Space Truckin- The Devil Wears Prada

Posted on August 4, 2015 by newsteam

2015 became a year of changes that helped push forward the evolution of The Devil Wears Prada and their ever growing sound. They spent this past summer opening up on the main stage of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival across North America and being their second time on this tour and so far they love their time on it.

“We did Mayhem in 2012. We were rotating, but when we opened the main stage, which was a third of the tour – it was us, Motorhead, Slayer and Slipknot. So we had that before,” said vocalist Mike Hranica, about his previous Mayhem Fest experience.

“There’s really no band more intimidating to open for than Slayer. Slayer fans are Slayer fans. I think it’s a little bit easier because on the first tour, the fans have to wait a while until they get Slayer. Gary [Holt] was around for a little bit when we last toured with them or last played Mayhem. [He] was really cool. I didn’t really meet anyone else in the band.”

“Yeah I don’t care. I love Slayer. I was on a serious Slayer kick all of June, looking forward to coming back with South Of Heaven and Reign In Blood every day.”

Mike Hranica of The Devil Wears Prada. Photo Credit: Dane Burns (via Facebook)

The band is about to release their much talked about Space EP (out August 21, 2015) and are excited to be sharing it with the world. This is their first new recording since their 2013’s 8:18 album, and the band enjoyed the creative aspects of their new recording.

“Very intentionally I felt like we really enjoyed how people received the Zombie EP, which was a huge part of why we wanted to do another one plus enjoying making [the Zombie EP] so much,” said Hranica.

“This time around, I wanted more identity per song. We had the five songs for the Zombie EP and I gave them a theme. The lyrics were there but I still felt that they were particularly interchangeable. With this EP, each song was meant to work within its mood and a lot of the demos and the riffs that we would start and begin with, John [Gering, keyboardist] and I would really try to incorporate the keys to work with the theme very specifically.”

Bassist Andy Trick and guitarist jeremy DePoyster of The Devil Wears Prada (via Facebook).

“With a song like ‘Moongod’ was meant to have a moon wind vibe, like you would imagine that desolate vibe. That wasn’t really something we worked too hard on the Zombie EP and something we wanted to have a part of the piece with the Space EP. That was a big point of that business going into writing the Space EP.”

“We also have a friend of ours who’s writing stuff with us now and that brings a key point into a new fresh viewpoint into it,” added bassist Andy Trick.

Finding new ideas to infuse into The Devil Wears Prada’s sound without sounding stale becomes quite the challenge, but the members are always up for it. They have found new ways to stimulate their creativity and making eps is one way to do so.

“We all grow and it shows in the music. But for example, on the Space EP that’s coming out, it’s a way to challenge ourselves by focus efforts for five or six songs – doing something different,” said Trick.

“We haven’t that spent much time outside of different producers, and I think that helps. We did a Record Store Day release – a seven inch single and the EP (South of the City seven inch) like Andy said. We like to not do full length after full length. I think that’s part of our formula,” added Hranica.

Prior to the making of the Space EP, the band went through lineup changes as their longtime guitarist Chris Rubey left the band and was replaced by Kyle Sipress. While lineup shuffles is not common in their band history, each change has worked in their favor.

“We kicked out our keyboardist (James Baney) years ago and Jon’s [Gering] been working with us since then. At around Halloween, our guitarist Chris [Rubey] decided to leave the band and stay home with him wife and kid, which is now Kyle [Sipress], which he is now playing guitar with us now.”

“The Space EP is the first time writing without Chris and writing with Kyle, which was a lot of fun. I think that goes back to keeping things fresh. He definitely was a big part of the challenge and it’s refreshing,” said Hranica, about the lineup changes.

Dan Williams of The Devil Wears Prada (via Facebook)

Another change was their return to Rise Records, where the band had released their first two albums (2006’s Dear Love: A Beautiful Discord and 2007’s Plagues). Hranica talked about their reasons behind the label change and how much the label had grown since being on that label.

