The Surrender
Sunday, September 13, 2009 at 4:13PM 
Devil Inside Me by The Surrender
I had a chance to catch up with the amazingly talented front man of The Surrender, Collin Elliott. They are currently playing dates with Apoptygma Berzerk, and supporting their current EP, Di Amor.
How are you doing?
I’m doing great…how about you guys?
We just landed here in Portland after driving two days straight from Cleveland. Happy to be back on the West coast.
How have the shows and the turnout been?
The shows have been great! The reception has been really good…we have done 5 or 6 dates. At first we weren’t sure as to how the crowd was going to respond to us. The headliner’s style is a little different from ours. They have been really receptive though. Apoptygma Berzerk’s fans really pack the place and are front and center by show’s start. It’s nice to come out and warm up the crowd.
You guys have been playing for a couple years now?
Yeah, about a year and a half, two years.
I am always intrigued, because it seems like the last couple of years, bands have gone their separate ways to create new bands. Can you tell us a little bit about how you came together, and give us a little background info?
The band started with Mike and Neil…they go back to the 3rd grade. They were off and on with various bands. Then going back to just a couple years ago, they put an ad out, and they were looking for a singer. I checked it out, and I was blown away. It was different from what I was doing at the time, but I knew it was the direction I wanted to go in. I knew these guys were talented. So I showed up, and they asked me to come back, and kept asking me to come back.
You have more of an acoustic background…
Yeah, I had done the singer/songwriter thing in San Diego for awhile, and I kind of got burnt out on it. I wanted to be a part of a band. I wanted a bigger sound, a rock sound. Then I was able to come across their add.
What’s the title of your EP that you just put out?
Its call “Di Amor,” and that’s Latin for “Of Love,” which our drummer came up with. It’s just a reference for the songs and some of the subject material that we were writing about. A lot about relationships and that type of thing. Di Amor was actually the first name of our band before we changed it to The Surrender. It just seemed appropriate to name the EP that.
You have a song called “The Surrender”…is that where you got the band name from, or was it the other way around?
I think that was probably the first song that we wrote, and we kind of looked at each other and thought we had something kind of different and special. It wasn’t until later that the idea came up though. It seemed appropriate because Mike and Shawn were in another band and touring when we started this project. Then Shaun had to take off, and there was a bit of a hiatus. Then everyone came back, we tried to get going, then we weren’t sure how everyone was going to fit in. The song, “The Surrender,” was the first time that everything seemed to click. The idea of surrendering was an important theme not only in our music, but our relationship’s personally. We eliminated all the egos form the whole operation, and found a purpose serving the music as opposed to serving the individual.
Are all the tracks on the EP on your MySpace?
Yes, all the tracks are up…you can find the EP on iTunes.
After learning about your background…who is from which band, for those fans that aren’t familiar with The Surrender?
Mike (drummer) and Shawn (bassist) are both from Rock Kills Kid…Shawn is however Courtney Love’s bass player. So he is actually not on tour with us, due to obligations to that record.
Is there anything that you would like to say to your fans?
One thing that we found that was very cool, were the responses of the fans, and people that are coming up to us…they may not necessarily be into our type of music, but they want to come up to us and talk about it. That is really exciting. We hope that continues, and they tell their friends, and then those friends tell their friends…and we hope that they come back to our shows. We try to make ourselves available to that, because there is a good energy while we are traveling around and meeting all these people.
Is there anything unusual or just cool that people who know you may not know about you?
Not really…we are just normal guys trying to spread the gospel of our music, which we believe very strongly in. A lot of people that come up after us tell us that we are very down to earth and approachable. We take that as a complement and we want people to feel that they are welcome to do that and hang out with us. We want to make it feel like a party.
The Surrender are:
Collin Elliott - Vocals/Guitar
Neil Parek - Guitar/Keys
Shawn Dailey - Bass
Mike Balboa - Drums
- Make sure you check out The Surrender’s Di Amor on their MySpace page, and also pick up the EP on iTunes.
- The MusicInterviewsNow key track: Devil Inside Me
-Randy Hall
MusicInterviewsNow.com
