Exclusive: THE FEVER 333 To Play Download This Weekend!

If you've picked up a copy of today's issue you might have noticed already, but if not, Kerrang! can exclusively reveal that THE FEVER 333 will play Download Festival this weekend.

It’ll be the first-ever show on European soil for the band, who are headed up by former letlive. frontman Jason Aalon Butler and completed by guitarist Stephen Harrison (The Chariot) and drummer Aric Improta. A viscerally political project, THE FEVER 333 released their debut EP, Made An America, back in March, and recently put out new song called Trigger – an incendiary response to the proliferation of mass shootings that have been taking place in the States. We’ve seen firsthand just how incredible the trio are live, so be sure to get yourselves down to their first demonstration in the UK. Here, we get the lowdown about that – and a whole lot more – from Jason.

You have a bit of a history with the festival given your tussle with security guards when letlive. first played there in 2011. How do you feel about going there with THE FEVER 333?
Good! I feel like the two times we played Download when I was in letlive. were milestone moments for me – personally, artistically and emotionally. They were really interesting times and I feel like I was really able to display that and it kind of worked out in everyone’s favour, even though it seemed kind of reckless at the time. It was incendiary to say the least, and I’m excited, with this new project and the way that I feel about it and the way that everything is moving, to go back onto that stage and in that setting and see how people receive it. I feel like everyone’s really omnivorous for the most part at Download and that they’re open and ready, so I think it’s going to be cool.

The politics and the music of THE FEVER 333 are very much intertwined. Are you in any way worried about playing your first ever show in the UK in a festival setting where people aren’t necessarily thinking about politics?
(Chuckles) You know what? I think what we’ll do is offer it, as we do every time we have a demonstration no matter where we are, and those that want that can take it, but the whole point of this is to crate these spaces, because I think there’s always going to be somewhere almost everywhere we go that’s at least waiting for a forum to express themselves in the way that we encourage, whether it be politically, societally, intellectually or emotionally. And if I think about those things too much, I might overcompensate and push people too far. So I’m really just going to try to be as authentic and genuine as I can be, and make it clear that I’m not there to ostracise anyone. I’m just there to express myself, because that’s what music and that’s what art is intended for – to be able to express yourself and be free.

The aesthetic of what THE FEVER 333 does live is an important part of it, too – the videos of civil rights protests over the years, wearing a sack over your head. Will you be able to do all that at Download?
Yeah, I fucking hope so. I don’t really have much room to compromise anymore, because I feel it’s all equally contingent pieces of the representation of this project, so I’m thinking that we will. Even if they tell us no in the beginning, we’re going to push pack and say that that’s the package deal and that’s what you get if you get THE FEVER 333. So I think we will (laughs)!

To say you’re not going to compromise is probably an understatement. If anything, this project is about doing exactly what you want and need to do, right?
Yeah. I just feel like in art generally – maybe because of the monetisation of it now, or some weird shift culturally, people feel like they have this weird sense of authority of artists, and that, to me, is completely antithetical to what it means to be an artist. So, I think once the general public or promoters start to realise they’re booking artists again, they won’t be that taken aback when someone says no, because this is their art. This is what they asked for, so this is what they get.

This kind of goes back to the previous question about politics in a festival setting, but if somebody misses the point or the message of your performance, does that bother you? If, say, they’re just there to go crazy in the pit and not think about the deeper issues your songs address, is that a problem?
No, it doesn’t bother me. Because the whole point is for people to be free and be whoever and whatever they want to be in those moments. I’m really just offering them a moment – if they choose – to open up. It’s an offering, but by no means is it an imposition. If you don’t want to have a socio-political  conversation with me, that’s absolutely fine. You can get whatever you need to get, but we are there to offer more than just music.

The music is also influenced and inspired by the specific history of America and the systemic racism of the USA. Do you think that people can relate to that in the same way if they’re not from the States?
Absolutely. I think that, honestly, the problems we face in America and that we discuss in this music are transcendental because there are similar issues happening all over. We have our border issues, right? And you guys have Brexit and refugees fleeing throughout Europe. There are so many issues that may dress themselves differently, but the root of what we’re discussing is very similar. Not to mention that everything we’re discussing in America is going to affect the rest of the world. So, I’m really kind of touching upon it thinking that we might be the root of certain things that do affect people all over, but ultimately these issues being discussed are shared around the world. I was in Canada the other night and talking to some people and I brought up the indigenous population there that’s been displaced and subjugated in Canada, and some people were a little shocked, some people didn’t know and other people were very thankful, because these are things that aren’t being discussed. I actually have a British background myself – my mum being from Scotland and stuff – and there are many things I’m aware of that people may not think that I am that I probably will bring up. Again, it’s just to have the conversation – I’m not there to chastise or admonish anyone for not thinking about it or doing anything. I’m literally just going, 'Hey! Here’s this thing, and if you so choose you can acknowledge it.'

