Cliché Magazine is counting down to Christmas by sharing
12 holiday interviews with 12 amazing artists!
This time, we’re chatting with Anthony Green from Circa Survive about his favorite holiday traditions and why he dislikes Mariah Carey’s songs “All I Want For Christmas Is You.”
Cliché: What is on your holiday wish list?
Anthony Green: My wife and I get each other a couple of presents, and I always try to spoil her. We get out kids stuff, but I want this package from Rogue Fitness where you can get a rower, barbells, weights, kettle bells — all this stuff where I can set up a little gym in my garage. Essentially, I will be buying it for myself, but I HAVE to get approval from the boss, aka my wife. She takes care of all the finances. I’m hoping I can at least get a rowing machine!
If you haven’t already, what holiday song would you cover and why?
“We Three Kings” is one of my favorite songs. I know it is a spiritual and religious song, but as a kid, I always remember being in church hearing that song and there is a couple of notes in that song that are so weird and dark. I always remembered thinking, “Wow, this is such a weird song.”
Do you have any holiday traditions?
I’m missing one this year unfortunately. We do this thing called Shoemas. It is on the fifth of December and it is the Feast of Saint Nicholas. I grew up in a Roman Catholic household and with the Feast of Saint Nicholas, you put your shoes outside the front door and you get a treat in your shoes. They are nothing big, but you get like a color book or pez or something like that. I started doing that with my kids and my wife will be carrying on the tradition in my absence. My wife likes to do presents in themes. There are some themes this year, like an RV thing. We are getting the boys a tent in the shape of an RV. We like to go on our steps and pretend we are driving somewhere or that we are in an airplane or something like that. We are getting them this little fake RV tent along with a fake campfire thing that goes up. We are getting them little acoustic guitars, because we like to get them little music and art stuff every year. We are getting stuff all based around camping and traveling this year! We also will go to my wife’s mother’s house and my parent’s house, too. There is a lot of driving around! When I was first having kids, I thought that everyone will be coming to our house and we get to relax and chill out, but we run around a lot. But this year, I am leaving for tour the day after, it’s a small east coast tour from the 26th to New Years Eve in Philly. I’ll miss them for 3 or 4 days, but James comes with me sometimes since he is old enough.
As far as traditions go, we don’t have anything crazy. We just try to see our family. We try not to make Christmas into what it is becoming, this materialistic and idealistic thing. It’s more like an extension of Thanksgiving. We do buy our boys gifts, but we don’t buy our boys stuff just to get stuff. It’s sort of like a wash, you can’t avoid that with kids since they are always like [in a deep voice], “YEAH! PRESENTS!!!” You sort of miss the mark of it [the holiday] being about spending time together. You don’t want to also be that dickhead who goes, “We don’t want to get our kids gifts this year because we want them to appreciate us.” I’m not a huge fan of that aspect, but Christmas lights and sitting at night by the tree with all the lights out in the house with the tree twinkling and a fire going… I love that. I’m normally home for a bit around that time.
What Christmas movie do you find yourself watching, no matter how many times you have seen it?
Dude, Bill Murray’s Scrooged. That movie is so good. I just really love that one. Nothing gets better than National Lampoon’s Christmas too, but I really love Scrooged. I love me some Scrooged!
As a band, do you guys spend the holidays together?
I would say that we don’t really see each other that much when we are home from tour. The dynamic of a band is a difficult thing. We really don’t see each other that much. I mean, sometimes Brendon will come over, and we will try to see each other. When you are living in a van or a bus with someone for long periods of time, it’s really nice to have a break and everyone has something going on as soon as we get home. I go and see my kids right away and everyone else goes and does their thing. We will see each other now and then, but we don’t really hang out.
Everyone has a favorite holiday song, but which one makes you cringe?
Oh man, there are so many… ugh. Shit. I would say that Mariah Carey “All I Want For Christmas Is You” song. It’s pretty awful and the worst part is that it just fucking lodges itself into my head and the next thing I know, I’m walking around singing it for the rest of the day. Oh man, and that fucking “Christmas Shoes” song. The one about the kid who couldn’t buy the shoes for his mom. That song is sad. It’s so sad! Fuck “Christmas Shoes.”
Read more Music Interviews on ClicheMag.com
The Twelve Days of Music – Day 1 – Anthony Green: Photographed by Heather Glock
