Interview: Of Legends

When Of Legends’ debut album, ‘Stranded’, winged its way into the MTUK office earlier this year all hell broke lost. Not only was the music a brutal eye-opener, not only was it yet another tentative baby-step into a newly-forming genre, but when we realised the chap at the helm was, up to now, known for being an electro-pop peddler it was like slipping into an alternate reality. Having just laid waste to half of North America on their Spring tour, John Skibeat grabbed a moment to fire a few questions at the man himself, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Luis Dubuc.

Most will know you, Luis, as the man behind The Secret Handshake. What convinced you to make the leap from electronica into metal?
Well, it wasn’t that hard to be honest and really it was just exciting to be doing something so freeing as compared to pop music.

Have you always been a fan of heavy music in general?
Yes, ever since I was a young boy. That’s not something most people know about me so I guess it can throw most of my fans off, especially my critics.

The Secret Handshake was a solo project. At what point did you realise you might need some help from others to fully realise the band Of Legends?
Well, I think it was clear I needed to have that real element, so Travis [Orbin, drums] was an obvious choice based on his talent and character. It has been a great fit.

The band is comprised of yourself and members of Drop Dead Gorgeous and Sky Eats Airplane. How did the collaborations come about?
Well, at the time when I was ready to start touring with Of Legends, the guys’ other bands were sort of ending per se and so it was a perfect fit.

Who took on songwriting duties?
On the album, I wrote everything and sent the tracks to Travis who really took ownership of the drums and tracked them. I played everything else on the album.

I’m thinking specifically of the lyrics that refer to “the humans” when I ask whether you’re a fan of Devin Townsend’s body of work?
Ha! The album is a concept album about the movie Event Horizon, so that’s why those references are made.

What would you say your influences are for writing the songs that you have?
Well, to be honest I’m a huge fan of all genres of music, but overall I really love Meshuggah, In Flames and Soilwork as far as metal goes.

The atmosphere generated by the pile-driving polyrhythms are somewhat reminiscent of bands like Meshuggah, Dillinger Escape Plan and Strapping Young Lad. How much input did Travis Orbin have with that side of things?
Well, like I said earlier, I had written the drums and he took them and “orbinated” them and really made them shine and become unbelievable. He has an amazing talent.

Your vocal style is a real throat-scraper! How did you find it trying to reproduce that kind of raw power and what methods do you use to keep it intact?
I think that sound is just my newness to the genre and overall lack of knowledge of how to scream properly. I’m glad people like it.

You’ve now got Ben Weinman (Dillinger Escape Plan) and Tim Smith (Atreyu / HORSEtheband) co-managing the band. How did they register their interest?
Well, I had been friends with them for a few years and when I showed them the album it was clear that I was serious about the project and so they decided to get involved.

What did it feel like to get that kind of backing so quickly?
Well, it was a bit of pressure but it was fun to live up to it - especially live.

Considering you performed virtually everything on the album, can you describe how difficult you found the process?
It was a bit tricky to be honest as I had done all the demos at home with virtually no pressure. The whole album was done in about 6 days so it was go, go, go!

Now you’ve covered North America, can we expect to see you taking the live shows to other countries in the future?
Hopefully soon, just taking it one step at a time right at this moment.

Is this a project that you think can run and run and, if so, have you already started thinking about what you want to do for the next album?
Yes, we have already begun writing the next album as a collective, so it’s not just me at the helm anymore. Very excited to see how it turns out.

Perhaps (and it’s only a thought) with so many members of Sky Eats Airplane on board, we might expect to see you developing a more melodic sound?
Definitely not melodic in a singing sense. I think personally I really prefer to have metal with just screaming, though I do think the music will become more technical.

Also online @ MTUK = http://www.metalteamuk.net/interviews11/interview-ofleg.htm

Album review = http://johnskibeat.blogspot.com/2011/02/album-review-of-legends-stranded.html

Interview: The Chariot

The Chariot are touring the UK and, with so many stories of brutal past shows, you can almost sense Nottingham Rock City holding it’s breath. Holed up backstage in the semi-darkness, TNR finds Chariot bassist Jon Kinder, who we get introduced to simply as ‘Wolf’ by their enigmatic, cool-as-fuck front man, Josh Scogin. ‘Wolf’ seems somewhat preoccupied with his phone, possibly hacking his way into some secret government database… or texting his better half, but Josh is more than happy to field awkward questions whilst the support band do their damnedest to drown out his answers.

You’ve got a mad touring schedule this time around. How’s it going?
It’s going good. We actually did two full rotations of the US before we came over here so we’ve gone from, like, the 3rd of January, and we had like about three days off, but that’s why we’re in a band – to play shows.

That’s a heck of a schedule. And Australia next?
Yeah, Australia and then we’re gonna try and do Japan and China all back-to-back. We’re really excited.

Are you getting good reactions to the new songs?
Yeah, the kids seem to like it. The critics seem to be on board with this album as well which we’ve never really experienced before. We don’t really write music for them but it’s still kinda nice. I don’t know why but it’s good not to read negative stuff.

Have you got any favourite venues?
It’s difficult to answer that because I usually think of, like, the show. So the venue might be nitty and gritty but the show is so fun, you’ll be like “this place rules,” but if you just walked into it with no people there you’d be like “this place is wack.”

There must be some gigs where the fan-base always show up?
Definitely. Chain Reaction, Anaheim, California is definitely one of those. Atlanta, ‘cos it’s our hometown. Dallas, Texas, The Door – that place is always packed, always fun.

And tonight you appear to be in the same venue as a Viking metal band. Is that a first for you guys?
Josh: Not really. Where’s Behemoth from? We’ve toured with them before. I guess they’re not Vikings but they dress up and everything.
Wolf (suddenly looks up): That same tour was with GWAR, so we’ve been… amongst… that… type. (Laughs)

You saw all the Turisas facepaint then?
Yeah, I saw the line and I thought I wish they were here for us!

