Since their inception in 2002, few bands can claim to have released as much music or toured as frequently as Off With Their Heads. Such productivity has earned them numerous fans and helped the group to become one of today’s most popular independent punk bands. They played Chicago twice this summer and we caught up with singer/guitarist Ryan Young shortly afterwards to discuss their latest album and Epitaph debut, In Desolation, as well as touring, record labels, the meaning behind some of their songs and future plans.

Bill – Last summer you guys released your first record for Epitaph and some of your fans apparently didn’t approve of the new label or thought you guys changed your sound. Given that the album has been out for over a year now, how do you feel about it having had some time to reflect?

Ryan – It really isn’t that different to me and those complaints that people had were kind of funny. We recorded it with the same guy that did the last record, we just had more time. Everybody always has to complain about something and that was the thing they found. The songs weren’t really much different than the album before. People did the same thing with our From the Bottom record too. It’s like everyone has this little secret band and once that band gets exposed they don’t care anymore. I honestly haven’t had that much of a backlash with it personally. Nobody really says that much to me. I remember right after we recorded that record I was ready to do another one. I don’t know why. I feel like it’s good, but I think our next album is going to be better. I guess I always think that. A year of playing those songs has definitely made me think that even more.

Bill – The record opens with the song “Drive”, which displays both a sense of self-deprecation and a desire to leave a bad situation. What inspired this song?

Ryan – That song is just about living in Minneapolis. As you can tell from all the Minneapolis bands, we’re all real salty and shut inside our own houses and grumpy all the time. Really all that’s about is how I deal with stuff and that’s why we tour so much, to not really be in the same place. When I say “drive” it just means touring basically.

Bill – “Trying to Breathe” talks about regret and wanting to make amends for past actions. What were some of the things that were going through your head when you wrote it?

Ryan – That one was just about doing too many drugs when we lived at that old house we all lived at, and getting out of that and being a little smarter. The younger side of our twenties was a lot crazier than the earlier side of my thirties now.

Bill – Your songs definitely cover some fairly serious and depressing topics at times, but there always seems to be a bit of hope present or a light at the end of the tunnel. Where does that optimism come from?

Ryan – The optimism comes from the fact that we’ve built ourselves a pretty awesome life here, based on all those bad things that have happened. I think that’s kind of cool in a sense. Like I said, there are 12 songs on our record about bad things and there are 350 or so days in the year where shit’s not so bad. Everyone thinks I’m psycho, but it’s like, “No man, everyone has bad days. I just write songs about them”.

Bill – Tell me about the video you guys made for “Clear the Air” and the concept behind it.

Ryan – We like to make really dumb videos, (laughs). That’s our whole thing, because I think music videos are silly anyway. If you’re going to make one you might as well make one that’s completely ridiculous. It started as an idea to do a parody of that U2 video for their song “Numb”, and then it just kind of morphed into, “Alright, we can’t really do all that kind of stuff because we’re not coordinated enough”. So, I got Epitaph to buy us $100 worth of groceries and then we dumped them all on our heads and we got a Muppet in there too. The trick to that video was we only had one take to run straight through. I didn’t want to start from scratch again because it was freezing cold and we did that outside, but it turned out kind of fun. I just remember as soon as the song ended everybody fell over laughing. It was really dumb.

Bill – Off With Their Heads has released music through Recess Records, No Idea and Epitaph, as well as other labels. What do you like best about your current home?

Ryan – I like the fact that Brett, (label owner Brett Gurewitz) was the one that found us. Basically he told me that if I ever need anything or if I ever have a problem to just give him a call on his cell phone. I’ve done that a couple times and every single time I’ve had a concern or needed something, or someone at the label said “no” to a request of mine, I just call him up. I’m like, “It’s cool to say ‘no’, but I just want to hear it from you”. That’s how I got him to pay for us to go to Australia. The general manager of Epitaph wouldn’t give us the money for airfare and we don’t have any money. So he said “no” and then I’m like, “Brett, can we have $3,000 to go to Australia?”. I asked for a loan and he said, “Don’t even worry about it. It’s my gift to you guys for working so hard”. He’s a pretty cool guy when it comes to that sort of stuff. I try not to ask him for too much because we’re used to doing everything on our own. But, when you’re used to doing everything on your own and then you have that backing you, that’s pretty awesome.

