AGAINST ME! Interview with vocalist Tom by Michael McGuire

*Photos by Lindsey Lutts


One year ago I was turned on to the Florida based punk group Against Me. Ever since, I have managed to obtain all of there albums and have put them on a permanent rotation on my stereo. Against Me has a very unique style, meshing a southern country twang with a driving punk attitude. The lyrics have an amazingly honest feel that instantly connect you with the passionate vocals and forceful rhythms. Before the second sold out show in a row at Slims I was able to meet up with Tom and ask him a few questions.


Ymm: How is the tour going?
Tom: So far so good, last couple of days have been pretty hard and trying, we played in Las Vegas and it was my birthday at midnight and everyone went for it, and it was Vegas anyway, and the next night we played in
and it was still my birthday so we continued to go for it, and the fallowing two days we played two shows a day and now here we are in San Francisco, and everyone is from here so its been non stop partying. After this show we have to drive to Portland overnight.
YMM: Well Portland will be a little more mellow?
Tom: Well no, James girlfriend and anges fiancé and then a friend of mine is flying out, and we will be hanging out all night
YMM: Well tonight you will get some sleep?
Tom: I’ll probably end up driving.
YMM: Is the whole band from Gainesville Florida?
Tom:We live there, we are not from there.
YMM: Were are you from?
Tom: I was born in Georgia, my father was in the army and I moved around a lot my whole life. I lived in Italy for a brief period of time, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, South Florida

YMM: How is the scene in Gainsville?
Tom: Kind of world renown, I mean your wearing a Hot Water Music Shirt. Tom Pettys from Gainsville, it goes beyond punk too. There has always been a really strong music scene there for some reason.
YMM: Was there a point in your life when decided to focus on music instead of pursuing the “American Dream”
Tom: I got my first guitar when I was in the third grade, so I was always kind of into that. Obviously being fourteen and Naples Courter which is a very republican right wing town and being punk... your kind of an outcast. I dropped out of High school when I was sixteen and realized kind of quick that I could either work a shit job for the rest of my life or I can do something that I really enjoy doing.
YMM: How and when did Against Me form?
Tom: I started doing this in 1997 by my self, I recorded a two song demo tape of really bad songs. Then I started playing with a drummer and eventually became a three piece then a four piece, its gone through various fluctuations, people have come and gone.
YMM: You have been the primary writer?
Tom: Yeah
YMM: Did you start working with No Idea Records soon after the Band was formed?
Tom: No, we put out a 12inch ep on our own and two 7inhes.
YMM: Were you already touring before you signed with No Idea?
Tom: Yeah, we had already done four tours before went to No Idea.
YMM: So you were on the road a lot.
Tom: We spent a very long time being a very unpopular band.
Ymm: Do you have any crazy tour stories?
Tom: We got hit by a semi truck one time, it rear ended us and we rolled three times. It pretty much wrecked all of our gear.
YMM: Was anyone hurt?
Tom: Jordan and I had to have knee surgery, but everyone was fine, everyone walked and only two people were wearing their seat belts.
YMM: Was that the end of the tour?
Tom: We were on our way home from our last show.
YMM: You guys recently got signed to Fat Wreck chords, has It been a smooth transition and is everyone at No Idea stoked for you?
Tom: There happy, but there it’s obviously a weird kind of thing, were friends with them so we want to make sure they realize that its not personal, we love and were still friends, Its been Transition and is everyone at No Idea stoked for you?
Tom: No....I mean there happy, but it is obviously a weird kind of thing, were friends with them so we want to make sure they realize that its not personal, we love you and were still your friends, When your in a band you want to do as many things as possible, its been a rocky transition in the way we have gotten a lot of heat for it. People call us sell outs but we kind of expected that.
YMM: How has it been working with Fat Wreck Chords so far?
Tom: It’s been amazing, they have supported us 100
hey have gone above and beyond.
YMM: Your new album The Eternal Cowboy has a more electric feel to it than your past recordings, did Fat Mike have anything to do with this?
Tom: No, the thing that is kind of upsetting is that every other recording that we have ever done sounds nothing like we sound like when we play live. The Eternal Cowboy sounds like us when we play live, It’s very representative to the band we are now. We went in and we didn’t double up any guitar tracks, its a analog recording, we wanted to the most organic and natural recording as possible.
YMM: Did you record on two inch?
Tom: Yeah, It was cool, it was were Led Zeppelin 3, Replacements, ZZ Top Afterburner and Executioner was recorded, a lot of old blues stuff. It was at Argent Studios in Memphis Tennessee. It was a really neat experience, it was the first time I recorded on analog, that’s the other thing too and I new it would come, people would say”they signed to Fat, the record sounds so over produced” but its the most natural recording process possible, every other recording we have done has been digital.
YMM: Being on the Death of the Nation Tour, how do you feel about the political state of our country?
Tom: Bush is insane, if he had his way it would be eternal war forever.
YMM : Is there any music that you have been stoked on lately?
Tom: The new Joe strummer CD is amazing, the Constanties, we have been listening to Ted Leo a lot in the van lately.