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It feels, right now, as though Say Anything really are emerging as the rock world's newest pioneers: accomplished, yet unafraid, the band are always out looking for something new. However, even fans found it a little hard to believe when the band announced that their newest album would feature not one, but two discs, that held an overall amount of twenty seven tracks. Whether this be a dream come true, or a nightmare in the making, the band were ready to take it up one notch, and, by God, they seemed to pull it off.

Along with their clear cut passion for their day job, and their utterly unbelievable list of cameos, on the new discs (because, believe us, everyone who is anyone is on this album) they're going to take over the world, and defend our genre all in the same swoop; kill two birds with one stone, if you will. We were lucky enough to spend some time with guitarist Jake Turner when they supported Hellogoodbye at the close of 2007.

OS: You just released the new 'In Defense of the Genre'. How do you feel the record came out? And what are your opinions of it now?
Jake Turner: I feel like it's a great record, personally. I feel like it's a record that was put together the way it was supposed to be put together. A lot of people have been kinda pessimistic in a way, like, "there's so many songs on it blah blah blah. If they had of brought out a twelve song record it'd be this masterpiece blah blah blah". But, it couldn't have less than the songs it has right now, because the story wouldn't be there. It would lose itself. Yeah, there might be this solid fourteen amazing songs on the record and the others songs, they [the critics] say are "filler" to them, at first. Then, they listen to it again and it's those songs that they kinda liked at first, that they love eventually. It's like one of those things you have to keep listening to. I think it's coming across to people really well and I think people are really enjoying it. Every person has a different favourite song on the record; there's so many songs to pick from. In a way it's almost like Smashing Pumpkins' 'Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness', where there were so many huge singles on that CD, and then there was really random songs. So, people loved the singles - and they still love them - but then they still like those couple songs that are just amazing but, no one really ever heard unless you actually bought that record. So it was kind of nice.

OS: So was it hard to control having so many songs?
Jake: I really personally never had to deal with it that much,: it was more Max [Bemis, the band's vocalist] that was trying to figure out which ones we wanted to use. But, pretty much, the songs that were picked were written out in order, and it was just like, "We're gunna record this song that that song, this song next". There were a couple of songs that were switched around towards the end, but that was because he felt other songs were better for that specific slot. So, he was just like, "I would rather put this song there",. One of the songs actually, the 'Hangover Song', which is on the second record, it's really short? That started as a full song; it was called 'A Karaoke Night', and then, that full song was chopped down to just the last part. The song was a really killer song but 'Have At Thee!' - the other song that's on the record - actually replaced the original 'A Karaoke Night'. So, it was all done in that sense.

OS: Did all the songs that you wrote beforehand go on the album, or were there even more songs but these album tracks were picked?
Jake: Pretty much, Max had written a bunch of other random parts and stuff for tracks but he hadn't written any extra full on songs. I mean, writers do write a lot of parts, like "This is a really cool chorus. This would be a good verse". They'll write stuff like that, but Max, in the way he writes, didn't do much of that on this record; he really pretty much just wrote whole songs to be used. Then, there was some stuff he had to write, like a song that he'd need another part for, so he'd add to the track in the studio, but overall there really wasn't that many extra songs written. They were pretty much the songs that went to be on the record.

OS: Did you feel that you came up against a lot of criticism, because you were releasing such a huge record?
Jake: Yeah, people were really sceptical on how the record was gonna be, but then they got it into their hands and it felt like they were really stoked about it; they were really psyched about the record. I think it was because they were almost nervous at first. Because '... Is A Real Boy' is such an amazing record, and I'm just saying that personally because it was just all just Max and Coby on that record. So, I heard that record for the first time, and was like, "this record is amazing". It's one of those kind of things. That record is a hard record to follow: it's such a perfect record in a sense. Max knew he was gonna have to step it up this time and I totally feel like he did so.

OS: It seems as though, general opinion feels, this new record is even more than '... Is A Real Boy'.
Jake: It's mature, it's even more. It takes '... Is A Real Boy' and puts it to all the extremes. Like, all the hardcore parts are even more hardcore, all the softer parts are even softer, and the poppier parts are even poppier. The rocky parts are even rockier. I felt like that's the best way to describe the record before it came out to people.

OS: And obviously you had a lot of guest vocals on it.
Jake: Totally, yeah.

OS: How did you do that, because I can't imagine controlling that many different artists and picking the right songs for their voice?
Jake: It was hard. We were in the studio for a couple of weeks in New York City, and we had a meeting, we had a dinner meeting with our producer, our A&R, our manager and our day to day manager and we're just sitting there, Max and I, and we were just like, "Let's write down all the peoples names we want to sing on our record". And, for real, it was ridiculous, Imogen Heap was on it [the list], Feist was on it, Eddie Vedder from Pearl Jam - all these random people - Dave Grohl was on the list, just crazy people, people we could probably never get were on the list. Billy Corgan!, But, our producer Brad Wood worked on The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Adore', and he told himself he'd never work with Billy Corgan after that record. So, he wouldn't have worked with him in the first place, if we had managed to get him. But when we had all the names, our label was trying to get the people organised but we ended up deciding to organise it ourselves.

