{"id":4084,"date":"2011-11-01T18:24:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-02T01:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4084"},"modified":"2011-11-01T18:25:39","modified_gmt":"2011-11-02T01:25:39","slug":"blue-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/blue-october\/","title":{"rendered":"BLUE OCTOBER"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>BLUE OCTOBER<\/h2>\n

Fueled by domestic despair, a platinum-selling band goes its own way<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Blue October leader Justin Furstenfeld doesn\u2019t just wear his heart on his sleeve\u2014on his band\u2019s latest album, Any Man in America<\/em>, it\u2019s visible on practically every thread of his wardrobe. The anthemic melodies and stream-of-consciousness lyrics document in unflinching detail the unraveling of Furstenfeld\u2019s marriage and his struggle to keep his relationship with his young daughter intact. \u201cThis was a very personal thing, and I couldn\u2019t handle it on my own,\u201d he says, relaxing after a long day of rehearsals for the group\u2019s upcoming tour. \u201cSo this album was my therapeutic way of being able to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Furstenfeld\u2019s lyrics leave little to the imagination: \u201cI\u2019m done with holding this in\/I\u2019m done with being a friend\/I\u2019d like it all to just end,\u201d he wails on \u201cThe Flight (LNK to MSP).\u201d In \u201cDrama Everything,\u201d he\u2019s even more blunt: \u201cJust watch me walk away.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve always been pretty open about everything,\u201d Furstenfeld says. \u201cI tend to put myself out there\u2014that way I don\u2019t have to\u00a0make any excuses later.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s certainly not about to start now. Furstenfeld says the 13 tracks on Any Man<\/em> represent only a sample of the 178 songs he was driven to write over the past three years. \u201cMy job is to say what you\u2019re not supposed to say,\u201d he insists. \u201cI\u2019m never going to edit anything.\u201d However, the band\u2014which also includes violinist and pianist Ryan Delahoussaye, lead guitarist Julian Mandrake, bassist Matt Noveskey and Justin\u2019s brother Jeremy on drums\u2014wasn\u2019t so sure. \u201cThey were saying things like, \u2018You\u2019re going to ruin our career by doing this, the label\u2019s going to drop us for doing this,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cLittle did they know we were going to be dropped anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, 2009\u2019s Approaching Normal<\/em> proved to be Blue October\u2019s last major-label release. \u201cI\u2019m not stupid,\u201d Furstenfeld declares. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 22 years. I don\u2019t need a big label. They take 20 percent of the touring, 20 percent of your publishing, 20 percent of the merchandising. Hell, no! I\u2019ll do it myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Furstenfeld\u2019s candor is nothing new\u2014he has long been vocal about his battles with bipolar disorder and drug abuse, experiences that have moved him to become a spokesman for suicide awareness and addiction recovery. Even when Blue October saw platinum sales for its 2006 effort Foiled<\/em>, thanks to hit singles \u201cHate Me\u201d and \u201cInto the Ocean,\u201d Furstenfeld never shied away from sharing his demons. \u201cI never thought songs about suicide and drug addiction could ever be hits,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut people want to hear something real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, when Blue October\u2019s sales leveled off Furstenfeld discovered that the group\u2019s label suddenly lost its enthusiasm for those songs. \u201cWhen we sold a million records, suddenly everybody was really nice and I was the best guy in the world,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen when the next album only sold 200,000 copies, everybody wasn\u2019t being as nice. When you\u2019re famous, people love you for the wrong reasons.\u201d Now the band answers only to itself\u2014Any Man<\/em> is being released on its own Up\/Down Records imprint. \u201cI never wanted to be famous,\u201d Furstenfeld says. \u201cI never wanted to be a rock star or to be rich. I just wanted to tell good stories and the truth of the world over some really fat beats and good hooks that people will remember.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Lee Zimmerman<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLUE OCTOBER Fueled by domestic despair, a platinum-selling band goes its own way Blue October leader Justin Furstenfeld doesn\u2019t just wear his heart on his sleeve\u2014on his band\u2019s latest album, Any Man in America, it\u2019s visible on practically every thread of his wardrobe. The anthemic melodies and stream-of-consciousness lyrics document in unflinching detail the unraveling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[2751,2749,2682,2750,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4084"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4087,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4084\/revisions\/4087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}