AP features on The Academy Is..., Underoath, and gym Class Heroes

ANOTHER BLOG ON THE FIRE

More and more musicians have blogs these days. Inviting fans into the inner workings of their brains, a growing number of band members are using their web journals as a forum to showcase stuff that isn't necessarily directly related to their band. THE ACADEMY IS... frontman WILLIAM BECKETT recently jumped onto the blog bandwagon with thewilliambeckettblog.com because, well, TAI's MySpace isn't exactly the best venue for him to post his prose poetry and short stories--although you probably shouldn't refer to it with the "B"-word.

"It's a very useful thing for me to be writing," he explains. "I hate saying 'blogging,' but [I write] journal entries and post some prose poetry. I do a couple [of] posts every day. There are photos and stuff, too. I just want to have a place where I can vent.

"And if it weren't for [the blog], people wouldn't know how sweet Mike [Carden, guitarist] is at always finding the funniest shit on YouTube. He's been stockpiling some [links] and I'm going to start putting them up there. It's not so exclusive when it's just me." --Emily Zemler

UNDEROATH frontman SPENCER CHAMBERLAIN has gone through a lot since the band nearly self-destructed during the 2006 Warped Tour. In addition to fighting his own demons in the form of a drug addiction, he also weathered his bandmates being largely unforgiving of his behavior. Chamberlain isn't afraid to open up about his trials. In fact, he feels it's his Christian duty to be honest with everyone around him--including himself.

HONESTY AND HYPOCRISY
"I like being honest. If people would've been honest with me growing [up], I probably would not have had to go through as much crap as I did. If people could just be real with people, [everything] would be way easier. So I do that, or I try to. In writing music and lyrics, I just want that to be real. I'm [called] a hypocrite sometimes, but that comes with the territory. I'd rather be called a hypocrite than be a hypocrite and lie about something. I try to live like Jesus because I love Him. But I'm not Him. Yeah, we're a Christian band, and yeah, I'm the singer. But the feeling of believing that we're so perfect turns people off just as much as the [opinions of] people who think I'm a hypocrite for some of [my personal vices]. People probably shouldn't even know about [those issues], but they do because I'll let them know about it. I'd rather be real with someone because it might help someone out. Even if I'm not to the point where I should be [with my own struggles], I can still share with someone and help them out."

IT'S DANGEROUS BUSINESS WALKING OUT YOUR FRONT DOOR
"[Cocaine] turns everything around you into this big lie, and you're walking around on eggshells. You can't even enjoy anything because once you start doing it and you're with your friends--and they don't know you're doing it--having a conversation is almost worthless. In the back of your mind, you're thinking, 'How am I going to sneak away and do it again?' Everything turns into a lie; every friendship turns superficial."

BREATHING IN A NEW MENTALITY
"I know that [abusing drugs is] wrong-I just get to [that] point sometimes in my life. I have no excuse, really. It's just that demon that pulls me down, I guess. But even when I'm doing it a lot...I still wake up in the morning and go to bed at night going, 'Yep, I'm an idiot.' I never go, 'Yeah, this is okay. My family would think this is okay. My best friends would think this was okay. God would think this is okay.' I'm not that stupid."

THE CREATED VOID
"[Things changed with the band] when other people manned up to what they were doing wrong--whether it be with my situation, or just the fact that they were wrong in other situations. [Like] me not loving someone, or judging someone when they walk through the door. If you want to get down to the nitty gritty, in God's eyes, that's the same as this person doing drugs or that person murdering someone. Whatever it is, a sin is a sin. We need to be brothers and not enemies trying to pretend, 'I'm better than you.' That's what I'm trying to share with people. We're not better than you. We're not perfect."

SOME WILL SEEK FORGIVENESS
"[Forgiveness] saved our band. That had to happen. When forgiveness came and the apologies came and more truth came, it was like, 'Dude, get in here for a hug. You're my best friend. I want to be able to call you [when we're] 40, and not tell my kid, 'Yeah, this one time, I was in this band with this guy. But, man, I don't talk to him anymore. I wonder what he's up to.' I'd much rather be like, 'Yeah, Uncle Timmy [McTague] lives down the street. You play with his kids. We were in Underoath together for 10 or 15 or however many years.' That's what we learned. It's more of a brotherhood--as cheesy as it sounds. It's real friendship, real camaraderie, real understanding and real love." --Brendan Manley

TRAVIS KISSED A GIRL
If TRAVIS McCOY needs to avoid making the chemical missteps of the past, one thing that might help is his blossoming romance with fellow Warped Tour 2K8 performer Katy Perry. McCoy credits her with convincing him to see a psychiatrist during his recent struggles. Now the man who wrote a song called "Drnk Txt Rmeo" (about "just getting blitzed and texting girls, and seeing what kinda nasty replies you can get") has settled down. Although Perry could be spotted throughout most of the summer alongside McCoy, her presence on the Heroes' tour bus was constant-even when she wasn't there. It wasn't a photo hanging in the lounge or even repeated plays of her recent hit "I Kissed A Girl." There was a paper-måchéd replica of her torso from the Keep A Breast Foundation, sitting triumphantly near the tour bus sink. (The copy was for McCoy to decorate and would be auctioned to raise money for breast cancer research.) When AP spent time with Gym Class Heroes during Warped Tour for their cover story in AP 243, we were able to see the couple firsthand. This is what we observed:

Perry enters the Gym Class Heroes' bus clad in a leopard-print mini-dress. She and McCoy say little, preferring instead to stare deeply into each other's eyes. He proudly shows her his swollen, freshly tattooed hands now adorned with the faces of his heroes Hall & Oates (circa 1981's Private Eyes). As McCoy's 6-year-old goddaughter Eden frolics nearby, a family-style vibe mellows the scene. A new Gym Class song, the melodic hip-hop jam "Kissin' Ears," cues up, and the lyrics seem perfectly appropriate: "Makin' babies/Buying you a Mercedes/Gettin' married/Bein' willing to share, girl/It starts with kissin' ears."

Asking the couple about the beginning of their relationship provokes slightly less-romantic responses. "[She] was doin' splits and shit to get my attention," jokes McCoy, "and I was like, 'Who is this crazy white girl?'"

An amused Perry shoots back, "Yeah, I was like, 'Someone, anyone--even Travis McCoy--please take me out!' But I'd never made out with a black man before."

Later, McCoy reveals that he goes to watch Perry's Warped set at almost every date. "As long as our schedules don't conflict, I watch every day, man. But the other day in Montreal was the first time I got to watch it from the crowd instead of the stage, which is a completely different world.

"I just rode my bike out into the crowd, and I found this little nook where nobody could really spot me, and I just watched. And it was fuckin' amazing. It was one of her better shows, vocally. She was just feelin' it, and you could tell in all her leads. It was awesome," he says, sounding very much like a guy in love. --Dan LeRoy