Max called me up because he knew I was going back and forth on Warped Tour - to visit my girlfriend - and a lot of the people that we wanted to sing were playing there, like Hayley Williams [Paramore], Anthony Green [Circa Survive], Anthony [Bayside], Matt Skiba [Alkaline Trio], the guys from New Found Glory. So, I was walking around and he gives me a call and is like "Dude, just talk to some people and try to get some phone numbers for me" and it's just crazy. Our friend Andy Jackson, singer for Hot Rod Circuit, actually recorded all the vocals whilst on Warped Tour, and our friend Mark, who did sound for Saves The Day when we co-headlined with them in the States, was out with Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance on the Projekt Revolution tour, so that's how Adam [Lazzara, Taking Back Sunday] and Gerard [Way, My Chemical Romance] are singing on it. They recorded it on the back of a bus; same as the guys on Warped Tour. They would all go onto the Hot Rod Circuit bus and then, just Andy recorded them all. There's a couple of them that did their tracks in the studio but everyone else did on the bus. Getting together was impossible.

There are a couple of people that we're friends with, that we wanted to sing on the record, like Mike Herrera from MxPx, but he was in Japan so he couldn't get all the vocals done in time. Then, there was Bryce from The Rocket Summer; he was going to sing on a song and he was on Warped Tour. It came on the last day of Warped but it was just crazy havoc and no one could get up in time. So, I had him call me and he was like "I can't find Andy from Hot Rod!" so that sucked.

OS: What about picking the right parts for the right voice?
Jake: I don't know. I think Max had a pretty easy time with it. He could actually hear the voices. As for Hayley Williams from Paramore's part on 'The Church Channel' ... She originally did the vocals for 'Plea', and Max heard it; he was like "Dude, she has to sing on another song. Which song?" Then he just thought to himself; "Oh my gosh, that would be perfect for her to sing Church Channel" It turned out great, it sounds amazing. At first, he was kinda nervous about it and he called me up like "Dude, do you think Hayley would say... porn?" It was so funny. I was just like "I don't know man, like, I think she would... Yeah, I'm sure she would, just ask her to". Then, in the studio, they were doing vocals still, and Brad our producer would keep going over the porn part over and over again, completely like, "Oh yeah, sounds good!". It was just totally joking around. But she was down for whatever; she really just wanted to do it and she's a huge fan of the band, so it was really awesome and she was stoked about it. She still is! We recently played a random show with them in the United States and she was so stoked that she tried to cancel her interview and stuff. She was like, "Yeah I wanna sound check with them!" When we did the song, she was just really silly and really excited about us playing and stood on the side of the stage the whole show. It was great!

OS: How do you think you'll be able to translate all those parts on stage, or how have you done so far?
Jake: Coby, our drummer, sings a lot on the record too and so, he sings on 'Skinny, Mean Man': he sings Pete Yorn's part. Max has been doing Hayley's part for 'The Church Channel', but there are little parts, like the girl from Rainer Maria, Caithlin, my brother sings her part in the 'Shiksa'. There's little things like that at the moment, but I feel that if we do perform certain songs live eventually, it's going to be Max doing those parts, unless we're on tour with the specific band. For instance, if we go on tour with New Found Glory, of course Jordan's going to come out and sing his part, and Chad's going to come out and sing his part. We've kind of thrown it around and I don't know how possible it would be, but we were thinking about doing a show and playing the whole record straight through, with every guest coming to sing. We were thinking about doing something some time next year. Like a big show, or a couple of big shows. Maybe one in New York City, one in LA... I don't know if we could do one over here, because it costs so much to come over here. But, doing one over in the States and have every member come and fly out or whatever, something of that sort.

OS: And it could be filmed for a DVD or something?
Jake: Totally, that's what it'd be for, a DVD. Maybe if just for one city, do a really huge show. I think it would be awesome. To just rehearse it for a day, and then play the show. OS: It would tell the whole story…
Jake: Totally. It's crazy to think to play it in it's entirety. But it wouldn't be too bad, about two hours about.

