Paragon Music Mag: You just finished working on your third full-length album entitled Abandon Your Friends which is due for release this August. Can you tell us how this album compares to the previous albums? 

Ben Perri: Josh [Newton, bass] and Jon [Cox, guitar] really had a big influence on this record. The heavy songs are heavier and the melodic songs are more melodic. It’s a true FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES record. 

PMM: What song on your new album would you say might have the biggest impact on the listener? 

BP: I would think, the two songs that I can think of that stand out are “Short For Show” and “Where Do You Draw the Line.” Those two, I think, especially lyrically, will have a big impact on kids. 

PMM: Is there a particular theme attached to Abandon Your Friends? 

BP: Not really, it’s pretty the same stuff that we’ve written about in the past. Just taking experiences from our lives and putting them in a lyrical format, and using it so kids can take from it and go through situations in life that we’ve all been through. I’m 27 years and I’m sure the average listener is not as old as I am, and I’ve been through a lot of the stuff they’ve been through, so if I can help them through that situation, that’s perfect. 

PMM: What can we expect from FATA in the future in terms of style? Would you ever go outside of your genre? 

BP: I think that this record is going to be a stretch for us. The heavy stuff is heavy and the light stuff is real light, and it’s not a departure from what we’ve done, it’s just perfected it, I think. 

PMM: It’s almost like your style of music is bipolar. It’s beautiful and brutal at the same time. 

BP: Exactly. 

PMM: Is that the intention of the band? 

BP: Yeah, it’s funny because when I look at those two words, they’re pretty much synonymous for me because in something that’s brutal, you can find something that’s beautiful, and in something beautiful, you can find something brutal as well. So it’s kind of like saying the same thing. The heavy songs that we write are scream vocals, really loud guitars, very heavy music, but the underlying ideas and thoughts of the song are so beautiful and it’s hard to differentiate between the two of them. 

PMM: You have two distinct vocalists in the band, so how does the lyrical process work? Do you write all the lyrics or is it a collaboration between yourself and Francis? 

BP: For this record, it was a full-on collaboration between the whole band. Everyone had ideas, everyone had input. The ideas that were there were pretty much either Fran’s [Francis Mark, Drummer/vocalist] or mine, but everyone had a hand in writing the words for the songs. There are certain songs that I wrote all the words to, there are certain songs that Fran wrote all the words to, and there were collaborations between the two of us, and Jon had some influence in the vocals as well. 

PMM: How do you feel sharing the spotlight with Fran? 

BP: I don’t mind at all. He’s a talented person, and he’s so good at what he does. It’s what makes the band From Autumn To Ashes, it’s the two of us and what we do. 

PMM: It’s really neat because when I first listened to it, my friend told me, “That’s the drummer that’s singing like that.” And I said, “Are you serious? He’s doing al; that?” And I saw you guys in Buffalo, NY a couple years ago with Poison The Well and Sworn Enemy, and I was like, wow, this is sick! You guys blew me away, both of you guys do an amazing job. 

BP: ::Laughs:: Thank you, man. It’s really a great thing that we have going on. Ben and I are the two members of the band that are the founding members that are still in the band. We’ve been through so much together that it’s easy for us to do these things. 

PMM: Speaking of vocals, can we expect Melanie Wills [from the band ONE TRUE THING] to appear on this next album? 

BP: No, not on this one. This is all From Autumn To Ashes. 

PMM: FATA finished touring Europe a few weeks ago for the Deconstruction Tour. Can you tell us how it compares to touring in the States, and is there a particular place on the tour that sticks out in your mind? 

BP: There were a couple of nights on the tour that really stuck out in my mind. We played a festival in Belgium. It was all the Deconstruction Tour plus other bands, it was a huge deal, there were two stages. It was really intense. The stage we played was the second stage and there was no barrier, so the whole set, we had kids come on stage and it was really energetic, and one of the guys that worked the festival said that was the craziest thing he’s ever seen at one of the festivals, so I was pretty psyched about that. A couple shows we played in Germany were really exciting for us. But the differences between touring here and there: kids over there don’t get bands that often from the States, and when they do come, it’s kind of a big deal. In the States, we have bands touring 24/7/365, and they get to pick and choose who they want to see and when they want to see them, because next month and the month after that, they’ll be back again. When you go to Europe, it’s a big thing because everyone comes out to the show. 

PMM: Do they go just as crazy in the pits? 

BP: I think they’re a little more energetic than people here. They’re just so into it, and so excited that you’re there, and they’re singing along and running around, jumping around, and full-on letting it all hang out. 

PMM: Everyone always asks, if you were to tour with someone, who would it be, but what I want to know is this: if there were a band you’ve already toured with that you would never want to tour with again, who would it be, and why? 

BP: MUSHROOMHEAD. ::laughs:: Yeah, and I’m not afraid to say that because I really don’t care. ::laughs:: We drove from NY to FL and started touring with Mushroomhead and AVENGED SEVENFOLD, who were good friends of ours. And it was the House of Blues in Orlando, and every show we’ve ever played there, has been fantastic, it’s been amazing. So we get there for this tour, and there’s just these lists of rules of what to do and what not to do. And we played the show and it was like, “What happened? What’s going on here?” There was no one at the show, first of all, the band themselves, Mushroomhead, were never to be seen, and their tour manager was pretty mean to us off the bat. And we were just like, “Screw this, we don’t need this.” And we drove straight home again. 

PMM: You gotta expect to have some bad experiences out on the road. 

BP: I guess. But that’s the only one we’ve ever had. We’ve been playing for 4 years, and we’ve never had a bad experience on the road. 

PMM: Fran is a vegetarian, correct? 

BP: He was, then wasn’t, now he is again. 

PMM: Are any of the other guys vegetarians? 

BP: No, I was vegan for 7 years and vegetarian for 9 years, and it kind of just, you know, stopped, and it was not really a big deal to me. I was really into the animal rights thing for a long time, but I really got jaded on the whole thing because nothing that we did made anything better, it just made it worse for us because we’d get arrested for protesting or just get a bad name for ourselves. I was like, “This is worthless.” And then just the people in the animal rights thing, it was just pretty much a selling circle, like a clique in high school, with behind the back talking. It was just like anything else, and I thought it would be something different, and I was really put off by that, but I stayed with it for a while, and then I just said, “This is not what I want to do.” 

PMM: Can you elaborate a little on the name of the band? Why 'From Autumn To Ashes'? 

BP: Pretty much, it’s just an analogy for a person I knew who had the world going for her and had a bad event in her life that knocked her down to the floor again and she had to work her way back up. It’s pretty much an analogy of starting over. 

PMM: Any plugs you’d like to leave, or last words for our readers? 

BP: Pick up our record on August 16, Abandon Your Friends, if you get the chance to. And that’s it, just thanks for the support, and hopefully we’ll see you in the future.