Alexisonfire's George Pettit: Breaking up made us a better band
![Alexisonfire L-R: Dallas Green, Jordan Hastings, Chris Steele, George Pettit and Wade MacNeil. (Vanessa Heins)](https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/torontosun/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/aof2019-vert-photocreditvanessaheins.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=288&h=216&sig=xyZKSl-WopzE6MnToD6SbA)
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For a man who makes part of his living screaming into a microphone, Alexisonfire lead vocalist George Pettit never seems to lose his voice.
“There’s no alchemy. I think positively and I don’t lose my voice,” he says, chuckling.
In the nearly two decades he has spent fronting the post-hardcore rock band, Pettit has only lost his voice once.
“It’s the power of magical thinking, my man.”
That’s good news for fans across Canada as the rock outfit hits the road for a series of shows next week, kicking off in Winnipeg Monday night. The band also has stops in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Seattle.
Formed in St. Catharines, Ont., in 2001, Alexisonfire released four platinum-selling albums and toured for the better part of a decade before splitting in 2012.
Dallas Green focused full-time on his side project City and Colour, while bassist Chris Steele trained as a professional barber.
Jordan Hastings sat in on drums for Billy Talent, and guitarist Wade MacNeil tried his hand at writing scores for movies and video games.
Pettit, meanwhile, became a firefighter in Oshawa, Ont.
But, in 2015, the band reformed and began playing live again.
“I think we all needed a break from Alexisonfire,” Pettit, 37, says. “We all needed to figure out our lives outside of that. Now that it’s back, there’s a new appreciation for it. I’m happy that this is something I still get to do.”
Last year, they released two new singles — Complicit and Familiar Drugs — followed this week by another new track, the brooding Season of the Flood.
A new album isn’t planned, but Pettit says it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
“There are a lot of ideas floating around,” he says.
In a separate interview, Dallas Green calls the reunion a “jolt of energy” remarking the fivesome “couldn’t be more grateful that we still get to play with one another and have a response to it.”
Ahead of Alexisonfire’s first shows of the new decade, Pettit spoke about what the coming years hold and why breaking up was the best thing that could have happened to the lifelong friends.
We don’t see this too often in the music business: A band breaks up and then comes back bigger than they were before. Did that surprise you?
Personally, I didn’t expect it to be that big, especially as big as it turned out to be. We didn’t expect that breaking up would have a positive effect on our careers, but it did. I don’t know how to describe what that’s like. For 12 years we kept touring, just trying to keep our names out there. There was a feeling that, if we stopped, people would lose interest and move on to whatever new was out there. By the time we came back, people were excited to see it again. But there was also new people, who maybe missed out on seeing us the first time around. It’s definitely a bizarre career trajectory.
Did the reunion make you regret the split?
The split was real. The band was broken up. So I can’t regret that … I started in the band when I was 19 and our bass player was 16; we were children. You spend all of your formative years on a tour bus and flying around the world; and when that stops, you have to figure out a way to reintegrate into society. We needed to do that and, I think, we’re better off because of it.
Was it easy to recapture the magic in the studio?
I don’t think anything is particularly easy about Alexisonfire. It’s hard for us to get together. We all got a lot of things on the go. But, I feel like, when we did get together to write, there was a bit of that old magic in the room. One thing I will say, though, when we were younger there was more confidence in what we were doing. Now, we’re self-editing a lot more. I don’t think it’s gotten easier by any means, but I do think the music is getting better. What we’re making is better.
You started when you were young, so what advice would you give young musicians?
Get your priorities straight. Don’t think too far ahead. Set small goals. That’s kind of what we did. We didn’t have these big, lofty ambitions … There’s no straight line to becoming a successful musician. A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time. There’s lots of spectacular bands that I watched growing up, some of the best bands in Canada, that ultimately either broke up or never became famous. They will never be celebrated. You have to accept that as a possibility. You have to accept that even if you put in the work, you might not become famous. So you have to be able to savour whatever success you might achieve, no matter how small it is.
Ten years from now, where do you see Alexisonfire?
I have no f—ing idea. I think two years ago, I didn’t know where we’d be. I would hope that we’re still here in some sort of capacity. If not, I think you’ll find all of us will still be making music in one way or another. We’ve never thought that far into the future — ever — with this band. So I’m not going to start now.
Twitter: @markhdaniell
mdaniell@postmedia.com
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