Fred Mascherino

CTG: So I'm sure your most popular question is about Taking Back Sunday, do you ever plan on going back to play with them?
Fred: No, I left and it was because I had other goals and interests and I wasnt going to be able to fullfill them if I stayed with them. I would never say never, but for the next forseable future I'm going to be touring on my own.

CTG: What are you expectations for The Color Fred?
Fred: Well, one of my goals was to do a record where I rested the writing responsibilty on myself. I was lucky to be able to do a lot of writing in my past bands, but they were always group efforts. So I dont think anyone can tell how much or how little I was contributing and I wanted to see how it would come out if I did it all by myself. So that was my first experiment. Now it's just a matter of seeing if people hear it and dig it and especially identify with it. You know, I really paid attention to the lyrics when I was writing and I just hope that is something that will speak to people.

CTG: What is the concept behind the album "Bend To Break"?
Fred: "Bend to break" is a line from the song If I Surrender and the idea of that song is a very sarcastically arrogant message that I sort of sent out to people.. basically it's a message to people who want to see you fail. and it's sort of saying 'well yeah I am gunna fail and I'm gunna to do it just to make you really happy so enjoy it." That sort of became what "Bend To Break" was about and it really is me trying to prove something, even if it's just to myself.

CTG: Songs like It Isn't Me and many others off your album seem to be about heartbreak, Is that true?
Fred: Some of the songs that sound like they are about relationships are also friends I've had or people that have let me down or that I've let down. But the song It Isn't Me is a bit of a heartbreak song. I lyrically wrote that song... I was in New Zealand and I started thinking about that song in my head, I was on tour and I didnt have any guitar with me because we were traveling on planes and things. So I went and bought a cheap little acoustic guitar and brought it back to my hotel room on my day off and I just penned that whole song as you hear it now.

CTG: What's been your favorite band to go on tour with?
Fred: Well, some of my best memories are the tour Taking Back Sunday did with Jimmy Eat World and it's nice to be out right now with Angels & Airwaves because i've toured with them before, but also with Tom back in Blink 182. At this point it's like touring with an old friend and I'm really enjoying this tour a lot.

CTG: You've toured all over the world, what'd been your favorite city?
Fred: I like Austin, Texas in the winter because it's warm.

CTG: Because it's not here haha.
Fred: Haha yeah, right, it's currently snowing. I like Tokyo a lot and it's hard to dislike anything in Australia or New Zealand.

CTG: Do you get a lot out of going overseas?
Fred: Yeah, sometimes we didn't have a lot of travel arrangements so I would try to get out and see stuff, I took the public bus out in Australia and rode out to the beach and walked around. I would just try to see as much as I could and take advantage cause everywhere I go I dont know if I'll ever get to see it again so I try to make the most of it.

CTG: We love hearing new music, can you give us any up and coming bands you think are pretty good?
Fred: There's a band I toured with in the fall called Paper Rival that I thought was really good. It's hard to say because a lot of the newer bands I'm listening to are already getting big, like I really like anything Say Anything writes. He's an inspiration lyrically as someone who's doing something new and doing it without fear. I appreciate that. And this band, Hold Steady, that's lyrically the same way.

CTG: What can we expect to hear/see from you in the next year?
Fred: I'm going overseas next after this tour then I'm going out with Chiodos, then I'll be on the whole Warped Tour.

CTG: So touring. It's just tour, tour, tour?
Fred: Yeah I'm not coming home til everyone hears it and they can decide for themselves, but I atleast want them to hear what we're doing.

CTG: You mentioned your Green Lifestyle, what hints do you have to give people to follow that?
Fred: There are some really simple things you can do in your daily life that are not difficult. It's really easy to change your electricity over to a different company, in alot of the states. It's easy to switch over to wind energy. Also, you don't always have to use the dryer. You see the little energy star on things, dryers don't even have energy stars because they're so bad on electricity, you know we used to hang things up only like 20 years ago and we stopped, which is weird. Also, just producing less trash, be mindful when you buy something and you put it in a bag. If it's a candy bar you dont need to take the bag, tell 'em you dont want it and thats real easy. Sometimes they give it to me and I'm like "I dont want it!" and I get stuck with it, haha. It's just a bad habit. Things like that are easy. Learn things online, there's a site i like called www.stopglobalwarming.com and www.climatecrisis.net with some good information.

CTG: What do you consider your greastest accomplishment so far?
Fred: I'm working on it right now maybe, ha. I have a lot of great memories of the past several years. I've been lucky to be able to play music and thats a great accomplishment just to be able to feed myself and do it, there were a lot of years where i was skinny and hungry, ha. As long as I can keep playing thats all I care about, I would never do anything for an award or a prize, I would just do it so I can keep doing it.
Music is my way of counseling myself when I'm unhappy and I'm lucky to have that, thats why i want to be able to keep doing it.