Anthony Armstrong of the band RED!

When you interview a band like Red, the potential range of discussion is broader than many other bands. What's it like to be in a band…with your twin brother? Or to be in a band that is labeled as a "Christian band"? Or what about being nominated for a Grammy…on your first album? Or how about a common question that most of the band's fans have: how did the band name themselves after a color? RMR recently had a chance to talk discuss those topics, along with others, about with Red guitarist Anthony Armstrong.

Asif: Hey man, how's it going?

Anthony:  Good! How are you?

Asif: Good!

Anthony: We have an interview to do today!

Asif: Yeah man! You ready to do this?

Anthony:  Yeah man, let's do it!

Asif: Alright! Well, I usually save the questions from the fans till later on, but I'm only going to ask one and it's from a guy in Japan.

Anthony: (laughs) All the way from over there!?

Asif:  Yeah man! Akeno from Nagasaki wants to know "How did you guys name the band Red?"

Anthony:  You going to relay the answer to him? Is that how this works?

Asif: Well actually, it's going to go up on the website where everyone – including Akeno – can read about the answer to the question.

Anthony:  Cool. The name of the band came…basically, when we were looking for names there were a hundred different names we could grab. But we wanted something that was short and bold that had a lot of meaning and a lot of depth – basically embodied everything about the band. As far as our personalities, we think the color red embodies so many different things in life. First of all, it's the color of blood, it's the color of life, it's what gives us life. It's a color of love, it's a color of passion, aggression, hate. You just think of different emotions and stuff, the color red seems to embody so many different emotions. Our record was very emotional. It's a very emotional roller coaster from start to finish, just all tied together. It took us forever to trademark it [the name of the band], but we own it! (laughs)

Asif: (laughs) That's very cool man! That's a really cool story behind the name. Alright, moving on. You guys have a strong "twin theme" going on in the band.

Anthony: Yeah! (laughs)

Asif:  Your brother [Randy] is in the band. Are you the better looking of the two?

Anthony:  Yes! Yup!

Asif: (laughs) Have you guys ever pulled pranks on stage, like switching instruments or spots on stage, or pranks elsewhere and no one had a clue who was who?

Anthony:  Umm…we've never purposely did it. Actually, there was one show where my brother, we were in our hometown back in Pennsylvania, and he was off with family. We were supposed to meet him at a certain exit. But if you look at a map, we kinda drove underneath him on the interstate.  By the time we got back up the interstate he was going to meet us on we were two hours out in front of him.(laughs) So, he was two hours back! (laughs) We couldn't turn around and get him because we had to be at the show, we had to play, and all that other stuff. So I actually played bass guitar that night. So, I took Randy's spot so it looked like Randy was there and I wasn't there. (laughs)

Asif: (laughs) Nice!

Anthony:  (laughs) That was the only switching spots we ever did. But we've never really pulled any pranks on anybody. It's kinda funny though, when we are playing, we like to read lips in the first row. You see people trying to decide "Are they brothers?" or "Are they twins?" and just arguing back-and-forth! But yeah, that was about it.

Asif: That's pretty funny! You've said, in an interview in the past, that "Before musicians and anything else, we" – you guys in the band- "are Christian". As men, you want to be known as Christian men – because of your values and your beliefs.  That being said, do you want to be known as a good band or as a good Christian band?

Anthony:  I think we want to be known as a good band.  If I could rephrase the question that you are asking, I think we'd rather be known as a good band and a good band of Christian guys. It's easier for us to lump our music into a category because it's easier for people to interpret that way. If we said we were a Christian band, that makes people think that we are only catering to a certain audience. "We're a Christian band and we only play to Christians", you know what I mean?

Asif: I totally get what you're saying…

Anthony: Ultimately, we're just music lovers. We're guys that love to play music and write music – but we're Christian guys with Christian values. We just try to walk that straight and narrow road, but we're still human beings and we still have our falters and we never really consider ourselves strictly a Christian band. Because, in our eyes, a Christian band in a lot of ways will only play certain markets.

Asif: Yeah - a true Christian band would probably never play here in Sin City!

Anthony: (laughs) This band just likes to reach out and play everywhere! At the end of the day, we just play music. Period!

Asif: My best friend and I were talking about that last night. In the past 12-18 months, he really thinks that Christian rock has really been the most creative and innovative music out there.

Anthony:  Yeah.

Asif:  There is a lot of secular, radio play, music out right now. Compared to even five years ago when it may have been looked at differently –

Anthony:  Yeah, yeah!

Asif: "Christian rock" is really pushing the musical envelope right now.

