The Used are: Bert McCracken – lead vocals, Quinn Allman – guitar, Jepha Howard – bass and Dan Whitesides – drums (replacing original member Branden Steineckert in 2006.) The band was formed in their hometown of Orem, Utah in January 2001. They have four full-length albums, one full-length EP and two live album/DVDs under their belt to date. They’ve been on Warped Tour four times and both Taste of Chaos and Reading and Leeds twice, yet they still manage to maintain that “new car smell” every show, every time.
I’ve been following this band closely since the release of “Berth” – a live CD/DVD capturing the unique energy that is a Used show. Bert controls his crowd like a master while Jeph (bass) and Quinn (guitar) run all over the stage without dropping a single note as Dan pounds the drums into submission behind them. Their audiences scream every word along with them – even the tunes released barely a month ago on their stellar new effort, “Artwork.” The Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City (a favorite venue of the band’s) was so rocking that fans were treated to the absolute best of their band’s repertoire: fan favorites “All That I’ve Got,” “I Caught Fire,” “Take It Away,” “Hospital,” and “Pretty Handsome Awkward,” the newer “Blood on my Hands,” “The Best of Me” and “Born to Quit,” the vintage and bruising “A Box Full of Sharp Objects,” “The Taste of Ink” and “Listening” and the ultra-rare “On My Own” and “Blue and Yellow.”
The crowd was putty in Bert’s hands as he had them do a Wall of Death (instructing them to help each other up should anyone fall down,) scream and go silent in long and short bursts as he conducted them like an orchestra, and sing a few words for him despite his guttural scream never wavering in intensity (even after throat surgery!) So overcome was everyone that one girl felt compelled to toss a love note encapsulated inside a tiny bottle onstage, which Bert read aloud “Dear The Used: Thank you guys for everything you’ve done for!” 
A Used show never disappoints, and their albums just keep getting better and better. “Artwork” is a must-have for any music aficionado, and they even throw in a blooper reel for free.
I was privileged enough to catch a few words backstage with Jeph and Dan before the show. Here’s what they had to say for themselves as The Used rapidly approach their ten year anniversary as a band:
Jeph: (in response to my lament that all NYC venues appear to have enacted strict “no filming” policies as of late) I’m not gonna lie…I kinda like it.
You do, why?
Jeph: You’ve probably been to a lotta shows, right? (I agree laughingly that I have) You know, it’s fun when you see kids having fun at shows, but it’s not fun when you see this (holds his phone up above his head and stares into it) the whole time. Like, they’re not even doing anything – they’re just looking at their phones.
You don’t feel like they’re involved, they’re just standing there filming you.
Jeph: And there’s like fifty – the whole front.
It’s probably distracting, too.
Jeph: A little bit.
Well, Jeph, you’ve stated that you like to buy a copy of the CD when it comes out, but there are less and less places to do that now, so what do you do instead – buy it online?
Jeph: iTunes, yeah.
It’s not the same, though, is it?
Jeph: No, but I mean…it’s like buying a cassette tape when records were out, so, it’s just like a different way to do it, I don’t know. I do like that exact hard copy, but at the same time, it’s just getting easier and easier to buy it off iTunes, you know? Especially the movies, even, like, I only rent movies online.
Dan: Really?
Jeph: Yeah, I mean, I rarely go around to stores, it’s just a pain in the ass.
Well, there’s nowhere to go do that either, Blockbuster’s going out of business.
Jeph: Blockbuster’s expensive! I have like the Apple TV thing – you can just rent things off of there, it’s so much better and easier, I think.
Dan: I never buy anything off iTunes…oh well, that’s not true, I couldn’t find The Killing Joke record, so I broke down and bought it
Jeph: You broke down in tears?
Dan: I broke down and cried, yeah. I went everywhere looking for this thing; it’d be an album that’d be pretty hard to find anyway, but it’s a good record. You could probably find it in New York if you couldn’t find it anywhere else – that’s why everyone comes here.
CD Baby has a lot of hard to find records – they had your first project, actually.
Jeph: Oh, which one? Our demo record?
No, not The Used demo, what you did pre-Used (Dumb Luck, the band was called) I have it on my iPod.
Jeph: They’re all garbage. Bert was in a band called Cobra Kai, did you ever hear of that one? (With Donny Osmond’s son, yes Sir.)
Dan: With Danny Payne!
Jeph: Bert got kicked out because it was a straight-edge band, and he stopped being straight-edge.
Yeah, that’s not gonna work! The band’s been through a lot in between “Lies for the Liars” and “Artwork” – surgeries, lineup and management changes, marriages. Do you feel that the pathway between albums was cathartic?
Jeph: Um, we’re in a band, so we don’t actually know what cathartic means (everyone laughs) Lethargic, yes!
