Back in May 2001, another band was born to grace the world with more amazing music. First off, when they were just starting, under the rock/pop-punk genre, we knew them as 5 Days Ahead. Then, after music was produced and they’ve gained some long-term fans, changes were made and, in six months, they went from being 5 Days Ahead to Graveline Armada. I was lucky enough to get an interview with Chris and Pete of GA even though their time must be limited seeing as how they’re working full time and working on GA.

So, starting the band, you guys were called 5 Days Ahead. What was the reason for the name change to Graveline Armada?
Pete: “At some point during the progression of getting 5DA back together after some time off, we realized that we were really moving away from the feel of what 5DA was. The songs were bigger, much different themes; another style really. Things like that. Plus, because of a few different line-up changes, it really didn't feel right continuing on the name when only Chris, Andrew and I were still in the loop. It always strikes me as strange when bands keep the same name even though there's only like one original member in the band still.”

Will you guys always love 5 Days Ahead since it's what started the band?
Pete: “Of course. Touring and playing with that band is one of the best experiences of my life and I love those guys to death. It's fun to go back and listen to the CD's every now and again, though the first one still makes me cringe every time I listen to it at points. We wrote that whole album within about 4-5 weeks of meeting each other for the first time, so it's pretty rough in spots.”
Chris: “It's always great when someone approaches us and talks about how they love the 5DA stuff.”

What's the story behind both band names?
Chris: “Haha...Well, I wish we could say there was a better story behind 5 Days Ahead, but we all just kind of came up with names and picked one we could all agree on. Early on in the process though, we used to give a different off-the-wall story every single time we were asked that question in an interview, so consider this the 'True Hollywood Story' if you will.”
Pete: “Graveline Armada has a pretty in-depth story to it, but we like to leave it a mystery for people to figure out. Some searching on the web will probably make things apparent, or at least what it has to do with. Part of the fun of this band now is the hidden elements and stories within the songs, artwork, and names. Everything has a duality. Letting people tie everything together on their own into one cohesive piece is what we hope will be some of the allure of this project.”

Do you all write the songs together, or is there one particular person who writes them?
Pete: “Well, at the moment, GA is strictly a studio-based project between Chris and I until we get the rest of the first EP in the series recorded. At the time when we were a full band, everyone contributed to the musical structures of the songs, and Chris or I, or both of us, would work through the lyrics.”
Chris: “At this point, since it's just the two of us, Pete writes about 99% of the music, records all of it, and does a majority of the production in the studio. I lay down all of the vocal tracks and handle a lot of the lyrics, but we'll collaborate and revise each other's work a lot.”

If you guys weren't in an amazing band right now, what would you all be doing with your lives?
Chris: “Haha, it’s actually the other way around at this point. We both work full time jobs. So really the question would be, if we didn't have to work, what amazing things could we do with the band? Bills are expensive.”

What is everyone's favorite song to play? To listen to?
Pete: “'The Price' is always a great song to play live and listen to. There are some others that we haven't recorded yet, like 'Amends and Seeing Red' and 'The Dangers of Air Travel' that are some of my personal favorites as well. We'll have a new song, called 'High Tide, 5:35 AM' being released on purevolume.com/gravelinearmada hopefully in the next month or two, so keep an eye out for that.”

Okay, so that’s all the questions I have for you two and I just have to say, thank you so much for this interview!