By Claudio Zelaya / Staff Writer
The Word Alive played in the Culture Room of Ft. Lauderdale, on Nov. 19, and I had the pleasure of sitting down with vocalist Telle Smith on the day of the show.
Telle joined the band about six years ago, and it hasn’t slowed down ever since. The band is currently on a headlining tour in support of its latest release, “Real.” The album was released June 10 of this year and has garnered praise from old and new fans alike. With the addition of drumming sensation Luke Holland, The Word Alive was able to produce an album that shows how much it’s grown since its conception.
The Word Alive is Smith on vocal duties, Luke Holland on drums, Tony Pizzuti and Zack Hansen on guitar and Daniel Shapiro on bass. Support for the “Get Real Tour” is The Color Morale, Our Last Night, The Dead Rabbitts and Miss Fortune.
How’s the experience of your headliner been so far?
Telle: It’s been pretty awesome so far. Today, while it’s cold for you guys, it’s one of the warmest days on the tour so far. It will probably be the last decent day until the very last day, so we’ll take it!
It’s been six years with the band. What would you tell yourself six years ago?
Telle: I would’ve given myself all the advice on how to take care of my body. A lot of people don’t realize that a lot of things you do on stage and off tour affect the person that is on stage. At the same time, because of going through everything I have its enabled me to continue to write songs that are relevant to my life and help people. I’m still thankful for all the things that I didn’t know and had to find out the hard way.
What have been the recurring themes of all the albums leading up to “Real?”
Telle: There’s been a couple things that carried over, but I think “Real” was the first time I tried to end that. Empire had “How to Build an Empire” and it goes into Deceiver that had “Hounds of Anubis” and into Life Cycles with “Dragon Spell.” Each of those songs were connected. I carried over lyrical themes from album to album until “Real.” I wanted to write a completely different record and get a little more creative with getting my thoughts and ideas into a song.
How do you continue to challenge yourself when you go into writing a new song?
Telle: When I go into recording an album I put it in parts that I can do in the studio, but it’s very challenging to do in a live setting. Due to doing it that way, then when I play and I’m pushing myself live, then I’m growing. I do the same thing the next album. I want to get better and that’s a huge part. I pick up on little things from singers that I like. I’ve discovered a lot of things about my voice just from listening.
What would be your favorite memory from recording?
Telle: My favorite memory from Empire was just getting our first CD done. For “Deceiver,” we just had a great time whether we were recording or just hanging out. “Life Cycles” was my least favorite album to record because we were separated for the most part and there was a lot of tension at the time. We just lost two members and we really didn’t know what direction we were headed. My favorite memory was when I flew to Indiana and I was hearing the songs starting to come together and the quality was getting better and better! With “Real,” I loved every second of recording the album. Each day was my favorite. There’s more diversity in “Real” than anything. That album shows a lot of aspects of The Word Alive.
What was the motivation for writing “The Runaway?”
Telle: We actually wrote that with the legendary producer John Feldmann. There was a side of our band that we wanted to showcase. We’ve never really done songs like “Lighthouse” and “The Runaway,” so we went to Feldmann to record. I wish we wrote a couple more songs like that. As much as I love singing and screaming, I consider myself a singer. We only had two days and we wrote and recorded those songs, which is the fastest we’ve recorded anything.
It shows more talent when you sing more than you scream?
Telle: It’s harder. It’s more melodies and expression. It’s easier to scream because something is heavy. In our song “Terminal,” there’s a part where it drops and gets heavier and the natural reaction is to scream, but I was like, “I feel like this is meant to be a singing part.” There is a lot more singing on certain parts that normally wouldn’t be. That was a conscious effort that I made to challenge myself to sing as much as I could even though the record is mostly heavy.
The Word Alive will end the year with this the Get Real Tour Dec. 13 in Arizona. The album “Real” is in stores.
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