For around a decade now, THE USED has been making headlines for all sorts of reasons.  In 2011, the only thing that matters to Bert McCracken is the music – that’s all he’s passionate about.  Connecting to McCracken this morning to kick off the interview about their upcoming appearance at Soundwave Revolution, he’s particularly chipper and he’s happy to tell me Robyn Morrison why.

“It’s a firestorm, it’s a purify, it’s a brand new band,” says McCracken when talking about what’s going on in the world of THE USED.  “I’ve never been more passionate about music or my love of music or my lyrics or my whole life.”  And why does McCracken have so much enthusiasm?  He shares a story. “We played a show about five months ago.  I had a terrible accident and fell off the front of the stage.  I slipped on some water and broke my hand, my wrist and my elbow.

I’ve had three surgeries in the last five months and I was really down for the count for a little while and eating up handfuls of pain pills and got really addicted to pain pills for a little while.  I went through my own little detox and got myself cleaned up.  When I came out of it, I looked at myself and didn’t like what I saw. I’ve been on fire in every way, getting more spiritually healthy and more emotionally healthy.  We wrote the (new) record in about three weeks and it’s just now almost finished.  We have about two more songs to write and we’re excited.”

McCracken assures that his injuries are on the mend. “I’m doing a lot better.  The bones are still healing up but I’ll be 100%.  I’m just full of pins and screws and wires.”

Reverting back to the conversation about the new album, McCracken confirms that they’re heading towards a 2012 release. “It should be coming out January or early February.  I know that seems like a long time but we’re definitely going to be putting out some songs in the meantime and get the kids more involved than ever and rebuild our website and revamp everything and take control of it.  We’re no longer with the record label.  We’ve started our own record label, so we’re putting out the record ourselves and doing everything ourselves this time so it’s really all about us.” 

McCracken agrees when I suggest that the behind the scenes work is an eye opener in relation to promotion and publicity of the band. “It’s a lot of hard work but we’re handling it.  In the past I gave the cop out answer that I’m not a businessman and I realised that I’m a lot smarter than that and no one’s really going to give a shit about my band as much as I do.  It’s my time to shine.”

On the subject of the upcoming album, McCracken says we can expect a diverse album this time around. “Like always, I write about love, happiness, sadness and mortality.  But this time around it’s more on a positive inspirational note.  Everyone has this fire burning inside them, and it’s about becoming more than just human.  Tying in all the surgeries I’ve had and all the metal keeping my bones together, I feel like a machine and I feel like I’m unstoppable at this point and that’s the whole vibe of the record.”

Prior to heading down to Soundwave Revolution, THE USED will be jet setting across to South Africa but McCracken says Aussie audiences will hear a different live set.  “Mainly, we’ve never been to South Africa before so we’re going to keep it pretty basic and try to play little bits from every record.  It’s not like we won’t do that in Australia but we toured Australia last year so I think we’re going to play some new stuff.

We’re continuously stepping up our game as far as art and music.  We’ve been doing this for over ten years now.  It’s really just like anything in life.  If you’re working on cars for ten years, you’re going to get pretty good at it.  I think at this point, we’re all pretty comfortable with ourselves and with our ability on stage.  We know that we kick ass live and I know that I’m a good entertainer.  I can’t wait to bring the fans back into my world and get their feedback because really, it’s always about the fans.”

And speaking about connecting with fans, McCracken was happy to answer a fan question about THE USED’s top five most well received songs generally when playing a show. “That’s a good question.  People like to hear The Taste of Ink, Box Full of Sharp Objects, Hospital, Pretty Handsome Awkward and Bird and the Worm is a big one.”  Further conversation about the festival show versus the club show, McCracken believes that you have to approach the festival show differently. “It’s really a different vibe and I think that you have to make the outdoor festival show as intimate as possible.  It’s really important because in a club at night, you automatically get that intimacy with the fans.”

The conversation takes a natural turn onto the subject as to whether we’ll see THE USED in any sideshows while they’re here for Soundwave Revolution. “I’m almost 90% positive but we’ll get back to you on that.  You’ll definitely know when everything is for sure.”

THE USED has been in the headline news for both good and bad reasons.  I offered McCracken the opportunity to set the record state about anything that had been written about the band. “Not to sound like a cocksucker, but I don’t really like to read that stuff that much, just in case I am misquoted.  There’s no point in worrying about any of that because deep down it’s really about the music.”

After their part in the Soundwave Revolution tour, THE USED will be globetrotting to perform more shows. “We’re going back down to South America and doing Chile, Argentina, Peru and Brazil. At the end of the year when our record comes out we’ll start hitting it non stop and do a big world tour,” says McCracken.  When quizzed about whether and Australian headline tour would be part of their plans, McCracken answered in the affirmative.

Wrapping up our chat, McCracken shares a personal thought.  “No one would really know how much I really love pop music, especially new pop music.  I love putting on the Top 40 stations.  I love BRUNO MARS and if we have to talk about great songs, no one is going to beat MICHAEL JACKSON.  But there are some people out there that I really appreciate and I think they’re getting close.  I love LADY GAGA and the new BRITNEY (SPEARS) stuff, the LMFAO guys, USHER and L’IL WAYNE,” he laughs.  And can we hear some of these current favourites in the new songs? “100%, yes. I really didn’t listen to any rock music when writing this record.  It’s going to be really, really, gross, disgusting pop music.”  McCracken is confident that fans will receive this departure from previous albums favourably.  “I think with my voice and Quinn’s (Allman) guitars, it really ties in and it will definitely resonate as a USED record.”

McCracken offers these final parting words that really do showcase his previous comments about finding his spiritual side.  “I would love to share the fact that music is so important to this world.  It’s the one thing that can connect us overseas and to reiterate the fact that if you’re having a hard time in life, the best place to turn is music.  There are so many great bands out there and it’s more accessible than it ever has been.”

You can see many of those great bands including THE USED connecting with fans at Soundwave Revolution.

Soundwave Revolution dates

Brisbane - Saturday 24th September at RNA Showgrounds

Sydney - Sunday 25th September at Old Kings Oval, Parramatta

Melbourne - Friday 30th September at Tabcorp Park, Melton

Adelaide - Saturday 1st October at Showgrounds

Perth - Monday 3rd October at Arena, Joondalup

The Used

http://www.theused.net/

Soundwave Revolution

http://www.soundwaverevolution.com/