Anthony:  I think it's awesome. I think music is finally having something to say.  For the longest time, I think, music was just coming out and a lot of these records just…there wasn't a whole lot of content and a lot of…it just seemed really empty to me. A lot of music that was coming out wasn't really speaking to you in any positive way. Especially in our kind of music, heavy rock, a lot of bands tend to write more towards the negative side of life. We touch on those things, we definitely explore those things, but ultimately we're finding some positive route out of all that. It's cool because we are great friends with bands like Flyleaf – and Chevelle started out as a Christian band, they were on a Christian label for a while – just meeting bands and interacting with bands that are out there that don't necessarily have a hidden agenda. We're not out there trying to recruit Christians. We're Christian guys and this is what's worked for us, and we're just singing about it - period. And if you like it, great, and if you don't, go listen to somebody else. I think music listeners are evolving and developing a new attitude about things. I think for the longest time Christian music kinda like got a bad name – and rightfully so! (laughs) Christian music has never really been that great, to be honest with you. I've listened to Christian music since I was 14-years old and there has only been a few bands that have ever done really well but never really crossed over into the mainstream. I think Christian bands, are not necessarily less narrow minded [anymore], just writing to a broader audience – you know what I mean? A Christian band just writing about "Hallelujah", "God this – ", "Jesus that –" – they aren't going to appeal to a lot of people. You can say all those things and talk about all those things and still write songs like Red writes.

Asif: Exactly man. Awesome! You guys…(laughs) you guys have been on the road forever!

Anthony: (laughs) Yeah!

Asif:  The free-time hasn't been there at home, but while you've been out on the road,

what have you guys done to do to keep yourself entertained in between shows or those few hours leading up to a show?

Anthony:  Most of the time, we are up until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning because we'll probably leave a venue by at least 2:00 then there is like three hours of video games and stuff like that! (laughs) You know, something to just wind-down the night. We're usually loading in during the day and sleeping. Just getting some rest and basically just gearing up for the most fun part of our day. Usually when we get to a venue, we're working hard, we're getting things set up and ready to go. We're doing interviews! Our day is pretty full. But by the time we get the chance to slow down, we usually take the opportunity to take a break and rest a little bit.

Asif: Well your guys shows are full of so much energy, you need the rest!

Anthony: (laughs) Yeah!

Asif: So, more than other bands, I can totally see why you guys need that rest.

Anthony:  It's weird because we haven't had a lot of opportunities to play longer than 25-minute sets because we've been on a lot of these bigger tours where we're the opening slot.  We give them wham-bam, 25 minutes of just insaneness. Then when we get off stage, we're still kinda amped up because then you get to go to the merch table and meet fans and talk to kids and that's not work to us – that's the most fun part of our day, you know what I mean? After that, you just sit down and you're like "Ughh!" and you just crash! (laughs) But this last run we just did was a headlining run and we played about one hour or one hour and ten minutes, every single night. We had about eight days off total in the whole month. It was even more grueling, as far as playing an hour long of Red energy is pretty wild. (laughs)

Asif: Right on man! You guys have had an overwhelming amount of success, already in your careers . Case in point, a Grammy nomination. Does something like that, like a Grammy nomination, give additional pressure or give additional confidence when it comes to writing and recording a follow up album?

Anthony:  I think both. I think if you are leaning towards the whole album thing, I think there is a little bit more stress involved because there is a measuring stick to judge you by. When you get nominated the first time out, with your first record, you usually have a lifetime to write you first record. But the sophomore album they always call the "sophomore slump" – a lot of bands will release a second album and it won't live up to their first project. Having garnished all the different things that have happened to us this year – all the nominations and all the awards and the #1 songs and all that other stuff – it's built a little pressure, but I think it would be more pressure if we hadn't been writing ever since we released the first record. We've had so much material building up for the second record because we knew there was only a certain amount of time we'd have. If we're going to have great success on this first record, then we have to live up to it or turn it up 10 notches for the second album because now we have a fan base. People know who we are. The ball is in our court. So, we take that stress kinda in stride. It's good and it's bad, but it definitely motivates you! (laughs)

Asif: How is the second album coming along? You have a status update for us at all?

Anthony:  It's going to be amazing! We're kinda just sitting back right now. The guitars are finished. They are working on the vocals actually this week – Michael's in the studio working on the vocals. They've done, I think, two string sessions already. A lot of the same elements we did on the first record we're going to utilize again. But we're going to show growth and we're going to show maturity in our songwriting. It's definitely going to be a Red record in all those respects from the first time, but… I can't even explain how excited we are! (laughs) We've been playing these songs for two years and people have gotten used to that sound. I think we're going to just unleash a whole new – we call it "The Redness" (laughs)

Asif: (laughs) I like that!

Anthony: (laughs) We're really really amped up about it. I actually got an email yesterday…our producer will send us updated tracks and stuff with the mixing and production and stuff and when we hear it, we're all like "Oh, dude!" (laughs)

Asif: It just blows you away, huh?

Anthony: When you're in a band and you can blow yourself away because you are one of the artists in the band, it's just like…when its to the point where it's so jaded where your own music doesn't affect you? We almost feel like we're fans, you know what I mean? We're hearing our songs come back to us and we're like "Wow!"

Asif: That's awesome man!

Anthony: Yeah! We feel like we're right where we were, times 10, on the first record with this new one.

Asif: Sweet dude! You got me stoked!

Anthony: (laughs)

Asif:  Alright man, this interview is officially over! Thank you man!

Anthony: No problem man - thank you!

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PHOTOS: courtesy of Red