What are your hopes for these demonstrations, and for this performance at Download in particular? What do you want people to take away from it? To come away with a heightened sense of awareness, to actively go out there and enact change, or just have fun? Or all of the above?
Ultimately, I would like to catalyse some sort of change that they want to see for themselves, and then hopefully that change can assimilate outwards to a local level – and if they want, it can even go global. But ultimately, it’s offering you a space to look inward, to understand that you have huge influence. You may feel like a speck of sand on a large, large beach, but every movement, every change you make from the inside or individually is integral and paramount to the collective consciousness. And that’s the big change we’re trying to make – to the collective consciousness, where we try to understand that co-existence and cohabitation when we’re trying to live on this planet together. We must understand that there are many things happening to many people and maybe people aren’t just complaining. Maybe they’re feeling these things that you feel – perhaps somewhere on the other end of the spectrum – but to the same degree. I just want people to feel like they can make that change within themselves, really, whatever it may be. Because I think that all of us can see something that we would like to be different than it is currently.

With that in mind, when you released Trigger the other day, you said you didn’t want to change anyone’s minds about gun violence, that you just want to have a conversation. But isn’t the whole point to change people’s minds? Especially when it comes to gun violence and mass shootings in America. Because there is a clear divide between right and wrong. It’s not this nebulous cloud of grey – it’s very much a black and white situation. Do you not want to tell people, 'Actually, this is fucked. This is wrong'?
You’re totally right. I believe that I said, 'I’m not here to tilt anyone to my side or to what I believe.' Because I’m pretty anti-guns completely. But that’s me personally. I don’t expect to change their mind to go, 'You know what? Let’s just fucking throw all the guns into a pot and boil them.' I don’t think that’s going to happen. And I’m also a realist. I understand how things work and I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater – like, fuck it, let’s try one thing and fuck everything else.

Why do you think that is? Looking at the facts, it’s clear that there have been and still are mass shootings on an unequivocal scale in America compared to every other developed country in the world, where it just doesn’t happen. Pro-gun people blame mental illness, but there’s mental illness in all these other countries, too, so it’s not mental illness - it’s guns. Why do you think people are so desperate to cling to an amendment that was made in 1789?
You know, I just think it’s an identity. I think our relationship with guns. Think about it – there’s John Wayne, The Terminator, the 'hood – it is literally a piece of our culture that has been weaved in the fabric of what it means to be an American. And what we’ve done is offered people fear and said, 'Look, that’s how we got here.' Which is true. We were straight terrorists when we were in the Revolutionary War. We were fucking rebellious and we took our place because we had guns. I get it. I am well read. I know how it works. But I think it’s embedded so deeply into our culture, from the fucking toy guns we get as kids, to the literal survival that I know. I come from gun culture. I’m from Section 8 housing. I’m from welfare. I’m from the place – literally – where the government brought in contraband and guns and drugs so that we would kill each other off. I am from it, I get it, but also I see how it’s been destroying my people, destroying my fucking culture, destroying my demographic and beyond that, how it’s really hurting our fucking country. And there’s a reason for that – it’s profitting because we’ve bid upon a couple of pillars, and one of those pillars is capitalism.

And if the purpose of the Second Amendment is to guard against a tyrannical government – it could be argued there's a tyrannical government in the United States right now. The irony is that people who preach about the unwavering right of the second amendment also seem to favour that  government…
Exactly! People are dying at fucking music festivals and at schools and at fucking farmer’s markets – what the fuck?! When do people just go, 'You know these guns are being used against the people, not the government that’s completely trying to pull the wool over your eyes and fuck everyone for profit?' It’s crazy to me. But again, I can’t get too emotional because then I miss the point and I have to understand where these people are coming from because they are granted limited knowledge outside of their own quite narrow demographic. And that’s purposeful. It’s the system that does that. Where I’m from included. A lot of my friends and family growing up in Inglewood didn’t know much outside of Inglewood, and that made it easier for us to continue killing each other when we didn’t know there were other things out there. So it is a lack of education. Not in an offensive way, but the literal information being granted to these people is being controlled and minimised or sure.

Which is something you address on Trigger with the lyric 'Pull the trigger or get shot'. That’s literal, but it’s also a metaphor for everything you just described and how the powers that be exert their influence to stay in control and the way the system enforces that culture onto its citizens and keeps them bound by their rules.
That’s right. And that’s exactly what that it is as a metaphor. You’re telling me I need to bear arms or I will die. And you know there’s the big argument that it wouldn’t happen if we had armed guards or if teachers had guns or that guy wouldn’t have got shot in the back if his back had a gun attached to it. And it’s like, 'What are you talking about, dude?!' Where’s the proof? Because in Parkland, we did have an armed guard. We had a person who was certified and trained to take down a shooter and did not. We had cops fucking everywhere in Las Vegas and they couldn’t even find the guy. So what do you mean that arming people more heavily will help? There’s not enough explanatory power in that logic.

But we live in a post-truth world now. People don’t rely on explanation and logic anymore. No matter how passionate and articulate and informed you are about these issues, some people don’t want to listen and you’re never going to convince them.
Of course. But what I hope to do as an artist is to open some dialogue. To have someone go, 'Damn, that band is badass' and then listen to the lyrics and be like, 'Damn, I really like this band and I wouldn’t typically listen to this rhetoric but I’ll listen.' And then, if they’re on the fence and switch over, or are at least more open to the idea, then it’s a job well done. That’s the best we can do and we have to continue and just stick to our guns. And that is a fucking terrible pun.       

Interview: Mischa Pearlman

THE FEVER 333 are scheduled to play The Avalanche Stage of Download Festival on Saturday at 15:55pm. Time subject to change, of course, so please consult the official Download App for any further updates.