Show & Tell - From Autumn To Ashes, Jon Cox

FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES
AN INTERVIEW W/JON COX, 06.25.05

With a quality lineup change behind them and an anticipated third release just ahead, From Autumn To Ashes dropped from this year's Sounds of the Underground tour just a few dates in. Rumors of bad blood and breakups ensued.

Thankfully the rumors were premature. The band has assured fans that any issues they may have had have been worked through and worked out. Onward and upward.

This interview takes place on day one of SOTU with guitarist Jon Cox, prior to their unexpected drop from the tour.

Show & Tell: What’s up?

Jon: Not much, man, how are you doing?

S&T: Good. It’s the first day (of SOTU), you must be excited.

J: Yeah, yeah, definitely. We’re just working the kinks out, still just trying to see how things operate.

S&T: What do you mean by kinks?

J: We have this mini tour bus that we’re using just until we get the real tour bus but the A/C isn’t working too well on it and it’s really cramped quarters. I’m not gonna complain because there’s plenty of dudes out there (touring) in vans and stuff.

S&T: What are you doing to keep cool?

J: Walking around inside here and drinking a lot of water. I just really wish we were playing. I can’t wait honestly. It’s gonna be a really huge crowd out there and a really good vibe so I’m looking forward to that.

S&T: When do you guys get your bus?

J: Probably tomorrow night.

S&T: That’s not too bad then.

J: Yeah, we’re just in that mini one right now.

S&T: How did it come about you finding the band or the band finding you?

J: Well, Brian (guitarist Brian Deneeve) and I have known each other for a long time. He’s played in a bunch of bands on Long Island, that’s where I’m from, and we used to trade shows back and forth, playing little VFW halls and stuff. Then From Autumn To Ashes started to really take off and he did really well with them. I’ve always stayed in contact with them and then I had heard that (original FATA guitarist Scott Gross) had left the band and I was working, you know, a normal 9-5 job just driving a truck for a living and I did really want to start getting back to making music. So I called him up and I figured, you know, I would get a tryout and whatever and Brain was like, “No, no, come do the Atreyu tour with us.” That was last year.

S&T: How long did it take you to pick up the music and learn it?

J: I really wanted to go in there knowing everything, to not have an attitude and to know what I really was doing. I picked apart both albums for a month. I would come home from work everyday and just spend 3-4 hours on my guitar board on my computer just listening to songs over and over again and just making sure I got the parts I was supposed to play right, because they gave me an opportunity and I didn’t want to blow it. I wanted to show them that I took it very seriously so I really I spent a lot of time.

S&T: You had a regular life, 9-5 working 40 hours a week, being with family... Now you’re going on tour and being away from home. That must have been a big change for you.

J: Definitely, definitely. I have a 3 year old nephew that we all live in the same house together; my brother and I and like he has a kid and I’m really close with him. I don’t have my own kid so it’s like he’s the closest thing to a kid I have and it sucks leaving him for like a month or two at a time. And I’m close with my family and to just have to leave them behind. Also friendships and relationships you know I have a bunch of friendships.

S&T: Is this a decision that when it was offered you took it right away or did you put a lot of thought into it?

J: Oh no, I really thought about it. I was living with a girl at the time, this girl that I was really serious with and like, she was really supportive of it but she knew that if I joined this band it would really cause a problem in the relationship. But she stuck by me and we kept it together for as long as we could. I have not a bad thing to say about that relationship, it was awesome. It was just that (she was) definitely ready to settle down and to be with a dude that’s serious about it because I’m still like having fun. But your relationships do suffer and we’ll get to that later about the album title.

S&T: What’s kind of interesting is that when you joined the band it wasn’t just starting out or small; you got into a band that’s already big.

J: Yeah, there definitely is that gap. But I’ve been in bands before... I’ve been playing guitar since I was about 13 or 14 so that’s almost like 16 or 17 years. On and off I’ve always been in punk or hardcore bands or metal bands and I would go and do small tours but nothing would ever happen. So yeah, there is definitely a gap from going to like playing shows with maybe 200 or 300 people to it then I join with these guys and the smallest shows are with like a 1000 people. So yeah, it’s definitely a gap. It was a shock the first couple of shows I was...

S&T: Nervous?

J: Yes, I still get nervous. I get nervous ‘til like the second or third song. As soon as I see the vibe of the crowd and that they’re actually supporting and that they’re not criticizing.

S&T: What about the times when you are nervous and you’re not getting a good vibe? How did you deal with that?

J: I kinda just soldier on. I’ll just try to concentrate more on my playing and forget about the audience being there. Like there have been times were we have played shows and we know that the audience isn’t really there for us they’re there for someone else, I’m not gonna name the band because there all cool guys and it’s not to... it’s just that the crowd was there for them and so all you can do at a point like that is try to play your best and try to stay focus.

S&T: Doesn't that really damper the show you're putting on at that point?

J: Yeah, but just for a little bit but the way these guys are and what I really like, like if someone messes up on stage, no one holds it against anybody else. You're never going to hear it and that's one thing I wasn't expecting. I would mess up at a show and I thought they were gonna be like, "Oh man, why did you mess up that part?" They don’t give a shit, it’s just about having fun and like after awhile you start to see that more and more. That’s what it’s about and if you're having fun the crowd sees that and they have more fun and they come away from the show with a smile and like, "Those are cool guys. I listen to these guys everyday and there actually cool people."

