PropertyOfZack is thrilled to be bringing you an interview with D.R.U.G.S, a band that no longer needs any introduction. We were lucky enough to be able to grab drummer Aaron Stern for a great conversation on the band’s current tour, details for their upcoming debut release, the AP Tour, and more. Read up and enjoy!

For the record, could you state your name and role in D.R.U.G.S?
My name is Aaron Stern and I play drums in D.R.U.G.S.
 
Tonight marks the fifth date of the Rise From The Ashes Tour and you’ll be playing to a sold out New York City show. How has the excitement level for you guys been these past few days and how have the shows gone?
I’m so stoked. The show’s have been fantastic and have exceeded all of our expectations with people coming out and singing along to songs that aren’t even released yet, but they’re singing from the clips that we have released online and it’s really impressed me. Even the turnouts for the amount of being coming out to a band who are on their first tour and having sold out shows is just phenomenal.
 
The band has only released two songs and doing a headliner without any hard releases out can be tricky, so were you guys nervous before the kickoff?
 Oh, for sure. For some of us it had been over a year since we had played on a stage and now that we had this opportunity to be out here, we really wanted to impress the first round of fans that were going to come out and see us. We wanted to capture them right from the start.
 
Craig has step throat and just was in a car crash. Has that dwindled spirits at all?
Craig is still strong. That kid, he really lives and breathes music and I applaud him for having gone through a lot in the past and he continues to have struggles with the car accident, with the strep throat. You shouldn’t be playing shows after that [Laughs], you should be taking off, but he’s persistent and we haven’t had to cancel one show. I really admire that about him. 
 
Like I mentioned, two songs have already been released. It seems ever since the day Craig and Chiodos split that his new project would be one of the most anticipated releases of the year, and fans have been impressed. How have the reactions been in your eyes from fans?
The reaction from “If You Think This Song Is About You” blew me away. I’ve never seen such positivity towards a band’s music, especially towards a band that is just starting out and is just in the baby stages. I feel like since then it’s just been overwhelmingly positive. All I can hope is that at least people will give it a shot and listen.
 
A music video for “If You Think This Song Is About You” was released just a week or two ago and it’s one of the more ”intense” videos we’ve seen released for quite some time. Was it cool doing that and where did that idea sprout from?
The video was really intense. To shoot it was really intense on our bodies. It’s very quick, the shots are very quick. There’s a shot where Craig bangs his head against the wall accidentally and when he’s spitting up dirt? That’s real dirt. On top of that, that was really us getting dragged through the desert over and over again and getting buried alive essentially. At the end of the shoot we all had dirt in our pockets and all over our faces and places you don’t even want to know about, but it was all for the sake for something great. I think that’s part of what’s so great about this lineup of people, since we’ve all had experience in the past before, we’re not going to take this for granted and we’re going to give our all to what it is we love so much. That’s music, and art, and performing, and just being in a band.
 
Chiodos, Matchbook Romance, Underminded, From First To Last, and Story Of The Year are all the bands that came before D.R.U.G.S. Putting aside the supergroup shock that most people were in when reading that list, what was it like being in the first room for the first time with the rest of the guys and looking at your past and realizing the kind of future you could have?
It was really interesting because if you go back to like 2004 Warped Tour, I’m pretty sure every single one of us was on it. So if you could go back six years ago and tap yourself on the shoulder and say, “Hey guys, you’re going to be in a band together and you’re going to be on tour and making a record with John Feldmann,” I never would have believed it. I think the main thing wasn’t about the band’s names that these people came from; the main thing was to get people in this band that were the most passionate, musical, open-minded, experienced people and to make this a real band, not just a project, or a stunt, or anything fake. This is legitimate, real, passionate people, putting their forces together to make something awesome.
 
Could you talk about the differences in terms of the writing of the record from your past band?
It’s always different when you’re in a band with new people. Speficially this time around, you have five guys who are very strong minded, whereas in the past, I feel like each of us individually definitely took a huge hand in the songwriting and other parts in the band, but now you have five guys who are all that band, so now it’s almost like, in order to progress, you have to step back a little bit and do it for the good of the group. Like they say, too many cooks in the kitchen spoils the brew. But other than that, it’s been an amazing experience getting to work with some amazingly talented guys.
 