You released your latest album, Long Live, a few months back – tons of feedback, polyrhythms aplenty. Was it the aim to make it as chaotic as that?
I don’t think it’s ever a pre-planned thing. It just happened as we were writing it. I think we all have A.D.D. or something. We get bored quick. So we move on. We don’t aim to chop it up or put in a pop song or put in a radio jingle. It’s just we have a riff and we play it and like it and then we get bored of it and then we throw in a radio jingle about Atlanta. Just different things to sort of shock the senses to keep us interested and hopefully keep the listener interested. Keep it fresh. No-one wants to hear me scream for 10 tracks. Even after we’ve recorded it we’ll chop songs in half for our live show or throw three different songs together to keep us on out toes.

The vocal aggression is pretty out there. It’s less gruff but more scathing. Was that the extreme effect you were going for – rough some skulls up?
I just kinda go with the music. I have a lot of cool lyrics floating around but, at the end of the day, it’s the music of that individual song that leads me to do what I do. The music speaks for itself and tells me how passionate or aggressive it needs to come. My screaming is a by-product. When I’m in the studio I just go for it. I don’t do punch-ins or anything, I usually just do one or two takes.

What kind of subject matter are you exploring on the album?
A lot of it ended up being like a ‘thank you’ record. It’s our fourth record and a lot of bands don’t make it that far, so it became like a grateful record, a very thankful record. Everyone who’s given us a place to stay, every person who’s taken care of us, everyone who’s come to a show, purchased a CD, whatever. And of course Long Live ties into that because it can be long live [insert name here] or whoever you wanna put at the end of that. We couldn’t do that without these people.

So the names on the album were there for that exact reason, hence the competition you ran?
Well we wanted to name five names that were real people who like our band, but how do you chose between them. So we literally had a small competition and whoever won they would be the ones that would represent. I mean, I wish we could have done a CD with a thousand titles and then we could name everybody.

So that begs the question how important you feel a song-title is and whether it should always marry to the lyrics?
Song-titles are very, very important to me. When I write lyrics that’s its own thing. I don’t necessarily need a title to cobble to that thing. I look at it as “here’s the lyrics – they can tell one story; here’s the title – that can tell another story.” On one of our previous albums, The Fiancée, all the song-titles go together to make a lyrical stanza – “Back To Back” “They Faced Each Other” “They Drew Their Swords” “And Shot Each Other.” It’s not like a pop record is with “here’s the chorus” and “here’s the title.” I really try to make those as important as the lyrics themselves.

You recorded it all live using magnetic analog tape. What was the thinking behind that?
Everything is just more natural that way. When we practice the songs we’re practicing them together, when we do them live we’re doing them all together, so when we do it in tracks it’s very… not natural, y’know? You’re trying to play guitar to this wave file. It’s fine but it’s just a lot easier to throw it all down together. You’re all looking at each other and we’re able to throw it down like that. It’s more natural, more organic, it’s just easier. Why would you practice the song, like, a 1000 times before you go in the studio and then separate everybody? Why did you do that? Now I’ve said that, we’ll probably never do it again. (Wry smile)

It’s actually pretty cool because there are all sorts of little oddities that pop up, like cleans and samples, in the mix. Was everything deliberate or were they things you only discovered afterwards?
Little bit of both. Certain things we wanted to make sure were in there and then other things happened by accident or in the middle of recording, like an idea. We were recording track four, “The City”… the whole ending was completely different when we were recording it and just out of nowhere someone said “I think we can make something better than that ending” and so we went in an fiddled around and within an hour we had a whole ending part. So we ended up tracking the song the next day and about 30/40 friends of ours gathered around a mic and when we got to that part they jumped into it. It’s kind of a one-way train – never look back. Very spontaneous, go with your gut instinct. I can’t even remember how the song used to go.

You talk about it being spontaneous but when you came to do the video for “David De La Hoz” you did it all in one shot. That must have taken a hell of a lot of planning. Hard to do?
It should have been really hard, but it wasn’t like a pre-conceived idea in the sense that we didn’t have a director come in with a budget or anything. We were literally sitting around one day eating and we were like, “well, we’re be recording the song live anyway so we should film it like that” – like “that’s the shot, that’s the one that we used.” So someone said “well it’s gonna be pretty boring watching us play live in one room so why don’t we put the drums in the kitchen?” and then someone said “oooh, well if we’re gonna do that, let’s do this and do this” and so it just ended up becoming it’s own entity. We were aware that at the end we could just hit delete and nobody would see it, so we weren’t worried or stressed or anything if it failed. So we got a friend in with a video camera and we walked him through it. An hour before we shot it we were still making monumental changes – “we should end outside”, “what we gonna do then?”, “well let’s have balloons” and then we changed the start so I say “release the balloons” and people are like “what’s that for?” and the reveal comes later. It was all very spontaneous. Somebody could have said “hit delete” at any time and we’d have done it and walked away. (Laughs) But ‘cos it was live, when we were done we could watch it immediately. It was like “this is awesome.” Even though the dude’s headphones fall off we were like “leave that, we don’t care about that.” It’s all part of it. It’s played by real humans, without robots, without ‘copy/paste’, without ProTools. It’s actually a very good representation of how the record came about and how we get bored and how we play live.

It is one thing I recommend to people, especially when we’re dicking about on YouTube – “You need to see this particular video. One take!”
Thank you. That’s awesome, man.

I’d love to know what kind of music you listened to growing up?
I was blessed with a father who listened to a lot of good music. He listened to a lot of classic rock, loved the Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd. Not too trendy, but quality bands. I actually had a good palette to drive from. Because of that I listened to a lot of ‘performance’ bands – the James Browns, the Jerry Lee Lewis’s. Later, I got into some heavier stuff. Some Pantera, early Deftones. All the kind of bands you have to see live. Really, it just opened all the doors. Just because you recorded a record, doesn’t mean you have to sing those songs verbatim. When I looked to start a band, the roots that come from classic rock, even the motown stuff, the performances, that’s what I wanted to do. If you want to hear the record then go listen to that. It’ll be note for note perfect. That’s what a lot of the metal heads want. That’s not our band. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re trying to create a new moment, a new vibe, then and there.

