For over ten years, The Arrivals have been a mainstay of Chicago’s punk rock community. With each album they evolve and the latest full-length, Volatile Molotov, represents some of their most ambitious work yet. We discussed the new record with singer/guitarists Isaac Thotz and Dave Merriman, along with a variety of additional topics.

Bill – Volatile Molotov has a unique sound in that it mixes British rock, modern influences and Chicago punk, all the while maintaining a sense of continuity throughout. What sort of end result were you trying to achieve when you began writing your new album?

Isaac – I’m not sure we were trying to achieve any specific sound. I know for certain parts of songs we’d try to reference stuff for ideas, like I can remember someone saying, “Let’s try to get a Brian May, fried-out distortion tone” for a solo in “The Last Testament,” or “How about we do a sliding delay thing like Built to Spill” for “The Power Won’t Be Staying on For Long.” There was that kind of stuff, but I don’t think we were shooting for one specific style. I suppose the end result of that sort of approach was that you do get a sort of classic rock sound, something that maybe strikes people as kind of familiar, since we just pull all sorts of elements from our favorite music. I’m probably the worst to ask about what we sound like. That sort of stuff is easier to gauge from the outside looking in.

Dave – We chew on songs and hash out what comes. It’s only when we’re close to recording that we start to group the songs that complement each other and think about the album as a whole. The themes and style of the record, and any of our records, are a product of who we are now. Years go by between records for us and a lot can happen in a year.

Bill – Each of your band’s four full-lengths sound distinctly different from the last, Volatile Molotov being no exception. In some ways, it seems like this record has redefined The Arrivals and introduced a new era for your group. Do you feel this is a fair assessment?

Isaac – We’ve always taken a long time between records. We’ve made four full-length records over twelve years. By the time we get around to making the next record, we’re always in a different place in our lives. In our thinking, our musical interests, the gear we’re using, we don’t really have to try to make a record sound distinct from the previous one, because that just kind of happens accidently. We definitely wouldn’t want to make the same record twice anyway. 

Dave – Yeah, we always wanted to keep it interesting, stylistically, but I think a new phase started with Marvels of Industry. When Big Dave left the band, we just hit the reset button on our process and started from scratch. We started playing with different instruments that were lying around the spot we shared with The Matics and some friends. That was our big shift, playing with someone else’s toys and getting inspired. Enter Ronnie’s 8-track and Isaac’s Garage Band program, which made us think about sounds, recording and experimentation. We never did that before. Now enter Paddy, who likes all the same stuff we do, plays with his heart, has this deep pool of musical knowledge and taste, and there’s “the new style.” That all started with Marvels and continues on through the next one.

Bill – What’s the meaning behind the record’s title?

Isaac – It’s from a lyric in the Clash song “Straight to Hell.” We took the album cover photo before we had a name for the record, and looking at that photo, a different lyric from “Straight to Hell” just popped in my head that I thought of as a funny caption for the photo. That lyric was “Druggy-drag ragtime USA.” Nobody liked that for an album title, so I threw “Volatile Molotov” out there as an alternative, just thinking along the same lines. I thought it just looked like an album title, since in print it has a certain symmetry. There really isn’t any deeper significance to that particular lyric, other than the fact that it’s a Clash lyric. While we were recording at Matt’s, he had a history of punk book that I’d been reading parts of during downtime and there’s a section where Joe Strummer is talking retrospectively about the making of London Calling. He saw that record as rock ‘n’ roll’s last stand, the last great rock record in a post-rock ‘n’ roll era. He explained that was why The Clash used so many classic rock conventions on that record, in contrast to say what they tried to do on Sandinista!, which was meant to be more groundbreaking. Anyway, I found that sentiment really interesting and felt some affinity to it, since with Volatile Molotov we were also making a record heavily influenced by the history of rock ‘n’ roll and its conventions, at a time where that’s not particularly en vogue. So, it seemed kind of appropriate to reference and pay tribute to The Clash in that way too.

Bill – Tell me about the recording process for Volatile Molotov, in terms of how the vast majority of the album was recorded live.

Dave – Live is a bit of a distortion. We knocked out most of the instrumental recording in the first two days at Atlas. All in the room together rocking out, all done in one, two or sometimes three takes for all the basics. We practice pretty hard before we hit the studio to tighten up so we don’t waste time that we can’t afford. Shit ain’t cheap, man. We also demo everything so we know what to ask for when we go in. Matt Allison knows how to decipher our cryptic requests and he saved me with some B12 supplements. The next few days were little fixes, vocals and the extra instrumentation. Chaz from Blue Meanies played organ and other keyboard stuff, and we had a percussion/maraca freak-out with Neil Hennessey on “The Dilemma.” Mixing was scattered across the next two weeks. We really wanted the record to sound grand, but a great majority of it is live.

