New York, New York

Anberlin have been traveling the nation in consistent support of their three sensational indie rock albums Blueprints For The Black Market, Never Take Friendship Personal, and last year's Cities. After a stint on 2008's Vans Warped Tour, the band will be taking the US by storm again headlining a tour supporting their next release, the summation of those parts, New Surrender. The disc is filled with the pop melodies and exploding choruses fans have come to expect from the band, as well as the deeply personal lyrics they love.

After three albums on the independent label Tooth and Nail Records, New Surrender marks the bands major label debut with Universal Republic. To helm the project, the band turned to producer Neil Avron (Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard) who gave the band everything they wanted and more. "To date, it's the hardest working project I've ever been a part of," Christian says, weighing in from a stop on Warped Tour. "Our first album, Blueprints for the Black Market took three and a half weeks to record, Cities took four and a half weeks, and this one took three months. I'm talking twelve and thirteen hour days. Neil Avron is relentless. He's a perfectionist to the core in the best way possible. He wants the best performance out of you. If there's a day that you felt really off vocally, or guitar wise or anything, he would say 'take a day off. We'll see you in two days'. And you come in and give the best performance you can. He was right. He came in with such vigor."

The band is known for penning tunes that exude emotional honesty as well as powerhouse performances. New Surrender continues that tradition, and takes it to the next level. "There's a song we put up on our MySpace called 'Disappear', and at the end of it my voice is cracking," Christian relates. "It was midnight and I had been singing all day. My voice was completely shot, and Neil said 'Just give it one more chance. One more try, and this time, everything. All that you have left, I want it all.' I did that ending part, the last half of the song, all in one take and he kept everything. He wanted that passion on the record. Even through the cracking, and one part where I went off key a little bit, he kept it all. He wants that one hundred and one percent. That's what kind of record it is."

When creating an album, a collection of ideas and hard work, you are afforded the luxury of achieving your exact vision. When its time to take that creation on the road, there are too many variables involved to be able to recreate that result every night. For Anberlin, one such variable is the emotion that fuels their music. There is so much feeling put into creating the tunes, relating the emotion is not always as simple as matching chords and phrases with flashing lights and expansive backdrops. "As far as delivery, sometimes I'm just singing to the crowd. Like with 'Dismantle. Repair.'" Christian intimates. "Its almost like an exaltation song. This is about you, don't listen to what people say about your life. I think 'The Unwinding Cable Car' and 'Dismantle' are two songs where I'm not just performing it, I'm asking it. Its more like a speech instead of a choreographed performance of like 'you jump here', its not like that. Those are two songs that are very emotionally driven."

_________________________________ “Cities was very much an experiment of 'Can I trust the fans this much? Will they even accept the inner personal dialogue going on in my head?' I think they loved it, and I took it to the next step with New Surrender." - Stephen Christian _________________________________

Crafting a catchy tune is difficult for most bands, but once you've cleared that hurdle, the next step is to let that creation speak for itself. All of Anberlin's tunes have quite a lot to say, but some tunes take on a personality all their own. "There's still some songs that I really don't like to play live just cause of the personal aspects of it. Or like "Alexthymia", I really feel like that song is cursed in some weird way. Every time we've tried to play it we've screwed it up, so we just leave that song alone," Christian reveals.

The songwriting duo of Christian and Milligan have achieved a quite a bit over the groups five year existence, their songwriting growing with each new record. That maturation continues on their latest disc, and was aided by the addition of McAlhaney to the group. The trio's compositions on New Surrender have the lyrical honesty of Cities and the power pop chops of Never Take Friendship Personal and Blueprints for the Black Market, all while forging a sound unique to this record. "I think it was a process getting from Blueprints to Cities," Christian intimates. "Cities is a very personal record. Its inner turmoil and psychology minded as opposed to Blueprints which was very broad brush stroke with over arching themes. Not just 'This is my life and this is how life really is'. We've had to make four albums to get this deep. Not philosophy deep but, that much more personal. Cities was very much an experiment of 'Can I trust the fans this much, will they even accept the inner personal dialogue going on in my head?' I think they loved it, and I took it to the next step with New Surrender."

Over the years, the band has seen much critical attention, as well as an ever expanding fan base. The group continues to put on memorable shows to packed crowds night after night, leaning heavily on themselves to put on a great show. "I can't expect anything from the crowd, its all expectation of self," states Christian. "For a vocalist Warped Tour's not the best workout cause we did thirteen days, we had two days off, then we did another thirteen days, which just ruins any vocalist. It amazes me that I can still sing. However, you're still expected to go in there and say 'I don't care how I feel, or how hot it is, or how many days you haven't had a shower in a row'. You just got to get out there and just do as much as you can possibly do and then some. We try to do the best show we can."

Anberlin's fans are appreciative of that mantra, evidenced by the fact that they continually voted for the band to play ten extra minutes during several dates of the Warped Tour. In an age of sterile musicians, they continue to be beloved by their fans, all while earning more fans along their way. The group will never be caught phoning in a performance, or turning out a recorded product that they are not proud of. They know what it takes in today's industry to make an impact, and with New Surrender in their hands, Anberlin are in perfect position to take the world by storm.