I think we played Car Bomb every single tour, still.
02:26Last year we played it twice a set, as a joke, and people loved it.
02:32I think 3750 was the first hinting at where the band was going.
02:38You could hear that the band, production-wise, everything was all coming together in a very organic and slow way.
02:48It was a very transitional record with the sonics of the band and the writing.
02:53To me, the Deadwalk is the baseline of the band.
02:57And 3750 and Life Is Very Long, those are the baby steps leading up to those.
03:162005 was a huge year for us.
03:18When the Deadwalk came out, it kind of pushed us to the next level, I guess.
03:25We started touring with hardcore bands, where we were the metal band.
03:31And then we started touring with metal bands, where we were the hardcore band.
03:36We just wanted to have fun. We still just want to have fun.
03:39There's no delusions that we're going to be the next Metallica or anything like that.
03:422006 was a weird year for us.
03:45We were playing in front of three people every day. No one gave a fuck.
03:49Everyone's like, you should play more stuff off the Deadwalk, man. I love that record.
03:52I'm like, where the fuck were you when we were playing in front of three people?
04:06How did that feel to break into that Billboard Top 200 for the first time?
04:09It was crazy. A lot of my friends and peers were like, this is your year.
04:14When we recorded Continent, we kind of wanted to refine even further
04:19and make it an even heavier record.
04:29We kind of tried to have fun with it.
04:31And when we were in the studio, we were recording all these videos
04:33and trying to make people pay attention to us and putting stuff out on YouTube
04:37because that was a thing that was finally available for bands.
04:40Hey guys, I'm just doing vocals right now, so if you want to watch, we could hang out.
04:51Stop, stop, stop. What the fuck is that shit?
04:54What?
04:55You're not even singing on key.
04:57What happens if you're brutal?
04:58That's fucking perfect.
04:59Are you Celine Dion's little brother?
05:02Basically, it's not very exciting.
05:04This album is going to suck and you're not going to buy it.
05:07But I appreciate you watching.
05:09I was, what, 16, 15 years old when that record came out?
05:1315. I actually just realized that I still have one of my Continent guitar picks from that tour
05:19that just says I was 15 when Continent came out.
05:22I can't take your fucking faces.
05:25Go on and off the front of this place.
05:30I don't really see the merit in flooding social media with your brand.
05:35I was at a band's manager's apartment.
05:39This man woke up at 5 a.m. and just went on MySpace,
05:45just adding people to that band's MySpace for four hours.
05:50Just adding, just friend requesting for four hours.
05:53You know how many people that is?
05:54That was his job to do that.
05:57And it was the first time I ever saw it.
05:59I was like, what the fuck are you doing?
06:01Like, go on tour.
06:11Wyrmwood is sort of considered the definitive record by the Ocarina of Time.
06:17It's probably my favorite thing we've done.
06:20As a band.
06:21It's the first record that we have done where I don't mind going back and playing those songs.
06:29It's funny because the production on that record is, I think, so good
06:35because we told Zeus that the label hated the production on Continent.
06:39And he had to like, he was like, what the, why are you fucking, fuck this shit.
06:44I'm going to show them. I'll show them.
06:46And he just like, he cranked it to 11 and really just like hyper focused.
06:59Even 10 years later, I'm still proud of what we did with Wyrmwood.
07:03And I still love playing every song off the record.
07:07And it's really sad that we can't do a 10 year tour right now
07:13because that's what we had planned.
07:15We were going to do a whole ripper.
07:17And now we can't.
07:35This is Only Mortal 2012.
07:37We can just skip this one.
07:39What?
07:40We don't have to talk about this one.
07:42Okay, fine.
07:45Left upon itself
07:48There is no use to cry for help
07:54Peaking at number 31 on the Billboard 200.
07:58Coma Witch, that is an insane, that is an insane achievement in any era.
08:05That's the one achievement in this band that I have physical evidence of
08:10doing something that mattered, I guess.
08:12It was the worst, one of the worst experiences of my entire life.
08:16I'm like feverish.
08:18I'm sweating through a sleeping bag.