Bill – Recess Records owner Todd Congelliere said that Volatile Molotov “listens like a classic novel.” What do you have to say in regards to the album’s songs working together to tell an overall story?

Isaac – I’m guessing that Todd wasn’t necessarily talking about the lyrical content of the record. I don’t know that the lyrics do work together to tell an overall story. I think Todd’s comment was more just about the emotional ride the record provides. For example, on our first record we had a bunch of different styles of songs, because we were into a bunch of different stuff and we were just trying things out. There were hardcore punk songs, pop punk songs, more straight up rock ‘n’ roll songs, but they were all kind of emotionally one-dimensional. They don’t fit together particularly well to create a more general mood to the album. I think with Volatile Molotov, the songs are all still distinctive, but the record does, as a whole, have a mood and a pace.

Dave – Well, like Isaac said, there isn’t a story, but we know our empire is closer to ruin and the foundation is cracking. Why not talk about it? I want people to be aware that our greed is killing us, that it’s killing me. And Isaac and I have a really similar goal with our music, and our sensibilities swim together more often than not. I think the styles and themes mesh together because we do. 

Bill – “The Power Won’t Be Staying on For Long” is one of the record’s standout tracks. It speaks of doubt, desperation and the apocalypse, and is wrapped in a uniquely powerful rhythm. What are some of the motivations behind its lyrics?

Dave – My guitar is my shrink. I’m wound up pretty tight and I look for catharsis everywhere. That song has been my mantra for a while. I’d sit and play it for myself when I’d have some acoustic guitar time. Every line has a reason or backstory and I don’t feel comfortable explaining all of it. It’s really personal and really sad. I will say it’s about the rise of social networking, my own problems with communication and the inevitable collapse of the internet. I worry that internet-only books and digitized libraries won’t leave behind anything for those who survive the blackout. I hope they’re preserving the hard copy. It makes me want to start writing in granite. We’d batted the song around practice a couple dozen times, but it never clicked until Ronnie found that rhythm. I started hearing that guitar pulse in my head and then started doing it by flicking my pickup selector switch, but then I had to switch to some borrowed pedals. They’re the secret to my sound.

Bill – “The Last Testament” also talks of death or the end of the world, but really deals more with positivity and living in the moment. What does this song mean to you?

Isaac – When I was writing the lyrics, I meant them to have a kind of perverse prayer feel to them. I remember from when I was growing up that it was a kind of common form of blessings or prayers to have a phrase repeated with each line of the prayer, like “Blessed are the meek, for they blah, blah, blah…Blessed are the peacemakers, for they blah, blah, blah,” that sort of thing. So, I wanted the lyrics to have that feel to them, but then have the song go on to cast doubt about the value of religion and material wealth as sources of purpose in life. In truth, the song mainly focuses on how indulging in religion and greed are wastes of time, but I did want to sort of imply that there are other possible sources of purpose and meaning.

Bill – “Simple Pleasures in America” is very optimistic and upbeat, and features vocals from all four band members. How did this song come about?

Isaac – It came about in part just to poke fun at the fact that pretty much every other song on the record is a fucking bummer. If you just listen to our music and don’t read the lyrics, I don’t think our music comes across as particularly gloomy. In fact, I think it generally comes across as pretty upbeat. But the lyrics are almost always cheerless or heavy, (to put it nicely). Even some of our seemingly more positive songs, “Fat of the Land” or “I’m Sorry for Saying I’m Sorry,” even those are all kind of bittersweet. “Simple Pleasures in America” really is a celebration of just that, but at the same time it’s also meant to be ironic, because in a way it’s a celebration of the consolation prizes for the have-nots. We all get a piece of the pie, but obviously they’re not equal pieces. Anyway, that kind of bittersweet sentiment in a song, I don’t know why, that’s just the kind of song I like best. There’s a rich tradition of that sort of thing in music. The Clash thrived at making upbeat songs about poverty and war and drugs. Johnny Cash did too, about all that and prison. Woody Guthrie did, The Pogues did and Billy Bragg still does. Paddy does with Dillinger Four. It’s music where you take something really distressing and serious: going to war, fighting in war, going on strike, sitting in prison, working hard, being exploited, lacking resources, lacking money, and you spin it into something beautiful. I don’t know what the point is of that sort of exercise, and I don’t know why that’s my favorite kind of song, but it just is. So “Simple Pleasures” is just kind of an amusing way of admitting that.

Bill – Many of the songs on Volatile Molotov don’t follow typical song structures. Specifically, there are some that clock-in at less than two minutes, while others exceed four minutes. What are some of the reasons for this?

