Interview Roses Are Red

Interview
Vincent Minervino
Roses Are Red

RosesareRed

Lineup:
Vincent Minervino - Vocals

Brian Gordner - Guitar
Matthew Gordner - Guitar
Michael Lasaponara - Drums
Brad Gilboe - Bass

3/3/06
Interviewer: Maggie Solum

"The Smashing Pumpkins are like one of my favorite bands ever and they were one of the first bands that I ever listened to where I was like 'man I want to be in a band'."

Join us in conversation with frontman for Roses Are Red as he discusses with our own Maggie Solum the band's new album which hits the shelves on June 13th entitled, What Became of Me the follow up to their critical acclaimed CD, Conversations. He also discusses future touring plans, discusses his fandom and the band's involvement on the Smashing Pumpkins Tribute album, and much more. Read on...

Vincent: My name is Vincent and I am the vocalist for Roses Are Red. And that's pretty much it, that's pretty much all I do. (We both laugh)

Maggie: Okay, I heard in April you'll be part of the Take Action Tour - how does it feel to be part of a tour with such a strong cause?

Vincent: We're very, very excited to be a part of a tour. We've never had the opportunity to do any type of tour for any type of cause that's, you know, other than supporting ourselves, so it's really cool to do something like that. It's something we all feel very strongly about. A couple of us have had, you know, close encounters with the issue and a couple of our friends have gone through that, and it's cool to be able to play alongside some awesome bands and bring a good message to the kids that wouldn't normally come out to see us just for the music, but still be able to take away the program and the knowledge of how to help out their friends and how to help out themselves and people that are going through something like that, so you know, it's going to be very cool.

Vincent: Yeah, definitely, I'm really excited about it; it's going to be amazing. Plus we're really good friends with the Matchbook Romance dudes, that's going to be awesome to actually tour with those guys; we've known those guys forever.

Maggie: I was just going to ask you if you were close with any of the other bands on the tour.

Vincent: Yeah, well, actually Matchbook has our same management, so when we've both been out on the west coast, you know, kind of near our management is based and we've stayed in similar areas, you know, and hung out and stuff like that. We've kept pretty closely in touch with those guys and their pretty cool dudes, so it's going to be awesome to share the road with them for the first time.

Maggie: Your 2004 release of Conversations did really well, what do you think you achieved on this new record that you didn't achieve on the last one?

Vincent: Oh wow. A lot actually. I don't know, we've had some member changes and stuff like that from the last record, and it's been really, really, really beneficial for us. We've gotten a lot stronger musically, as far as the level of musicianship is on a much more superior level than it was before, and, I don't know, just the general feeling of unity and feel the creative vibe that's been going throughout all the rehearsal sessions and stuff like that, it's just been a lot more positive. Before there was tension between various members and stuff like that and it's just like this whole process has been a lot more gratifying as far as making something not only with musicians that you respect but really good friends. It's just been awesome, we've just tried every idea and pushed ourselves to, I don't know, it's just, this record is just going to destroy the last one (Laughs) That's all I'm going to say.

Maggie: Your new album [What Became of Me] has been labeled the most anticipated album of 2006 by Alternative Press. How does that feel?

Vincent: That's amazing; I've always looked at those lists and been like "man, that would be so cool to be on those lists". I don't know; Alternative Press has been really supportive of us. Like our first, first album before Conversations, we were pretty much unsigned, we were on some really, really small label that was ran by like this one dude out of his house.. Somehow they got our record then, they gave us a 3, which was really awesome because we were unsigned and no one knew who we were but we got in Alternative Press and we got a 3. And Conversations got a 4, a really positive review. The staff there's really supportive, they came down to cover the recording process for this cover and took some pictures and stuff like that. I was really excited, that was definitely an honor that they've taken notice to what they're doing and that they would include us on that list because that's definitely put their credibility out there, so hopefully we won't let them down, you know.

Vincent: Yeah, we've been hear since like Feb. 6th, we've been tracking the last 3 1/2 weeks and we've got a couple more days. Brian's actually downstairs mixing the record right now, we're all really excited.

Vincent: Yeah, we did twelve songs for the record. Probably going to use one as like a B-side or for the Japanese release, and eleven on the record.

Vincent: Going to be hard to cut one though, we really like every single song so.

Maggie: Right. So I heard you chose Brad Philip to do your artwork. Has he worked on it? Do you know what it looks like?

Vincent: Not yet, we're actually still in the very beginning stages of the artwork stages. We actually just solidified a title like last week, so we sent him over that and he wanted us to send him some concept ideas but it's going to be very different from the last record, like it's going to be very art-focused, as opposed to our last record artwork was very people in the band-focused, which is kind of good for like a first record to kind of introduce the guys in the band.. but this record is going to be a lot less person-focused as opposed to artwork-focused - like all the lyrics are going to be hand-written out, and it's going to be a lot more of a complete thing that people can appreciate, it's going to be a lot more cohesive with the actual album and the lyrics of the record and stuff like that. It's going to be really cool, and we're really stoked to see what he comes up with because we really like a lot of other work that he's done. Should be really cool.

Vincent: Yeah, well, we did like two weeks of it. We were on the Smart Punk stage for like the last two weeks of it. That was really cool. Warped Tour's like the best and the worst thing ever.

