The first interview of the day was with Straight Line Stitch. I’ll be honest, I had only recently begun listening to the band. I listened to their album The Fight of Our Lives only days before attending the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, but it only took a few songs for me to appreciate this band. I’ve always been a fan of metalcore, and I’ll admit I’m a bit of a sucker for female vocals. Alexis and Seth are both very cool people. They had to actually come outside the venue for the interview (God forbid the press passes get released on time). Unfortunately I missed their set, but I’m sure it was pretty baller. Interview after the jump!
Soundcheck Rage: MWR interviews The Sword’s Kyle Shutt
Independent internet bloggers don’t always get to conduct interviews in optimum conditions. Sometimes rooms are dark, it’s not very quiet, and since I make a college students’ living, I don’t own very sophisticated recording equipment (yet). And sometimes all of those poor conditions rear their ugly heads at once and make an interview very hard to conduct. This was the case on July 21st when I interviewed The Sword’s guitarist Kyle Shutt. However, despite the poor conditions and having to edit out a good portion of the interview, this one still turned out pretty cool. The video quality is awful, but you can still understand what we’re talking about. What’s really lame is that the best part of the interview had to get cut simply because the local act was started their soundcheck halfway through the interview. It’s not like they were trying to sabotage my interview, but it still sucks being a victim of circumstance. Check it out after the jump.
I’m back, and I’ve got a sweet interview with Dethklok’s Brendon Small to share!
What a shitty month!
Sorry for my unannounced hiatus, I had to take time off to find work, and to travel (I’m a debate coach, dude, I’ve got a lot of stuff to do). However, I am back in gear for the summer, and what better way to kick it off than with a totally ballin’ interview with Brendon Small. You might have heard of him, he made a couple of cartoons. One is Home Movies, a great toon from [adult swim]’s glory days. The other is Metalocalypse, and if you’re reading my website and haven’t seen that show, shame on you.
Brendon is a really rad dude, from what I can tell. He left a meeting so he could do this interview, which is not something you’d expect from a celebrity of his status.
I did this interview a few months back, but as it usually goes for me, I only recently got time to transcribe and format everything. We talked about Mayhem Fest, the future of Metalocalypse, and his upcoming solo record (yeah, that’s right, a solo record). Check out the full interview after the jump!
Softball Questions: Metal with Reason interviews Between the Buried and Me again!
So, as you might have figured out from my interview with Job for a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy, I went to see the Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues tour last weekend. It was easily one of the best live shows I’ve had the pleasure of attending, as every show featuring Between the Buried and Me usually is. Their live performance is something that will melt your face and leave you with nothing but respect for those guys. I haven’t seen a packed venue sing along as loudly as those folks were in Michigan. Feels good man.
After arriving at the venue, I was led to the basement where the band was hanging out after their sound check. I planned on doing a pretty informative, professional interview, but if you know anything about the members of BTBAM, you know they’re pretty funny dudes, and this interview was no exception. The whole thing immediately turned into lots of joking around, as well as BTBAM trolling the hell out of me. Check it out afte the jump!
Alright guys, here’s part two of my incredibly long interview with Tetrafusion’s J.C. Bryant. In this installment we discuss things ranging from touring to some of our favorite bands, as well as the history of Tetrafusion. Check it out after the jump!
DOOM & GLOOM: MWR interviews Job for a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy
Last weekend my friend Sam and I drove all the way to Pontiac, MI for the Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues Tour, featuring The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and the mighty Between the Buried and Me. The show was absolutely phenomenal, of course, and totally worth losing my job. Yep, I’m unemployed now, and I did it all for metal. Talk about dedication!
[Sam’s getting really good at taking live shots.]
Anyway, I’ll do a post about the tour later, but first I want to bring you the interview with Jonny Davy, vocalist for Job for a Cowboy. Jonny has earned a reputation in metal for having one of the most powerful and extreme voices out there, and as a longtime fan of JFAC, I was excited to finally get to talk to him. PLUS, since my bro Sam came along for the ride, we were able to film the interview! None of that boring transcribed crap. We talked about the tour, their upcoming EP, and tons of other totally ballin’ stuff.
How about that title card, dudes? Things are starting to look slightly more professional, am I right? Whatever, I think Plato and Aristotle discussing metal is awesome.