And so because you are now in your own band where the performance is so key that people recommend you as a band you must catch live, does that make you proud?
Yeah, absolutely. Anytime anybody recommends what you do, it’s going to be humbling and flattering all at the same time.

Josh, thank you for talking to us.
Awesome. Thank you so much.

Also online @ The NewReview = http://thenewreview.net/interviews/the-chariot

Gig Review = http://johnskibeat.blogspot.com/2011/03/gig-review-chariot-nottingham-rock-city.html

Interview: Wino

Powerful handshake, body littered with timeworn tattoos and with a veritable sweep of gently whitening hair, there is no mistaking the legendary guitarist/vocalist Robert Scott Weinrich a.k.a. Wino. Slumped so deep into a sofa, he seems almost past the point of no return, yet he rouses enough of himself to reflect on his recent achievements, a mere scratch on the surface of his long association with what many would pigeon-hole as doom or stoner rock. The reality, as his latest slice of acoustic nostalgia is testament to, is something that is, on the face of it, impossible to define in such simple terms. So little time, so many questions. I managed to grab a few minutes before his Shrinebuilder show at the London Scala to ask just a few of them.

Are you enjoying your day so far?
Last day of the tour, it's been really fun. I've been on the road a long time before this tour so looking forward to a couple of days off.

Of course… supporting your solo album ‘Adrift’ in October?
Yeah, we did almost a two-month tour. Had about 10 days off back in L.A.

'Adrift' has just been released here. How much of yourself do you feel is in there?
Well it's a pretty personal record so I'd have to say a lot. The songs are my way of letting off steam a little bit. Also there a couple of songs on there that were written way back when I was, like, 16.

I love it but its acoustic bare-boned nature took me a little by surprise?
It's the first time I've done anything like that and it was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. It turned out to be a real challenge. All kinds of things like the different gauge picks you use for more string attack when you're recording it - you use a heavier pick, you hear more of that "kkk-kkk". All these things. At the same time the engineer we used, who's a friend of mine, is also a little bit of a strange guy. He wanted to do a lot of proselytising when we were recording, which was really annoying. I want him to give me my space but… y'know. We agreed to disagree about a lot of things [laughs]. So it was a little bit of a trial but, at the end, I was happy with things.

Did you enjoy the different recording processes required as opposed to an album recorded with St. Vitus or Shrinebuilder?
It was very different. Now, I think I've learned from it, so it was cool. So, not only am I proud of the record but it was also a good learning experience.

Do you think you'll have another crack at recording in that way?
I'm definitely going to do another one and I think now I won't be quite so apprehensive. I'm definitely going to prepare a bit more lyrically, 'cos the arrangements and the lyrics were a little bit of a hold-up. Most always, there are a few little lines that don't get finished until you're standing in front of a mic. A lot of the songs, we never played them live before we recorded. The optimal thing to do is to write a song, take it out on the road and play it live before you record. Sometimes you just don't have that luxury.

It was great to hear ‘Iron Horse/Born to Lose’ again and the way you’ve managed to reveal the lyrical content makes it that much more powerful. What was the thinking behind covering that song particularly?
I've always done that song because I've always loved that song. That version, anyway. The "On Parole" version of that song is pretty fucking old; Larry Wallis was playing guitar. After that, they did the first Motörhead album where they do that song, but I don't like that version. It's a real bluesy version. So that earlier version always grabbed me when I heard it, and I bought that record having never heard Motörhead ever. I bought it 'cos of the picture on the front. It just looks so badass, I thought it can't be bad. So, it's an easy song to play and I like the theme - motorbikes and the lifestyle - it's the ultimate fucking bike song.

Have you had a chance to hear what Lemmy thinks of it yet?
I haven't spoken to Lemmy about it yet, but I would like to play it for him at some point.

Why did you choose this particular album title?
That's kind of how I feel. I was having some domestic issues; I'm kind of estranged from my children, so it matched how I was feeling.

So, the UK’s been waiting with baited breath for Shrinebuilder. What was it like being upstaged by a volcano?
It was pretty fucked actually. We kept trying and trying to get in [to Europe]. Al Cisneros' [bassist/vocals] original idea was that if we came in over Africa we could have made it in, but then we might have never made it out so, after the first couple of shows we knew we couldn't make it in - the first four shows was like a third of the whole tour budget. We really wanted to play so that was really cold. Something good did come out of it though because, as we can get together so rarely, we used the extra time to go into rehearsal where we fleshed out our next record. We've now got way more than enough material, so we're in good shape. I think we're going to do a couple of other releases first. We're going to release a live album first before we go in and record which might not be until next November.

How did Shrinebuilder actually come together to record an album in the first place?
Well, the idea had been around for a little while, and then me and Al decided to slip the idea to Chris [Hiatkus] on drums. Then when Chris left Om he said it wouldn't quite be right for him, so that left just me and and Al. About that time Al had asked me about bringing in Scott Kelly (guitar/vocals) and I thought that was a great idea. Then we needed a drummer and basically all of us agreed that if we could have our dream drummer it would be Dale [Crover] and when he said "yes", we were pretty blown away. I think we'd been together about 6-7 months. The interesting thing is we never actually played together until the night before we went in the studio. It was either me and Dale, or me and Dale and Al, or Al and Dale, and then, finally, me and Al and Scott. The first time we all got together was midnight on a Thursday night and the next day we went in the studio. Three days later, we'd recorded the record, so it was pretty rad.

Three days is a pretty short time. It seems incredible that the individual styles of writing managed to fit together so rapidly and so perfectly.
A lot of cool stuff happened, a lot of serendipitous stuff. I was struggling with the lyrics for this riff that I'd bought to the table and Scott happened to call me at that exact moment and said "Hey man, I got some lyrics that might help you finish that song" so it was pretty amazing. Then Al had a piece that he'd tapped out that fit just perfectly. So everything on that first record is written by all of us - everyone has written a little piece of each song.

