Feb 3rd 2009
Just two years have passed since The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, a group of friends from Middleburg, Florida who’d grown up together, emerged with their Virgin Records debut, Don’t You Fake It, which spent 62 weeks on Billboard’s Top 200, going on to sell more than a million copies in the U.S. TeenSpot.com sits down with The RJA just after their sophomore release to ask a few questions.
TeenSpot: Hi! Who are you and what do you do in the band?
Ronnie, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus: Hello I am Ronnie Winter, I sing lead vocals and play some rhythm guitar.
Tell us a little about the band. What do you sound like, who are your main influences, who do you aspire to sound like, if anyone.
We sound like a Rock-n-Roll band I suppose. Our influences are pretty diverse, too many to list really but basically anything that rocks hard that we like.
You guys recently released a new album on February 3rd 2009. What can you tell us about it?
It’s called Lonely Road. It’s our second major release but third album over all. We are very proud of it and hope all of our fans enjoy it as much as we do.
What direction do you feel the band has taken with the new record in comparison to the previous offerings?
Not much has changed really. We just wrote a bunch more songs and then recorded them.
If the album was to say one thing about you as a band, what would you like that message to be?
I would say that once again just an overall sense of hope and understanding of the trials and tribulations we all go through together on this earth.
Which one song, from any album/ep, sums up RJA for you?
Probably ‘In Fate’s Hands’ (‘Ass Shaker’ was its original title). It pretty much describes us and what we have gone through pretty well.
Obviously an important part of band life is touring. How do you personally find it?
I love to tour, especially in The RJA because we get to hang out and jam everyday together. Also, just meeting new people everyday and experiencing different cultures first hand is really rad.
Where in the world is your favorite place to tour/play? Is there anywhere that you’ve not been able to play yet that you’d like to?
So far Japan and Canada have been pretty awesome, as well as Australia and the Philippines. But I really like touring in The States the most, I think.
What’s the best/funniest/worst thing ever to have happened whilst out on the road?
Best thing: Rocking out live every night…never gets old. Funniest: Random weird moments at truck stops and pranks between the band and crew on each other. Worst: Having to fly all of the time. I really hate that.
You guys were involved in some charity work with the National Coalition against Domestic Violence. How did that all come about?
They contacted us because of the response we were getting about our first song ‘Face Down’ which dealt with domestic violence issues which I went through as a child. It seemed like a good fit for us so we hooked up with them for awhile and raised some money for their organization via a special T-Shirt and PSA’s I did for them as well. Then we started our own non-profit called The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Guardian Angel Foundation which we currently use to help all sorts of people in different ways.
What can we, joe public, do to help?
You can donate on our site at http://redjumpsuitalliance.ning.com/group/guardianangelfoundation or come to a show and buy one of our RJA GAF fundraiser shirts as well.
Please tell us a super exclusive uber fact about The RJA that no-one else knows!
We are really space aliens bent on world domination….we are coming for you, be afraid…be very afraid.
We need a crash course in entertainment. Please tell us what we should do!
Band to see (other than yourselves!) Go see NIN as soon as possible.
Movie to watch – Go watch Watchmen. It comes out on May 6th!!!!!!!
Place to visit – Go to Japan at least once before you die, you won’t regret it.
Food to eat! There is a place in Encinitas, CA called Ricos Burritos and try the Justin burrito…you will love it.