The Word Alive


Phoenix's the Word Alive are putting the finishing touches on their new album, 'Deceiver,' which is due out later this summer via Fearless. The band is getting ready to mix the record, and vocalist Telle Smith is psyched about that simply because he wants to start playing the music for people. "I can only hope the mixes will be done by the end of this month," he told Noisecreep, who premiered one of their videos in March. "I pray that is when it is, since I want people to hear it so bad and so we can release a song."

Smith revealed that the band retooled 'Battle Royale,' a moshy song from their 'Empire' EP, for inclusion on 'Deceiver.' He said that the band made it bigger and better. "We put it on the album since it is a fan favorite and we love playing it live and hopefully we will play it live our whole career," he said. "It's the only song we really felt super strong about after we wrote and recorded it. Other songs on the EP were us figuring out who were are, but this song is closest to our sound on our full length, so it made sense, since the song could have been written for this album." The band changed the song's tuning, dropping it to C, making it heavier. They also added a few new vocal parts, too.

While recording 'Deceiver,' the band rented a house in the country near Ocala, Fla. and hunkered down and got serious, but they were a few wild and crazy moments. Like the time a random dude popped into the studio, demanding that producer Andrew Wade help record a country album for his daughter. "This guy came in and he wanted his daughter to record a country album and said that he was not leaving till he was allowed to let her record," Smith said with a laugh. "Andrew tried to explain, 'Hey, I have a business manager and booking agent. You don't come in here and hand me $100 and then I record a CD for you!' This man could not understand that concept. We thought was funny. He just came in and acted like, 'Hey, I'm here to record!' It was disruptive! Andrew doesn't even do country music and does not know he that guy found out about him!"

The band made sure the process of recording was professional, but they also allowed themselves a little fun while working. "The most important thing is to be serious and professional," Smith said. "We did let loose when we communicate through computers. There is this program online where you type in words and it says what you typed in different voices, so we would do that towards the end. Everyone would get on computer and talk to each other, saying ridiculous things. Hearing a computer try to figure that out was funny." Smith used the most robotic, emotional-less voice he could find for his computer communiqué.

The band wrote the songs on 'Deceiver' while on tour, which didn't lend a lot of practice time. Smith said, "We only practiced two in same room before we recorded. Once we heard it how it was supposed to sound, we were so excited and I am stoked. The album has heavier parts and our first 'all singing' song, but it's not all stereotypical pop song for radio. It's still us, just with singing."

Except to be deceived this summer!

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