So a lot of it was written over the phone?
A lot of computer files sent to each other. It actually forced me to get little bit more computer-literate. But it's getting easier and easier now.

Immediately the supergroup label was slapped on you. Did that add pressure?
You know everybody needs words to describe stuff. That's how stoner rock came about and that's how heavy metal came about. I don't focus on this kind of stuff because it's not what I need to be focussing on. It's nice to be accepted though.

It's possibly because you've got four big fanbases that are all interested in this one project.
I think it's interesting that you point that out because there was a bit of a firestorm - there was this thing where the stonerrock.com guys didn't like the sound of Scott's voice and then the Neurosis people who didn't like my voice. That's pretty interesting actually. (Laughs) The stoners were hating on Scott and vice versa. It was pretty funny. I’ve never been in a band before with that style of vocals, and I'm not just saying this 'cos he's in my band, but he's one of the few screamers where I actually like it. Maybe it's the timbre of his voice.

How often are you getting to practice as a band?
We really don't get a lot of time. We rehearsed two days before this tour. Probably two sets a day. We probably practiced the songs three or four times each, if that. But we're pretty good at it. The one thing in our favour is that everybody's been around the block, it's easier to do things; nobody's got ego problems. There's no real problems like you'd get with a new band. We respect each other. Not that there's competition between us. When I was little kid I asked myself "How can bands as good as The Beatles possibly have broken up?" It just seemed unfathomable. When you're young what you don't realise is that people come into play here. You could be the best player in the world but if you act like an asshole you're gonna have problems, right?

So you say the second album is now all but written?
The ideas are finished.

Do you have, say, song titles yet?
Let's see - I'm not sure if I should do this - ah, I can give you a couple. One song is called In The Wake Of Zeus, we talk about the volcano, and another is called The Concept Of Now.

Thanks for the tip-offs. You've certainly whet my appetite for the show now! Have a good one.
My pleasure.

Thanks to Rich@Rich-E and Lauren@RarelyUnable

Also online @ TLOBF = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/12/tlobf-interview-wino/

Interview: Malefice

Malefice, the UK kings of groove-swaddled melodic metal, are generally to be found close to the meat… their first love… heavy music. Any fan of metal will have seen them loitering at the fringes of gigs or wandering the festival highways and byways. They’re learning from the best and, if their incredible live performances are anything to go by, they have been paying close attention. John Skibeat spotted them happily rooting around the backstage area of Sonisphere and grabbed guitarist Alex Vuskans for a chat.

How’s your day going so far?
Not well. I’m hanging out of my arse. I’m trying to drink to play well but it’s having the wrong effect. I’m just getting pissed again! I was running around, literally, with my pants off last night...

Full interview = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08/tlobf-interview-malefice/

Interview: 65daysofstatic @ Sonisphere 2010

Being strong advocates of playing live, 65days were never ones to turn down a hearty festival slot, but it still beggars belief that John Skibeat finds them preparing to play at a hard rock and heavy metal festival like Sonisphere! Joe Shrewsbury (vocals/guitar/keys) and Paul Wolinksi (guitar/keys) seemed almost as stunned as our interviewer.

You’ve played a wide range of festivals already but this must be the heaviest you’ve done so far.
Paul: Ever. We were quite surprised when we got the call ‘cos it is really heavy but as we’ve realised heavy metal music fans are fairly open-minded. Hopefully they’ll give us a break and we’ll get away with it!
Joe: We’re not going to pretend to be anything other than what we are.
Paul: We’re not going to get our Jacksons out and start down-tuning them.

You've played a wide range of festivals already but this must be the heaviest you've done so far.
Paul: Ever. We were quite surprised when we got the call 'cos it is really heavy but as we've realised heavy metal music fans are fairly open-minded. Hopefully they'll give us a break and we'll get away with it!
Joe: We're not going to pretend to be anything other than what we are.
Paul: We're not going to get our Jacksons out and start down-tuning them.

Are you changing the set-list at all to suit the occasion?
Joe: No. We're just gonna do what we do. We're loud too. We're certainly not going to be out-louded. We've got a lot of sub-bass, we may not be down-tuned but we certainly fill all the right frequencies.

Do you think it's an advantage or disadvantage to stand out from the other bands?
Paul: It's got its disadvantages on occasion but it's usually an advantage. We wouldn't want to sound like any other band. In the past we were probably quite stubborn about not sounding like anything else whatsoever. These days we've got a new appreciation of genre music which is a totally different discipline, but it's not for us. I think we'd get too restless.
Joe: We've got four heads. We do write together a lot so we have to find a middle ground between all that.

You seem to tour almost endlessly, cramming in hundreds of shows a year. Where does your desire to play live come from?
Joe: Well, firstly touring is our bread and butter and we're very lucky to love it. Long story short, we exist on a shoestring really so it makes sense for us to be on the road as much as possible. Also, until the last album, we always felt we represented ourselves best live. And it's a really great thing to do.
Paul: When you're locked away playing music it's really hard to know how useful you're being. It's quite a selfish thing being in a band and we want to know we're doing something that has an effect on other people. On the road, you get to experience that every single day. It's quite addictive really.
Joe: It's not like anything else. If you like it, you want more... like skag!