Dave – “Envelope Song” couldn’t have been any longer. The lyrics went all the way to the bottom of the envelope. An earlier song we had worked on around the same time was going to take up most of a side. It’s ditties and it’s nine-minute epics. A lot of my favorite bands: The Beatles, Guided By Voices and The Pixies, to Dead Milkmen, Jesus Lizard and The Feederz, they all do the same thing. They let the song and the message play itself out on its own timetable. That’s typical of the music we love.

Bill – This album exhibits artwork that’s quite original. Tell me about its concept and how it came to be.

Isaac – We don’t have any promo shots of our band, because promo shots are generally lame. But Southern Lovin’, who does PR for the records that Todd puts out, was insisting that they needed some sort of promo shot to do their job properly. I told them that nobody was into it and it couldn’t be done, and I asked if we could do something else instead, so long as our faces were in the picture. So, we staged the alternate promo shot. I just made some masks and we grabbed a bunch of stuff from around the house: my kids, my mother-in-law, an old radio from the attic, beer from the fridge, flowers from the garden, my chickens. And then Katie Hovland came over and took the photos in my backyard. When we showed everybody what we’d done, we hadn’t had a cover design figured out yet, so everybody was like, “That should be the cover!” And so it is. Dave did the layout for the record.

Dave – The front is supposed to resemble an old, dog-eared book cover, complete with faded corners and stains and overtones of romantic classicism. After staring at the photo for a while, each item in the image started to represent songs on the record, kind of, and I wanted to show that correlation, so I made the Sgt. Pepper-like legend on the back. I put all of the info back there too, in a nod to classic album design conventions. For the interior, I wanted an ancient Lapita voyager ship in a vast ocean. That idea was around for a while by the time I started the layout. I learned about their early mastery of the sea and was inspired by the amazing leaps ancient people had to take, heading out into the unknown with no guarantee of return. The apocalyptic overtones of the songs introduced the concept of hell on the horizon. I was originally going to make the Mayan calendar the sunset, but that seemed way too obvious.

Bill – Volatile Molotov marks your second release for Recess Records. What do you enjoy most about your band’s relationship with the label?

Isaac – Todd has excellent taste in music and puts out great records. He has integrity and we trust him, and he’s always been honest and fair with us. Plus, he has his own bands, so he can identify with our interests and our priorities firsthand. Plus, he’s super fun.

Dave – Todd’s our friend. We don’t trust many people who work in music. There’s this permeating cynicism in the music industry that really grosses us out.

Bill – Many have hailed The Arrivals’ set at last year’s Fest in Gainesville, Florida as the best of the entire weekend. What about that performance is most memorable? 

Dave – We closed with “Simple Pleasures,” which we “ended” four times because people couldn’t stop whoa-oh-ing along with the end of the song. It was really cool, like getting a hug from the entire room. While walking away from the stage, I saw Jeff Pezzati from Naked Raygun. He was smiling really big and told me he liked our set. People were still singing it. Apparently, it leaked into other shows down the street. Realizing I was talking to the master of whoa-ohs, I asked him, “Is this what it was like the first time you guys played ‘Soldier’s Requiem’?” He thought for a second and replied, “Not that one, but definitely ‘I Lie’!”

Bill – Since you guys have played Fest numerous times, what is it that keeps you coming back?

Dave – I always tell people it’s like punk rock Christmas. There are so many people from everywhere playing and partying together. And we have tons of good friends in Gainesville that we really only get to see at Fest, so we always make it a point to go down.

Bill – Having been a band for over ten years, what aspects of being a member in The Arrivals are still engaging and interesting for you?

Isaac – I like writing songs and playing them for people. That’s interesting to me.

Dave – I can’t imagine not being an Arrival.

Bill – What do you think The Arrivals’ place will ultimately be in the history of Chicago punk rock?

Isaac – In an alphabetized list of bands, we’d be near the top.

Bill – What definite plans does the band have for 2011?

Dave – We have a tour down to Chaos In Tejas in Austin in late May/early June, and we plan on heading out west as soon as we can. We’re already writing songs, got some new seven-inches cooking, and we want to party at Best Friends Day, Razorcake HQ and Fest because they’re all turning ten and that’s awesome. It’s a good year.

5/27 – Minneapolis, MN @ the Triple Rock w/ Marked Men, Toys That Kill, & Soviettes
5/28 – Chicago, IL @ the Empty Bottle w/ Marked Men, Toys That Kill & Chinese Telephones
5/30 – St Louis, MO @ El Lenador w/ Toys That Kill, Humanoids & Shaved Women
5/31 – Oklahoma City, OK @ the Conservatory w/ Toys That Kill & Roustabouts
6/2 – Austin, TX @ Red 7 w/ the Spits, High Tension Wires & TV Ghost