After over a decade away, The Cab is officially back from the dead- and they’re hitting the road this summer to celebrate. The band released their latest album, Chasing Crowns, and have started a cross-country run to bring this new music to fans who have missed them performing a proper headliner. Atlas had the chance to speak with lead singer Alex DeLeon about what to expect on this tour, the band’s excitement to put out new music again and looking towards the future of The Cab. Check out our interview!
Atlas Artist Group: First of all, I just wanted to say congrats to you- the album’s been out for almost a month. How are you guys feeling?
Alex DeLeon: Oh man, so many emotions and feelings after not releasing music for 13 years but I think most importantly, just been excited and grinding, trying to get this tour in order.
We get to play the longest set we’ve ever played. We’re playing songs that we’ve never played before even previously and we get to play a few songs off the new record but mostly it’s going to be just a love letter to the fans- all the songs they want to hear.
Atlas: Is there any particular track you’re all really excited to play live on this run?
DeLeon: There’s definitely a few. It’s funny, we rehearsed yesterday and some of the ballads came off just super special. Obviously being in a rock band, you think that you’re excited to jump up and down but I think there’s something about vulnerability and singing songs and lyrics that means something to you that really is authentic and just comes across to people.
It’s almost like a storytelling session and I’m really excited for that. On the other end, I’m really excited for the rock songs too, but probably the heaviest of the rock songs and the ballads are probably the two. The dichotomy is funny, but those are the two I’m excited for.
Atlas: With the record being out, have you had a memorable or favorite response to it so far? Have you seen anything that’s really stuck with you?
DeLeon: Kind of going off what I just said, it’s funny that it seems like the most messages that I get about the album are about the ballads. And what’s funny is the two ballads are specifically about my wife and my daughter and it’s really cool that people can feel how much those songs mean to us and mean to me.
It’s really cool because our fans are older now so our fans have kids of their own, a lot of our fans are married compared to before when we toured. It’s cool to get those messages [like] ‘I cried when I listened to “Hellraiser” because I’m holding my kid and it just hits me in the feels’. It’s like what a parent’s going through and feeling.
It’s really special when you can just connect. Music’s all about connectivity and connection with fans so when you can make someone feel something or relate to you or just strike a chord in somebody’s heart, that’s why you do what you do. So for us, it’s really special to have those songs.
Atlas: It’s great that you’ll be able to bring more of these tracks to a live audience after such a long time away.
DeLeon: We did [the last tour] and it was super exciting. I got to play Red Rocks- bucket list check for me. But you’re playing six or seven songs so what do we play? How do we make fans happy and not upset? This tour is really special because it’s like 18 or 20 songs. We really get to write a love letter to Whisper War, we get to write a love letter to Symphony Soldier and then we get to play a few new ones and then a few fun covers. For us, it’s like we haven’t been able to do that [and] it’s really for the fans.
We don’t want to be that band who plays like 80% of the new album and forgets the old songs. I think I’m most excited about the tour just to see the fans who have become family and friends and just give them hugs and just thank them for all the support over the years and tell them how much we love them.
Atlas: How has your approach to touring changed post-hiatus?
DeLeon: I think that one of the differences is that we tour now because we want to, not because we have to- we’re literally doing this because we love it and because of the fans. Selfish reasons too- how cool is it that my daughter can be sidestage watching me sing? That’s just mind-blowing to me. I never would have envisioned that. But also it’s so much easier because we all kind of grew up in that hiatus time and we all figured ourselves out. We’re dads, husbands, partners. For us, it’s like touring now is easy. There’s no 17 year old man or boy testosterone fighting over girls, we’re not going out to college bars till three in the morning and taking Jaeger bombs.
It’s just so different- we don’t take it for granted. We’re just honestly happy to be able to be doing it and I think we’re just so much more grounded. We just know who we are and we’re much more supportive of each other. We’re closer than we’ve ever been so it’s pretty awesome.
Atlas: I wanted to take a moment to talk about the album as well since it’s so exciting to have these songs out in the world. Some artists talk about how a track can come together in mere minutes or hours and just flows out of them. Was there anything about this record that you had to fight for or through to get to the final product?
