CAMPAIGN is sort of an interesting anomaly. They have received a fair amount of buzz and internet hype, but have played no more than five out of state shows, and only a few handfuls of shows in their native Atlanta. When you talk about bands who, under a traditional sense, have “done everything right,” Campaign have done the exact opposite. They don’t spend months pounding the pavement from coast to coast, and they don’t shop their newest record to big name labels. But what Campaign does do is stay on the cutting edge of an ever-changing and evolving music industry. With CD sales declining, Campaign has taken a model that works, in this case the free distribution of music through the internet, and have turned in into their greatest asset. Every record they have made is available for free download, and file sharing is encouraged. Through this approach to releasing music, what ends up ultimately happening is something far greater than spending months and years playing DIY venues in front of no one: ANYONE and EVERYONE has access to your music. Instead of complaining about all the things that are shitty about the music industry, Campaign embraces it, adapts to it, and uses it to their advantage.

York and Josh were kind enough to exchange some e-mails with me to talk about their new EP, Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! which is now available for free by the fine folks at www.ifyoumakeit.com. Also, the boys from Campaign were kind enough to put together the below footage (filmed by yours truly and edited by York Henderson) of them performing (among other things) “Old Haunts” off of the new EP in their practice space in Atlanta.

Pastepunk: How did Campaign come to be? Who plays what, and how did you guys all assemble?

York: Me, Josh, and Russ had played together for years in another project that was semi serious. When that band met it’s demise Josh moved to Birmingham but we remained best friends. We agreed that when he moved back to Atlanta we would finally do the band we had always wanted to do. It is funny, the band we ended up wanting to do was the stuff we grew up on in our teens. It just came naturally for us to write these sort of songs. We ended up teaming up with Drew and Alan who were members of a band we played with a good bit in our hey day.

I play guitar and do all the nasty drunk vocals, Josh is the dreamy pipes, Russ plays power bass, Drew plays guitar and sounds like the singer of PIEBALD, and Alan plays drums and loves Moe’s burritos.

Pastepunk: You guys have taken a pretty unique, but actually fairly modern approach to releasing music. Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! is the third EP you guys have released, yet, aside from some tapes of It Likes To Party, there has been no physical release. What made you guys want to approach releasing records this way?

Josh: I think most people can agree that CDs are completely obsolete at this point. A lot of people talk about the resurgence in popularity of vinyl and cassettes, but most people I know who collect records rarely listen to them. Most of my friends listen to mp3s and leave their records on shelves to collect dust. I’m not too stoked about that… but it is what it is.

We’ve chosen to release our songs digitally because it is what works for us. We are all broke and the band has no financial backing from a third party. While I wish we could release vinyl for all of our EPs, our main goal is to be able to record and release our songs so that people can listen to them and party. I’d rather spend our money to release songs as quickly as we can write them rather than having to wait and save up the cash for physical releases. I think all music should be available for free for people to enjoy. Plus, my parents and friends are getting tired of the CDs from my old bands taking up space in their basements and garages.

York: It was really like “fuck it”. Look at the old cycle of releasing music… I will be damned if I will record music just to try and “shop” to a label or sell a couple hundred CDs. I know I don’t have to say this in 2011 but ultimately it was a matter of why wait for someone to do something for us that we can do for ourselves and retain 100% control of how we release music. Not to mention getting it to a much broader audience. It has worked very well for us. We are actually doing a small run of tapes for Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! just because people seemed really into the physical release of It Likes To Party but I wouldn’t expect too much out of us. We do the physical releases for fun but what is most important is that as many people as possible hear our music.

Pastepunk: Personally, I think Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! is the best EP you guys have done. All of the delay and effects-ridden guitar leads are still mixed up, but the tempo and aggression has been turned up quite a bit. Was there any kind of conscious effort to stick to stick to a certain style on this EP, or was it just a product of things just sort of falling into place?

York: A little bit of both really. Our goal between H1N1! and It Likes To Party was to get to the point. Instead of having spacey “parts” why not find a way to incorporate spacey guitar work into song structure? If the song is over three minutes it is probably too damn long and it is time to start slicing. I think under all the extra layers on It Likes To Party you can just hear some basic punk rock song structure.

