Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Pat Seals of Flyleaf

More than 30 months after the release of their self-titled debut, Flyleaf continues to travel the country, bringing its spirited hard rock to fans who have pushed the record past the milestone of one million sales. An end—or at least a break—to the touring is in sight, however, as the band is preparing to hunker down this summer to work on their long-awaited second album. But Flyleaf is about more than music, as seen by their charitable work with World Vision and a trip to Rwanda earlier this year. Bassist Pat Seals recently called in from the road for a quick chat with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki.

Live-Metal.net: You’re out right now on a co-headlining tour with Seether. How’s it going so far?

Pat Seals: It’s going pretty good. We’ve toured with ‘em before. We’re good friends and we get along real well. I’m excited to be back on tour with ‘em.

A couple years ago, you were on the SnoCore tour actually opening for them. So how does it feel now to be in a position where you’re co-headlining? I guess that says a lot about how far the band has come.

I guess we’ve made some big strides, but technically we’re still opening for them on this tour, as well.

I’ve seen Flyleaf live a few times now and I know that on stage you’re just running around, jumping all over the place. Have you even had a bad fall or gotten hurt up there?

I’ve fallen several times, but I’ve never really gotten hurt. I’m lucky.

Did you ever think you’d be touring so long on this one album? It originally came out back in 2005.

Oh man, I had no idea. I didn’t think any of this would happen. I’m glad there’s still people into the album. But yeah, there’s no way I could’ve have imagined this.

Do you get tired of playing these songs ever?

Um, we’ve gotten tired of a couple of them, but most of the ones we play now, we still can’t play them well, you know? [laughs] It’s a challenge.

And the album—the reason you’ve stayed out so long—it’s been selling so well. It went platinum. How does that feel? That’s a big accomplishment today in the music business.

It makes me thankful for the people we have working for us and for everything we have. I don’t feel like we did anything to make it go platinum. It just—I don’t know—happened outside of us.

Is there a time set for when you’re gonna start working on new material for the next album?

I think after we get done with tour, we’re gonna take a little time off and then start writing and hopefully start recording in August, maybe come out in the fall.

Have you written anything yet or are you gonna start from scratch later this year?

We’ve written a couple songs and we’ve been playing a few of them live.

During all this time touring, what has been your favorite place to play?

I like, of all places, Madison, Wisconsin. We’ve played that place a lot. And we actually got to play in our hometown, 10 minutes from my house, in Belton [Texas]. And then we played Spain and that was a lot of fun.

Flyleaf has songs on both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Has that been good for the band?

Yeah, I think it has. When kids play that and they can play your song, I think it’s great for everybody. It presents your songs in a way that’s not just by listening to them on the radio.

Tell me a little bit about the trip over to Africa the band went on earlier this year.

The past couple years, we’ve been involved with an organization called World Vision and they asked us to come and see what they do out in the field. We went to Rwanda and it blew our minds. It was really awesome. The people were incredible. It taught us how much we have as Americans and how much strength people have to get through the genocide they went through. It was a really eye-opening experience. It made us passionate about wanting to help. We’re doing our best to try and direct attention towards that country and seeing what we can do for ‘em.

Do you think it’s important for people in a band, for instance, in a position where they might have some influence, especially when it comes to younger people, to do things like this, to bring attention to causes and things like that?

Yeah, I think it is, man. A lot of musicians and actors and people in the media have a lot of influence and kids look up to ‘em, whether they’re worth looking up to or not. I guess kind of our thought is, as best we can, we don’t want to blow our chance while we have it. When we’re fat and old and no one cares anymore, we want to say that we didn’t waste our time.