By Ben Doy

Alexisonfire are returning to New Zealand to play one show at The Powerstation on Monday January 23rd. I had the chance to chat with lead guitarist Wade MacNeil ahead of the band's NZ & Australia tour.

What were the circumstances that brought Alexisonfire back together again?

I think it's almost as simple as it was kind of the first time that everyone was off at summer. I wasn't touring with Gallows, Dallas was off with City And Colour... everyone was around. We had all been super busy, travelling all over the place. Some show offers came up for that summer, and we all see each other here and there, and we couldn't really think of a reason not to do them. We kind of just jumped at the thought of it.

At the beginning of that summer Dallas was playing at a Toronto Festival with City And Colour, and we were all there hanging out. And he said "Instead of me doing the City And Colour show, why don't we just walk out on stage and do a surprise Alexis show?". And I was like "Are you kidding me?" (laughs). And then I think after we all joked about it we thought why not? So I think that was probably what opened up the communication about doing it.

And then when those show offers came through we thought that well we almost played unannounced earlier this summer, so let's just make it official... let's do it again.

How have the shows been going?

It's been good! Some of the festivals have been really crazy. We went to the UK, we played a bunch of shows in the States, we did a few shows across Canada... they were all really really special. We got to play alongside some amazing bands and we hadn't played for about 4 years at that point. It was so exciting we thought we had to keep this door open and do some more. So when we were booking the summer we were hoping to get to Australia and New Zealand, but at that time it just wouldn't work. So it's a year later and we are so excited.

Good stuff! I think it's been 10 years since your last headline show in New Zealand?

(Laughs), it's been a while... it's been a while...

What can we expect from your performance?

You know what? I think when we play shows now it's not like we are touring all year round. It's just kind of when the stars align. So the shows are that much more special for us because it's probably been a year since we played our last show. And I think on top of that, as you said it's been about a decade since we played there. So I think it's going to be really great.

Have you guys had any plans to return to the studio for maybe a new album?

Ahh... you know, we're taking it one step at a time. Honestly, we're not in the same city at the same time until we rehearse for the shows. Right now we're just focusing on getting ready for this tour.

So following the NZ and Australia tour, what plans have you got then?

No, that's it for now but there are some talks about doing some more stuff.

What other projects do you guys have on your radar for 2017?

Dallas said he's going to take some time off with City And Colour... so he'll probably take a week off and then write a double album (laughs). Our drummer Jordan is hitting the road pretty hard with Billy Talent. Our singer George plays in a pub band called Dead Tired... I know they were just in the studio. Our bass player Chris is working as a barber. And myself, I've been working on a bunch of composing stuff as I scored a couple of films. Those are really exciting and will be coming out in theatre early 2017. The first one I worked on is a film called 'Goon: Last Of The Enforcers', which is a film about hockey. A thing we care so much about here in Canada, but not so much in New Zealand (laughs).

Alexisonfire

Monday January 23rd: The Powerstation, Auckland

Tickets via Ticketmaster

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