08:21I'm stressed out because I can't record.
08:23And then I get a phone call from my wife saying she wants a divorce.
08:27So then all of this other shit is happening.
08:30So I'm like rethinking the lyrics for the record.
08:34I'm rethinking, do I actually want to do this ever again?
08:38Like it was a fucking, it was a nightmare.
08:41Everything just compounding on top of everything else.
08:45But the outcome is, I think at the time,
08:51it was the most ambitious thing we'd ever done.
08:54I feel like because I had such a terrible time,
08:58we made such a atmospheric record.
09:04The nerve of you to put a 28 minute long song in this genre of music is,
09:12has anyone ever done that?
09:14That record is the first one where I felt like I was almost watching a movie,
09:17you know, like it, it really just laid this big playing field of,
09:21here's, here's what I want to do,
09:24here's what I want to do, here's what I want to do,
09:26here's what I want to do, here's what I want to do.
09:28You know, like it, it really just laid this big playing field of,
09:32here's this new sound that we've found,
09:35and we're going to go crazy with it.
09:43Grave Bloom to me kind of is a spiritual successor,
09:46or the sequel to Coma Witch, if you will,
09:49or an addendum to that record.
09:51Whole record's about me just quitting the band.
09:53Like me just saying goodbye and being like,
09:55I'm fucking, I'm walking away, I'm quitting while we're ahead.
09:58I was still having a hard time with my life.
10:01I was going through a lot of changes and a lot of different shit.
10:04Like I lived with my mom for like 11 months
10:07while I was trying to buy a house,
10:09and I was sick of being on the road,
10:11and I hadn't even told my band until after,
10:14I didn't even tell my, tell you guys until like September.
10:17Yeah.
10:18After the record was out, after Warped Tour was done,
10:21and I was like, yeah, I got a job,
10:23I quit, I'm done, you guys can continue on if you want to,
10:26I don't care, it's your band.
10:28And they decided, no, we'll stop,
10:31we'll all be regular people too.
10:33And then like three months later, I was like,
10:35what the fuck am I doing?
10:37And that's kind of when all of the more positive changes
10:40in my life started to happen.
10:43And it's because I saw what life would have been like without it.
10:54We should talk about It Comes In Waves,
10:57which I know you guys have called an EP.
10:59I call it a song.
11:00Yeah, it's one song.
11:01That album, that EP, that song,
11:03whatever you want to call it,
11:05sounds so different from anything else you've ever done.
11:10I think it's a brilliant EP.
11:12You know, like you said, with Coma Witch and Grave Bloom,
11:14they kind of feel like brother and sister.
11:16I think it's a brilliant album.
11:18I think it's a brilliant album.
11:20With Coma Witch and Grave Bloom,
11:21they kind of feel like brother and sister.
11:24I feel like this EP maybe would be the start
11:27of the next chapter of what you guys go on to do.
11:30And I suppose we've got to another new record.
11:42But It Comes In Waves proves to us all
11:45that we can do something different.
11:48We can do what we want.
11:49We can do something that's atypical of Acacia Strain
11:51and people will still like it.
11:53So just stepping over that threshold
11:55kind of changed what we think we're allowed,
12:00I guess, allowed to do.
12:02I'm getting older.
12:03I don't listen to the same music I did
12:04when I started this band.
12:06And neither do the people
12:08who listened to this band back then.
12:10Everybody's got different musical opinions now
12:12and everybody's growing and listening to more adult music
12:14or whatever you want to call it.
12:16We're just changing with our fan base
12:19and we're changing with the times
12:20and you have to realize that like,
12:22it's not 2002 anymore.
12:24It's not 2010 anymore.
12:252010 might feel like it was yesterday,
12:27but it was 10 years ago.
12:29My intention with Slow D.K. was that
12:32if I was a kid who doubted the band
12:35and I was one of those kids like,
12:37oh, they need DL,
12:38this band isn't the same without DL,
12:40that was my answer to it.
12:42I'm going to challenge myself to take this sound
12:45and make it updated and fresh,
12:47but still feel like home for the older fans.