Vincent: It's like every day you get to play for tons of kids and see a lot of amazing bands, but it's like, if you're a band like us with a van and trailer, without a bus, you bake out in the sun all day and then you load up and drive 8 hours and then load in at 7 in the morning the next day and then do it all over again. It's like a fun time, but it's definitely a lot of hard work, but it's worth it, it's a lot of fun.

Maggie: You've toured with a lot of bands, I browsed through who you've toured with, and in your opinion what's been your favorite tour experience so far?

Vincent: Ooo... Favorite tour experience... *various thinking noises* I don't know, we went to Europe with Underoath, that was pretty amazing. Just because the shows were sold out every night and the kids in the UK are like incredibly supportive. They're very appreciative of American bands when they come over there. We get tons of messages every day of like 'when are you coming back to the UK', you know (Laughs) It's really cool because we've only been over there once and we were like the opening band on the tour you know, but even, that was like over a year ago, and even to this day the kids are still, like, stoked about it and want us to come back and play. We also, like, just going over to Europe - like before this band I hadn't gone further than, you know, Atlanta, Georgia, for like some family thing one time (Laughs) It's cool because I got to see not only the whole US, but now we get to tour to the UK and Germany and we got to play a show in Amsterdam which was crazy. It's definitely a crazy experience and at least until I was way older I wouldn't be able to see those things until I was way older, so it's definitely sweet.

Maggie: You're featured on the Smashing Pumpkins tribute album [The Killer In You]? Tell me about that.

Vincent: Um, we did a cover of "Cherub Rock" which is the first song on Siamese Dream. We were really stoked to be on that comp. For me personally, Smashing Pumpkins are like one of my favorite bands ever and they were one of the first bands that I ever listened to where I was like 'man I want to be in a band'. I used to sit around and play their songs with headphones on and stuff. We got a call from Ross and Reignition who's like a really sweet dude, he told us he was doing the compilation and stuff, and he wanted us to do a cover and it was cool because he sent us a list of the songs that people have already chosen and nobody had chosen "Cherub Rock" yet, and that was actually our first choice of a song to do, because Siamese Dream was a record that pretty much started it all for those guys as far as being a mainstream rock band and that was the first song on the record. It was very, very cool for us to be able to do that and it ended up being the very first song on the tribute record as well, so.. It was really cool and we were really excited. Even if we weren't like the featured band on the record it's just cool to be able to break out my IPod and listen to my band do a cover of a Smashing Pumpkins song. We might actually bust it out live once or twice here and there, we'll see.

Maggie: That'd be cool.

Vincent: (Laughs) Yeah. I just feel like kids won't know what it is. You know what I mean? Because a lot of kids that come to our show are younger. And if we were to play a song like that only like a handful of older people would appreciate it and we would feel bad.

Vincent: (Laughs) Yeah! Exactly. We'd be like 'oh man! You guys got to get into this' (Laughs) But we might do it if the occasion is right. That would be cool.

Vincent: Amazing. Trustkill's one of the best labels ever. They're amazing dudes, you know, really, really, really supportive. Anytime we've ever been in trouble on tours with van problems or something happening they've always been there to help us out. Whenever we go to Jersey they always come out to the shows, they always hang out, take us out to eat, take us out to strip clubs, whatever. (Laughs)

They're really cool though. Like I'll talk to Josh, if not only about business, it's about movies he went to see or something. It's cool because we're good friends but he's also the owner of our label, and he takes really good care of us and it's amazing. We couldn't be happier where we're at.

Maggie: Aww, that's good. Hmm.. what are three things you want to do before you die - realistic or not.

Vincent: Oooh wow. I want to go to Italy, I guess that's sort of realistic, because I have been to Europe. That'd be pretty cool because I'm Italian and my family's from there and my father's always told me and showed me pictures of where our family's from and stuff like that and it'd be really cool to see all that. Go over there and have some wine or something like that. (Both laughing)

Vincent: Maybe have a cappuccino or something. That would be really cool. Let's see.. (thinking noises) I would actually really like to write a book. I'm not sure what it would be about or anything. I don't know. I've always had pretty strong opinions on certain things and it would be cool to write it all down, maybe just to have me read it and no one else.

Maggie: I was actually going to ask you 'if you could write a book, what would you write about?' or 'who would read it'?

Vincent: That's sweet, that's sweet. That's awesome. Once the band thing's done, I actually want to go into journalism. I've actually studied a couple years before the band got signed. I always thought it would be cool to work in like a big city for like a newspaper, for something like the New York Times or something. Just cover like exciting things, you know, that would be really cool. So I guess my stuff isn't too crazy or out of reach, but you know.

Maggie: If you could be asked any question in this interview, what would you want to be asked?

Vincent: Oh jeez. (Thinking noises) That's a tough one. I don't think I've ever been asked that question. (More noises) I don't know. It might take me a little while to come up with one, can we come back to that question?

Vincent: Wow, if I could be asked any question.. (Noises) That's a really tough one. Ummm.. I think you pretty much asked it. When you asked what the record provides, that Conversations didn't.. I would just really like to illustrate to people that our last record, even though we're very, very proud of it, but we're very, very excited about the progression that people are going to hear on the new record with the new guys. This is a record that I personally have always wanted to make and I hope people get it. I just want people to kind of forget what they know about our band right now and kind of just think of it in a new light, because people are going to like it, I hope.

We'd like to thank Vincent for talking to FourteenG again, to Warm Fuzzy for setting the interview up.