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(Winter 2005) by George Dionne
According to the National Mental Heath Association, suicide is the third
leading cause of death for young people aged 15-24. The Take Action
Tour and organization educate millions of youth on depression, suicide and finding
help in their area. The two-month tour--a nationwide trek where cutting-edge
musical artists join together to promote social consciousness and awareness--raises
funds for the National Hopeline Network (1-800-SUICIDE), a suicide prevention
and crisis hotline, and the Youth America Hotline! 1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454),
a peer-to-peer line pairing youth callers with youth crisis workers in
their area.
The full line-up for this year’s tour includes headlining act
Sugarcult, with The Early November, Hawthorne Heights, Head Automatica,
Anberlin, Maxeen, Melee, Plain White T’s and Hopesfall rounding out
a rotating schedule through the 36-city run. In addition, the TAKE ACTION!
VOL. 4
two-disc compilation CD was recently released on Sub City Records, a
division of Hopeless
Records. Rock Is Life recently spoke with Take Action Tour founder Louis
Posen.
RIL: You’re the organizer of the Take Action Tour, aren’t
you?
LP: That’s correct.
RIL: I knew that I had an interview with someone involved with SubCity & Hopeless
Records, but I lost the information on whom. I knew it was Louis, but that’s
it. I’ve been surfing the labels websites searching for a band with
Louis in it without any luck. I was like, who is this Louis guy?
LP: Well, I’m starting this new sort of progressive ukulele and recorder
band. I’ll be playing the recorder on a bunch of tracks.
RIL: I think that could work.
LP: I think that instrument is making a comeback. We all learn the recorder
in the fourth grade or something, so anyone can join the band.
RIL: And we could all play “Hot Cross Buns” (or “Three
Blind Mice”, same tune).
LP: (Laughs) Perfect!
RIL: Okay, onto the interview. I want to get into the Take Action Tour,
but first I wanted to know exactly what you do?
LP: I am technically the President of Hopeless and SubCity
Records. We’re
a punk rock record label here in Los Angeles that’s almost twelve years
old now. We put out about 5-10 records a year, most notably people might
know the first two Thrice records, the first two Avenge Sevenfold records,
and if they go even further back they’ll know the Dillenger Four, 88
Fingers Louie, The Queers, or the Weak Events.
RIL: Your company organized the Take Action Tour, why don’t
you tell me a little about it?
LP: In 1999 Hopeless Records launched our sister label
SubCity with the mission to raise funds and awareness for non-profit organizations.
We wanted to take
that concept to the road, so that same year we started the Take Action Tour.
It benefited various non-profit organizations; we took ten percent of the
door receipts and donated it to those organizations. In 2001 we combined
with the Kristin Brooks Hope Center which runs the Youth America
Hotline (YAH!) 1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454) and the National
Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433). They’ve been with the tour ever since.
RIL: That charity is about suicide prevention and awareness, is
that something that’s close to your heart or has it affected you
personally?
LP: I would say that all the causes we connect to
with SubCity connect to me personally in some way, some more than others.
More importantly with Take
Action was how the fans of the bands and the fans that come out to the show
are affected by such issues. When we talked to the fans and the kids at the
shows, they were saying what effects them are problems at school, problems
at home, feeling depressed, not feeling like their connecting with people,
feeling like an outsider, and it’s leading them to alcohol and drugs
and eventually leading to suicidal thoughts. That’s why we decided
to connect to such an important issue.
RIL: With the Take Action Tour, besides a concert, what is it that you offer
as far as help or education?
LP: First and foremost it’s a good time. We don’t want people
to come to a show where they feel like their going to school or a seminar.
It’s a great time, the bands are awesome, and their full sets. I don’t
want to discourage people from having a good time, but we try to intertwine
the message and the information and let people take that with them so they
can decide what’s best for them to do with it. There’s a tour
program that Alternative Press puts together that we hand out at the shows.
It has information about youth suicide, and this year it has information
about cutting. It’s sort of an epidemic problem right now.
There’s
also information about Youth America Hotline (YAH!) 1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454),
it’s a place where they can talk to someone their own age; it’s
a peer to peer line that’s really confidential. Also, the bands are
talking about it from the stage and there are representatives from the National
Hopeline Network 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) in the merch area. They have
information and training in how to deal with a crisis. There’s also
the Take Action Tour CD in which a portion of the sales goes to the National
Hopeline Network. It has a depression screening on the first disc. You can
see if you or your friends should be looking for help. It’s also about
being surrounded by people who care for each other and support each other.
RIL: Are parents encouraged to come out to a show like this?
LP: This isn’t an exclusive show for a particular age group. Anyone
can come out as long as their kids are okay with their parents being there.
I think it’s a great thing. A lot of times parents are not aware that
these types of feelings are going on with their kids or their kids’ friends.
I think it would be an education for them too.
RIL: Sometimes with concerts that involve charity work there can be problems
with promoters and problems getting the tour booked in places, have you run
into any of these problems?