“A big part of moving back to Rise…we loved Roadrunner and working with the guys we got to, but I feel any band should move labels and expand between street teams and around media and what not. That’s part of also about going back to Rise is that their online presence is massive. It’s important obviously for today’s day and age. It’s a totally different world than when we first signed with them in 2006.”

“We know Craig [Ericson] really well. We know Sean [Heydorn] really well. It’s also we also know the exact equation of what’s happening at the label and how things are occurring. So it’s a matter of comfort, as complacent as it may seem. It’s circumstances more so than comfortable and familiar with, and that refreshing for us. Especially we have those discussions as far as whether we should put out our own record. Going from that and really talking about that. Dan [Williams], our drummer is really into that. Going from that into where you’re handling everything or we could work with a label, where we know who’s handling it and what’s going on. That was an important part of going back to Rise.”

Kyle Sipress of The Devil Wears Prada. Photo Credit: Alex Matthews (via Facebook)

With the band releasing the Space EP, Hranica clarified that this was strategically done with intentions of a full length release in the works.

“We did three full lengths and the EP, and another two full lengths and an EP. Before the end of this year, we’re going to solidify more songs. We’re sitting on a bunch of demos with riffs. I think by the end of this year, maybe November or something. We’re going to all get in a room together and start concentrating on the next full length.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Zombies and Dinosaurs Everywhere- MC Lars

Posted on August 4, 2015 by newsteam

MC Lars. Photo Credit: Nick Karp.

The oddity subgenre of nerdcore was once again represented at this year’s Vans Warped Tour, as Bay Area native MC Lars has made his way to bring his upbeat style of rhyming that a new breed a fans have grown to appreciate, as he is about to drop his latest album The Zombie Dinosaur LP.

He is excited to be taking part of this tour once again and shows immediately how excited he is to be part of this tour. “This is my third full summer. I always come to see it. Shout out to Kevin Lyman. One of the things is awesome is his nephew Evan is a big supporter. So that helps. Any time I get asked to do it, if I can I’d do it. There’s nothing like it and it’s so crazy. This year’s there’s so many new artists. It’s so weird to be like ‘oh yeah I’ve been doing this since 2011.’ It’s dope.”

On previous Warped Tours, he has collaborated with Weerd Science, the hip hop side project of Coheed and Cambria drummer Josh Eppard. The two of them had collaborated on recordings in the past and he shared his thoughts on his earlier years on the tour with him.

“My man Josh [Eppard] – he’s back in Coheed and Cambria. We’re thinking about doing more stuff together. That was really fun working with him because he’s such a great rapper, a great lyricist and a good guy. He’s crazy but I think all brilliant artists are crazy. Did you hear his Red Light Juliet II? Check it out. It’s great.”

“I think Warped Tour showed the Coheed guys he’d gotten his life back together. This tour’s so hard that if you could do it, it’s symbolic.”

Sticking to subjects ranging from video games and pop culture than the hard streets, MC Lars has lit up crowds over the years with his much talked about style fusing his vast knowledge of pop culture and literature with his laptop style hip hop. He talks about his upcoming album.

“The record is called the Zombie Dinosaur LP and it comes out October 6th. So it’s kind of like the mythical beast, dragons, [and] dinosaurs. The album has a lot of mythological references. I’ve been at this since 2003. I’ve seen the whole world change. I’m still lucky I get to do this. I feel like the Zombie Dinosaurs are like the dragon. I relate to that.”

Creating a style he calls “post-punk laptop rap,” he began in the Northern California pop punk circuit where he started performing his style of music. While his style was not always embraced at first, he found that over time, laptops became an integral part of a live band’s sound, whether they liked it or not.

“Yeah I was early in the laptop game. I opened for the Dead Milkmen back in the day and the fans were like ‘yo! You can’t have a laptop on stage! That’s not punk!’ Now there’s not one band that doesn’t have samples at Warped Tour. It’s a prominent part of the set. It’s kind of weird. I called it post punk laptop rap, which now sounds like an antiquated genre but I still own it. It’s fun.”