Josh: I think we’ve learned to maintain straight-forward song structures and still incorporate the spacey guitar leads. Each batch of songs we’ve written together has gotten more to the point. I think we’ve gotten a lot better at cutting out the filler but still keeping the songs interesting. We didn’t make a conscious effort to sound more pissed off but I think that is just the sound of things falling into place. We’ve wanted to write these songs since our inception, but I think it just took us two EPs to figure out our sound.

Pastepunk: Is there any general theme to the new record? A general tone or idea you guys are trying to get across from track to track (other than the obvious oldness)?

York: Mostly, the “old” stuff comes into play with not being able to change. The older you get being involved with punk the more you realize maybe there is a reason you are here after all. I think besides getting older the main theme is the type of isolation that can occur by being consumed with your past. That includes drinking alone too much, traveling alone, or being at a bar alone with people who consider themselves your friends.

Josh: There wasn’t really any intention for each song to have a similar theme but I’d agree that isolation and getting older are common themes. I don’t sleep much, so I get a lot of my inspiration from wandering around Atlanta late at night.

Pastepunk: I feel like, as whole, the punk scene is sort of going through a pre-boom, where there is a lot of cool bands that are either doing something great, or are on the cusp of taking over the world this year. How do you guys feel about the current scene? Any bands out there you guys are real amped on?

Josh: I agree with that for sure. We are all really stoked about a lot of what is going on, and there are a lot of bands out there that we are amped on. For me personally, I really like Dead to Me, Ex Humans, Dropkick Murphys, and the Bronx just to name a few. I’m also really stoked that Swingin’ Utters are putting out records and touring again. We got to play with them recently and they were incredible.

York: There is a definitely a resurgence in the punk scene and that is an awesome thing. I see a good bit of what actually seems similar to our situation. It is not uncommon to see dudes in their mid to late twenties returning to that late 90s/early 2000s sound. Perhaps a lot of people are just coming full circle. So in that regard I feel great about it.

I am sort of on a black metal and soundtrack kick but right now but I am the most stoked on the new Trap Them record and awaiting the new Dropkick Murphys. I also heard Lars from Rancid has a new band he is working on. It will most certainly be badass.

Pastepunk: Similarly, since we all live in Atlanta, how do you feel about the state of the Atlanta scene? I personally feel it is in the slums, slowly starting to crawl its way out. But I don’t have a blog called Stay Negative for nothing.

Josh: Punk rock and hardcore in Atlanta has had its ups and downs over the last 15 years that I have been a part of it. Hindsight is dangerous, and I think it is really easy to look back and think that things were once so much better than they are now. That being said, I agree in part but wouldn’t go as far as saying it is in the slums. I think one problem here is that the city is spread out. It used to be that punk shows were confined to one or two venues in town. As an Atlanta native I’m sure you know that on any given night there could be four or five shows going on nowadays. That is good or bad depending on how you look at it. There are a lot of amazing bands and people involved in the Atlanta scene and I consider myself lucky to be apart of it. I also think that the Atlanta scene would be much better if the Carbonas got back together!

York: What is cool about right now is that it feels like the scope has narrowed to a sort of quality over quantity. It is not uncommon for hardcore, punk, metal, indie, or whatever to be on the same bill. I will say as far as the “crawl its way out” there definitely seems to be a surge in punk bands these last couple years in comparison, and they are all awesome. It sorta feels like a new wave is coming but in a good way. It is like each band at the moment kind of represents a different facet or sub genre but does it really well. You don’t have like 20 pop punk bands all doing the same shit.

Pastepunk: So what’s on the horizon for the year and beyond?

York: This year the biggest goal is to do a ton more out of state stuff. We have been notorious for not really getting out too much but it has mostly been due to scheduling conflicts. Things are aligning and we have already done some shows since the New Year on the road and hoping to do a bunch more. Besides that we have a split coming with HAVE FUN EXPLODING and after that the goal will be to have another release out by Fall.