LP: It’s been a challenge from the beginning, but over the years as
the tour has gained a name for itself, worked with the same promoters year
after year and worked with the same booking agents, people have realized
that this is a legitimate tour, the money’s really going to charity,
people are really being helped, and that’s a good thing to do. It’s
become easier, at least that part of it.
RIL: There was a Take Action stage at the 2004 Warped Tour, is that
something you’re planning for the 2005 edition?
LP: We are doing the Take Action non-profit area at
the Warped Tour. There’s
no stage connected to it, but there will be a group of non-profit organizations
that will be there. We’re going to have signings by mainstream bands
in that area too.
RIL: What you’re doing sounds very interesting and informative.
It seems that you setting up a fan friendly atmosphere as well.
LP: We want it to be, it’s not meant to be a school room setting. Let’s
have a good time and give people information so they can make good choices.
RIL: Is there anything that you wanted to add that I didn’t
zero in on?
LP: One of the most important things is that the Youth
America Hotline (YAH!) 1-877-YOUTHLINE (1-877-968-8454) is listed, in case
anyone needs to know
about that. Also, I wanted to thank you for doing this interview because
we really believe that if each of us take our resources, talents, and passion
and put them towards a good thing like suicide prevention and metal health
awareness; we can really make a huge difference together. What you’re
doing is taking you’re resource and talent, and doing just that. We
really appreciate it.
RIL: Thank you for taking the time to talk. I think it’s a good cause.
When I got the press release I didn’t know anything about the Take
Action Tour. After reading it I thought, this is a great idea.
LP: Another thing I wanted to mention was; since we
first started doing the Take Action Tour people were coming up to us saying
that this was a good
thing and their glad they were making a donation, but I what they really
wanted to know was how they could get more personally involved. So we put
on the Take Action Tour website (www.takeactiontour.com) a volunteer match
searching system. You can type in the cause that you’re most passionate
about and your ZIP code and it will list all of the opportunities in your
area. It’s really cool how it works.
Also, we had a press conference
to launch the Take Action Tour in Washington where Senator Kennedy from
Rhode Island spoke. He made the analogy that was really interesting. When
someone
is talking in the street and acting really weird, people are scared of
that and they run away from it. If they pass by someone who is bleeding,
their
natural reaction is ‘how can I help?’ It’s the complete
opposite of what you would do with someone that had the same injury, but
mentally. Maybe they’ll be one day where people are walking down the
street and they see someone talking to themselves and say ‘I want to
help’.
Interviews were offered to all of the bands on the Take Action
Tour, but Hopesfall was the only one that took Rock Is Life up on the offer.
RIL: How the Take Action Tour going so far?
JF: We’ve been out for two weeks now, it’s completely awesome.
We’re having a good time and meeting cool people.
RIL: What made you want to get on this particular tour?
JF: We thought it would be cool because it’s a little more than just
music. We get to meet a lot of cool people and cool bands, at the same time
we get to play music, but also point people in the right direction if they
need it. We’re exposing the Youth America Hotline as well.
RIL: Do you get to hang with any of the other bands on the bill?
JF: Oh yeah, totally. All of them pretty much. For
a while now it’s
been Maxeen, Early November, us, Hawthorn Nights, and Sugarcult on the tour.
Yesterday was the last show for Maxeen and Early November. Two new bands
are coming in tomorrow; Anberlin and Melee. Us, Sugarcult, and Hawthorn Nights
hang out and have a good time.
RIL: Do you rotate the bill? Does your scheduled set time change?
JF: Hawthorn Night’s have been playing third most nights, but now their
going to be on second. Sugarcult is the headlining all of it. We’re
usually on the second spot.
RIL: How long has Hopesfall been together?
JF: Hopesfall started six of seven years ago. I’ve
been in the band for three or four years.
RIL: Hopesfall is touring in support of your latest album A
Types; tell
me a little about the album?
JF: We wrote the record as a band after being a touring band for three years.
You have a lot of experiences and learn a lot about each other in that amount
of time. I think we took a more professional approach going into the record.
It is a slight departure from the more hardcore aspects of our band.
RIL: Are there any particular songs on the album that stand out for you?
JF: I think that “Owl” is a nice song; it’s kind of a band
favorite too. After having the record out for a while and being able to digest
it, it’s a different song now. “Icarus” and “Breathe
From
Coma” are good too. We have a video out for “Icarus” now,
but we’re probably going to one for “Breathe From Coma” in
a little bit. They’re two different types of songs that we’re
going to push out a bit.
RIL: When you said earlier that you’re a touring band and that you
learned a lot of things on the road; did you discover that some of the songs
recorded in the studio didn’t play out well live?
JF: We haven’t played the whole album live yet,
but when you play a song for the first time live it never really sounds quite
right. We make
adjustments, and like to mix things up a bit live. Our fans already have
the record, they know the songs, and we want to give them a little something
different when they come out to see us.
RIL: Is there significance to the name Hopesfall?
JF: Kind of; it’s like your hopes and dreams fall out of the sky. It
sounded cool. We’re a spacey band.
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