Another aspect behind MC Lars is that since his early days, he has released all of his music through his own label Horris Records, aside from distribution help in select overseas territories. While many have been swayed over time by bigger labels to sign, he has done things his way.

“That’s a great question and I really appreciate you asking and saying that. My story’s kind of different. I played in punk and hardcore bands in the 90s. I went to college and studied English and I was able to go to the UK for an Oxford program to study Shakesphere. I’d always done rap to open for my punk band, but I met a bunch of indie and punk bands over there that I became friends with that led to finding a really cool manager and all of these things happening. It all came from being friendly and being like ‘yo I’d like to work with you and the fact that in 2003 or 2004, doing ironic smart nerdy rap was still a novelty. YouTube hadn’t killed off that whole thing. I was able to do it without a label and I was a big proponent of giving my stuff away for free, which I still am. Now everyone does that and with streaming you kind of have to give away your music.”

“I was on the forefront of that being that I uploaded my stuff on torrent sites to get download ratios to get beat programs. I see it having longevity as a DIY artist. It’s a four piece thing – great records, good touring, a piece of mind and your social media. You can’t let your social media take over everything. You need to make that 25% of your time. I kind of had balance. I’ve been lucky but I’ve also worked very hard. I can’t believe that this is my fourth record.”

“I’ve had labels distribute my stuff and get on board and help me spread the word, but I’ve never been signed to a label. I see so many artists who did sign to labels, some did very well but most of them have day jobs now. They didn’t sell that 500,000 they needed to sell, which in this genre of hip hop, punk and post hardcore, that’s a hard number to hit. It’s an adventure. You’ve probably seen a lot of bands on their way up and their way down. Labels can be great but most of the time it doesn’t work.”

As the summer progresses, MC Lars will be staying busy by dropping another single and he is excited by the outcome from being on this tour.

“Later this summer, my song ‘TriForce’ comes out, which is about growing up under the metaphor of Zelda. It’s all footage from my tour with MC Chris last year. Then I have three or four more videos coming out.”

“I’m really excited to have this album finally come out. I’ve been working on this for a year and a half. It’s really good. The ‘Dragon Blood’ song we’re playing this summer. We’re spreading the word.”

“Warped has taught me that being positive and working hard has concrete results. So props to this whole festival – I’m stoked to keep coming back.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Miss May I – Talks Mayhem vs Warped

Posted on August 4, 2015 by newsteam

The members of Miss May I have spent this past summer promoting their upcoming album Deathless (Rise Records) on the Vans Warped Tour, giving the crowd a taste of new music. While the previous summer had also taken part on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival to promote their previous album Rise of the Lion, both frontman Levi Benton and bassist Ryan Neff both shared their experiences on both tours and how they each view the differences between the audiences who are seeing their band.

“I think age is obviously one piece, but when you divide the crowd by age, the genre that they like changes a lot as well,” says Neff, explaining the differences between the two festival demographics. “You won’t find DJ stuff at Mayhem, where as here they’re younger kids. There’s a lot more people discovering new music at Warped Tour than at Mayhem.”

“If you show up as an Avenged Sevenfold fan and with an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, you leave with a couple more on your shoulder and you might pick up a few new bands. But here, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to learn about five new bands before you leave.”

“There’s so many more bands. There’s five times more bands. It’s crazy,” added Benton, about the Warped Tour experience.

While being on the Warped Tour, they have easily become the modern metal act playing amongst the roster of acts ranging from singer-songwriter acts to metalcore to electronic acts to hip hop (and even some pop punk, believe it or not).

