The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus moved by disasters and domestic abuse on Don’t You Fake It

Hailing from Florida, the members of the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus have an ingrained sympathy for victims of natural disasters. But when a tornado ravaged Alabama’s Enterprise High School on March 1 of this year, taking eight lives, it was more than just feelings of empathy that drew the pop-punk quintet to help out.

Turns out one of the dead was a student-council member who had been instrumental in getting RJA’s “Your Guardian Angel” chosen as the school’s prom song. As lead vocalist and main songwriter Ronnie Winter explains from L.A., where the band is readying for its third appearance on the Warped Tour, the tragedy led to a benefit concert in May that raised nearly US$100,000 for the devastated community.

“The kids from the high school e-mailed me and told me about how this girl talked the whole student council into approving our song,” recalls Winter, “so at that point we felt it was necessary to do something about it. We contacted the school and set up a show and donated 100 percent of our proceeds. Life strikes when you least expect it, and that’s when the rest of us just try to be positive, I guess.”

“Your Guardian Angel” is the closing track on RJA’s debut full-length CD, Don’t You Fake It, which has gone gold in the States, with more than 500,000 copies sold. The group–which performs at Thunderbird Stadium on July 3 as part of the Vans Warped Tour–melds melodic pop-punk, alt-metal, and screamo tendencies to relay 24-year-old lyricist Winter’s commentaries on self-realization (“Seventeen Ain’t So Sweet”) and, as heard in the hit video-single “Face Down”, domestic abuse.

“There are instances where you just walk in a grocery store and see a lady with a black eye,” he says, “and you get that awkward feeling to yourself, like, ‘Man, what’s goin’ on?’ So it’s just an awareness-raising type of vehicle that we use.”

Don’t You Fake It was produced by David Bendeth, who has also helmed gold records by the likes of Breaking Benjamin and Hawthorne Heights. Numerous on-line critics point out the similarity between the latter emo act and RJA, and frequent visitors to absolutepunk.net/ have taken the band to task for its supposed lack of originality. Winter remains unfazed by the putdowns, though.

“Well, honestly, we sound nothing like them,” he stresses. “No one I know agrees with those comments. It doesn’t seem to be affecting either our radio play or fan base, so obviously it’s not much of an issue. But regardless, that’s why on free-forum sites everybody can say whatever they want about everything. It’s freedom of speech, but I wouldn’t take anything on any site like that for fact.

“In my opinion, if you have nothing better to do in your life than make an Internet blog about how much you hate a band–even though they’re working hard doing music–then you’re a pathetic individual. That’s all I have to say about that.”