Interview with Anti-Flag drummer Pat Thetic

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Pat Thetic, drummer for the hardcore punk band Anti-Flag, about their newest release, The General Strike. Known as much for their political activism as they are for their music, the band have been creating a stir since 1988 and are showing no signs of letting up. This new disc is as energetic and fun as anything they have done in the past and they are embarking on a rigorous touring schedule that will take them around the globe and includes a spot on The Warped tour this Summer. Here’s what Pat had to say about the band, the new record and their plans for the upcoming year.

Hey Pat, how are you today?
Pat: I am doing great. I am doing this interview and then we have a video meeting right after so there are a lot of things going on, but it is all fun stuff so it is good.

Where are you at today?
Pat: I am in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania which is where we have our offices. The cost of living is cheap here in Pittsburgh and you can make choices because you believe in them and not because you need to make money.

Now that your new record, The General Strike, is complete, how do you feel about it and are you satisfied with the outcome?
Pat: It is funny because I just listened to it yesterday, I gave it a little bit of time because I was really listening to it intensely when we were mixing and mastering it that I needed to give it a little bit of time. When I listened to it again I realized that it is a good record, it is funny to hear me say, but it really speaks to me and it has a lot of energy to it. It is funny because I have even spoken to a lot of friends of mine who are old punk rockers and this record speaks to them a lot more than some of the other records that we have done. So this might be an old punk rocker record.

What is your writing process like?
Pat: On this record people just came in with ideas and all four of us added to it and we were all much more involved in the whole process than in the past. It was really a fun process to write this record.

Check out the song: “This Is The New Sound”

When you write do you write with the live setting in mind or is that not even a consideration?
Pat: No, we actually probably should, but we really sort of write what sounds cool to us at the time and then when it comes time to play them live we are like “fuck” I don’t think I can play this song and do it in a way that is going to be interesting to other people live. There are a lot of things that sound really great when we play them, but then trying to reproduce them live is a challenge. I am not known for my music virtuosity and there are some things that I can do in the studio that I just can’t play live because it is too fast. It is a challenge sometimes.

You guys have been making music for a really long time. Did you ever imagine you would still be doing it?
Pat: Absolutely not, no I remember when we first started playing we used to think to ourselves if we could just get through another tour it would be amazing. In many ways it is still the same because we have a tour coming up and if it is still fun we will keep doing it after the tour. You never really know what is going to happen because punk rock is a volatile thing it is not something anybody thought would be around or would find interesting eighteen years later.

You just mentioned touring plans, what kind of touring plans do you have planned this year?
Pat: Well we just got back from Southeast Asia which was pretty amazing; we played a show in Jakarta and it was an interesting experience being told we couldn’t do sound check because it was right in the middle of prayer time and the promoter was not around to help us because he was off praying somewhere. We are going to do a short run on the East Coast of the U.S. just to celebrate the release of the record and then we go to Europe for three weeks, then Australia. After that we do The Warped Tour and then back to Europe. So we are booked solid until sometime in October.

Do you find the rigors of touring taking a toll on you as you get older?
Pat: Well yeah. You get sweaty every night and you get sick which is not much fun, but other than that I really enjoy it… I love meeting people. The thing about the way we do it is different because we go to a city and there is always somebody who is doing something really creative in activism, in demonstration or union organizing and we interact with them. If we weren’t out there touring we would not be meeting people who are doing creative interesting things.

Do you set your tours up around those sort of events or do they just sort of come about?
Pat: Well most of the time I am not that clever or cool. Lots of times people who are interested in activism and that sort of thing seek us out. So we play a city because we think that the show will be good, but many times people write to us asking for a table at the show or asking to speak from the stage about something that is going on in their city; so that type of stuff is really great.

You guys have done quite a bit of touring. Is there any place you have not been to that you would like to get to?
Pat: I would like to go to South Africa. It is interesting because I have a map at my house with pins in it of all the places that we have been and when you do something like that you realize all the places that you have not been as well. We have not been to the Middle East and we have not been to Africa.

A lot of those markets are beginning to open up to metal and punk rock though, right?
Pat: Yeah for sure. Who would have ever thought that you could play punk rock in South Africa. Last year there was a festival there that we tried to get on, but it didn’t work out with our schedules.

In a hundred years from now what will the music history books say about Anti-Flag?
Pat: They will say that Bad Religion was a better band.

Any closing words at all Pat?
Pat: It is really interesting to see that people are fed up with what is going on around them and they are taking a stand and I look forward to more of that.

Check out the song: “1915”