From their humble beginnings, few might have believed that Canada’s ALEXISONFIRE would enjoy a career as unique and successful as theirs has turned out to be. With their fourth album – Old Crows/Young Cardinals – just released, LINDSEY CUTHBERTSON speaks to guitarist/vocalist DALLAS GREEN about the elements contributing to what may well be the post-hardcore album of the year.

When Alexisonfire’s fourth album Old Crows/Young Cardinals debuted at number 17 on the ARIA charts two weeks ago, it may have caused some record label executives to choke on their café lattes. How could a post-hardcore band from Canada, on an indie label, break into the top twenty in their first week on the charts? Even to admirers of the band it almost defies belief. Without slipping into gimmicks, trends or cliché, Alexisonfire have achieved something in Australia that most overseas bands spend copious amounts of money trying to accomplish.

Being different has always been what the most successful musical artists have in common. The ability to stand on your own and keep throwing punches long after the audience has left you for dead is another. With Alexisonfire however, it would take a brave soul to say that they’re down for the count. Several years ago the band put in place a rule stating that anybody with an Alexisonfire tattoo was allowed free entry to their shows; now it has been changed to a first come-first served basis, such is the die-hard passion of the huge fanbase who have the band’s logo inked on their skin.

Talking to Dallas Green, Alexisonfire’s heavily tattooed, quietly spoken guitarist/vocalist, it’s obvious that it wasn’t so much as money that was invested into their new album, it was precious time. A whole year of writing the album. Nearly two months of recording. Green sometimes being worked like a dog from sun up to sun down by longtime co-producer Julius ‘Juice’ Butty, singing a verse or a chorus over and over again until it was perfect. It didn’t matter how long it took, just as long as they got it right.

"If you listen to the second verse of The Northern – the part where it’s just me singing – that took me six and a half hours to do. That’s not autotuned like many people would think; ‘Juice’ just made me sing it over and over until it was perfect," Green says.

"‘Juice’ really pushes us vocally. He was the one on Crisis that made George (Pettit, vocalist) start trying to sing and be a little more audible and help him get to where he is now, and that is a bona fide singer.

"As far as singing goes I’m always trying to do better than what I did before. I pride myself on being a good singer because I feel like there are a lot of people out there who just fall back on technology like autotune and pitch correction. I really don’t want to be one of those guys. It’s why I always say no to autotune. I just want to be able to sing it; sometimes it’s more frustrating that way when you could just so easily fix it up on a computer, but at the end of the day I can listen to a song like The Northern and know that that’s me singing it and know what I went through to get there. For me, that is so much more gratifying."

Alexisonfire have always had a certain ‘x’ factor about them, and even though that factor has changed over the years, it has always remained. When they first burst out of their home country with a self-titled debut in 2002, it was vocalist Pettit’s energetic stage presence and the innovative interplay between guitarist/vocalists Green and Wade MacNeil. 2004’s Watch Out! was where Alexisonfire really cemented their status as one of the best up and coming post-hardcore bands in the western world, as well as illustrating Green’s amazing set of pipes and the band’s ear for melody. After 2005’s Switcheroo split EP with good friends Moneen and Green’s debut solo album under his City & Colour moniker, it was the vocal interplay found within their third album, 2006’s Crisis, that set the band apart from the pack yet again.

"...it’s not that we want to be different to other bands – I just feel that we are."

Alexisonfire decided to approach the process of writing Old Crows/Young Cardinals a little differently, and, according to Green, it was this elongated writing period of over a year that gave the band a new edge that they hadn’t uncovered before.

"The long writing process allowed us to really delve into the songs and play them over and over until they got to the point where there were no parts that we disliked playing, whereas before we’d come off tour, take a month to write the record, take another month to record it and then go back on tour. Back then it was a case of, ‘Ok, we have thirteen songs to make a record, let’s go make the record,’" Green explains.

"For this record we went into the studio with seventeen songs, more than what we needed, and we had never been in a situation like that. Coming off touring and … not necessarily splitting up … but all of us going in our directions and becoming normal people again allowed us to come to the writing table with open minds and open hearts. It allowed us to grow a lot. Vocally and lyrically the songs are at a higher level than they have ever been."

When Green speaks of going in "other directions," it really is quite an understatement. 2008 saw Green release his second solo album, the critically acclaimed Bring Me Your Love. MacNeil also released an album with Black Lungs, which included Petit and Cancer Bats frontman Liam Cormier in its touring band. Furthermore, Petit branched out and began a career as an interviewer with his internet show Strange Notes. Drummer Jordan Hastings recently started up a hardcore side project called Hunter with members of Moneen. Several band members also got married and started families. Maybe it is all this and more that has seen a more mature and musically experimental Alexisonfire in 2009. Or perhaps it is just like what MacNeil sings in the chorus of opener Old Crows: "We are not the kids we used to be, stop wishing for yesterday."

"I know some people might listen to the album and think it isn’t as good because there isn’t screaming, but the development in Wade and George’s voices is astonishing and to see the singers they have become opened so many new doors for us. The three of us were never able to sing together before, but now you see Wade and I screaming more than George, George and Wade and I are all harmonising and when things like that happen in a band – having a new door open – it’s like a breath of fresh air."

And while Green maintains that the band are hoping for a February tour of Australia ("we consider ourselves an honorary Australian band", he says) they first have their eyes set upon conquering the biggest punk tour in the world, America’s Vans Warped Tour.

"As a band we’ve figured out what we want to be," says Green. "I know there has been a lot of talk about what George meant when he said we wanted to put the knife into screamo, but it’s not that we want to be different to other bands – I just feel that we are."

OLD CROWS/YOUNG CARDINALS is out now through Dine Alone/Shock Records. www.myspace.com/alexisonfire

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