Andy Williams of Every Time I Die
By Robin Steeley and Joe Prophet
In Portland on tour with the Dillinger Escape Plan, we had a chance to catch up with Guitarist Andy Williams of Every Time I die. We talked about time off, Ozzfest, and their latest plans after a relentless bout of touring.
Crave: I know you have probably been asked about a thousand times but I just have to ask, how did you get the name Every Time I Die?
Andy: It's actually kind of a shitty story. There is a band called Drowning Man that was on the first half of this tour. They had this song called "Every Time I Dial" and one day, we needed a name and we were driving home from practice and someone said "Every Time I Die" so that was it, it became our name.
Crave: And here I thought it was going to be deeper then that! So how’s Jeff doing?
Andy: He’s getting a little better. They took him off the respirator and he is breathing on his own now so that’s good. I’m not sure if he’s off dialysis yet, but the doctor says he’s going to recover from it. The really messed up thing is that his bill is going to be like $75-$100,000 dollars., Ozzfest is the first time we have ever had a bus and it ended up breaking down like 4 times and I would take a thousand bus breakdowns over something like that. There was a day he was sitting in the van shaking and he couldn’t breathe and we were telling him to go to the hospital and he just wanted to stay on the tour. We had to tell him, go to the hospital or go home, before he would go.
Crave: How was Ozzfest overall?
Andy: It’s been awesome. We didn’t really know how good it was going to be when we were on Ozzfest, but now that we are doing our first tour after, you can really tell you can see people you wouldn’t normally see at an ETID show that are here and are fans now.
Crave: Did it help with Record Sales?
Andy: Oh yeah, I’m sure. Everything benefited from it. the only thing that didn’t is that the huge stage just isn’t our thing. Live performance wise it was weird to get up and play because it is so far from the crowd. It took us to the middle of the crowd to get used to it, but now we are on a tour like this and we’re right back home again.
Crave: How’s this tour so far?
Andy: Here’s the scary thing that we were afraid of; Dillinger is one of the best live bands around, they are a mile a minute, they are all going crazy, Ben is on top of his amp and jumping on the drums, and they are just awesome, and we are actually holding our own.
Crave: Tell me about the PS2 thing you have going on. How did you fall into that?
Andy: It happened prior to Ozzfest, they needed a band for this backyard wrestling thing. We have been talking about it for the last year. For the new record coming up, we are signing a new publishing deal for some movies and more PS2 games. I had a friend’s band that does just weekends, they don’t tour or anything and they are the Ultimate Fighting Championship games and doing video games and it’s so awesome. The funny thing is that I’m 27 now and way back when I was like 15 we used to do background wrestling we would jump out of trees onto tables, and light ourselves on fire and hit each other with the lights and stuff and like two years after we stopped doing it it suddenly got really popular and stuff. My Mom claims that I’m the one that invented backyard wrestling. It’s pretty funny.
Crave: Do you guys get any down time? If so, what do you do during it?
Andy: We have such little time off between tours. Like maybe two weeks since July 1st of 2003. We have been on tour for like a year and whatever. Down Time? That’s funny. I talked to my Dad today and I really miss going fishing. When I’m home I fish at least every other day. I love water, I love the outdoors. We have friends when were home, but its really weird since were always gone, there’s always a new dude that takes your spot when your gone so when we get home no one wants to hang out.
Crave: What are your plans after this tour?
Andy: We will be off until December 10th and then we go to Europe for ten days and then we will be home for three months writing a new record before we’re off to Japan again.
Crave: : What band is in your CD player right now?
Andy: That’s a good one. Decapitated, yeah that’s what’s in there. I love em. Riff maniacs.
Crave: What’s the last movie you watched?
Andy: We’re all huge movie buffs on tour, and we just watched American Splendor.
Crave: Well listen thanks so much for talking to me today, I wish you luck on the rest of the tour.
Andy: Yeah man, enjoy the show.