DeLeon: Yeah, absolutely. We had probably 85 percent of the album done years ago. We’ve been writing these songs over the past 13 years. Me and Marshall sat down with Chantry and the guys and we’re listening to the record. And management- it’s their job to breathe down your neck and to be like, you need to put the album out. If you don’t put it out, it’s never coming out. You can always put out more music.
And I’m like, it’s not right, It’s not right. We have no intro song- there’s no “Angel With a Shotgun”, there’s no “Bad”. I always look at The Cab as there’s just different dimensions and every Cab album to me needs to check certain boxes- whether one box is nostalgic pop punk, one box is R&B, one box is rock and roll. The Cab has always been all over the place and I knew that there were three missing pieces- and this was only two or three months ago. There’s not a ballad, there’s not a love song that I think is good enough, there’s not a rock intro song and there’s not the pop tongue-in-cheek song.
Chantry flew out to Nashville and then the last four songs on the record are probably my favorite four and that would be “Locked and Loaded”, “Back from the Dead”, “Sweet Kerosene” and “Every Universe”. When those songs were written, I was like, it’s done. There’s definitely a feeling you get and it’s never done- you always think you can do better or you can tweak a mix or you can add more guitars or less guitars. At some point you do just have to push it out to sea, but those four songs I was like all right, album’s done, let’s go. We really wanted to make sure that every fan of The Cab was happy. Obviously every fan of The Cab’s not gonna like the entire album but if someone can find portions of the album that they really love and that makes them feel the same feeling that they felt a decade ago, that’s what we wanted.
Atlas: You’ve got the album out and the tour happening- what else is coming up for the band past all of this?
DeLeon: We have the two Warped Tour dates in Orlando and Long Beach, we have the Emo’s Not Dead cruise but we don’t know and I think that’s the beautiful thing and the scary thing nowadays. Before the hiatus, we didn’t know that the last show was the last show, we didn’t know that album was our last album, so at this point in our lives I think it’s really important to not take it for granted [and] realize most people don’t get a second chance at this. We’re getting to do it and just soak in every single second and every single word that kids are singing back at us. I don’t know what the future holds and so it’s like you got to see how this tour does. Right now I would say we’d love to continue making music and touring and all that but life is weird, people are adults and you just don’t know.
Go see your favorite bands- I hate to bring this up but I remember seeing One Direction [at] one of their last shows and you didn’t know what was going to happen to Liam, you didn’t know where people’s careers were going to go or personalities were going to separate. I actually just talked about this a few minutes ago- I went and saw the Oasis concert in the UK and [it was] probably the most special show I’ve ever been to even though I didn’t grow up listening to Oasis. I knew the hits but I wouldn’t say that I know every word to every record. It was so special because all of these people in these soccer stadiums thought that they’d never see these guys again on stage together and they were so happy to be there. Everyone felt like you didn’t know if it was going to happen again- they’re on stage now but with these brothers, who knows? That just made it really cool and everyone was so appreciative- phones were down, everyone knew every single word and it was like this euphoric feeling that even if you weren’t an Oasis fan and you were there, it was tangible.
If we could give people like 0.0001% of what I felt at that Oasis concert- people being like we never thought we’d hear this song live again, we’re getting to relive our teenage years or childhood or the fans who are bringing their kids for the first time being like I get to show them my favorite band when I was growing up- that’s what makes it special. As to the future, I have no idea. I hope it keeps rolling but you never know. We’re getting along better than ever so that’s the good news.
Atlas: Is there anything else you wish you could talk about more that people may not ask?
DeLeon: I always like interviews when people ask the why, not just the what. It’s not ‘tell us about your tour coming up’, it’s ‘what led you to tour again, why are you touring again’. That’s really where I think the sauce is talking to any artist. I just think we’re excited to tour and the human connection of seeing so many familiar faces and so many fans have become friends and practically family to us and just to be able to share those moments on stage on this tour- I’m just chomping at the bit.
Stream Chasing Crowns and catch The Cab on tour now!