[Laughs all round]

The new album, 'We Were Exploding Anyways', is a whole new ball game to your previous material. Even your PR was claiming that you were "a band reborn". Where did the inspiration for it come from?
Joe: Oh, so many things.
Paul: It was a strange couple of years after our third album.
Joe: We're not a band that takes a concept into a studio. We're very hands-on. Our whole lives are the band. We've been doing it coming up to ten years so that really dictates everything we do. It would be hard to pinpoint a single inspiration. But we certainly felt that with 'The Destruction Of Small Ideas' we'd really side-stepped and explored a way of making music that was very satisfying in a studio sense but not in a live arena. The only thing we agreed on when we came back into the studio to write 'Exploding' was that we wanted to be the band that we were when we started who made people feel something visceral.
Paul: We wanted a record that could be recreated live from start to finish.
Joe: Except for Robert. He plays the only instrument on the album who doesn't turn up. [Joe and Paul exchange knowing smiles]

So, are there little bits of ideas taken from the dance music that you grew up on?
Paul: I kind of grew up listening to dance music instead of guitar music at first. Even when “65” started we didn't have a live drummer. It was all electronic beats and less weird time signatures. So it wasn't wholly new to us but, like I was saying before about genre music, listening to house music before and as we wrote this record revealed to me that you can use obvious rules in your favour. It's not cheating or being lazy, it's things that are effective. It's a totally different skill being inventive and being exciting within a genre. So we definitely pulled a lot from Daft Punk and Underworld and amateur producers.
Joe: To write something behind a 4-4 kick, and very little else, is actually a lot harder than to write melodies behind 5-4 time signatures which is what we've done in the past. So that was almost a learning curve for us. It was actually more about taking things out. 'Tiger Girl' is a really good example, because it came at the end of 18 months of writing when we'd already thrown out maybe 40 songs that we thought were old “65”. So we thought 4-4 kick and a melody and let's do what we want. So that was a really enjoyable song to write. That song is kind of an indulgence really.

How would you describe the album to someone who hadn't heard it yet?
Joe: Everything all at once... with no singing! [Laughs]
Paul: Hopefully not inaccessible. It's noisy but not without melody.
Joe: Mid-level band finding its place in the harsh face of stardom. [Laughs]

Robert Smith does guest vocals on 'Come To Me'. Did you write it specifically with him in mind?
Paul: Not at all. It came really late in the day. We were working on trying vocals in different songs but it didn't work. We'd tried recording it and abandoned it. It was finished and arranged but we just needed something to lift it. We talked about trying vocals on this and we were thinking about which vocalists we knew. We know Robert Smith.

From your tour with The Cure?
Paul: Yeah. So we thought, send him an email, what's the worst that can happen. And he said “yes”. He didn't come to the studio 'cos we were busy, so we sent him some tracks and he recorded them in his studio. He sent them back a few days later and said we could do what we want with them - which is cool in itself, because he's very precious about everything he's involved in. So to get permission to cut him up and cover it in distortion was... well... he liked it!
Joe: We didn't want to do it just to have his name on the record. We wanted it to fit; to sound right.

Have you any plans where to take your music in the future?
Joe: We never have a plan. I don't think people believe us when we say that. Schedule-wise, we know… but we never know what we're going to write. And this time, we really mean it.

So the next album could be heavy metal after all!?
Joe: Yeah, we could write a metal album! Could be anything. I think we're still enamoured with the idea of how to write a good pop song without it compromising the integrity of your music. I don't know if there is a way.

Also online @ TLOBF = http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/08/tlobf-interview-65daysofstatic

Interview: Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage have been spreading the good word since 1999, and not even the founding member, bassist Mike D’Antonio, thought the band would be this successful. Now, with their fifth studio album out (their second that is self-titled) and showing distinct signs of experimentation and progression, they have brought the KsE roadshow back to Europe. John Skibeat and Rich Etteridge managed to catch up with bassist Mike D’Antonio to discuss gall bladders, Amsterdam, NYHC and ‘sports rage’.

You just got back from touring South America. What was that like?
Totally amazing. Blew our minds. I don't know why we hadn't done it sooner but we'll definitely be doing it again. Rabid fans really excited to see the bands, some of the loudest singalongs we've ever had - it was just very heart-warming.

You had to reschedule some dates due to illness?
Yeah. Howard [Jones, vocals] had some sort of surgery.

Gall stone?
Yeah, that was it. He is such a 'man', when he has a serious illness he just let's it go and go and go and doesn't go and see a doctor because he thinks it will fix itself. He let this thing go to far where they just admitted him straight into a hospital and he spent 12 days there. All his organs started to simultaneously shutdown on him. His liver stopped working, various things just said "okay, we're done, go get some help you idiot" so he got help.

He's feeling better now?
Yep, he's lost some weight to boot. Maybe that's the way to lose weight, girls.

Now you're just a few days into headlining the European Taste Of Chaos tour. Quite a bit different from your last tour then?
It is. We've done this tour before. We've toured with In Flames before, we've toured with Every Time I Die before. We feel at home. It's a tour that's run very, very well. It's very orderly. The same people that do the Vans Warped Tour and the Mayhem Fest so we know them pretty well.

When you're out on the road do you slip into a routine or do you make each day as different as possible?
It's pretty hard to make each day as different as possible. It's like Groundhog Day every day. The only cool part is playing in front of the fans. There's a lot of nothing, a lot of internet, searching the same sites over and over again because there's nothing better to do. Got interviews, eating, there's always food to take your mind off what's going on.

You don't have crazy Thursday or Mad Tuesday or anything?
I wish there was both those things. Maybe I'll introduce something like that.

What time do you get up?
As late as possible. Which means going to sleep as late as possible - maybe 4am, waking up about 1 in the afternoon. And then press starts about 3 and then you go straight in to do that. A lot of the venues are in the middle of nowhere so it's not like you can walk around and sightsee. Today was cool though - did some shopping. It was very cold though which is another thing that makes you not want to do a lot.

Do you ever get lost?
That's part of the thing. Out in Amsterdam it's pretty easy to get lost what with all those canals. That can get pretty spooky if you're in the wrong part of town.

Sharing a coach with Adam [Dutkiewicz, guitar] must be quite an experience. Is he the same off stage as he is on it?
Yeah, there's no difference. Sometimes a little hard to take, but it's fun to have someone who's always in good spirits all the time, laughing constantly - both fun and a headache at the same time.

