Ahead of their tour here as part of the Soundwave Festival, I had a chat to Strung Out drummer Jordan Burns about the new year, Soundwave, Top Contenders and everything in between.

Hey Jordan, how are you mate?

I’m doing pretty good, how are you doing?

I’m pretty good thanks, where abouts are you today?

Ahh I’m just hanging out, doing a bunch of interviews.

Sounds good! Have you had a busy start to 2012?

Umm, not an incredibly busy start to 2012 but we’ve had a couple of shows. We did a big show on New Years Eve and that was set in Calgary, we flew up there for that show and it was a lot of fun. Since then we’ve got a couple of shows coming up this weekend in Phoenix, Arizona and Las Vegas and a little show in Capistrano Beach, California as well so that’s our weekend. Then two more shows in Southern California then we head on over for Soundwave. That’s basically gonna be the start of our 2012 there.

Wow, sounds like a lot of fun. It sounds very busy too!

No doubt!

You and the guys have been down here to Australia quite a few times, can you remember how many times you’ve toured here?

Someone else actually just asked me that! I told them it was somewhere between eight and ten times. I can’t remember exactly but I think it’s something like that.

That’s insane.

Yeah it is but you know, we’ve been coming for a long time too. Our first time over there was maybe, ’97, possibly?

Was that for a festival or was that a festival that you did yourselves?

No that was for our first tour. We’ve only done one other festival tour (apart from Soundwave) was Livid. I think that was about six or seven years ago now? I think we did it in the second to last year of the festival. That festival was great back then but I think this festival, Soundwave, is on a whole different level. It’s a really huge festival.

Absolutely. It’s grown quite a lot over the years into this much bigger, monster festival.

Yeah, it’s awesome. It’s cool that you guys get stuff like that they’re able to make a tour of it.

Definitely. In a way I guess it’s like the Australian answer to the Warped Tour?

Yeah maybe. I think it’s a bit gnarlier than the Warped Tour! There’s a lot of huge bands that are on this, not that there isn’t huge bands on the Warped Tour. I don’t know, I think this is kind of a different vibe. Whatever it is, I like it and can’t wait to tour it.

Is there anyone in particular on the bill that you’re looking forward to seeing?

Yeah there’s a bunch of bands. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Slipknot, I can’t wait to see Steel Panther, who else is on there.... Shadows Fall will be cool, Zebrahead as well for fun, Biohazard will be cool to see. Yeah we’re finally playing with the Street Dogs together so that’ll be good. There’s obviously a ton of bands... who else should I give a shout out to? (Laughs). Zack Wylde will be cool. There’s a bunch of cool stuff.

Yeah, absolutely. The lineup is huge. Aside from performing, is there anything that you’re planning to do or see, not just in Sydney, but generally while you’re in Australia?

You know, I really don’t know because I don’t know what the time frame ends up looking like. I’m sure it’s a pretty tight schedule that we’re on and I’m not sure what exactly gets planned on the days that we do have off. But when you are on a tight schedule sometimes a day off is cool just to kick back and take a day off. It all depends on what’s going on. I could go down to the beach, maybe go for a surf, maybe someone will have a jet ski or something like that. I’m up for anything! Dirtbikes, ziplining, white water rafting, I’ll do it all! (Laughs).

Haha. Well there’s no plenty of that kind of stuff around here so you’ll have no shortage of entertainment.

Sweet!

The band has been around since roughly 1989 is that right?

Umm, the band kind of got together around 1990 and I joined the band in December of ’93. It’s coming up on what, like 19, 20 years?

Yeah! It’s an awesome effort, there’s not too many bands these days that stay together that long.

When you think about it, time flies. It doesn’t seem like it was so long ago but of course, it is.

How is the touring experience nowadays compared to when you were first starting out as a band?

Well, we’ve been through all different sorts of aspects of touring. We’ve toured in a van only, where it’s all of us cramped into a small spot. We’ve toured in tour buses, we’ve toured in all sorts of ways. We just keep on doing it. A lot of the times when we’re at home we’re just rollin’ in our van and trailer for the weekend shows. We did a two and a half month tour with Face To Face where it was such a long tour that we decided to get a bus. It’s always nice to be on a bus and have your own bunk and a place to go and escape to. But touring in general is pretty much the same. We’re all still liking it which is important, no one is burnt out or anything and I think everyone pretty much accepts that this is our life and our lifestyle.

It’s something to always be excited about I suppose! You guys put out ‘Top Contenders’ last year which was a Best Of. Were all the songs completely remastered for the album?

Actually they were remixed, we went and remixed all of the songs and basically gave all of the songs a new life. Ryan Greene, who has done a lot of the Fat Wreck Chords bands and stuff, he remixed everything and I think the songs came out sounds awesome. Basically we just got a really good tune up with a more modern day sound and a more consistent sound too. I’m really happy with the way it came out and I’m really happy that we actually went the extra mile and remixed everything.

Yeah and it sounds great! Was there a particular reason you decided to release a ‘Best Of’ or did it just seem like the right thing to do?

Yeah, I mean, it just seemed like it was time. We’d talked about it and there were certain songs from certain albums that I really, really wanted to hear remixed so I’m happy that we did that. It showed me that the songs could sound even more badass with a different mix through them and I think collectively everyone just thought it was time. It was a cool thing to do and why the hell not? (Laughs).

I read somewhere that while recording ‘Agents of the Underground’ that you recorded your drum tracks last because of a fractured thumb?

Yeah it was a fractured thumb and it created kind of a nightmare you know, the whole situation and the drama that surrounded it. Another drummer was bought in, a guy called Jarrod Alexander, and he played all of the drums and laid down all the tracks. Then the guys recorded to him, the whole album got finished and in the end I went back and re-recorded all the drum tracks. It was actually a pretty cool process because I got to play everything last and hear how everything was set. So, I was more or less playing to them instead of they play to me. It was a cool experience in that part of it, of course I don’t want to break my thumb again but I think the way it ended up coming out was really cool. I don’t know, maybe it was a breath of fresh air of to play with somebody different and something new. I kept on hearing ‘oh this guy’s licks’ and ‘his feet are this..’ and ‘he’s doing this great fill’, it just got me fired up! This is my band and this is what I do, so I’m gonna kick fucking ass and lay the shit down! That’s what I did and I’m quite proud of the way my drumming came out on that album.

Yeah, it sounds great and I guess it was a great motivator in a way.

Yeah! (Laughs).

Well, thank you for your time Jordan. I appreciate it and hope that you enjoy your time out here in Australia & hope the shows are great for Soundwave and your sideshows.

Right on. I have no doubt that it will be excellent!