Well, was it eye-opening, then?
Jeph: There we go! I don’t know, I don’t really look back. We kinda look in the now as a band.
Dan: Well, sometimes it can be harder, but sometimes it’s easier to make a decision when you’ve got four people. Like if three or even two guys say yes, you know? There were decisions that were made in the past, and not everyone was on board.
Jeph: You have to get everyone on board if it’s a life-changing band decision. There are instances, like certain tours, if one guy wants to do it, in the end, if we were all unhappy, or even if two people were unhappy, it probably won’t happen.
Dan: So, all the changes were for the best.
Absolutely! So, Artwork feels to me like a cork on the exploding champagne bottle that was “Lies for the Liars” (and its subsequent Shallow Believer EP) – does everyone feel a bit more…settled now, or do you kind of feel the anger coming back up when you play it live?
Dan: It’s aggressive, it’s dark.
Jeph: I would say more like exciting, in a way. To me, it’s like you’re holding all this excitement in and it’s about to blow up, like a pushing the red button kind of feeling. That record live is a singalong. It was meant to be a chant, like a theme song – the whole record. I think it came out perfectly, and it comes across live as well.
Dan: The thing about it is, too – the reason that it turned out the way that it did (which I think is amazing) is because we had all the time in the world to do it; no one was putting any pressure on us. The label was just like “Make sure you guys write a great record, alright?” We got to do things on our terms. The majority of the album was written before we even went into the studio, and that’s kind of uncommon for us.
So you were writing on tour.
Dan: Yeah, that’s why these drums are here, too (indicating the kit in the corner of the dressing room) so that we can write.
Jeph: Some of the songs started out being written by just Dan and Quinn – even before you were in the band, just jamming together in the basement and stuff.
Efficient way to do things. Your shows are always comprised of blood, sweat and tears, literally (both nod) Do you start a tour on a brand new album with a renewed sense of vigor each time, or is it more like hopping onto a bicycle you owned as a kid?
Dan: Well, with this tour, we were ready to go; we put a lot of thought into this set. We just got back from the U.K. and then this tour started like two or three weeks later. The worst part about playing again is that you’re just sore for the first few shows – you’re just out of shape.
Jeph: And then you get back into it really easily (I suggest that they might keep weights on the bus.)
Dan: This is the first tour that I’ve been on, aside from Taste of Chaos, for which we didn’t really design the fucking stage set, but we designed as a band the lighting package and the setlist. We really put a lot of thought into it. That was like our main concern, really.
Jeph: Yeah, the setlist, the songs, the way it’s gonna look. The lighting show, I think, is cool.
Dan: Everyone’s in their own individual lights and there are lights in the ground, which not many people are doing.
That’s gonna look cool!
Jeph: (nodding appreciatively) It’s very different.
Dan: We have a projector, and we made a little movie. So, musically, we were always ready to go, but we just wanted to make this tour more special…
You had originally wanted Rivers Cuomo to produce “Artwork” – how did Matt’s style measure up to what you’d envisioned in 2008?
Jeph: Well, we had thought that maybe Rivers would produce a song, and then it got turned into “Maybe he’ll write one song with us” (which was kinda weird.) Then our label was like “Yo, we have this dude, Matt Squire; do you want to meet up with him – check out his vibe?” We met up with him, but we weren’t really into any of the bands that he’s worked with before – no offense to those bands – so we weren’t really sure how he would be. It turned out that he had played in a band that Dan used to love growing up, which was totally random.
Dan: He’s got a hardcore background.
Jeph: Yeah, that really worked, so it was cool. He’s very laid-back, and just kind of let us do what we wanted and listened. He was more of a mentor.
Dan: A facilitator of sorts; he’d just kick back and let us do our thing. Every now and then, if he thought something wasn’t jiving, he’d say it. He’s really good at vocals.
The band has mentioned its love for my city in the past – what are some of your favorite things to do together in New York? Did you go check out The Naked Cowboy?
Jeph: We love The Naked Cowboy.
Dan: He wears underwear.
Yeah, big diaper.
Dan: (shaking his head sadly) That ain’t naked!
Deb: I know, it’s kind of a ripoff, huh?
Jeph: He should be called The Underwear Cowboy.
You can’t get away with what you can get away with on Warped Tour on the streets of New York City, unfortunately. The band’s been taking requests all tour; do I have any chance of hearing “801 Underground” tonight?
Jeph: Nope; we played that ten years ago.
You don’t remember it, do you?
Jeph: Kinda, not really. We couldn’t play it if we tried. I don’t think Dan’s ever heard it – have you? (Dan shakes his head no)
Dan: I hated The Used, pretty much (all laugh)
Jeph: That’s no joke!