The line-up for this tour is an interesting mixture. Is there anything you do different when in this situation to help you stand out?
On this one, we don't really have to. I think people know what to expect. I think it's diverse enough that it's not really the same thing over and over again. On the Warped Tour, or something like that, where all the people play punk and stuff like that, radio-pop stuff, we tend to go for the heaviest music that we've written. That makes you stand out a real lot - blow 'em away with some metal. If you're a metal band why play it safe and do the same thing as everybody else. Go for the throat.

Do you vary the set-list over the tour to help keep it fresh?
We have a new one for this tour. We'd like to include a lot of the video songs, a lot of people have paid to come see us play certain songs and we wouldn't wanna disappoint anybody, but there are variables in the set and there's a few songs in the mix that we switch around each night, just to make it different for people who come along two nights in a row. We played Scotland and then, two days later, we played Newcastle, so we switched it around then 'cos they're pretty close together.

You are over here touring the album. Why did you self-title it again?
There was a bunch of different titles we could have chosen but nothing was glaringly great, and since we're a band that needs to agree on everything, we couldn't really agree on one. The idea of possibly self-titling it again came up. I thought it was preposterous but everyone else said it was a good idea, so, in the interest of getting the cover done (it's my job to get the graphic design done) I just said okay. Done. I got the ball rolling to finish that up, as it was a strenuous month to two month process, and it was down to the wire and I needed a name on this thing to get it out the door, so that was pretty much it.

So it wasn't because you felt you'd made significant changes with the sound of the band or...
Well, I guess, theoretically, that would be the proper way to answer the question but, if you want the truth... [Laughs all round]

So, you've got your own design company. How's that going?
It's good. Right now, economic trouble has made the business a little bit slow but it will pick up again. Right now, I have nothing to do and I usually have so much to do, so these boring times seem extra boring. Still, peaks and valleys.

You've spoken previously about redefining your sound for this album. How did that affect the writing process?
Writing process is mainly people bringing demos to practice. Since I don't play guitar, I kind of learned how to play guitar to bring demos. It’s a lot easier if you bring a demo with the drums, bass and guitars sort of in place, rather than just walking in and saying "I got a riff and it sounds like this". I write in GarageBand a lot - you don't require any mics or amps, you just plug straight into a Mac computer. It's real fast. If you have ideas in your head at 12 at night, you just run your computer, record it real quick. Listen to it back the next day, splice a few riffs together, it's really fast and easy to do. That was my favourite part of the whole thing. If you're missing one riff, then 9 times out of 10, someone's got a pretty good idea of what's supposed to come next.

So it's more of a collaborative process than before?
The collaboration certainly helps. I Will Do Anything, from this album, is the first song I wrote for Killswitch from beginning to end without any help from any of the guys. Usually someone will give me one or two riffs to keep me going but that feels pretty good to be able to write a full song. Adam brings, like, 5 complete songs to practice and goes "Here!" and you're like "What? 5 songs? How are we gonna keep up with that?" Then he'll come back the next day with five more and go "Here! Let's write a record". For some people, it's a lot easier than for others.

What was the thinking behind asking Brendan O'Brien to produce?
Every record we do, Roadrunner comes up with an idea of trying something different. We thought the fifth album was a good time to do that. We got enough of a back catalogue to try and experiment a little bit. Brendan O'Brien was actually a fan of the band and he asked if we needed his services. It felt like a really good idea, there are a lot of cool bands that have recorded with him. We specifically were hoping that he could take Howard under his wing and help push the lyrics along in a few different directions. I think that was the one outcome that we were most happy with. He had Howard singing in different ranges and expanding some of his lyrical content some more. A lot catchier, I think.

You played the Download Festival again this year. They had changed the location of the stages since your last epic visit in 2007. For better or worse?
I liked it better just because we didn't have to get trucked a lot of places and our dressing room was kinda near the stage. Rather than having to drive all over the place and leave 20 minutes before you're supposed to [go on] and everything, it just seemed more organised. I got to see a lot of friends that I hadn't seen in a long while too. Usually it's just get to the stage, there's nobody else there, play the stage, go back to the hotel, a little impersonal. The best part it was sunny! I've never played Download when it was sunny.

What bands did you enjoy growing up, the stuff that made you want to be a musician?
I loved New York hardcore when I was a kid. Madball, Agnostic Front, Leeway, Bad Brains, stuff like that. It's stuff I still listen to today to get inspiration. I don't think anything has come close to some of that 80s to early 90s spirit. Back then there was the line where "this is metal, this is hardcore" and then this whole blurring section that they just kept pushing, pushing. Now it's like there's no line at all and it's all just one lump. Back then, it was like trying to take hardcore to the next level by adding this metallic influence. Not nearly enough genres are getting pushed to the next level these days.

When you're not touring what pastimes do you enjoy?
Graphic design, playing with my two pug puppies, video games (Left 4 Dead 2 just came out on the Xbox, it rules), PSP when I'm on the road, horror movies, skateboarding. Baseball is pretty much my only team sport. There's a big rivalry on our bus between Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees fans and people get so bent out of shape it's hard not to be a fan of watching the 'sports rage' on our bus. It's better than any TV you'll ever see.

Didn't the Yankees win the World Series this year?
Yankees did win this year. I have heard a lot about it. There's not been a break in the gloating that's gone on from our drummer and our sound guy!

Photo by Rich E

Interview: Sick Of It All

Sick Of It All are New York hardcore legends. From their inception, way back in 1984, the band have always stayed true to their original sound, playing it hard and fast at underground music clubs, like the renowned CBGB’s, keeping things simple and steadily building a mighty loyal following. Such is their status that in 2007 a tribute album to the band, entitled ‘Our Impact Will Be Felt’ was released - there certainly wasn’t a shortage of big-name admirers who wanted in on the project. They’ve recently toured with AFI and The Departed and are due back in the studio in 2008 to record a new album. With a UK tour on the horizon, Subba’s John Skibeat caught up with guitarist Pete Koller to find out just what motivates them.

