Published on spaceshipnews.com.au | 06.10.14
Max Bemis is an open book. His fourteen years as the front man of Say Anything have been nothing if not turbulent – and he’s not afraid to show it in his music. Ahead of the band’s Australian tour, the singer spoke to Charmaine de Souza about social anxiety, being a family man, and how the internet is a cesspool of vitriol.
Family and band commitments rarely mix, but you’ve seemed to strike a balance between the two with your wife and daughter joining you on tour. How has that been working out for you?
It’s great. [My wife] Sherri has been touring the same amount of time as I have, and [my daughter] Lucy’s been doing it since she was very small, so it’s nothing new for either of them. It’s honestly a very great thing for me having them with me. More often than not I find myself kinda losing it a little when I can’t be near them.
You’ve been very open about your struggles with being bipolar and social anxiety. As a musician, you’re often forced into very social situations. How do you deal with it?
I feel that because I’ve been exposed to those situations so many times as a musician, it’s sort of whittled away at the social anxiety. I’ll go to New York and spend the day doing press and have very little to no anxiety. So in those situations I feel a little less nervous than when I, say, go to a dinner party. Those are the things that give me anxiety – it’s weird. But even then, I think I’ve improved a lot just by immersing myself, trying to let go of the fear and accepting that I’m gonna have some form of anxiety and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think if I was torturing myself about the fact that I had it, it would be a different story, but I’ve definitely accepted that it’s normal. You just have to accept what you can’t control and not get down on yourself for it.
How have your experiences influenced the writing process for Say Anything’s music over the years?
There’s been a giant change in my life in every single record. So even simply what I’m writing about has changed from record to record. But ultimately, I’m just a person, so I’m undergoing a lot of evolution as I grow older. My spiritual evolution has changed over time, so I think that’s very apparent in everything I do, everything I write and how I choose to present it.
Your latest album Hebrews is very different to Say Anything’s previous stuff. What were your reasons behind making it an entirely orchestral, guitar-free record?
Firstly – and most importantly – I just thought it would be fun and cool and it would sound good. Secondly, I love making drastic changes to our sound between records – I’m definitely guilty of just loving to do that, so I couldn’t think of a more drastic change. Yet at the same time I feel like we really maintained whatever is special about Say Anything while doing so. That’s always at least partially the goal – that no matter what changes I make or challenges I undertake, we maintain what’s special about the band.
The song ‘Judas Decapitation’ is a very raw response to fans who disagree with the new direction that Say Anything’s music has taken. How do you deal with people who say they things like “Say Anything were so much better before Max was married/mentally stable/etc.”?
The song is kind of a reaction to essentially what I consider to be online bullying for people who are in this profession. It’s very easy to look at a musician, artist or actor and be like, “Your life is so easy and cushy because you don’t have to worry about going to work from 9-5.” But if you’re in any way successful, there are always going to be those people who want to bring you down. It’s a very disheartening, very dehumanizing and traumatic thing if you’re a sensitive person. So I wanted to write a song that was kind of a ‘fuck you’ to those people.
But at the same time, I wanted to address that there’s an element of me being petty for even caring, and if I were a stronger person I would probably just shrug it off like certain people can. There are probably 500 000 Jay-Z haters in the country that are posting like “Jay-Z sucks! He’s overrated! He was better before he was married to Beyonce,” but he seems to care a lot less. So I think there is something petty to me that I’m still so offended by it. I wanted to address that in the song and kind of make fun of myself for caring – it goes both ways. I refuse to not also turn the attention to myself and my own flaws.
Is that kind of hate difficult to ignore?
Now I avoid any place where I’m going to be criticized in that way. It’s one thing for someone to give healthy, constructive criticism that’s phrased with compassion. But if you go to the average message board there are literally people telling you that they want you to die and that you’re a piece of shit –terrible things that no one should have to read about themselves. So I just don’t even go there, I don’t even expose myself anymore.
More and more artists are offering their songwriting skills to the general public through song shops, including yourself. What drew you to the idea?
I got the idea as music became largely pirateable. You can get on the radio and sell T-shirts, but when it comes to the record, there are gonna be tens of thousands of people who download it for free. In my eyes, I pay for certain records if I wanna support the artist, but not everyone shares that perspective. So I asked myself, “what can I do that’s an individualized version of music, where it wouldn’t even be cool to have a pirated version of it because it doesn’t apply to you?”
How does writing about other people’s experiences compare to writing Say Anything’s songs?
I feel like when I’m writing about people – even if they’ve experienced something I’ve never experienced – I try to insert my own emotions and put myself in their place, so it’s like I’m singing about myself rather than singing about another person. The same amount of emotion goes into everything I write, commissioned or not. So in that sense, there is a commonality between the song shop music and Say Anything’s songs.
What direction do you see Say Anything going in in the future?
That’s a good question! I haven’t really figured it out myself. The only thing I know is that we set a precedent with Hebrews that we can’t just put out records for the sake of putting out records. When we do put out a new album, it’s gotta be interesting enough to merit being a follow-up to Hebrews. So I’m looking for something that I find equally inspiring before I make another Say Anything record – but knowing me, that won’t be too long.
You’re touring Australia with the rest of the band very soon; what can fans expect from this tour?
They can expect craziness – it’s always crazy. The shows are always really chaotic and visceral. I definitely lose myself on stage every time, so we won’t be phoning it in, ever. If you wanna really lose your shit, then come to our show.
http://www.spaceshipnews.com.au/interview-max-bemis-say-anything/
Charmaine de Souza 