-Jake
Prog Jazz Fusion, bro!: Pt. 1 of MWR’s interview with Tetrafusion’s J.C. Bryant
Finally! I can write again! This is great. I’ve been going crazy not having enough free time to write for you guys, but the wait was worth it. I’ve got great stuff coming this week.
First up: the first installment of my interview with Tetrafusion’s drummer J.C. Bryant! We had a very lengthy, awesome talk a few months back. As I began transcribing the interview, I started to realize it was going to be about 22 pages in length, and let’s face it: no one’s going to read a 22 page interview in one sitting. So instead of dumping the whole thing on here in one post, I’m gonna break it up into a few smaller parts. I use the term ‘smaller’ very lightly here. Like I said this thing is still about 22 pages long.
Anyway, you can read part 1 of my epic interview with J.C. after the jump. We talked about things ranging from band history to high school debate. Whoa, man.
New Dredg in ‘11! MWR interviews Dredg’s Gavin Hayes
The same day as the Tosin Abasi interview, I was lucky enough to get to sit down and chat with Gavin Hayes, vocalist for the not-so-metal band Dredg. Much like Muse, Maserati, and Circa Survive, Dredg are one of those bands that isn’t quite metal, but more often than not metalheads will find something to love about them.
I had my good friend Cody film the interview, however we had to use my backup camera, which had some issues and messed up a lot of footage. Luckily I turned on my recorder and caught all of the audio, so the missing video has been replaced with some hilarious title cards. Seriously, it’s like I write comedy or something.
Anyway, here’s the full interview.
Video: MWR’s 2nd Interview with Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi
The epic tour consisting of CODESEVEN, Animals as Leaders, Dredg and Circa Survive just wrapped up, and while I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t get the chance to check it out, I was excited when I found out Dredg and Animals as Leaders would be doing an off-date in Indianapolis on Nov. 30th. I obviously jumped at the chance for interviews, and was very excited when Tosin Abasi agreed to let us have a few minutes to chat.
I interviewed Tosin on the tour bus he was sharing with the rest of Animals as Leaders, as well as Dredg. I brought my good friend Chris Bowser along to film, as well as to ask his own questions.
Check out the video below for the full interview. Among other things, we talked about upcoming tours, recording plans, music philosophy, and Bowser discussed guitar technique and gear.
Jake Lentz is old: MWR’s interview with We Came as Romans’ Josh Moore
Let me first say that whenever I use the term “scene band” I mean no condescension. It’s merely a term I use to describe a band whose main demographic is teenage scene kids. Nothing wrong with that. We can all agree that objectively, there are a lot of bands out there that fall into this category. Personally, most of it is not really my cup of tea, but love it or hate it, a ton of kids out there are buying into it. It’s not that I think the music is lacking or bad (although with every genre of music comes its own swarm of mediocrity), I just don’t dig it. I’m not entirely sure why, other than I just don’t like it. Maybe I’m too old. Similarly, I don’t feel like I should have to explain why We Came as Romans are among the best and most promising of the ‘scene’ bands. Their album To Plant a Seed on Equal Vision Records is an absolute home run if you ask me. Sure, it’s got all the hooks you’d expect of a band this young (I’m older than the whole band, to give you an idea): copious breakdowns, synth-laden techno breaks, anthemic singalongs, tons of clean vocals (for the ladies, of course), and to top it off they all look the part too. Check out their video for To Plant a Seedhere. Embedding is disabled. Bummer, dude. The video looks great, though. It displays the conceptual design of the song really well, and the special effects they used are pretty sweet. What makes WCAR stand out to me is their attention to detail. To Plant a Seed is a very well written conceptual album, and the concept behind it is one that I find hard to hate. These guys stand out because they have a true passion for what they’re doing, complemented with equal parts creativity and proficiency. We Came as BROmans.
A couple months back I had the pleasure of seeing WCAR in Indianapolis thanks to the wonderful people at Equal Vision Records, and they hooked me up with Josh Moore, guitarist and founding member, for an interview. And of course, as soon as my classes started up, I had no time to write. But things are winding down (finally!) so better late than never, I suppose! Read it after the jump.
I created this blog to share interviews, reviews, and other writeups about heavy metal, and occasionally something only tangentially metal related.. I also wanted to put forth a more logical approach to metal. Too many people out there want to spout their opinions without warranting them with evidence, so I'm here to make sure someone brings some logic to the table.