“That’s the best part about this tour, especially from our point of view watching,” said Benton. “You can see people watching a ska band or a punk band from afar and see them walk by and sort of stop and listen. That’s awesome. We get a lot of people that aren’t metal fans and they leave Warped Tour as a metal fan. That’s one of the best feelings ever. I remember when I was a metal fan and I got into metal bands and was like ‘that’s cool we could be the band for you.’ “

“Mayhem’s not like that. Everyone comes there and it’s like ‘I’m metal and I’m ready for the pit.’ “

Neff explained that despite it being Miss May I’s third time on this tour, age turnover with the constant changes within the scene helps attract new fans who are unfamiliar with them. He has found that the open mindedness of the attendees on this tour has worked in their favor into winning over new fans.

“With it being there’s a turnover in the fan base at this tour, it’s always the same age kids. It’s obvious you don’t stay the same age forever so for it to be 14 or 15 years old kids to be at this tour every year, you’ve got to have a complete new group of kids every year. So a band like us who haven’t done this tour in three years, there’s a good chance that a third or more of the people who buy tickets today have never heard of our band. That’s why it’s such a beneficial tour for bands to hop on because with the turnover and the new group of fans every year, there are so many people who are going to hear about you for the first time, just because you are on the tour.”

By Rei Nishimoto

A Masked Apocalypse: Drama Club

Posted on August 3, 2015 by newsteam

Drama Club. Photo Credit: Tara Dettman

This year’s Vans Warped Tour has introduced a number of new faces to the music world and each has their own story behind their musical journey. For the mysterious masked duo only known as Drama Club, their story is just as adventurous as their music. Audiences have been introduced to songs like “Fuk It” and “Maniac,” and winning over unexpected fans along the way.

The duo known as Zero and Andromeda have kept a relatively low profile and circulated around playing house parties until being discovered by Black Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack.

Zero explains how it all went down. “We were just kickin it, making remixes and playing house parties and DJing house music. We did this remix of Andy Biersack/Andy Black “They Don’t Need To Understand” and people liked it and he liked it, and then all of sudden we were on a world tour with the Black Veil Brides. We kept doing house music, which we still do and love. They told us ‘you should make an album. These kids like what you’re doing.’ We said ‘fuck! We’re going to make an album.’ So we made an album.”

“Then they said ‘you need to do Warped Tour so you can tell kids about your album.’ So we said ‘fuck!’ So here we fucking are.”

Zero of Drama Club. Photo Credit: Tara Dettman

After bonding with Biersack, the duo were invited to take part on the Black Mass Tour in the UK and the first leg of their North American tour. While on that tour Drama Club gave fans a stripped down DJ set, they have since built up their music to accommodate more of a live format.

“That’s more DJ ing. We’re doing a little more performance here – a little more instrumentation and stuff. As the tour goes on, some of our buddies like Ryan Seaman [drummer] from Falling In Reverse and CC [Christian Coma] from Black Veil Brides are gonna sit in and play drums. They’re gonna build it. There’s so many crazy motherfuckers around here and we’ll build something crazy,” explained Zero.

Andromeda of Drama Club. Photo Credit: Tara Dettman

While audiences got tastes of both the DJ and the live sets, Andromeda explained that their setup is a mixture of both, without being pigeonholed into either format.

“We’re kind of like a hybrid thing. We started off DJing and then we’re like we know how to play instruments as well. We’re trying different things. Sometimes one of us will be DJing and the other one will be singing. Sometimes one of us will be playing keyboards and the other will be playing drums. [It’s kinda like] whatever works.”

“We don’t really want to define it, because it makes it more fun that way,” added Zero. “But obviously as we grow, we can build and add to it. Right now it’s small. We’re giving birth.”

“Today will be the same, but again it’s like…we have our heat. We bring our heat. We add our spice around it. It’s all good.”

Andromeda of Drama Club. Photo Credit: Tara Dettman

Drama Club have dropped their self titled new EP titled Neon Apocalypse during the Vans Warped Tour and have been giving curious fans a taste of their sound. They spent the summer on the Beatport Stage and showcasing what they are about.