OS: So what is the live show to Say Anything? And how important is it to your band?
Jake: Oh it's great! It's like the best thing ever. Because most of these songs for the new record - and the last record - were just written by Max, they're never really recorded in a full band setting, so all those little parts and the harmonies and stuff were never done live until we all come together and produce it. The first time we get together live, on show, on stage, it's the best feeling ever, because it's , "Dude, we just produced that CD sound live!" It's just a great feeling; its fun. We're all looking at each other and we're all having a fun time. That's what music should all be about. You're supposed to love music - that's the way it should be. If you're not having fun with music, go and work in Wal-Mart. It's definitely not about the money. If it is about the money then great, whatever. If you can make money out of playing music, that's awesome. But, you can just get by, and in a sense, that's all I'd like to do if we get our music out to everyone and people enjoy our show. It's horrible to say this but after playing with some bands recently, that are very radio fan-based, you notice that those people are there to see that one song. I'd rather play to people that knew every one of my songs, than that one song, personally.

OS: So what have your UK shows been like so far?
Jake: They've been good. Hellogoodbye's fan base is definitely not... like even in the States, our fans would come and see us and they would leave before Hellogoodbye, if they played after us. And Hellogoodbye's fans would come and see them before us, when we would headline. It's just kind of how it is. But, I feel like all these shows are really good: first, because we really never play to these people over here, and its great exposure. We're playing a much poppier set for the fans. But that's one good thing about Say Anything. We have such a variety of songs, so we can play and it works out. So, yeah, the shows have been great! Great crowds. I think though, Last night was the first crowd of the whole tour where every band came off, including Hellogoodbye were like, "Why did those people come pay to see our show if they're not having fun". I think they were trying to have fun, but it was just so hot and so cramped, you can understand that it was difficult.

OS: Earlier you mentioned that Max takes most of the control, so are you completely comfortable with the way that happens?
Jake: Absolutely, yeah. Max is one of those guys. He's a very controlling person and he's a very independent person and he likes to have his own outlook a lot of the time. I went into the studio for about a week and a half, two weeks, I think. I went in and we just hung out, and the whole bridge of 'Spores' - the little bridge with the clapping part - came from when I was just, clapping along, and he's like, "That's perfect, we should have it". He's really open [to ideas].

I mean, his guitar parts are awesome, but you get him up on stage with a guitar and it's the worst thing ever. He's so involved with working the crowd that the concentration on the instrument just flies right out of his head. He can't help it, it's all Max. He's a very focused on one thing. I mean, he loves to hear Coby's comments about everything, drumming, and he loves hearing Alex's stuff. If we're there suggesting things, he loves that as well. But,he loves to be really involved and there's nothing wrong with that. I respect all his guitar parts, all his lyrics. Shit, I'm a song writer myself and his lyrics are ridiculous - I don't know where half of them come from! He's already written about nine brand new songs since we've been on the MySpace tour and they're all for the next record. He's stoked about it. I don't know how he writes songs like that still. They're just popping out.

OS: Do you feel, especially with his lyrics, that Say Anything has something to say about society? Would you say it's more in jest?
Jake: I don't know. I mean, we get pissed off at people, that say shitty things about society, and say shitty things about the genre or of bands doing this or doing that; just people's comments about certain things about the industry. Even bands. Certain bands that say shit all the time. Like on Absolutepunk, Tim Kinsellas from Make Believe, really bothered Max by something he said, and Max full on wrote back to him, it was crazy controversy. I think I would hope that people respect us for who we are and respect our music for what it is. I think Say Anything is trying to do something that a lot of people were scared to do at times. For example, us doing a twenty seven song record, people were like, "how the fuck did you guys do something like that?" But, you know, this is Max you're talking about! He's not a normal guy. He could be a normal guy to you everyday, but most of the time, the shit he does sometimes would fly right by you. I don't know where it comes from.

In a sense, it's like you want to try to give society it's own... You want to produce something to everyone that hasn't really been done, but has. You take snippets of CD's you love, that weren't that big, but seem big to you, like Saves The Day's 'Through Being Cool'- which was an amazing record to all of us. Jimmy Eat World's 'Clarity' was an amazing record to all of us. Sunny Day Real Estate's 'Rising Tide Diary': all those records were huge to us, but how many people have heard that record compared to Foo Fighters 'The Color And Shape', it's like no one. Not even ten percent.

OS: So what do you aim to do in the future?
Jake: Say Anything? Let's see. Well, we have a break right after this. Winter break. My brother and I, Jeff, the other guitar player, are actually going to record a record for XO, our side project. We've had talks about doing the New Found Glory/Paramore tour over here. Then after that there's talk of us doing maybe the Jimmy Eat World tour as main support in the United States, which is a full two month tour. Then, we're straight into Warped Tour, which we're doing this year. We'll probably do some festivals and stuff. If we don't do the Paramore stuff in the New Year, we're probably gonna come back over here in September and do a headlining tour, followed by a headlining tour over in the States. That's the plan pretty much. Touring, touring, touring! That's usually what happens when records come out; it gets insane. Hopefully our single right now is doing really well in the States, 'Baby Girl, I'm A Blur', so once it gets released over here, it's going to be great.