John Feldmann, a man who needs no introduction, produced the record. How was it being in there with him?
I’m a huge fan of Feldy and the records he’s done and obviously him in Goldfinger is one of the best performers ever. It was really surreal being in there all of a sudden on day one and drum tracking. I was like, “Alright, let’s do this.” I’m so proud of the final products that we have on this record. I know that John put everything that he had into it, which makes me feel so lucky to know that somebody that I really admire put their all into something that I just want to be the best thing possible. Now we have this amazing product, I don’t want to call it a product, it sounds corporate, but to me, an amazing album with amazing songs that we get to put out to our old fans. I think all of our old fans are really going to be able to grasp onto it and love it.
 
“Mr. Owl,” the second song that was released, featured some electronic parts that “If You Think This Song Is About You” did not. Will that sound pop up throughout the record?
Yes, there are definitely a lot of electronic tinged parts of the record, but by no means does it take precedent over real musicianship, real guitars, drums, bass, and vocals. We knew we wanted this to be state of the art, but we wanted it to also have that raw factor because we don’t want to be 100% polished. We want it to be live and real and in your face and I think we delivered the perfect blend of that.
 
It was announced that one of your recent shows that the album would be released in February. Is there anymore of a concrete date on that yet?
There’s no concrete yet, but right around that time. Early 2011 is when this record is going to drop. 
 
Will we be hearing another song or two before then possibly?
I’m not exactly sure what’s going to happen. I know that in the coming months there will be more and more content released and artwork and pictures and video, and we’re just so excited to basically paint this picture for people of what we are now and who we’ve become. Most importantly, I just can’t wait for everybody to hear these songs. 
 
Thirteen tracks were recorded, has there been anymore of a decision how many will end up on the record?
The majority of those will be on it. I’m not exactly sure what, or how many, but the majority will be on there.
 
The band signed to Decaydance, Pete Wentz’s label, before any material was ever truly finished. How is working with the label and management over there so far?
We all love Pete. We’ve all toured together, so Pete’s like the six member of this band to some extent because we’ve all toured together, we all came up in the same scene, and he was fortunate to have an experience on the large scale with Fall Out Boy. So now we have his experience to also lead us in a certain way and we are just so proud to be on a label that lets us do what we want to do. I know that’s kind of cliché to say. We’re also on Warner Brothers and we’ve had full creative control over what we want to do because these are people that believe in us and believe in what we want to do. We couldn’t be more fortunate 
 
Just a few days ago it was announced that D.R.U.G.S will be headlining the AP Spring Tour alongside Black Veil Brides, I See Stars, VersaEmerge, and Conditions. How stoked are you guys for your first nation-wide tour on some pretty damn big stages?
This is it dude. The AP Tour is going to be the official full-scale launch when people have heard our record. Our record should hopefully be out by then. We are basically going to put our all and everything into the performances every night. We already to on tour, but we’re still just dusting off the dust a little bit. We’re dusting ourselves off from not having toured or played together really ever, so come the AP Tour, we’ll be close to the top of our band hopefully.
 
Some were surprised that you guys got the nod for the headline spot considering you’ll only be releasing your debut record a month before the tour starts, but is the challenge of the crowd going to be half the fun?
I couldn’t agree more with those kids. We’ve got a lot to prove and I’m ready to fucking bring it and I know everybody else is too.
 
Obviously 2011 hasn’t even started, but many rumors are circling that you guys might be playing Warped. Is that definitely a possibility?
I wouldn’t cancel it out. We haven’t booked ourselves through that far. Basically we have AP Tour and that’s our main focus right now, to make that tour just rip. 
 
Is the UK a good possibility as well?
Worldwide is a good possibility for next year [Laughs].
 
Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add or that we should be on the lookout for?
I just want to thank anybody who is a fan already and checking out our songs. We appreciate you showing love and coming out to the shows. And to anybody who is a hater, thank you for hating, you’re doing your job very well.