Twenty-two years now and you’re still going at it hell for leather. Is there a place where you draw a line and say enough or will you be rocking it with your zimmer-frames?
Well as long as we all take care of ourselves we can keep going. This is what I love to do, I don't think I would be happy doing any thing else. So, I'm going to do my best to keep it going.

I’ve heard you sometimes take on part-time jobs to fill the gaps between touring and recording. How does this arrangement suit you guys?
I have not worked a regular job in many years. This band is a full time job.

The tribute album to the band, ‘Our Impact Will Be Felt’, features legendary bands like Sepultura and Napalm Death. How cool was it that guys like these contributed to the project?
It was a great honour. We are friends with all these bands and glad that they helped out.

There’s a new album in the pipeline. How’s it shaping up?
It's shaping up slowly right now. We have a few more tours and then when that's over with we can work full-time on the new stuff. I have a few songs already.

Is it still full of political angst like your last album ‘Death To Tyrants’ featured?
This being an election year, I'm sure of it!

You’ve been credited with inventing the Braveheart, also known as the Wall Of Death. How did that come about?
Well, we didn’t actually invent it. We just re-introduced it to the people.

Who exactly are ‘The Alleyway Crew’?
We are the Alleyway crew - the guys in the band. We got the name because we use to hang out in this alleyway in Queen’s; drinking, smoking and joking around. We where kids, we had nowhere else to go. Our friends down at CBGB's would call us that and it stuck.

As one of the longest standing and still most popular bands proudly waving the flag of New York how proud does that make you feel?
It warms my heart. It's a great feeling that people relate to us so much that they stick with us for so long.

You were pretty hardcore when you first started out. How do you feel your music has changed over the years?
Well, we all learned how to play better, write music better
and how to get our thoughts down on paper.

You’re about to start a UK tour in some tiny venues. Are you looking forward to getting to close to the fans as much as the UK fans are to you!?
Oh yes, I love the show in the UK. The people are great fun. Can't wait!

Which bands are you currently into?
Death Before Dishonour and Blood Clot.

Which of your many gigs has been your favourite and why?
The show we just played in NYC. The place was packed and everyone was going crazy. It was a great show.

Finally, on tour do you still stay up drinking into the small hours like you used to or are you all tucked up in bed with a good book and mug of cocoa?
Well most of us stay up drinking and acting the fool but I go to bed early. I got to get to the gym the next morning!

Thanks for your time. Happy touring!
OK, see ya at the shows.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/features/article.php?contentID=12936

Interview: Turisas

Finnish Viking metal, folk rock, battle metal or just plain comedy romping? Labeling a band like Turisas is hard-going. Their influences are wide-ranging and seem to come from many different art forms. They utilise clever orchestration, multiple instrument parts and inject pomp and vigour into everything they do. Yet they don furs and leather, smear their bodies with red and black paint each time they take the stage, and inspire their audience to carry fearsome weapons to shows. They sing songs of historical events, personal crises and then switch to drinking songs and dancing. I boarded the Turisas tour-bus to find out more and discovered the lead singer, Warlord AKA Mathias Nygård, almost unrecognisable sans war-paint and battle armour, alone and sitting comfortably in front of his laptop.

We’re here a few hours before you take the stage. How are you feeling?
I’m feeling alright. The days are just disappearing. There’s a lot of stuff to do. It’s waking up, trying to get stuff sorted and then going on stage. Everything’s been good so far except the constant compromise factor. It’s always a bit of a compromise.

Have you ever played Norwich before?
No. I’ve heard the pre-sales were pretty good.

There are guys out front in furs with swords already.
Yeah. It’s really proving to be a good choice to tour the UK more extensively than most bands do.

Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Actually, no. I remember discussing it with Iced Earth when we were on tour with them last Autumn and they all kind of get everybody together and scream at each other. But at the end of the day, when you’re in a hurry and you lose your lucky underwear, or something, you can fuck up the show because of the placebo effect, so we kind of, by intention avoid doing all that.

Do you all drink before the show or do you prefer to perform with a clear head?
There are bands who can do five weeks of being completely wasted all the time but for us we are here to play the shows in the end, not to party, so it’s the priority. We can’t afford to come all the way to Norwich and cancel or do a shit show because somebody’s wasted so we’re kind of dedicated in that sense.

Tell us about John Coulthard’s awesome cover artwork for ‘The Varangian Way’ album. How did that all come about?
We were kinda balling around with some ideas and I didn’t want what you’d expect, the nice painted image of warriors or skulls. It could have been full of clichés and conservative but we wanted something more graphical. So our A&R at Century Media put out a few links and stuff. The funny thing was we were sitting in the studio already thinking of about how we wanted the cover. We wanted something that included the journey and that, and the first draft sketches we did ourselves were of a ship coming out of the picture towards you and John Coulthard did his first sketches completely independently and came up with the same thing. When he sent them to us it was, like, yeah, this is probably gonna work.

How did you come to do a cover of Boney M’s ‘Rasputin’?
(Laughs) There’s this strange ferry that runs between Finland and Sweden or Finland and Estonia. It’s not that popular anymore and before the EU and the strong taxation stuff it was used to be that booze was actually cheaper when it was in open water, no man’s land, and people used to go there to buy cheap alcohol and get wasted. It was kind of like a floating discotheque, basically. I was in the bar on my way to Sweden back in 2000 or 2001 listening to this 70’s cover band playing Bee Gees and Abba and then they blasted Boney M’s Rasputin and it just struck me that this would work really well in a different format. But it still took a few years before we started playing it live and then it was such a success that we decided to record it.

Do you have any plans to cover any other songs?
Well, yes, there is some. But then we don’t want to end up being a covers jukebox band. We haven’t had time to fiddle around as we’ve had to concentrate on the priority stuff but when we find time to do something there are some ideas there.

Turisas, the Finnish god of war. Are you actually violent people at heart?
No, we are Princes! (Laughs all round) People expect you to be two metres tall and somehow the expectation from the stage appearance is so different that people don’t recognise us.

