Man Of Leisure

PropertyOfZack Interview : : The Used

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PropertyOfZack spoke with Bert McCracken from The Used a few weeks ago for a fantastic interview. Bert and I discussed the band jumping back into the game, how their former label restricted their creative ability, their new album, Anger Music Group, and much more. Read up and enjoy!

For the record, could you state your name and role in The Used?
I’m Bert, and I sing stuff in The Used.
 
The Used have been out of the spotlight for some time now, but have jumped back in it pretty quickly. Was it odd to sort of step away for the longest time in your career really?
Yeah, it was. We’ve been doing nothing for a while. It was because of our whole label process with Warner. They had picked us up for another record and then dropped it. Everything got pushed back because of that. We’ve definitely been working on this record for a long time. It’s been weird for sure, but we can’t wait to get back out there. 
 
We know that you left Warner, your management, and have really sort of taken on a DIY ethic with Vulnerable besides patterning up with Hopeless. Was it difficult to push through so many road blocks during that time off?
It’s always difficult when everything changes so drastically. It’s never easy to adapt to a new situation. It’s definitely not easy and a little frightening when you’re going out to do everything by yourself. We were done working with people that we didn’t like. We decided to fire those people and hire people that we like and wanted to be around. We’ve been wanting to put out our own records for years now since we had been stuck with Warner for quite some time. We had the opportunity to start not only a label but an art production company that deals with every single type of creative art that’s out there from food to fashion to clothing to photography and film. It’s all inclusive. 
 
How did that play into, interrupt, or push on the writing process for Vulnerable?
We’d get together and have writing sessions, but then something would happen and everything would fall apart. We’d get back together and everything would fall apart again. It wasn’t until we were completely done with Warner that we started to pick up the process a little bit.
 
Vulnerable is of course following up Artwork, which may have been the band’s most polarizing release in terms of reception. How do you feel about that record two and a half years later?
It was definitely a process with the label for that record from day one. Record labels were falling to pieces and they were desperately reaching for anything like trying to tell us to dress us in certain clothes with bullet proof vests and arm bands. They even told me to change the lyrics on the record. So instead of saying “He’s full of shit,” they’d have me say, “He’s full of it.” A lot of the songs that I initially liked turned into “it,” you know? It was complete bullshit in my mind. It’s my least favorite Used record. I rarely listen to it. It’s a very negative record as well, which I thought was therapeutic, but you can really just get yourself down when that’s all you think about. To spite myself, I wrote a really positive and inspirational record with this new record. It’s my favorite thing that we’ve done so far.
 
Being an artist is obviously making what you want to create. Was being forced to make so many changes on Artwork really affect the whole album cycle as well?
Yeah, it did. When somebody tells you that you have 100% creative freedom and then you realize that it’s a big lie, it’s really disheartening for your artwork and creative being as an artist. Like I said, four or five of the songs I originally liked I don’t even like anymore. I refuse to play those songs live and they’re not the songs I set out to write. There are a lot of good songs on Artwork, but in my mind, it was too fucked with. It says a lot about artwork in general especially now in 2012. It’s a rare occasion when an artist gets to put out exactly what they want. 

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