By KYLE BEALL
[email protected]
Opinion editor

Red released their debut album, “End of Silence,” March 29, 2006. Since then, they have been riding a “wave” of success, as guitarist Jasen Rauch referred to it, and touring the country with bands like Breaking Benjamin, Flyleaf, Seether, Seven Dust, Three Days’ Grace, and are currently on tour with 3 Doors Down and 12 Stones. On April 19, they rocked the Rabobank Arena.

Question: So tell me a little about the kind of music you guys play.
Answer: We’ve been together for about five years. We kind of grew up listening to a lot of different kinds of music. So our influences … everybody kind of brings something different to the table, but we try and fuse some of our classical influences with a lot of the heavier music that we were big fans of and mold it into something that is attainable and acceptable to the pop audience.
Q: Is this your first tour with 3 Doors Down?
A: This is the first time we’ve had an opportunity to meet and play with them. We’ve kind of crossed paths in the past but never really done any shows together, so it’s been a great tour.
Q: I was reading online that you are a Christian band, is that where your influence came from?
A: A little bit. I mean, that definition to us is kind of basically that we”re all Christians. The content is more of just things that we’ve been through.. We just basically write from what we know and where we come from.”
Q: Do you like Bakersfield?
A: Yeah, we’ve been here several times. We’ve been here with Seven Dust, Breaking Benjamin, Seether and Three Days’ Grace.
Q: What are the shows like here compared to other places?
A: They’re awesome, man. It’s really cool coming here. Anytime we come to California, we get stoked. The weather is great, and the crowds are great.
Q: How are you guys doing with your debut CD so far?”
A: Good, we’ve been very fortunate to have the doors open that we have open for us. We spent so much time working on the record and to finally release and have it kind of catch on, any amount of success at all has been wonderful and not taken for granted at all. We’ve been really fortunate with that. We started working on our next record just now, but we’re still riding the wave from the first one. So, it’s a good problem to have.
Q: So, you guys just started working on it. So, nothing you could hint at or anything?
A: We took six weeks off at the beginning of the year just to do drums and some chords and strings and things like that. The rest of it we’re doing actually out on the road, on the bus, or on our days off and stuff and studios here and there. Our touring schedule keeps us busy enough that we don’t have a lot of time at home.
Q: What’s that like?
A: You know, it’s a double-edged sword. We get to see some amazing places and do some amazing things, but it is a sacrifice being away from family.
Q: Yeah, it looks like you are married.
A: Mhmm. I’m married, and we got a baby on the way. Four of the five of us are married and two of us have kids.
Q: What do you hope the audience gets out of your music?
A: More than anything, a goal of ours is just to connect with people in any way we can. If they connect to our music because we play heavy music, and they really can get into it, if they get that from it, then I think we’ve succeeded. If they connect on a lyric level, you now connect with the lyrics from personal experience or tragedies or something we might be talking about, then I think we’ve succeeded there. We try to put as much into our live shows as we can bring and if they can connect on that level, then I think we’ve succeeded. I think most of all, if we can constantly be in front of new audiences and see new faces and connect on a personal level, then everyone can get something from it, hopefully. That’s what we strive to do.
Q: What do you get out of it?
A: First of all, doing what you love is one of the most rewarding things ever. Just to be able to express yourself creatively and have it accepted by people, anybody, let alone large audiences, is one of the most amazing things. Oh, and being able to write stuff on such a vulnerable level, when you’re talking about personal experiences and things you’ve been through, when people grasp onto that, I think that’s the most rewarding thing ever.
Q: Where are you guys going next?
A: We’ve actually got two days off, and we’re heading up to Tulsa of all places, and then we begin a little onslaught of our summer festival season and do a couple of radio shows. We have some amazing festivals coming up.
Q: Anything fans should look for?
A: Yeah, we’re playing Rocking Range this year, and we’ll be out with Filter for a few dates, and we end up playing with Stone Temple Pilots. We’re super stoked about that, obviously. Yeah, and in another three days, we meet back up with Seether and Flyleaf for the next six weeks.
Q: Is it tiring always being on the road like that?
A: Yeah, it can be. We’re fortunate right now to have tour managers, and guitar techs and a bus. Those things all look nice on the exterior, but it allows us to do interviews and [acoustic] performances like the one were going to in ten minutes.
There was a time when we were doing those things with eight of us in the van and us doing it all. And, we’ve paid our dues, and we’re still paying our dues. To be where we’re at, and you know, all the people that contribute and make Red Red is a really cool thing. So, it can be very tiring, but, fortunately enough, we have enough hands to help lighten the load as much as we possibly can.