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From The Editor’s Floor: Anthony Green

Posted by Tim Karan on 22-Jul-08 @ 07:50 PM

ANTHONY GREEN isn't the type of guy who holds anything back. Ask him a question about nearly any subject and you're bound to receive an honest, if not brutally honest answer. Over the three days he let AP tag along with him while he prepared to tour in support of his first solo album, Avalon, he let loose on everything from church ladies to Cove Reber. Here's just some of what he (and we) had to share. --Tim Karan JESUS DON'T WANT ME FOR A SUNBEAM "As soon as I got my first guitar, I was like, 'Can I play at church?' This lady who sang every Sunday told me I wasn't good enough and that I'd have to take lessons from her first. But I just thought she sucked. Even as a little kid, you can tell the difference between somebody singing and playing because they genuinely enjoy it and somebody who does it just to show off. I felt like this lady was showing off. So I was like, 'Fuck you. I'll never take lessons. I'll be bad at guitar, and I'll make that sweet.'" CAN'T MAKE A SOUND [Green is sitting in his basement, talking about the days before Saosin as darkened clouds outside begin to gather.] "About three months after I got out of rehab, I started playing all the time. I remember wanting to play Elliott Smith covers [There's a huge and unexpected thunder clap from outside. Green pauses.] That was really creepy. It would be presumptuous to say that Elliott Smith would even want to be a part of our conversation, but that seems to me like a surefire sign that he at least wanted to say hello." COVE IN "I have a weird relationship with [Saosin frontman] Cove Reber that I'll never have with anyone else. We talk or text like once a week or every other week. I'll text lyrics or a quote or something I thought was cool or just see what's up. Those [Saosin] songs I wrote are close to me, so I wanted to be close to him. I didn't want there to be a rift. The songs are like kids to me. I wanted to be able to visit my kids and not think, 'Oh, fuck your new daddy.' I wanted to be like, 'I love your daddy.' SLOWING DOWN (NEVER GONNA) "The Circa [Survive] thing is always gonna be number one. We're writing our third record and we're in the beginning stages of that, but I've been talking to [Coheed And Cambria drummer] Chris Pennie and some other dudes, and we're talking about doing something after the Sound Of Animals Fighting. There's crazy stuff all the time. My buddy Bob Nanna [Braid] and I decided we're going to work on something in the next couple of years. Stuff like that makes me excited. I never would've thought that I'd be in a project with the RX Bandits or doing so much stuff. It just kind of happens." DRAMA-RAMA "There are definitely some musicians who are really good at creating drama around themselves for the sake of making themselves seem more troubled or more complicated than they really are. But the thing is, when you're acting like someone else because you think that's what everyone wants you to be, you can never be happy. With every decision you make, you have to think about what this character you've created would do instead of what you yourself would do. And that'll fuck with your head. Don't get me wrong: There's an art to being able to market yourself. I just don't have any interest in it."