S&T: Are you still getting used to the fact that you are a part of FATA and there's fans coming up to you wanting an autograph or you're out here doing interviews?

J: It does but it’s something that I’ve always liked, like ever since the first time, since I was in another band, the first autograph I ever signed I was like, "Wow, this is something I want to do. I want to connect with the people that I’m making music for." I just don’t wanna be this dude that can’t talk to people or can’t be around people. I love doing interviews, I love talking to people about what I’m doing with my life. It’s a fucking total gas people wanting to know what the hell I do, you know, I think that’s really cool. So yeah, it’s hard to get used to but I really enjoy it.

S&T: You just went to Japan with them.

J: Mm hmm.

S&T: First time there?

J: Yeah.

S&T: Tell me about that?

J: Well, we were only in Tokyo, we didn’t get to go all over Japan but Tokyo is just a beautiful, clean, organized city. The way like a city should run, and not too many people speak English that well which was kinda weird but I also kind of liked it, that feeling of alienation.

S&T: Sorry to skip around like this but you said you had a regular job before this. I’m sure you had health insurance and benefits and vacations and now you joined a band where you don’t have that.

J: Well, we do have it. We pay a lot of money for it. It’s something that instead of us getting... We're trying to do this as intelligently as we can. Instead of getting like a crazy amount of money all upfront and not having any of those things you know like health insurance, dental, you know, anything like that, we decided to take some money and put it into that so that we have those things to fall back on. So now we do have a health plan which is super frickin' expensive. So whenever we make money from tour we have a monthly bill we pay. Everyone in the band has dental and health insurance.

S&T: How do you guys pay yourselves? Do you just give yourselves weekly paychecks or put it into a pool and share?

J: Well it’s all split five ways. The way the band works now is it’s five people working towards it where before it was just Fran and Scott but now it’s all five of us so whenever any money comes in it’s spread out evenly among all five of us. When we're on tour we get a daily spending allowance and then you get a weekly salary. You can take it if you want but what we usually do is hold it all this way we can get a bigger sum at the end. But before you can see any of that the bills have to get paid, you know. We have a credit card for the band just in case anything goes wrong or say you need strings or you need say a drum head, you have a credit card so you can go and get it or if we’re stranded somewhere we can go get a hotel room. So those bills get paid first and then after that we pay ourselves.

S&T: You did write for the new album correct?

J: Yes.

S&T: How was it for you getting back into the writing process again?

J: It was really nice and umm what happened was Fran and Josh have this side project called Biology, which is more like new wave rock and I’m not gonna say they sound like Interpol but it’s kind of along those ways, like that type of rock, and Fran doesn’t play drums he just sings and Josh our bass player plays guitar and they went away down to Philadelphia, no Baltimore, sorry, to go record their album. While they did that, Brian and I got together because Brian and I live really close to each other and we got together every afternoon and we would just play riffs like back and forth. Then from there, once those dudes got back in the winter, we got together and we decided to sit down and figure out how we were gonna write this album. Like what we were gonna use and what we were not gonna use.

S&T: You spoke previously how you wanted to say what the album was about?

J: Yeah, it goes right back to what we were talking about. It’s not what the whole album is about but the title track which is the last song on the album, it’s called "Abandon Your Friends." It’s basically like you're living this life, you're going to make sacrifices. People will think that it’s all fun and all rock star and champagne, hookers and all that shit but it’s not, you know, you've got your family at home. And Fran and Josh have serious girlfriends and Josh is getting married in September and those relationships suffer. So you do abandon your friends to a certain degree.

S&T: Besidess your girlfriend you had at the time was there anyone trying to tell you not to join?

J: No, not one person in my life had told me not too. My whole family was like, "If you don’t take this you are crazy," and they stuck behind me and my brother actually supported me on it and when I was going through a little bit of financial trouble he helped me out. So I would have to say that I am really lucky that I have had a lot of support.

S&T: Does Melanie from One True Thing make another appearance [ed.'s note: Melanie Wills, singer of One True Thing, has appeared on the first two FATA albums]?

J: No.

S&T: No?

J: Their old bass player, the dude that was playing bass before the new guy that we got now, that was his girlfriend at the time. He left the band and he’s leading a normal life now. He has a normal job and he’s with her but I don’t think she really got along too well with the rest of the dudes in the band so I don’t know what the deal is. I hear stories but I know the girl personally and she’s a sweet girl, she’s a sweetheart, but yeah, we have no connection with her really anymore.

S&T: And there’s a new video that’s gonna be in the works?

J: Yeah.

S&T: Any details that you know?

J: Yes, but the deal is I really can’t (talk about it) and the only reason why I can’t is because there’s two different guys that we're looking at who have treatments, you know. Kind of like scripts to the video and we don’t know which one we're gonna use yet. So we’ll know next week.

S&T: Well Jon, thank you very much for your time. Good luck tonight.

J: Thank you.

interview by kevin curtis