The Used
January 27th, 2010 - Written by melissa
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After close to a decade together, punk-rock band The Used are not only well recognized throughout the music industry, but they are consistently gaining momentum with each record they release. With four studio albums under their belt, the band has recently embarked on a worldwide tour that is taking them across the U.S, Canada, Japan and Australia among other countries. Their most recent release, ‘Artwork’, hit stores in August of 2009 and has received much acclaim and criticism from fans and reviewers alike.
On December 21st 2009, the band made a stop in Montreal with headlining act Three Days Grace. Guitarist Quinn Allman and drummer Dan Whitesides took some time before going on stage to talk to me a little bit about the band’s past and tell me about the inspiration behind ‘Artwork’.
The interview took place in a gymnasium at the CEPSUM: University of Montreal’s sports complex where the show was to be held later. I was led into the gym a few minutes early and I anxiously awaited there to interview two members of a band I have been listening to for the past six years. Both Dan and Quinn seemed to be in a really good mood when we met, ready to answer some questions and of course, get on stage and play an amazing show for the fans that had been lined up for hours in the bitter cold.
We started the interview by talking about their current tour with Three Days Grace. Quinn and Dan both hinted that they’d been having some fun on the road but didn’t give away any secrets. The only information I got was that with the cold in Canada, nothing too crazy had been going on for the band. They were just getting the opportunity to play some great shows in front of amazing fans.
After talking about the tour for a few minutes, we went back in time a little to talk about the band’s past and how far they’ve come in their long career. Quinn briefly explained to me how The Used began in 2001 when he, bassist Jeph, as well as their ex-drummer Branden, met Bert for the first time. They immediately began working on music together until they had enough material to create a demo. At this early point in their career, the band met producer John Feldmann (lead singer and guitarist of Goldfinger) who flew the four members to his home in California to record their first full length album.
Although I didn’t go into much detail with Quinn and Dan about their history, it is certainly a long and successful one with many highlights worth mentioning:
Their first self-titled record was released in June 2002 and was produced by John Feldmann, who would become their long-term producer. The 12-tracks have become for many fans today, some of the most memorable songs that The Used have released to-date.
After ‘The Used’ came out, the band went on many career-changing tours, including their first time at Warped Tour and Ozzfest. They were also a part of Boxcar Racer’s one and only tour (Boxcar Racer was a side project created by Tom Delonge and Travis Barker of Blink-182).
In 2004, The Used released their second studio album, ‘In Love and Death’, possibly one of their most recognized records. Three singles were released out of it and earned the band their first Much Music Video Award nomination for the song “All That I’ve Got”.
The band’s third album was released in 2007 and was called ‘Lies for Liars’. In that same year, The Used played at the Much Music Video Awards ceremony and received a second nomination for Best International Group Video for the song “The Bird and The Worm”. In early 2008, ‘Shallow Believer’, an EP of B-sides from all their previous albums went on sale and hit number fourteen on the iTunes Top 100 albums.
Finally, in 2009, their fourth and most recent effort entitled ‘Artwork’ was released. This was the first album that The Used recorded without producer John Feldmann. Instead, they worked alongside Matt Squire, producer for Panic! At the Disco. This was also the first record that included Dan as their drummer. He only joined the band in 2006 after Branden had left.
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