Releasing a well-received second album is always tricky in the music business -- especially when your first album contains the #1 most-played rock song of 2004. The South Carolina trio Crossfade happens to be the band in question here, and Eddie Sloan, Mitch James, and James Branham have responded to the challenge by bringing the pain with their new album, Falling Away.

Enjoying a break from the band's non-stop roadwork earlier this year, Eddie and Mitch took several months to co-pen, and even co-produce, virtually all the tracks on the eleven-song effort. The result is the strongest music of Crossfade's career, in which the bands patented, seamless vocal harmonies are complemented by a new musical sophistication and no-nonsense, emotional lyrics. Falling Away's first single, Invincible, has seemingly set the bar for ass-kicking -- but reflective -- modern-day rock and roll. This gem of a song was produced by Eddie, Randy Staub (Metallica, Nickleback) and 2006 Grammy-winning Producer of the Year Steve Lillywhite, and is alone worth the price of admission.

Originally released on April 13, 2004, the band's self-titled debut album was certified platinum by the RIAA in August, 2005. The album contained three top-five singles that landed on the Billboard Monitor Active Rock chart, and the song Cold spent an incredible 65 record-breaking weeks on the chart. Upon the release of the album, Eddie, Mitch, and James took to the road, playing several hundred shows across the country. In addition, the band performed eight shows last May for the U.S. military in places like Kuwait, Bahrain, Turkey and even a U.S. Naval ship at sea.

In a nutshell, Crossfade is the real deal. If rock and roll is a trip down another interstate highway, and the phone number of a girl you'll never have the chance to call, I'll show you three guys who know a little about both.

XMFan recently had the chance to speak with Eddie (lead guitar, vocals) and Mitch (bass, backing vocals), who were riding a tour bus somewhere in the middle of the night -- a place where they were happy to be, I'm sure.


XMFan: What's one key thing that helped shape your musical direction?

Eddie: I remember going to a record store when I was about twelve years old. Metallica's Master of Puppets had just been released, and some friends I played guitar with told me I had to check out the band. I bought the record, planted it in my ear buds for about a month straight, and learned all the songs -- while my mom cussed me out because she thought they were Satan. That's my first big musical memory.

XMFan: How about your first instrument?

Eddie: The piano, when I was eight years old. My mom got me into that.

XMFan: Crossfade hasn't taken many breaks over the past three years, but I guess you took one long enough to create Falling Away?

Eddie: Yeah, it was actually supposed to be a short break -- two weeks of R&R, two weeks of writing, and three months of recording. It wound up being two months of R&R, two months of writing, two months of partyin'... (Laughs) It took us a while, but we had been on the road for about two years and had some decompressing to do -- we'd never been on the road before that. I think Falling Away is what has come out of all that, and we're proud of it. We apologize to everyone for the wait, but believe fans will be pleased with the result.

Mitch: It took us a while to get back in the groove. Everyone was talking about the "sophomore slump," so we knew we had to work extra hard to make this album stand above the last one -- especially having a song like "Cold" that was a world record breaker. But it wasn't weighing on our heads, and we wanted to put out a great album even if the song hadn't done what it had done."

XMFan: As a Metallica fan, what was it like working with Randy Staub?

Eddie: It was like nothing else. We're just a band that records in our garage, and he gets a hold of our stuff and just makes it shine like we never thought possible. He's a really nice guy that you'd never think has worked with so many great acts -- especially Metallica -- and everything he touches just turns to gold.

XMFan: How about some background on your new songs?

Mitch: Everything on the album is a story that either Ed or I, or both of us, have endured. None of that stuff is made up, or even elaborated on -- it's just straight truth. I wrote about half, and Ed wrote about half. Most of it was just us sitting in the studio together, just doing all-nighters. We would get to the main soul of the songs, and once we got to a certain point would ask James to lay out the beat, which would bring a whole new element to the song.

The songs are all about girls. But, if you don't say they're about girls, you can take them however you want. The songs could be about your parents or "friends" who aren't really your friends. Most of our songs are about, "I'm done with you. I'm heading out. It's time for me to get out of this situation. It's bad for my health, bad for my mind." We hope people understand that we write from the heart. It's gotta be true.

XMFan: It must have been literally quite a trip playing in places like Kuwait, Turkey and Bahrain for the troops.

Eddie: It was quite an eye-opener to say the least. To see all the different cultures... We have Fort Jackson right in our home town (Columbia), and meet lots of troops just hanging out in our local night life, but had the chance to experience things on a totally different level by seeing the regimens and hardships they go through in these places. These people are there without their families. I think the United States is making it as comfortable as possible for the troops over there, but they are still risking their lives. You can see it in their eyes. It touched me like nothing else...

Mitch: We're thrilled that we can show our support for these men and women who put their lives on the line each day. It's because of our nation's military that we can do what we do for a living. We'd like to continue doing more of these shows across the world to show our soldiers how much respect we have for each and every one of them.

XMFan: What do you like to do when you don't have an instrument in your hands?

Eddie: Oh, man... I like sleeping. (Laughs) That's my answer.

XMFan: It's obvious that you'll be putting more miles on that bus over the next few years...

Eddie: Absolutely -- we love the road. It took us a while to get back on, but we're finally here with some dates coming up all over the country. We can't wait to get back to each and every place we've been before, as well as the new places. That's one of the best parts, and the saving grace, of what we do.

XMFan: How would you summarize the band known as Crossfade?

Mitch: We're musicians, not just guys in a rock band. We're not here to make a huge leap in musical awareness, but we're here to have enough of a different sound that people recognize us and not think that we're any of the other bands out there right now.

Crossfade can be heard on XM channels Squizz, 20 on 20, XM Live, and NASCAR.

Crossfade's official website is http://www.crossfadeonline.com