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The Early November: Ace's Wild!
Posted by Rob Ortenzi on 29-Sep-06 @ 01:01 PM|
Ace Enders, the mastermind of THE EARLY NOVEMBER, felt that creating a three-disc concept album was a worthy challenge. Now, after 18 months of bitter in-fighting and several band members' nervous breakdowns, it's finally done. And they're just getting started. Story: Brendan Manley Ace Enders, singer/guitarist/songwriter and fearless captain of the ship known as the Early November, sits parked in his car on a gray Monday outside a New Jersey jewelry store. He and his fiancée and girlfriend of seven years were about to pick out rings for their late-May wedding. Despite his obvious enthusiasm over the nuptials, when his attention turns to other subjects, primarily his band, a twinge of weariness creeps into Enders' voice, and you can't help but think that this is a 24-year-old who's grown up fast--perhaps a bit too fast. This month, the Early November--Enders, bassist Sergio Anello, drummer Jeff Kummer, and guitarists Joe Marro and Bill Lugg--are releasing their most ambitious effort to date: a sprawling three-disc concept album envisioned by Enders called The Mother, The Mechanic, And The Path, which includes a "story disc" with music and dialogue. By the sound of things, making it nearly killed them. Reflecting on the roughly 18-month ordeal behind the record, Enders says, "We had a lot of blowups at the studio; we had a lot of rough times. It was probably the most difficult part yet in my career." Tapping into the potential Enders hinted at with his eclectic side band, I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business, The Mother erratically jumps through genres and styles, focusing on more mellow, pop-flavored material on disc one ("The Mother"); and straight-ahead rock more typical of TEN on disc two ("The Mechanic"); before seemingly launching into outer space for disc three ("The Path"), which revolves around the concepts of money polluting the world and the perpetual cycle of kids hating their overbearing parents--then growing up to become the very same overbearing parents themselves--while utilizing musical idioms such as jazz and ragtime to accompany the disc's story arc. "I'm like, 'All right, what kind of crazy thing is [Ace] coming up with now?'" explains Anello. "He sits us down at his dinner table at his house, and he pulls out these three huge poster boards--like a Ross Perot-type diagram, the whole deal. And Ace isn't always the best at explaining things. Me, personally, I wasn't sure what he was going for, but I figured we'd catch on eventually." The album's core ideas are fairly autobiographical; the money themes are a partial outgrowth of Enders' growing disillusionment with music/band business, while the parental themes hit even closer to home. His parents divorced while Enders was very young; his childhood wasn't idyllic, and when music became his all-consuming passion, his family wasn't as supportive as they are now. "It was hard growing up until the day we got signed," Enders explains. "When people learned that I actually could do something, then it was fine. The last day before we got signed, I was out of the house--kicked out. The next night, we got signed. I called my mom to tell her, and my stepdad picked up the phone and he's like, 'We've got to have a serious talk,' and I'm like, 'Look, we got signed,' and he's like, 'Oh.' That was the last time anyone was negative again." For Enders, there's obviously a lot at stake with this new album, both personally and financially--the band even agreed to reduced royalties with Drive-Thru so the three discs could be sold for normal single-disc prices. Enders also appears to have become a tad, shall we say, "eccentric" during its creation. "When you're in something so long, you start to hate it," he says, laughing. "It was like a relationship I had with this thing--I loved it; I hated it; I couldn't sleep at night because of it; I couldn't eat because of it; I couldn't function because of it; I couldn't talk to people because of it. For a good year, I was in my own world, not sure if I hated or loved what I was doing." For the rest of the story, pick up AP 217 below... |
