Red Jumpsuit Apparatus isn't playing it safe with success

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is, from left, Duke Kitchens, Ronnie Winter, John Wilkes and Joey Westwood.

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is, from left, Duke Kitchens, Ronnie Winter, John Wilkes and Joey Westwood.

Ronnie Winter wants to get something straight about his band Red Jumpsuit Apparatus:

"We're not an emo band and we never have been," says Winter. "If you think that you haven't listened to the album. You've only listened to one or two songs. We're a rock 'n' roll band. It's that simple."

In a phone call from his Florida home, Winter, lead singer of the group, says the band's songs are varied for a reason.

"We change songs as to how I feel and whatever message I'm delivering. It's not a scene. We're not a scene band."

Red Jumpsuit Apparatus formed in Middleburg, Fla., in 2003, after Winter and high school buddy Duke Kitchens began playing music together. Both were in metal bands and both wanted to make a different type of music.

"When you're a kid and you're angry, heavy metal is there for you," says Winter. "But then you get a little older you're not so mad at the world."

Winter was the drummer in the metal band, but when he and guitarist Kitchens would get together Winter would sing. And, while he hadn't written songs with the other group, Kitchens' riffs inspired Winter to begin writing as well. Winter and Kitchens remained the core of the band while rhythm guitar, drum and bass duties changed often.

"We lost our first bass player and our first drummer before our first show," says Winter.

Despite the member changes, by the time the group signed with Virgin Records in 2005, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus already had a good following around the Southeast.

The group's major-label debut album, "Don't You Fake It," appeared in 2006 and the song "Face Down" from the disc became a hit.

Winter says there was pressure to make the group's follow-up disc, "Lonely Road," released earlier this year, just like the first.

"We're not writing the same song 10,000 times. Just because we had one song that did real well for us, we're not going to milk the cow until there's nothing left. That's not much fun for anybody. That's not going to end up working out for you. That's what all the hair metal bands did and look how it worked out for them."

The song, which addresses domestic violence, did help inspire the band to create the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus Guardian Angel Foundation. The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence contacted the band, saying the song had resulted in young people calling to find out about the coalition, and organizers wanted to learn about the band. The call resulted in Red Jumpsuit Apparatus raising $20,000 for the organization through charity concerts and fan donations. Winter and his band members started their own foundation in order to help other groups at will.

"We use that for a whole slew of things," says Winter. "Everything from helping underfunded high school music programs to local fire departments to battered women's shelters ... all kinds of things. We use it to help anybody or anything that we think needs help.

"After all the money's gone and cars have broken down and you're sitting there and you're X-number of years and your grandkids come up to you and ask about what it was like, hopefully, those are things that will still be around and you'll be able to say, 'I did something,' rather than just saying, 'Oh, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll and that was about it.'"

© 2009, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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