Near the end of 2018, music fans from all over the spectrum rejoiced as a new The Sound of Animals Fighting tour was announced.
I was particularly excited because the Orlando show was happening the day before my birthday. My original plan was just to go enjoy the show and celebrate being older.
When I began to post on Instagram about going to the show, I got a message from Rich Balling. After a short conversation and realizing this was one of the nicest people I’d ever spoken with, we set up an interview for the night of the show.
I met with him before TSOAF set and we talked about the history of the band, touring after all these years, Gothboiclique, and a whole lot more:
NT: I couldn’t find a whole lot of press with you or any of the band. Where did the name Sound of Animals Fighting come from?
RB: “We don’t do a lot of press. I’m not sure why. I guess there’s this shroud of mystery around the band. A lot more so in the beginning than now.
As far as the name, my wife (girlfriend at the time) was reading an Alternative Press interview with the band Bear VS Shark. We kept seeing ads with various bands with names relating to animals. She said “it’s like the sound of animals fighting.”
As weird as it sounds, I was thinking ‘There has to be a band named that. If there’s not, we need to make one.’ That was the catalyst for the whole project; me liking that phrase so much we built a band out of it.”
NT: How did you link up with Anthony and the rest of the original lineup?
RB: “I lived in Southern California at the time. I was in RX Bandits for years and those were always some of the best musicians I knew. A mutual friend, Charlie, who was also our tour manager, introduced me to the first Saosin EP. Needless to say “Seven Years” changed my life. Then I find out that Anthony and the rest of the band live in California and we had mutual friends. I knew I had to work with him somehow.
At this same time, I was signed to and worked for Drive Thru Records so I was able to recruit the best musicians from the best bands. We were all friends from that circle. Once I reached out to Anthony and got him involved the lineup was complete.”
NT: How often have you guys been playing since your tour in 2014?
RB: “Over a year ago I started thinking about how I’m not getting any younger. I have two kids and I want them to see part of my life before them. I started brainstorming and getting in touch with Anthony and suggesting that we go back out and play shows in areas we had never been to before. As we all know Anthony is an incredibly busy dude so we really had to plan this all out a year in advance and schedule around all the other things he had going on. But we made it work and here we are!”
NT: Did you guys used to perform with the masks on or were those always just for press?
RB: “We never performed with them on. It was never the intention to do that on stage.”
NT: Fair enough, you’re not trying to be Slipknot.
RB: “That’s funny, that’s exactly what I was thinking. I don’t want to be one of those bands. So we’re just sort of playing coy in the press photos.”
NT: When you were in RX Bandits and SOAF at the same time, were you conscious of which bits of writing were for each project or did you write a lot and place things where they belonged?
RB: “It’s all very specific. It’s a piecemeal process with all the members. What I really didn’t want is for anyone to feel like this band was added weight on to their schedules. We built the songs from the ground up. We started with the drums and he would play beats for hours at a time. Then we would chop the beats into edited patterns to create song structure. We passed the drums to the guitars and then those parts to the vocals.
The interesting thing about the guitars having to cater to the drums is I think that creates more intricate guitar lines.
This is true collaboration if you think about it. Whatever I’ve been given, I HAVE to play with that. At the same time I have the freedom to play whatever I want as long as it fits. That made the songwriting process very low maintenance. Everyone could do it on their own schedules.”
NT: The band in general seems to have an element of theatrics to it. Is there a level of inspiration from theater or cinema or is that just a coincidence?
RB: “I actually am a really big fan of the opera. When this band started I was going to Amoeba Records all the time checking out their “Avant Garde Opera” section. The whole idea of splitting albums up into acts was definitely inspired by an opera structure.”
NT: How has this tour been in comparison to the one you went on in 2014?
RB: “Better. These shows have far exceeded my expectations. Every night has been better than the last. The energy is amazing. We’re doing meet and greets which we’ve never done before. The fans we’ve been meeting are so genuine. They’re driving and flying from different places just to be at our shows. There’s a guy here tonight who flew here from Mexico.”
NT: After the 2014 tour did you ever think that you would tour with The Sound of Animals Fighting again?
RB: “We never think about if it’s going to happen again. It feels less and less likely each time. People love to bring up the DVD from 2006 where Anthony says “this is the last time we’ll be performing together.” We never discussed that before we played. It was just a statement of passion in the moment.
We truly never know which show will be our last.”
NT: Each album seems a little more composed and less experimental than the last. What do you attribute that to?
RB: “I feel like Lover, The Lord Has Left Us is the weirdest record we’ve ever made. We used kitchen utensils as instruments and just experimented a lot on that album.
I think the newer record just seems more put together because we’ve grown more mature as people. We all just knew the band had become something more over time so we tried to approach the newer material with a little more planning. At first we would just jam. Once we found something that worked we would nurture that.”
NT: Why did you choose the Nightingale as your mask?
RB: “I honestly don’t remember. We all picked those masks pretty randomly. There’s no cool origin story there, we just chose the first thing that came to us.”
NT: Is there any plans to do a new record?
RB: “It’s something we’ve talked about but there’s no timeline or commitment. The way I see it the only chance of more shows after this is IF we put out a new record. If there’s not a new record, I cannot see the band playing live again after this.”
NT: Any advice for musicians reading this?
RB: “Pair up with other bands in your area. Prop each other up and create your own scene. Things like GBC, Members Only, any kind of collective, they’re all helping each other out and elevating each others brands. The new version of the record label who curates your music is the clique.”
Listen to The Sound of Animals Fighting below:
FOLLOW THE SOUND OF ANIMALS FIGHTING
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
SPOTIFY
APPLE MUSIC