"We're just here to hang out and eat pizza, and maybe drink a beer or two and talk about rock music."

“The Almost is a band that Aaron didn’t even think would become a band,” Dusty Redmon (guitarist) tells me, “He recorded the record and put a band of awesome dudes together.” The Almost, as you may already know, are Aaron Gillespie’s side project, and so far they’ve been pretty successful. You might think that the fact that Aaron is already in UnderOath would mean that the rest of the band get ignored, but this isn’t the case at all: “Aaron is definitely the most recognizable face in our band,” Dusty tells me, emphasising that it’s actually been beneficial to them, “I think UnderOath has given us a lot, with them being open to helping us out and letting us tour when we need to, and giving us a pretty established fan base from the get-go.”

By now, if you are a fan of The Almost, you will probably have heard their debut album, ‘Southern Weather’, so you might be trying to figure out who this band sound like, right? You’ll be hard pushed to find something, because even the band themselves can’t put their finger on any specific musical influences on this record: “I think the main influence on "Southern Weather" wasn't really any certain bands, but more so about a lifestyle and an upbringing in the southeast part of America. It's a killer summer-time record that makes you [want to] drive around with your windows rolled down. As far as the new songs go, we're just trying to write the biggest, baddest rock songs that Led Zeppelin and ACDC didn't.”

From listening to The Almost’s album it’s clear, on songs such as ‘Amazing, Because it is’ and ‘Dirty and Left Out’, that they’re Christians, but do people completely ignore their music because of this? “I don't think our beliefs really turn away TOO many people. I'm sure there are stubborn people out there, but that's ok. We're cool with people who believe different things than us. We're just here to hang out and eat pizza, and maybe drink a beer or two and talk about rock music.” In a day and age when people very seldomly show the normal side of a religion and focus on extremes, it’s always good to see the people who don’t take part in end of the world cults or suicide bombing.

So what’s next for The Almost; a line-up change? “Kenny is getting married, and has decided to leave the band. He's just not into touring at all, which is understandable. We've all dealt with these types of situations for a while now, so we sort of saw it coming. Kenny's a cool dude, and we wish good things for him in the future.” But will this cause problems for the band at all? “We're lucky to have an amazing drummer as a singer in our band, so the song writing and recording process won't be hindered. For the live setting, we've got a few friends ready to help us out and get behind the kit... We're really excited about what's coming up, for sure.” And so are we.




You can check The Almost out at www.myspace.com/thealmost
Their debut album, 'Southern Weather' is now available on Tooth and Nail Records.