Actually, we watched some of you guys just go outside in front of the fans for a cigarette and we were like “nobody knows it’s them!”
In that way it’s not intentional, we don’t dress up to hide ourselves, but it is relaxing that we can go and, maybe, see the band playing their set before us or have a cigarette outside and take it easy. That’s quite cool.

How did you get the nickname, Warlord?
It’s probably something to do with me being in charge of most things with the band. Up until recently I’ve been doing everything from song-writing to management - I’m kind of, like, the mum of the band. I like to keep myself busy.

Your music is such an interesting mixture of genres. Where does it come from?
That’s hard to say. As a kid, I liked, Manowar, but we’re not, like, the updated version of that. I guess, heavy metal in general has a lot of these same elements as pompous classical music or music from, what I guess you’d call, the romantic period.

Do you listen then to a lot of classical music?
I listen to all sorts of music. I’m not a big metal-head at all. I’ll listen to metal but I also listen to pop. Everybody in the band has a broad taste in music and everybody has a slightly different musical background. Olli, of course, comes from a classically-trained and, then, jazz background - others from more of a heavy metal background.

Considering the drama you inject into your music are you really a thespian at heart?
I wouldn’t say I’m a really good actor or anything but I really appreciate all sorts of stage art, be it musicals or theatre. I used the perfect word for this recently. The word is ‘holistic’. I’m not sure if it translates directly into English, but it’s the belief that the particles that form something together are bigger than the value of the parts by themselves. It’s like combining the sound with visuals and everything coming together. I can get really bitchy when it’s not right because it has to fit with the concept behind the song. I’m really impressed when I go to see, say, opera or ballet or something, when all the stage settings can move in seconds. That’s really cool.

Have you ever thought of doing a film score or music for theatre?
That would be really cool. I’m somewhat bad, though, at working on demand. I usually get too personal with things and the perfectionism turns on and that can be a bad thing when you need to be productive. I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with things being just alright. I’d never be able to finish anything.

Any other influences?
There’s a lot of bullshit in heavy metal. I usually get ideas from something different. When you get the ‘wow’ moment it can be from anything. It might be a band or a book or something else that really impresses you. I’ve always had a hard time understanding when a band, especially jazz bands actually, records an album and somebody just puts their photograph on the cover. They don’t care about the cover it’s all about the music. To me when I go to a store and buy a the album it’s all about the moment when you take out the CD, flip through the booklet a bit, and all those visuals and music come together to form the full picture. I don’t even want to go into music videos! (Laughs) It might be distracting if something doesn’t fit which is why you have to work with graphic artists or something. I had really long discussions with John Coulthard about each song on the album so that when you hear the song and the image together it all fits. So instead of him just painting Viking ships, or whatever, he had to be really deeply involved and know what each song is about down beneath. Then he can paint a picture that can support that and so the final product is just the tip of the iceberg of the work that’s gone into it.

How was Hard Rock Hell in November?
It was fun. With all the full carpets and everything it reminded me a bit of the floating discotheque ferries I talked about. There was something really kitschy about the whole thing. People kept asking in interviews about what we thought of Minehead and Butlins and “isn’t it a bit weird?” but I think everyone who went secretly enjoyed the odd setting with the ‘Bob The Builder’ train-tracks and the miniature golf, the bowling and slot machines. So the show was really cool and the setting was really different from other festivals.

How has the tour been so far?
I’ve been told I have to cut down on all the blabbering I do on stage. I don’t think we’ve kept a gig curfew yet. When you actually hear the people outside, dressing up, chanting the name of the bands outside the doors, you know it’s going to be good and so far every show’s been a killer.

You included a karaoke version of ‘To Holmgard and Beyond’ on the recent extended version of the new album. You’re not afraid of going that extra step?
We could perform the same songs in many different ways. We could turn the lights on and sit on bar chairs and play the songs or we could dress up. I mean, they have face paint and spikes in the black metal scene but they always have to keep to their image whereas we can go on stage and have a real laugh about ourselves. It makes a real difference. We don’t want to be a comedy band or novelty act. In the studio we’re serious but on stage everybody’s there to have a good night out. Some of them won’t care about the historical concept or the images matching the music, they’re just want to have a few beers and have a good time. Nowadays, the record labels need you have to release these bonus tracks. The eight tracks on the album took us six months! It’s not like I’m going to write six more bonus tracks, we’re not able to do that, so we have to come up with different kind of material to do that bonus stuff. It’s too much work for just one of our tracks. It’s all the way or nothing with our music.

Your current takes you right around Europe. Where are you best received other than at home?
Probably, in the UK. It’s kind of different in Finland. A year ago nobody cared about us as metal is mainstream. When the album was released it was in the Top 40 album charts nine weeks in a row. The Finnish people take a lot of notice of what happens in the UK and when we got big here they got a bit jealous, I guess, and in the last year or so it’s really picked up back home too. Benelux is quite big as well. Germany is huge but you get smaller crowds so you can’t compare with the success we’ve had in the UK.

What music are you currently playing on the tour bus?
Shit! I think it was Abba last night which is not shit but there are not that many metal tracks. It’s been 80’s stuff on the playlist recently with the Norther guys taking care of the DJ-ing. They have that extra one and a half hours to get drunk so they are already having there party when we turn up. And we’re like “Where’s the beer?” That’s the negative side of headlining.

Can you direct me to the best shop for animal furs and Viking weapons so I can come better equipped for the next show?
For animal furs you will end up spending a lot of money and Viking swords you won’t get in, so I’d advise you to do as many of the kids seem to be doing and bring plastic axes and swords, use mummy’s make-up set and any fake fur you can find here and there.

Thanks very much, Mathias. Have a good show!
Thank you. Cheers.

Thanks to Sarah @ Century Media for helping set up the interview.

Also online @ Subba-Cultcha = http://www.subba-cultcha.com/features/article.php?contentID=12954