AWmusic

The Buddy Nielsen who casually walks down Sherbourne street towards me dragging a suitcase behind him, fresh from the laundromat, dressed all in black and covered in tattoo’s seems so far from the portrait that he’s painted of himself through his highly personal lyrics. A portrait of a man constantly struggling to come to grips with a wide array of demons, ranging from his own addictions and anxiety to his hatred of his estranged father.

The Senses Fail frontman that is sitting across from me on the bus now is calm and relaxed. Dressed in a Deftones t-shirt and a black on black Yankees hat, slowly sipping from a bottle of water, he seems miles away from all of that.

Buddy has never held back in his lyrics, wearing his heart on his sleeve and putting it all out there for public consumption. I asked him if it was hard, at first to put so much of himself into his music.

“I don’t think so, no, I just think that at first I was young so there wasn’t that much to pull from or put into it. I don’t think it was ever hard, I just think that, what I liked about my favorite bands, I just tried to replicate that.”

On Senses Fail’s first full length, 2004’s, Let It Enfold You, the lyrics focused on lost love, anger and pirates, which made 2007’s Still Searching a giant leap forward in maturity, as Buddy tackled depression, addiction and anxiety, all on a very personal level.

When asked what topic was the hardest to tackle, Buddy sighs, takes a moment and a swig, before answering, “I don’t know, maybe my own addiction or addictive personality or admitting to that, I think that that was kind of hard.”

And on the subject of regrets, as in, is there anything that Buddy has regretted sharing with the world, there is no hesitation as he offers a plain, simple, “No.”

Being so open and honest with your lyrics leads to a fan base who think that they know all there is to know about you. “Yeah, definitely, and they don’t know really anything about me. That’s the shitty thing with it. I think that people expect you to be a certain way, which is fine, but it’s not.” Buddy takes a moment to think on the subject before continuing, “Anytime I met someone that I thought I knew from lyrics, it’s part of them, but it’s not them, their whole thing you know. I don’t think that….sometime there’s a difference, cause I’ll joke around on stage and I’ll fuck around. The lyrics are very serious, but I also don’t take myself too seriously. So I think that people find that strange, that you can have two sides to your personality. I think that people expect you to be a certain way whether it’s good or bad, or whatever, you know. I don’t think you ever live up to peoples expectations, just because, I don’t know what peoples expectations are, nor do I actually, honestly, really care other than just putting out good music, and staying true to what we do. That’s all that I want people to expect from us and that’s something that I think we can deliver without, you know going too far.”

On 2008’s Life is Not A Waiting Room, Senses Fail stuck to their roots and delivered, hard straight post-hardcore that featured an, at times, upbeat Buddy, who seemingly had moved beyond much of what had been holding him down on Searching.

“I’m just trying to get a grip on my life and move forward instead of staying stagnant. And so a lot of it was the looking forward from where I was. That’s where the positive message came from. It was more of just telling myself that, than I was trying to be positive. I think I was just telling myself to be positive more than I was telling anyone else to be positive. I mean, be positive, PMA. I’m the only one that’s positive in the band right now.”

Elaborating on the positiveity within Senses Fail, Buddy is relaxed and jovial, “When people are trying to destroy your soul because we’re going to Europe. Get me to admit defeat, which I did yesterday, but it doesn’t count, cause we were in Wawa Ontario and there was a bear walking down the street, and I don’t know how you’re supposed to accept that. And I was really hung over, and I was thinking this is fucked up, I need to get out of here.”

Alcohol is a subject that pops up at different points throughout Senses Fails entire catalogue, so I couldn’t help but enquire as to his own personal drink of choice.

“Beer. Beer straight up. Good beer, not bad beer…actually I don’t care, as long as it’s not Bud Ice, or Molson Ice, or anything sort of Ice, it’s pretty okay. But I’d probably drink that anyways.”

Buddy has stirred up some controversy on The Saints and Sinners Tour with his criticism of tour mates Brokencyde, saying in a statement to Absolutepunk, “Yeah, I slam them every night because in no way, shape or form do I back anything they do or say and I am embarrassed that kids these days are into it and am sad that kids these days are exposed to it. There is absolutely no substance whatsoever in their songs and no passion in anything they do.”

When I asked if he still stands behind these comments, Buddy’s voice is confident and full of conviction as he offers, “Always, 100%.” Adding that when both bands play Warped Tour this summer, “They’ll be off on some corner stage really with their own kind…it’s all like those kind of bands. It will be interesting to see what all the older bands think about it cause I don’t think they know about it yet, but they will, so it will be interesting.”

Some of those bands include NOFX and Bad Religion, two bands that Nielsen is looking forward to seeing. I asked, how he, someone who has to deal with fans of his owns feels about meeting or even touring with bands that he himself is a fan of.

“I try not to, like, mix the two. Just because, like I said, if you have expectations of someone, not that you’ll be let down, but it’s a totally different thing to be friends with someone than it is to like their music. It’s two separate things and I think you have to separate them or else, for one, you’ll weird the person out, cause if all you want to talk about is their band and you’re just like a super fan. It’s hard to have that relationship with someone too, to meet someone that puts you on a pedestal, it’s hard for you to feel normal about that you know what I man. I just treat them as friends, and peers.”

One thing is for certain, if Buddy and Senses Fail continue to make awesome, post-hardcore tinged with the realism that accompanies Nielsen’s lyrics, people are going to continue putting him up on a pedestal for years to come.

Full Interview Transcript

A few albums recommended by Buddy Nielson:

Young Bands:
The Mongoloids
Static Radio NJ
Polar Bear Club

Albums that delivered:
Have Heart – Songs To Scream At The Sun
Propaghandi – Supporting Caste

Album everyone should listen too:
Jets To Brazil – Orange Rhyming Dictionary

Senses Fail – Choke On This
Senses Fail – Family Tradition
Senses Fail – Can’t Be Saved

Tags: Aaron Long, Buddy Nielsen, Interview, Let It Enfold You, Life Is Not A Waiting Room, Senses Fail, Still Searching