A few weeks ago, I attended Soundwave Festival and interviewed singer Ace Enders.  Due to a strange series of events which occurred pre-interview, it didn’t go as I’d expected, but turns out I didn’t make as big a fool of myself as I’d thought. That’s always a good thing.

Ace’s new album When I Hit The Ground is out as of yesterday and for all of you in the Philadelphia area, he’ll be doing a CD release show at the Trocadero on April 13th.

Danielle: A bit old news, but how stoked were you to sing ‘God Bless America’ during the Phillies’ winning World Championship season?
Ace: I was really really excited.  It was great, I’d never done anything like that before so it was a great feeling.
Ace Enders and a Million Different People is your latest endeavor, but what makes it different from your last solo project, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business?
I guess there’s not really too much different, it’s just a more mature, older perspective on things. That’s pretty much it.
A lot of the bands playing today you’ve toured with before and many of them are from the East Coast, so you’ve probably known them for a while.  Do you feel like you’re at Warped Tour or Bamboozle again?
You kinda do, yeah.  Only everybody’s like a little kid because we’re in a different country. It’s kind of funny because we’re all jet-lagged and out of it, but it’s great.
You and Forest from Hellogoodbye have been touring together for a while and he has a reputation for being a silly guy. Do you have any favourite pranks or stories from the Barbeque Tour?
I think the best prank was the Barbeque Tour itself.  He had us all geared up for grilling food after the shows and we didn’t barbeque once.  Which was an excellent prank, very well thought out.  Not everybody can do that.  It was good. Oh, we did sort of barbeque once, if you count hot dogs cooked in a coffee pot.

[At this point, my recorder beeped at me angrily and ceased to function. I fumbled with it, nervously trying to figure out what the problem was as Ace told me about the recording studio he built in an old store basement.  The studio is on recording hiatus until he can secure enough funds to run it again, which he hopes the new album will help raise.  I commented on how DIY it was to essentially sell records and merchandise to afford recording more music.  We then had a little discussion about how this process was considered much more normal in the pre-Myspace days of the New Jersey/Philly scene, where basement shows and liner notes were how you discovered new bands.  I also used this time to give him a package of Tim Tams, which he was tempted to open, but his wife suggested he wait because they could be melty and he’d make a mess.  “Like Nobody’s Business!” I said, way too enthusiastically.  Note to self, lame puns referring to the person you’re interviewing aren’t as clever as you initially think.  I then realized that I stupidly hadn’t cleared the recorder’s memory and continued on.]

Speaking of music changing, you just did a cover of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ for Save the Music. Did you choose that song because the line about ‘A Million Different People?’
Yeah, and because it’s just always been one of my favourite songs.  I think the whole thing is like the idea I had behind it, that wherever I am and whatever mood I’m in, it can always take me to the same place.  That’s what music is supposed to be and it fits for Save the Music.  That’s the song that does it for me, so hopefully it works for other people.
Do you know what the profits from that are so far?
Not sure totally, but I know we’ve reached what we wanted to raise for it.
Awesome! There’s lots of other famous names who helped you with that cover, did you contribute anything to their bands, like backing vocals, in return?
We haven’t done anything like that yet.
Yet? Are you planning on it?
If the day ever comes, I would gladly do it.
Hmmm. Not helping out today with anyone?
Not today.
Mysterious!  So, how did your friends and family take it when you told them The Early November was going to disband?
They cried for months.  It was terrible, my grandparents took it the hardest.  It was so tough on them they stopped eating. I’m only kidding, everybody understood why we had to do it and they were very supportive.  They were like, ‘You’re doing the right thing.’
I remember one of the first things I thought when I heard was ‘Aw, his Dad’s not going to be able to crowd surf anymore!’ (Note: I have no idea why I told him this.)
One day he will again!
What do you have to say to the fans who are still bitter about The Early November breaking up and not willing to embrace your individual pursuits?
They’ll come around eventually.  You realize that people like that are why the music business is the way it is today.  It’s like how we were talking about basement shows and that bands don’t really do that anymore, well, it’s because fans don’t support that now.  Some of them, anyway.  There’s a great amount that do, but the people like that who are bitter about things unfortunately are the majority.
I completely agree, it’s strange how it’s all changed so fast since the early 2000s when you first began as a musician.  Now, how old were you when you started writing songs? Were you a poetry kind of kid?
Ha, no.  I didn’t do anything until I was a Senior in high school. That’s when I decided I was going to start writing.
Lots of magicians…
Magicians? Ha, lots of magicians do lots of tricks!
Sorry, lots of musicians from New Jersey usually move to New York or even LA.  Why did you decide to stay in Hammonton?
Well, you know, it’s home.  It’s a comfortable place where it’s not crazy and it’s very quiet there.  And we’re not home very much, so it makes it nicer when we are.  You can just relax and not worry.
Other than ‘bringing back love,’ what do you hope to accomplish by 2020?
In a perfect world, just seeing people rely on each other rather than just being so black and white about how everything is revolving around money.  If that makes sense.  I would really love to see people sort of take a step back to realize and understand why we do things, why we’re here.
With your new album coming out, what made you decide to release that as an actual, physical disc instead of an internet release like you did previously?
A lot of reasons, it’s my first CD in a while.  I mean, the free Internet one was just for the people who’ve been supporting me…

[The crowd for Jack’s Mannequin starts screaming incredibly loud nearby and some of what Ace says is drowned out.  This also unfortunately cuts my interview slightly shorter than anticipated, so I jump to my last question.]

The question on many fans mind is when will the DVD of the last The Early November concert finally be released?
Not sure, it should be soon, hopefully!

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