Bill – You guys spend a majority of the year on the road. What’s the most difficult thing about always being away from home?

Ryan – I think the hardest part about it is when we actually do go home, because we don’t really have homes and we don’t really live anywhere. Like I said, we used to be in Minneapolis, but now there’s really nothing there for us. My girlfriend lives in Los Angeles, so I go and stay with her. Robbie just sleeps on couches in New York. It’s funny, everyone thinks we’re so rich and doing well, but it’s like, “Well…no”, (laughs). We’re thirty years old and sleeping on couches. So, the hardest part about touring so much is not touring, at this point at least. This is the first tour that we’ve done since the record came out where we’re headlining. We spent most of the year on the road opening for bigger bands, which we haven’t really done before. This is the first tour where we’ve seen it pay off, which is rad.

Bill – Where are some of your favorite places that you’ve played recently?

Ryan – I was actually talking about this the other day. One of the signs of things getting better was two years ago we played in Savannah, Georgia and only one kid showed up. We bribed him with records to not play the show because nobody wanted us there. We gave him a bunch of free shit and went on our way. So, we played there a couple days ago on a Monday and there were about 100 people there that knew every word. One hundred people in a place like Savannah, Georgia on a Monday night is insane. That was actually really cool because I was dreading it. I was afraid it would be just that same kid again, who actually didn’t show up this time. Maybe he thought there wasn’t going to be a show again. All of my favorite places to play are these weird places in the south. We played this place called The Milestone in Charlotte, North Carolina and it’s just this horrible dive bar in the ghetto. Supposedly it’s the oldest club on the East Coast, according to the bartender. There’s something about people in the south where they’re just really rowdy and fun. They talk funny too, (laughs). Outside of that my favorite place to play is actually Chicago. I think we played there about 15 times before anyone started coming to our shows and now it’s just ridiculous there.

Bill – Off With Their Heads has released a ton of split records. Why do you enjoy putting out splits and do you have any plans to release one in the near future?

Ryan – We have over 20 splits and seven-inches that we’ve done. Back when we started we always did that because we would tour every couple months and we’d write songs when we weren’t on tour. We’d do like a three-week tour every couple months and instead of putting out a new full-length it was just another thing to go around with. I’ve just been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to write songs, but we’re supposed to be doing a split with that classic, crusty band Discharge from the UK. They have their song done, but I don’t have mine ready and I’m holding up the process on it. I need to get on that because that’s really funny.

Bill – Your band emphasizes honesty and sincerity before anything else. Why do you think your fans seem to feel such a strong connection to this?

Ryan – I think the one thing about it is that a broad range of people can relate to negative feelings and shit like that. You can like the pop punk side of it or just the straight punk side, or you can be into the lyrics. There’s so many different aspects that you could like about it, or hate about it for that matter. I like how we can grab people from almost any genre of music, whether it’s the street punk guys, or we had the singer from Cannibal Corpse come to our show in Seattle and he told me that my lyrics saved his life. We became pretty good pals that night. He’s going to come to our shows in Florida and hang out. We crossover into a lot of different kinds of people and I love it when people tell me that the lyrics mean a lot to them. It makes me seem less crazy.

Bill – Have you started working on a new album yet or what else do you have planned for 2011?

Ryan – After this tour we were supposed to take the rest of the year off to write our next record, and then Samiam asked us to go to Europe with them. We were like, “Oh man, we can’t not do that”. We do that right after this tour and then Social Distortion asked us to do some shows in Florida with them and you can’t pass that up. Something else came up for December that I guess I can’t talk about yet, so basically we’re busy the rest of the year with a couple of two-week periods off. I have started writing for the next record though. It’s just a matter of having a couple days to work some stuff out with the guys. We write really fast once the ideas are there. With that last record, we only had about six songs when we went into the studio and then we just did all the rest. It’s always the ones that we come up with last-minute that people like. I hate doing it that way, it’s really stressful, but maybe that’s why it works out in terms of us writing under pressure.