“It’s independently released. It’s not super heavy but it’s sexy. You like girls and like crazy heavy shit – you’ll dig it. But it’s not metal. But girls like it. So I don’t know man. I like to go where the girls are and get heavy.”

“It’s sick, it’s punk rock. It’s got middle fingers but we’re not trying to be Slayer. I love Attila but we’re not gonna try to go out and be them. We’re gonna drop beats on your face.”

Drama Club. Photo Credit: Rei Nishimoto

While Drama Club has been slowly working their music into the club and electronic music circuit, they have swayed away from the EDM tag and instead continue to experiment with their eclectic sound.

“I don’t think so. I mean fair is fair but I’d say we’re an electronic act and we DJ house music and we love all sorts of electronic music and we love instruments. We love being in bands,” said Zero.

“Roof top pool parties. You can’t beat it,” said Andromeda.

“It’s just craziness. You have to see it and live with it. It’s been an interesting one for us because it’s not easily definable. Eventually people will start to define it themselves and will know what it is. Right now we don’t even care. We’re just rockin it. Just comin in hot!,” added Zero.

Drama Club. Photo Credit: Rei Nishimoto

As for future collaborations, The Drama Club will be looking for future collaborations, and possibly with fellow Warped Tour tour mates on future recordings. They both share their ideas on who they have on their minds.

“Everybody. Anybody on this tour that’s badass and anybody’s kickin ass,” said Zero.

“We have a recording studio with us wherever we go. We’ll be high jacking people…,” said Andromeda.

Zero summed it up best, “I’d like to get Attila, Riff Raff and Drama Club together. How about that? That would be some tight shit.”

By Rei Nishimoto

My Vans Warped Tour Memory: Silverstein

Posted on August 2, 2015 by newsteam

Silverstein (via Facebook). Photo Credit: Chris Fulcher

Canadian post hardcore outfit Silverstein are venturing on the Vans Warped Tour for their sixth time. Vocalist Shane Told shares his first ever experience on the tour and what he’s learned from that experience:

“I said we’ve done it…how many times did I say we’ve done it – six? We’ve done it seven because technically we did one show in 2003. It was the first time we’d ever played Warped Tour. We showed up and they were trying to get this hardcore stage going. It was in Massachusetts and we showed up and we didn’t have a tent. We didn’t have anything. We didn’t have a table. We just rolled in and set up our merch on the ground. We totally didn’t know what we were getting into.”

“We all got sunburnt. We all went in completely unprepared and the difference between that and this year where we bought a $300 cooler and we have a barbecue and have all of these tents. We bought 11 high end lounge chairs. Now we’ve got it all figured out. It’s funny how things change so radically.”

“It’s funny because when we started out, I always thought we were the young guns. We made friends with NOFX and playing poker with those guys. We were always the young kids and then all of a sudden now we’re the old guys. I don’t know when that happened. There was never a point where we felt we were the average age. Now we’re the old guys. I don’t know when that happened but it’s all good.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Feed Her To The Sharks Talk Australia

Posted on July 30, 2015 by newsteam

Feed Her To The Sharks are the newest face to come out of the growing Australian heavy music scene, spending this past summer on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival across North America on the Victory Records side stage, promoting their latest release Fortitude.

With a band name like Feed Her To The Sharks, it does give off an Australian vibe to it in an odd way. Band guitarist Kim Choo talked about his home country of Australia and playing partial tour guide about their growing heavy music scene.

“It’s been a while since a core band from Melbourne has actually toured internationally. I think the last one that I can remember might be The Red Shore or someone like that,” he said.

“There’s some awesome music from Australia. We’re just lucky to be friends with a lot of the guys. The Thy Art Is Murder guys have been helping us out a lot on our tour in Europe with them and now at Mayhem. There must be something in the water down there but we love playing heavy music down there. It shows with all of the awesome bands that are coming out.”

