THE RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS will soon be in Australia for a May 2017 tour celebrating the tenth anniversary of their fan favourite album “Don’t You Fake It” by playing it in full. We caught up with vocalist and songwriter Ronnie Winter to reminisce about the album as he shares his excitement to return to Australia.

SCENEzine
How’s 2017 been treating you?

Ronnie Winter
It’s been fantastic. Just handing over the baby to my wife right now. Lot’s of diapers and bottles for me but I can’t complain.

SCENEzine
Is it surreal to think it’s been over ten years now since Don’t Fake It came out?

Ronnie Winter
Yeah well it feels like ten years to me because I was there when we made it but it’s definitely fun to revisit it. All last year we were celebrating the ten year anniversary of the record but we’ve actually been a band almost fourteen years. The tour went really and I took a couple of months off to have the baby so I could be home with my wife. We pushed the Australia and UK dates to this year because we didn’t want to ditch out on you guys. After that it’s all done it’s been fun.

SCENEzine
Way back when you recorded the album did you walk away from the studio feeling that you had something special?

Ronnie Winter
Yeah definitely we had a really great producer and we had been working on those songs for a really long time. We definitely didn’t walk away thinking that we had done a bad job but we didn’t have any expectations as far as how well the album was going to do in the world or in the rock scene. But we liked it we knew then that it was honest it was everything that we had.

SCENEzine
How was the experience of working with producer David Bendeth on the album?

Ronnie Winter
David’s been a friend for a long time and we’ve worked with him since then. In the past ten years we’ve always got opinions from him, he’s someone I really look up to. We learned a lot from him in the studio it was a great way to start our career and point us in the right direction as far as how to make an album the right way. I produce a lot of the modern Jumpsuit stuff and use a lot of the tools I learnt from Dave. It’s fun looking back on it, we’ve had some discussions over the last year he still likes the record and so do I so I don’t think we would do it any differently.

SCENEzine
A huge crowd favourite is “Face Down” do you have any memories of how that song came about?

Ronnie Winter
I wrote that song with an acoustic guitar on my couch like almost all of the other songs. At that time I was still working a full time job doing fifty hours a week in construction. When I had time off I had two bands one with brother and Red Jumpsuit were the other band that I used for my more post-hardcore pop punk songs that didn’t fit. All the songs are basically true stories about me or somebody that I have met. It was a moment in time for me and it’s fun to look back for sure and remember where I was and where I am today and how much I’ve grown and the band has grown.

SCENEzine
Not only is it a really catchy awesome song but there’s a huge message behind the song. It must be a cool feeling to be part of something that has helped so many people?

Ronnie Winter
Yeah we have had many different outlets to help raise money for like the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence when the song first came out here in the States. We raised over twenty thousand dollars for them in just a couple of weeks I’m really proud about that. I’ve had the opportunity to speak at multiple domestic violence seminars. It’s something that we were able to talk about in the open because it’s something me and my brother both went through. Years later we still get people coming up to us saying wow that song really changed my life. Not only that song but “Your Guardian Angel” too. It’s something that we are definitely used to hearing from fans and we think it’s amazing that they really listen to the lyrics because I focus more on that than anything else. We are not really a band that’s known for crazy guitar riffs or cool breakdowns we’ve ways been known for the lyrical content.

SCENEzine
Did “Your Guardian Angel” come about in a similar way?

Ronnie Winter
Yeah essentially the very first original version of that song that’s really hard to find is called “Ronnies acoustic song”. The reason why I named it that is because I didn’t want it to change. All of the songs are written on acoustic and then we change them we add distorted guitar, add drums, put screams in there. We make it what’s more known for the Red Jumpsuit sound. But with that song in particular I specifically wanted to keep it soft all the way through to the end so it was called “Ronnies acoustic song”. It was just a straight forward love song. I used to listen to a lot of eighties Journey and Def Leppard they had all those huge ballads and I thought it would be cool to take a shot at that but in a different way.

SCENEzine
Did you guys have any idea back when the album dropped that you were impacting people as far away as Australia?

Ronnie Winter
That’s an awesome question, no ones asked me that. We definitely didn’t think that because we were just trying to stay alive. The album dropped and we had a really big fan base in Florida which is where we are from. Other than that we were just a local band so did we have expectations of it becoming huge in Australia no but we did believe it was awesome that we had a shot for the first time in a long time. Once we started to see the traction we got really excited. We’ve been to Australia many times and it’s always awesome no matter what album we are touring. I do think this is going to be one of the best tours we’ve ever done there.

SCENEzine
Have you had a chance to speak with many fans on the anniversary tour about what the album means to them?

Ronnie Winter
People tend to post more things online because the times have changed over the years. In the beginning people would wait crazy amounts of time to try and talk to the band. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don’t it just depends on what the band has to do that day. Usually what people do now is they post online. I actually really like that because they get to say whatever they want to say and most of the time someone in the band will see it.
We get tons of those messages and we always have. No matter what album we put out there we always try and put the message of hope out there and people tend to grab onto that. We are not glorifying negative aspects in any of our albums we’ve always made sure not to do that. I want to be able to look back when it’s all said and done and say that I put a little bit more light in the world.

SCENEzine
Do you have a favourite Australian memory from a previous visit?

Ronnie Winter
Every time I talk about this people say it’s cheesy later but we really like the Lone Pine koala sanctuary because you actually get to go up and pat the kangaroos. I know to you guys it’s not a big deal but to us they are super exotic and rare. Every different country me and wife love going to the zoo’s. I’m kind of a dork when it comes to that stuff. I spend a lot of my time at Museums, Aquariums or Zoo’s.

SCENEzine
Another song that’s connected in a way to the album is “Disconnected”. Can you tell us a bit about that song?

Ronnie Winter
Interesting you’re the first person to mention that one. That was actually a bonus song on the deluxe edition and I produced that one. That’s a fun song I think it was a bonus song in Australia only. So I haven’t thought about that but we might have to add that one into the set because technically it is part of the album. No ones mentioned that song in a long time.

SCENEzine
Yeah it definitely was on the Australian version so I wondered if you’ll play that live.

Ronnie Winter
I’m going to have to bring that up to the band. We might to have to add that one in, thank you for mentioning that.

SCENEzine
Lastly can you leave us message for your Australian fans?

Ronnie Winter
We are stoked to be there, some of our shows have already sold out. Don’t wait to get your tickets. It’s going to be fun we aren’t doing this all the time maybe in another ten years time but that’s it. Make sure you make it to a show.

(Interview by Christian Ross)