The Daily Orange: How has the band stayed together since middle school without getting into major fights?

Animal Liberation Orchestra: Oh, well, you know, you’ve just got to work it out over time, like with any long-standing relationship. We’ve had major fights, but those were all a long time ago. Occasionally, another one pops up, but the longer you stay in it, the more you feel like you have to work it out, to a certain extent. It becomes more like family.

The D.O.: Is the song “Blew Out the Walls” about your band’s experiences?

ALO: Yeah, absolutely. It was sort of a combo of different ideas, but yeah, more or less.

The D.O.: How did your music evolve from your older albums?

ALO: It was a different process in a lot of ways. The last two albums were really focused on doing everything live in the studio. With this one, we sort of used the studio more and it helped us figure out how the studio worked, and with this one, we did stuff live, but also kind of embraced the studio itself, using more instruments. That was sort of a different process for us.

The D.O.: Do you tell different stories about the meaning of your band’s name, Animal Liberation Orchestra?

ALO: We chose that name in an instant, and it had been part of a series of names where we’d been changing our name all the time, because we could do that. And then this one kind of stuck. As time has gone by, those words have a lot of meaning in them, and we deal with different aspects of the meaning as time goes on. As I become more aware of the world and different things, new aspects of the name pop up to me. Even recently, new things popped up — in the new National Geographic, there’s an article called, “Wilder Man.” It’s a book of photos, and it’s these people all throughout Europe basically turning themselves into animals. Basically from December into the spring, they put on these animal costumes and there are some really trippy ones. The idea is that humans put on these animal costumes that bridge the gap between the two worlds and somehow balance man’s nature with the things that feel unnatural. So I was like, “Hey, that sounds like the Animal Liberation Orchestra.”

The D.O.: What’s it like touring with Ryan Montbleau?

ALO: We’ve sort of been watching each other from afar. The first time I hung out with Ryan was the Life is Good Festival, and we just kind of walked around the festival and talked, and we talked about doing something. Years ago even it came up. It was one of those ideas and all of a sudden, it came together, kind of naturally. By the time we get to Syracuse, we’ll have some good stuff in the bag.

Published on April 24, 2013 at 2:19 am

Contact Zach: ztzeliff@syr.edu