Another Breath
Confronting The 'God Complex'
By: Bear Frazer
Last updated February 19th , 2010

Most people thought Another Breath had broken up, but those fools thought wrong. The Syracuse-based collective was only getting started! On their latest offering, The God Complex, the group pens their most captivating material yet!  Throughout this 11-track collection, Another Breath provides an array of delectable hard rock rhythms with fierce punk-inspired melodicism and hardcore appeal while spirituality is dissected like a frog in science class. Although other bands tend to express their religious beliefs in their music, vocalist Ted Winksworth goes deeper than most artists as he sings, and screams, about his many different interpretations dating back as far as childhood.

Another Breath has certainly come a long way since their formation back after high school graduation in 2001. They've grown musically and spiritually, and there's nothing too complex about that. In this 101D.com exclusive, Winksworth goes more in-depth about what the band has been up to in the past five years, his relationship with his father and his complex mindset about God.

101D.com: Another Breath hasn't released a studio album since the sophomore set Mill City in 2005. It's been five years between that and the new release, The God Complex, so what have you been up to over the past few years?

Ted Winkworth: What have we been up to? A lot actually. Right after Mill City came out, we went on a US tour as well as a European tour and then a couple of jaunts around the east coast and Midwest. After a year or so of that, we went into hiding. We were pretty burned out on playing shows and we all had other things going on in our lives. I was finishing up my Master's Degree, Jon was getting into school, Scotty was moving to Philly. Mayo and Steve were working a bunch. I honestly thought we were going to break up after that. We had all sort of moved on.  There was always talk of writing the new record, but it was sort of a half-assed idea until I committed some things to paper and we noodled around in the practice space a little. Once we got started, I think we all sort of re-discovered our fire for this band and the music we were doing and just continued the hiatus to commit all of our energy to writing. 

101D.com: Ok. The group's first two albums through Rivalry Records, but then you guys got with Panic Records. Why make the jump from Rivalry to Panic?

Ted Winkworth: We sort of fell out of contact with Kyle [Whitlow, co-CEO of Rivalry Records] while we were on hiatus and by the time we got back to him about doing another record he was really tentative about the future of the label. Most of the roster had broken up and we were the only active band left. He's a grown-ass man and has a job and a girlfriend, and a house, and a dog, and all sorts of other stuff and I think he decided that he wasn't going to be able to put as much into the label anymore. So he basically said that he couldn't do the record. He didn't want to half ass it and I really appreciate that he was up front about it. We have nothing but respect for that guy and we understand his decision. Panic just sort of came along while we were shopping labels. We've been fans of Trial since we formed our first hardcore band called THIS NEVERENDER. We used to pump Trial on the way to every show. So needless to say, when their guitarist asked us if we want to be on his label we cleaned up the mess in our collective shorts and then jumped right on board.  It's been a short relationship so far but I think I can speak for everyone when I say we made the right choice. 

101D.com: Tell me about the writing process for this record. 

Ted Winkworth: We started work on this record while we were still touring on Mill City. I have notebook entries from September 2006 outlining the theme of the record and how the songs should flow and interconnect. I had two notebooks completely filled with ideas before we even started the first song. Musically we just had a bunch of ideas that Scott, Jon, Mayo, and Steve had all been fiddling around with individually. I don't think any of them even got in the same room to start talking about songs until the end of 2007. At that point I decided it would be a cool idea to document the writing process for my own sake and also decided to keep a blog. It was my way of letting the kids that are into us know that we were still around and working on something and give some insight into what the songs were about as it was happening rather than as an afterthought.

101D.com: The album title, The God Complex, is a very heavy title ... and I know that because I heard the album and read your blogs. If you could, talk to me a little about the lyrical concept behind this title and how the songs interlink with one another, because most of the songs deal with a God or Devil of some sort.

Ted Winkworth: I had the first four words of the record set in stone before I did anything else. No matter what, I knew I wanted the opening words to be "There's still no God". I built the whole record from there lyrically. I also had this line from exodus, "The sins of the father laid upon the children". With those two things driving the record it honestly wrote itself. I decided the point of the record would be to take a look at God as a father figure and kind of discuss my disbelief in God as less of a religious thing and more in the context of being dissatisfied with the guidance I've gotten from father figures including my own dad. I was going through my master's in counseling at the time and I was doing a lot of personal exploration anyway so things really started falling into place. What I really wanted to do was have a record that could be experienced lyrically on a few different levels. I wanted it to be a record that could be a simple dime a dozen "fuck religion" record to those who are into that sort of thing but that could be a lot more for those people who really wanted to have a relationship with it. I wanted it to be a record about religion but I also wanted it to be about my relationship with my dad. I also wanted to tell a story about someone going through a spiritual awakening and facing their own demons. By exploiting a lot of ambiguous language I think I was able to do that.  Even the title can be looked at a few different ways. A God Complex is what you call someone who thinks they're better or more powerful than everyone else, and it's one of the things I'm dealing with in my own personality. The title also alludes to the fact that God is a more complex concept than we give it credit for.  As far as the songs themselves and the interlink between them, I wanted each song to change the song before it. So for example, the line "living the sins of the father" in "Sin Eater" is just a bible quote. But by the time you get to the title track, it becomes clear that living the sins of the father means following in the footsteps of my father and possibly making the same poor decisions.  Saying "It's you and me" in the title track gets sort of switched around in "Makyo" when I'm saying the same thing in the mirror. Honestly, I almost feel stupid for spending so much time working out the intricacies of the lyrics for a hardcore record because it's not like it's ever going to be distributed widely but for me this record was my best shot at a self-portrait so I really wanted to make sure everything was in its right place.  I like that things become more defined as the record goes on but that things are still ambiguous by the time the record ends.

