This isn’t the Anti-Flag first time making rounds on the Vans Warped Tour. The first time Anti-Flag joined the tour, it was 1999 and a much simpler time. Now on its 22nd year, Anti-Flag is back and bigger than ever.
Anti-Flag drummer, Pat Thetic sat down with us at the Auburn Hills stop to talk all things Warped Tour and new music.
Q: So it’s been a couple years since your album “American Spring” came out, are you guys working on any new music?
Pat Thetic: Yes! We have a new record that we recorded right before this tour that will be coming out in the fall.
Q: What can fans expect from that?
A: Amazing songs. It’s our 10th or 11th record, I don’t know somewhere in there. It’s going to be Anti-Flag, but each record we do, we bring a little bit different way of recording. It’s going to be awesome but a lot of the same but a lot different.
Q: You guys have been recording music since before I was born, what keeps you motivated?
A: Playing live shows is what keeps me motivated. Connecting with people and being in a room full of people who don’t accept the status quo as it is. That’s important to me. So, playing live is a way of connecting with those people.
Q: What’s been your favorite live show ever?
A: Favorite live show ever? Probably the Philadelphia Forum, or whatever it was, with Rage Against The Machine when the police were boycotting the show. The police were circled around the arena with cop cars and telling local media to not let your kids go to the show. So, that was a fun one because it was actively making the comfortable uncomfortable.
Q: You guys do a lot of political music, what song, especially in today’s political climate do you feel is the most relevant?
A: There’s a song called “Anatomy of Your Enemy“. It’s an older song but it’s a song that talks about how enemies are created. And in a world where Donald Trump is president and he is facing at least impeachment, if not criminal charges, he is going to do everything in his power to stop that from happening. And we should watch out for false flags and things that he would do to empower himself to fuck the rest of us.
Q: Onto Warped Tour… What’s been your favorite part of Warped Tour this summer?
A: Favorite part of Warped Tour this summer would be War on Women and Bad Cop/Bad Cop.
A: What have been the hardest parts of Warped Tour this year, besides like the rain…
Q: The rain and the heat, but that’s always Warped Tour. Warped Tour is a challenge as a touring band because you’re stuck in a parking lot all day. And more traditional festivals in Europe and other places, you know what time you’re going to play and you can plan your day out. As where with Warped Tour you’re sort of stuck in a parking lot just shitting around all day, which is a challenge.
Q: After Warped Tour, what’s next?
A: After Warped Tour we go home for a little bit, feed the goldfish and then go to Europe for festivals at the end of the summer there. Then come home for a little bit. Go back to Europe, do a tour there and then do the states in the spring.
Q: That’s a lot of touring! What festivals are you playing?
A: I know we’re playing Punk Rock Holiday. It’s in Slovenia and it’s like Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome where all the fucking weird kids are all on this river that comes off this glacier and all the kids are in the water and it’s fucking awesome. But it’s a train-wreck, as all punk festivals are.
Q: Do you know the name of the record yet?
A: I don’t know any of that stuff yet. I can’t talk about that yet but it’s going to be announced very soon.
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