One-on-one conversation includes talk of metal and Messengers

By Gary Graff
January 20, 2017

The Amish environs of Lancaster, Pennsylvania hardly seem like fertile territory for a metal band. But don’t tell that to Brent Rambler and August Burns Red. The quintet — which slips stealthily between classifications such as metalcore, melodic metal and even Christian metal — has been headbanging since 2003, with seven albums of increasingly sophisticated and advanced playing that has plenty of nuance within the group’s blazing arrangements. This year August Burns Red is allowing itself a bit of nostalgia, celebrating the 10th anniversary of its lauded sophomore album, Messengers, by playing the album in its entirety on tour. But rest assured more is coming, and August Burns Red is unlikely to slow down, musically or otherwise, in the near future.

FGPO: So 10 years since Messengers. Does it feel like 10 years, 10 minutes, 100 years…

Rambler: [laughs] It definitely feels like a long time. Obviously we’ve put out a lot of albums in between, but at the same time you can definitely look back and remember everything from recording the record and making that record, so it’s one of those things where, sure, it feels like a long time ago but it’s still fresh in everyone’s mind.

FGPO: What kind of perspective do you have on the album now?

Rambler: Well, obviously to the band that material feels a little bit dated. The album was written 11 years ago at this point, so obviously the material feels like a little bit dated, yeah. But it’s an album that came out at a great time for a lot of people. It’s a very nostalgic album for thousands and thousands of people, I guess. So for us looking back at it is cool. It’s really fun to play every night; the record is very aggressive, so it’s kind of a fun set to play through.

FGPO: Does it at all feel like a different band or a different group of guys when you listen to it?

Rambler: Obviously we were really young when we made it. We’re different people now, yeah. If you don’t grow and change in 10 years, you’re kind of weird. I think obviously we’ve improved as a band, drastically.

FGPO: Where do you hear the evolution, then?

Rambler: As far as when we made that record, I can’t even say we were even much musicians at that point. The album is extremely linear, with just part after part after part, rather than having cohesive songs. But I think that was something different back then; metalcore was very verse-chorus oriented, so for us to come out and just do songs that were part after part after part and rip right through the music was something that was different — even if it’s really just kind of a sign of how inexperienced we were as songwriters back then.

FGPO: Where do you hear that mostly?

Rambler: Oh, if you listen to some of the transitions on the record, you’re like: “Where the heck did THAT come from? What?! How did they get into THAT part?!” Who knows, but there we were. So the songwriting is very different than to how it is now. We’ve all matured a lot. But looking back, it is fun. When you’re younger, in your early 20s and just coming out of school, you’re maybe filled with more raw emotions. You’re learning how to live life by yourself, and I think that comes across in the music.

FGPO: How did you wind up playing guitar?

Rambler: I always loved music; it was a big part of my life when I was a kid. My family was very musical; they could all sing and play brass instruments. I could never do that. I can’t sing to save my life! I have no idea how to read music or anything like that. I picked up guitar late in life, 16-ish, 17-ish. Everyone was surprised when I was the one out of the family to go into a full-time career in music. But I’d see my friends playing instruments or playing in cover bands when we were in high school. It seemed fun. My mom got me a guitar for my birthday. I didn’t use it much, then my mom and dad got me an amp that had distortion on it, a crappy Line 6 Spider or something like that, and that made all the difference. Messengers really only came out three, four years after I learned to play the guitar.

FGPO: Do you play any brass as well?

Rambler: [laughs] I played trombone in fifth grade for half a semester of school. Our band teacher was so mean everyone quit. He was yelling at fifth graders. One time he told us we suck; I’m, like, 12, so it’s like: “Shut up!”

FGPO: Who were your influences and heroes? 

Rambler: I was always into punk music growing up, before I even wanted to be in a band. I had some fun playing in punk bands. I just loved the music and it was a big part of my life as a kid. So early on I listened mostly to punk, the great punk guitar players. I loved blink-182 and NOFX and Millencolin growing up; that’s what I first learned to play on guitar. As time went on I got more into heavier stuff; Poison The Well’s The Opposite Of December album was pretty influential in as far as what got me into this kind of music. Then Paul Waggoner from Between The Buried And Me has always been an insane player, and he’s a friend of ours now. He’s amazing. Kris Norris, who used to play for Darkest Hour, all of his stuff was really awesome.

FGPO: August Burns Red gets mentioned in a lot of different categories. Are you comfortable with most of those?

Rambler: I think for us the whole sub-genre thing does get a little ridiculous. We’re a metal band. We play music that’s fast and loud and heavy and has screaming vocals — I think that’s pretty much the definition of metal music. If we’re to tell anybody on the street or a layman what kind of music we play, I’d say we’re a metal band.

FGPO: How do you and JB [Brubaker] coordinate the guitar attack for the band?

Rambler: Well, JB is the lead songwriter for the band. We’ve always been friends, for decades. Out of nowhere when we were 19 years old he turned into a music composer. So he writes out everything and then Dustin [Davidson] writes all the guitar parts and everything gets worked over as a whole band and everyone learns their parts and figures out what they want to play, and the vocals and lyrics come in a little later down the road. If you want to make any changes you can make any changes.

FGPO: So how do you figure out your parts?

Rambler: It’s hours and hours and hours of practice. Everything we play and every new record is more difficult than the last. We’re working on a new record right now, and I was sitting down with the songs and it takes, like, a week, two weeks to be able to actually play through one of these songs on guitar. It definitely takes sitting down and setting aside specific time in the day to really learn ’em. It’s like get up, have breakfast with my family, play the guitar from 9 to 11, then go to the gym, come home and eat lunch, then play guitar from 1 ’til 5, usually every day.

FGPO: How do you make sure your stamp is on these songs, then?

Rambler: Well, Jake [Luhrs], Matt [Greiner] and I handle the lyrics for the band, so that’s where we get to make our contribution. The song “Composure” and “Whitewash,” those are two songs I wrote, lyrically. And then the song treatment is another thing. We all do get to find our own parts and that let’s us bring ourselves into each of the song. Nobody dictates that you HAVE to do this or that.