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By now, the Circa Survive story has been well documented: The band's birth out of singer Anthony Green's last minute decision
to leave Saosin for a new project with Colin Frangicetto. Their almost immediate signing to Equal Vision Records and the
subsequent grand expectations. The album that, when it was released, seemed to owe more to modern progressive rock than any
of the band members' hardcore past. The tale's been told countless times over.
But interest in a band based upon an intriguing back story only lasts for so long. It can pique people's interest, but
if the music's just not there, fans will move on quickly. Which goes to prove that Circa Survive must be on to something,
given that instead of losing people's attention, they've gained it, winning over fans with "Juturna" and a relentless
schedule of live dates for the past year. RSJ spoke with Colin while on the road for the band's victory lap, playing their
first headlining tour.
Rock Star Journalism: Reading the tour journals, it looks like this tour is going well for you.
Colin Frangicetto: Yeah, that would be an understatement for sure. It's amazing. Definitely blowing my mind every day
that these people are coming out to see us.
RSJ: What do you think has made these shows so good in particular?
CF: I guess for us, personally, it's just a really huge sense of accomplishment cause we've been touring pretty much nonstop
since we got done with the first album. To come full circle like this -- hitting all the places where we were opening for
bands like a year ago, and now we're headlining -- it's an amazing feeling, makes you feel like you're doing the right thing.
RSJ: You mentioned the nonstop touring; is there any area that's been particular good for you?
CF: California has just been ridiculous to our band from the start. That has a lot to do with Anthony's past, at least
at first it did. But now, it's just nothing but love from that side -- they're just amazing to us. On our first tour before
we even had a record out, we played Chain Reaction, and it sold out. It sucked for the other bands we were with; basically
everyone left after we played. That was kind of shocking.
RSJ: [Bassist] Nick mentioned that you like to do something different on each tour, since there's only so much material
at this point. Have you been doing anything special for this tour?
CF: Every tour, we try to link the songs and work on transitions in the set, which normally involves changing the original
song structure in some way so that it flows into another song. So, we're doing a bit of that; we also have a lot of different
samples that we put together ourselves that interlink the set. We're also doing a full band version of an acoustic song that's
on the album. All stuff that's just a little bit different that gives people a reason to come out and makes us feel good,
that we're not beating a dead horse over and over.
 RSJ: I read that you didn't do the Taste of Chaos tour because you're not particularly into the festival vibe.
CF: Yeah, that's definitely true to an extent. There was a lot of other things involved in that situation where we just
couldn't do it. But, that was the main reason for us.
RSJ: Is there any festival you'd like to be part of, or are you not interested in that altogether?
CF: I would seriously give my right pinky toe to bring Lollapalooza back in its full glory of what it was years ago, just
cause it was awesome as a kid going to see that many different kinds of bands. We always kind of talked about wanting to
be part of the jam band hippie culture, like Bonnaroo and stuff like that, but I don't know how realistic that is. In the
same way that Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos don't fit us exactly, I don't know if that would either.
RSJ: There's some interesting stuff in the fan art section of your web site. Does it surprise you that people create
that sort of thing?
CF: It totally surprises me. It's like the most flattering thing ever that somebody would spend their time working on
a piece of art that is in some way dedicated to us. We feel like it's only polite and the right thing to do to display it
and put those things up to show our thanks.
RSJ: Was there any piece that stood out as particularly memorable to you?
CF: The thing that always stuck out to me was people getting tattoos. The first kid that I met with a tattoo of our band's
artwork was pretty mind blowing. I still have it as the background on my phone. I sent it to my dad right away; I was like
I can't believe this, this is crazy. It's hard to believe you impact people that way.
RSJ: There's a mention on the site of finding a new house earlier in the year for writing. Any thoughts on when you'll
be recording again?
CF: Yeah, we did find a house, and we all moved in together, and it's actually going to be a little bit more than just
for writing. We've pretty much settled that we're gonna stay there for awhile. We started writing a bit, and I think the
tentative plan is to start recording sometime after the New Year. We're all really looking forward to that.
RSJ: Do you think the new material is differing in any way from the first album?
CF: It's hard to say cause it's still gestating. I already find myself wanting to change certain things; I'm sure everyone
else feels the same way. I think in general, the biggest difference I see in the writing sessions is that we can talk more
because there isn't as much pressure as there was before. There were a lot of things we were still getting used to as far
as each other's styles go and how we all work together, and now all that's in the past, so it's a much less fragile situation.
It's actually a lot more fun.
 RSJ: Has there been anything recently that's influenced you musically?
CF: I'm definitely constantly influenced by new bands; I think we all are. But, it's sometimes even discovering bands
that you kind of looked over before [that influences you]. I know, recently, a band that our drummer had always loved, Broken
Social Scene, I stumbled upon their stuff and I was enthralled by how many different side projects all of them have and how
talented they all are in different ways. So, that's definitely been influencing me. It's people's passions for what they
do and how they approach things that I find to be really inspiring.
RSJ: I saw that you did an interview for the PETA website; do you have any interest in promoting animal rights issues
through the band, such as the work Most Precious Blood does with this issue?
CF: No. I respect everyone's opinion on that matter, but as a band we've just never chosen to [take a stand] for causes
like that where we're not all in completely the same place as far as the way we feel about it.
RSJ: Is there any particular message or idea that you would want fans to take away from your music?
CF: Yeah, it's kind of funny that you asked that cause I've been thinking about that a lot. And I think it's probably
only natural when you start realizing that there are people listening to your music and there are fans that look up to you.
Which is a really weird thing to grasp, at least for me. We're used to being the people looking up to other people, and
to kind of switch places is strange. There's a certain responsibility I think that comes with it that I think we're just
starting to grasp now.
I do hope that our band has a positive effect on people. I would like to impact humanity in a good way; I just don't
know exactly what that message is. The world's pretty fucked up; it's pretty hard to give people advice or direction when
I really don't know. I think telling anyone how to live their life is totally ridiculous. But to seize control over what's
going on in your life is important. There has been a certain theme in this band of making decisions based upon how you feel
in your heart. Follow the little detours and what's important to you.
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