101D.com: One song I definitely wanna touch upon is the title track. In there, you sang that you lost your faith in God back twenty years ago and to me, it's perhaps the most painful song on the record because you recall memories of your father being drunk and making your mom cry. Do you think that single event inspired the album?

Ted Winkworth: I had no intention of writing that song when we first started the record. Actually, the way the song is written now is a complete rewrite from the original version, which didn't tell any story at all. I had some stuff written and I showed it to Jon and he sort of shook his head and told me I could do better. This was the title track or the record and was written to be musically simple so I could be more verbose. On past records I've tried to pack too many words into songs and we sort of made a deal that I would be less wordy on this record. My reward was that I got a song where I basically got to speak for three minutes. So I think we both wanted to make sure that this song said something important and drove home the point of the record. I just asked myself, "what is this record about?" and I started writing. I was actually pretty shocked once I saw what manifested on paper. It was pretty profound actually because as it turns out this record really is about being the adult child of alcoholics. I had NO idea going into it. But once the song was done, there it was. Plain as day. This record is about how I don't trust people, have no faith in anything that's supposed to take care of me, and have a lot of anger because my parents are drunks. It's also about how I'm terrified that I might end up the same way. 

101D.com: What is your relationship like with your Dad nowadays? 

Ted Winkworth: I was working at a drug and alcohol rehab as a counselor while I was writing a lot of this record. Between that and a lot of what I was writing in this record I started to feel like a hypocrite for the relationship I had with my dad. I've never addressed this stuff with him and I would just treat him like everything was cool despite being really angry at him. When it was done I decided it was time to let him know how I feel.  I didn't mention the record and he, I'm sure, has no idea about it. But I said quite a bit that I'm sure was really hurtful for him. That was in October. We haven't spoken since. I hope that changes.

101D.com: When I listen to this record, it feels like you hit on a lot of different angles. It's like you believed in God when you were younger, to believing that God, and the devil, is dead, to feeling that you are the Messiah and you control your own destiny, and then finally, at the "11th Hour," that God might exist. It's like a lot of different thoughts are there, but would it be safe to say that you are an atheist ... or am I totally off target here?

Ted Winkworth: If I had to put myself in any box, I'd say I'm a Buddhist. I was raised Catholic and went to Catholic school. I dropped out in 4th grade and for many years after that I was an atheist. In a lot of ways I became my own God. I didn't believe in anything that I couldn't control and trusted only myself. In the last few years I've started to accept that there are things in this world that are bigger than me and I've humbled myself to those things. Nowadays, when I say God I'm referring to everything called by one name. The power of the interconnectedness and harmony of things is mind blowing to me and I respect it as a higher power of which I am a small part. Again, the record is, in part, a chronicle of my own spiritual awakening. From being Godless and angry to being Godless and arrogant to recognizing myself as a part of something bigger and trusting that it's doing exactly what it's supposed to.

101D.com: Musically speaking, how would you say The God Complex differs from your previous albums?

Ted Winkworth: I think it's just better. We wrote songs that are catchier, that have hooks, and that are dynamic. We all hate records that have the same rhythm and energy all the way through so we wrote a record that warms up and cools down and changes things up so your ear doesn't get bored. Mostly, there's a greater element of rock and roll and reliance on catchy guitar riffs, which is my favorite part.

101D.com: Alternative Press reviewed The God Complex and on the blog, you seemed none too happy. They called some of your songs metalcore and predictable rants against organized religion. Are you afraid some people may perceive the same thing out of the record?

Ted Winkworth: This record was doomed to be brushed off and misunderstood from the get go. If you "God" in anything, you're setting yourself up since it's such a loaded word. Because of where I am in my life though I needed to use it as a vehicle to get my point across. I'm fine with people brushing it off. I'm fine with them hating it. I'm also fine with it being given a fair shake and being loved. This record said everything I needed to say and I know there are enough people out there who will get it for the others not to really matter too much.

101D.com: So when people listen to this album, what do you want them to take away from it?

Ted Winkworth: I want everyone to experience it differently. I'm the only one who needs to know exactly what it was written about and what the impact of this stuff has had on me. I hope everyone will connect with it on whatever level they connect with it on and form a relationship with it. I hope 20 different kids hear, "If the devil had a face it would look like mine" and take 20 different meanings from it.  I wrote it to by lyrically ambiguous just for that reason. Musically, I hope people are rocked by it. I love these songs musically. They move me. They interest me. I hope others feel the same way. 



To check out or purchase The God Complex, click here.

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