Against Me!: Crosses To Bear

Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel is the first to admit new album White Crosses is a long way from his humble solo beginnings as a Floridian teen troubadour, but that doesn’t mean he’s tossed away his agitprop credentials. Whereas his 2008 solo EP Heart Burns took the musician back to basics, a reunion with producer Butch Vig has resulted in an album with throwbacks to classic pop rock icons such as Cheap Trick.

    “Good point of reference man, good point of reference,” Gabel begins. “You’re the first person who’s ever picked up on that. There was a Cheap Trick influence on a lot of the songs, not even intentionally. As they were coming together we realised songs like Spanish Moss had a Cheap Trick vibe – and I Was A Teenage Anarchist too. You don’t go into it intentionally but your subconscious ends up working it out.”

    His 2009 co-headline acoustic tour of Australia with Chuck Ragan saw Gabel airing early sketches of White Crosses tunes, but they’ve been bolstered by six months of studio treatment. The return of New Wave producer Butch Vig, a studio heavyweight with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and U2 productions to his credit, has once again divided Against Me! followers. Few artists cop as much grief from their fans as Gabel. Arguments rage constantly on punk forums as to whether the 29-year-old sold out by signing to Sire Records or enlisting the commercially successful Vig as a producer. Proving the ridiculously petty nature of the rows, there’s even heated debate over Gabel’s 2007 arrest in a coffee shop… because whether drinking coffee is ‘punk’ is questionable. Such agitation from followers would surely make a lesser artist second-guess themselves.

    “You’ve gotta take it with a grain of salt, but it can be frustating,” Gabel admits. “I’m a person who at times enjoys an argument, debating with people, but sometimes you’re just like, ‘You know what motherfucker? I’m right here!’ Sometimes it’s hard to let stuff go when you know you’re right and the other person is just a fucking moron, but what are you going to do?”

    He might shake his head at the unproductive nature of such dissent, but Gabel is still a resolute activist. On I Was A Teenage Anarchist Gabel sings, ‘Do you remember when you were young and you wanted to set the world on fire?’, but that’s not to say he’s lost that passion.

    “Oh not at all. The line’s literal and I’m not asking myself that! I was aware that it would be misinterpreted by some people and I didn’t want it to be seen as a renunciation of past beliefs now that I’m older and so much more grown up. Fuck, I’m still only 29! When I was young? I still am!

    “In a lot of ways my politics have stayed the same but the way I practice them has changed,” Gabel concedes. “You’re gonna grow, mature and change as you grow older, but I’ve been doing the exact same thing since I was 17 years old. As far as being sure of what I want to do and being passionate about it, I’ve always wanted to be in a band and I’ve stuck with that.”

    What would you say to the 18-year-old you if you met him at a gig?

    “I think the advice I would give would be ‘You need to shut the fuck up sometimes!’,” Gabel laughs. “I think I’ve had an unfortunate tendency in the past to run my fucking mouth. When you’re younger you think you know a lot more than you actually do, but that’s the way it is. I wish I was more of a patient person as well too, but I think I’ve gotten better as I’ve got older. You live and learn!”

    With his marriage to Heather Hannoura and the birth of their daughter in November 2009, things couldn’t be better for Gabel. That hasn’t prevented White Crosses from featuring We’re Breaking Up, a song about a relationship’s disintegration.

    “With that song I was taking multiple storylines and truths from my life and putting them into a sentiment or an emotion that can be felt by more people. That song is a break-up song, about a relationship coming to an end, but there are tonnes of different types of relationships it could be referring to: girlfriend/boyfriend, boyfriend/boyfriend, girlfriend/girlfriend, best friends or whatever. The sentiment rings true for all of them.”

    Given that Against Me!’s former drummer Warren Oakes left the band under a cloud in 2008, is We’re Breaking Up also referring to bandmate/former bandmate?

    “Oh yeah, for sure. If you’re talking about Warren leaving the band then for sure that played into that song.”

    Gabel blames Oakes’ decision to open a Mexican restaurant in Gainesville as being one of the deciding factors in his departure from the band.

    “His restaurant was really how everything came to a culmination - it reached this point where it was obvious he had other interests going on. We still wanted to do the band and be touring and he wanted to be doing his restaurant thing. There’s not much you can say when someone says, ‘I’m opening a restaurant’ and you’re saying, ‘Well we’re going out on tour!’.”

    Although the assault charge stemming from 2007’s infamous coffee shop incident was thrown out of court, Gabel admits the band still has some issues when touring internationally.

    “You know, the hardest country to get into for some reason has been Canada. Knock on wood, that’s the only country where we’ve had issues, because they keep that border locked down. Even when you’re coming back into the States and you’re an American citizen, they act like they’re not going to let you in.

    “What else are they going to do?” Gabel scoffs. “I’m an American – they’ve gotta let me into my own country!”

Against Me! play Fowler’s Live on Tue Oct 5 with An Horse and Paper Arms. White Crosses is out now through Sire/Warner.

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