Quickie Q&A: Against Me!

(Credit: Sire Records)

Against Me!, "New Wave"

Proof there's nothing wrong with being an aggressive punk

Against Me! are (left to right): Guitarist James Bowman, drummer George Rebelo, bassist Andrew Seward, and vocalist/guitarist Tom Gabel
Hometown: Gainesville, Fla.
Latest projects: Their fifth album, “White Crosses” (out June 8) and a tour with Silversun Pickups
Sounds like: A fiery, agitated romp through the best of classic rock
Biggest claim to fame: Their record “New Wave” was named best album of 2007 by Spin
Official website: http://www.againstme.net

“I’ve been listening to a lot of Tom Petty,” says Against Me! singer Tom Gabel. It’s an odd admission for the frontman of an anarcho-punk group, but not entirely inaccurate. While the Florida band's early records simply veered between acoustic and full-throttle mayhem, the Butch Vig-produced “White Crosses” features true arena-rock flourishes, more conventional song structures and Gabel purposely trying to create a “great driving song like ‘Running Down a Dream.’” Still, punk fans shouldn’t fret—Gabel still seethes in his lyrics, especially when recalling his more anarchist youth.

The police beatings in the video for your new single, “I Was a Teenage Anarchist,” are really disturbing. Were you ever thrashed by cops like that?
The inspiration for that came from something that happened to me when I was 15. It wasn’t as brutal, but it was pretty eye-opening. I was a small, scrawny little punk kid, maybe 110 pounds, living in Naples, Florida. It was during a fireworks celebration, and I was on the boardwalk. These two officers told me to get off the boardwalk. I did, the cops said it again, I kept walking, and then they picked me and dragged me over to the cop car, searched me, put me in handcuffs and threw me face first into the pavement. They took me down the station and processed me and charged me as an adult.

That sounds worse than the video, actually.
Well, I wasn’t beaten by batons. Anyway, my mom got me a lawyer and we fought it. It made the local news as a police brutality case. I still lost and got 100 hours of community service and was put on house arrest. Something similar happened to me again when I was 17. Another wrong place, wrong time.

I read that your home town of Gainesville was actually rated the best city in the country, and great for bands. Why?
Is it that great? [Laughs] I don’t know. I think every place is what you make it. Personally, I moved there when I was 18 because it has cheap rent, you don’t need a car, there are good clubs and a bunch of studios. It fits the broke musician lifestyle.

I hear keyboards on this album. That’s new.
Yeah, definitely. When we came off of our last tour, I wanted to pick up a new instrument, so I chose piano. I found this elderly woman piano player, told her to “teach me like your average six-year old” and she started me from square one. Then I wrote a lot of the record on the piano—it was an awesome exercise.

There’s actually a lot of new styles on here—I hear the Cure, Springsteen, some glam rock…
Oh, there’s totally some Cure-esque bass lines here. I’ve been obsessing over them recently. And yeah, some classic rock is on here, too—I’ve been listening to a lot of T. Rex, Tom Petty, things like that. And Springsteen—well, that style is a tribute to a friend of mine who was killed a year ago who was a fan. I definitely wanted to capture that vibe. Also, our bassist, Andrew, has multiple Springsteen tattoos.

One of your new tracks uses “Robert McNamara” as part of a chorus. That doesn’t seem to be great idea for a hook.
I think it sings really well! In a lot of ways, a song like that has a stream of consciousness vibe. It was whatever was going on in my brain at the time.