Feed Her To The Sharks at Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2015 – Albuquerque, NM (via Facebook)

Their first taste of playing a festival came in 2013 when they took part on Warped Tour Australia. “We played with some awesome bands – Parkway Drive, The Amity Affliction,” he said.

“It was so hot that day. I know some of these Mayhem dates are going to be really hot. Everyone had red faces and sunburnt. Warped Tour was a really great show. We were the first band on in the morning and there were people lining up to get in. They were stoked. It was a good show.”

While a slew of Australian bands have found their way onto the world stage recently, Choo shared one band who he felt could be one of the next good finds there. “There’s a cool band that’s local from our hometown called Atlantic. They’re sort of like metalcore sort of stuff – a pretty fresh approach so check them out if you get a chance. We had them on an album launch show back at home. They’re super hard workers. It’s awesome hanging out with them. They’re really cool dudes.”

Lastly, Choo made a suggestion for those looking for shark related activities to do in Australia. Being that sharks have been found around Australia, Feed Her To The Sharks would be the people who would know where to find the real thing.

“If you go down to Adelaide, there’s a place called Port Lincoln and you can go shark cage diving with the Great Whites in there. It’s mental. If you ever get to visit, do so.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Surfing With Whales and Leeches- Red Fang

Posted on July 30, 2015 by newsteam

Over the past two years, Red Fang has made its name known across the music world with its raw, riff oriented rock sound and continuing to win over new fans on every stop along the way. Audiences have slowly discovered their latest release, Whales and Leeches, through their wild music videos and their extensive touring schedules.

Guitarist David Sullivan talked about their experiences over their recent album cycle. “We’ve been touring a lot, so we’re staying in people’s minds and playing shows. Video’s definitely help (‘Crows In Swine’). We just had a new animated video come out and stoked how that came out. I got to meet the animator, this guy Adam Avilla last night and talking face to face. That was kind of cool.”

“Most of our videos, our friend Whitey McConnaughy lives in Portland. We see him around all the time. This was a new person for us to work with,” he said.

Guitarist Bryan Giles of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson

After spending last winter supporting Opeth and In Flames across North America, and taking part on the Desertfest in both the UK and Germany, the band is about to headline a tour with Whores and Wild Throne, which also hits Knotfest in Devore, CA.

Guitarist Bryan Giles spoke about their past year of touring, and at the time of the interview, were completing the Opeth and In Flames tour. While musically opposites from what Red Fang is about, they have made it work around sharing stages with a variety of artists and winning over their fans to capitalize on the moment.

“We’ve been lucky. I’ve always had that worry in the back of my mind when we do a new tour with bands that are different stylistically from us. I don’t know how the crowd’s going to do…every since we were just starting out it was cool to see playing with death metal bands and the crowd seemed to enjoy it, even though we were not exactly what they were playing. I’ve built some amount of confidence…yeah the music’s totally different but it’s still got distorted guitar and blasting drums. We have that too so here we go. Hopefully people will like it,” said Giles.

Guitarist David Sullivan of Red Fang, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography.

Neither Giles nor fellow guitarist David Sullivan knew how they were selected to open for the Opeth and In Flames tour, but playing in front of early arrivals at these packed shows did help them gain new fans.

“I’m not sure how we got picked. We had done a tour with In Flames a few years ago. We did this Rockstar Energy Mayhem tour and they were on there. We met those dudes and became friends. I’m not sure if they were like ‘we really dig Red Fang’ or if they requested us. I’m not sure how it happened,” said Sullivan.

“I’d like to think it was the case. But I don’t know,” said Giles.

“We didn’t know the Opeth guys. All super nice guys. I don’t know how we got chosen for this but it worked out great,” added Sullivan.

Bassist/vocalist Aaron Beam of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Hillaire Jason

Sullivan and Giles both talked about their home turf of Portland, OR, where the Northwestern US music scene has grown like wildfire and other artists have began to attract attention from around the music world. Talks about a new grunge scene may be premature but something special seems to be in the air there.

“I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s a new movement. It does seem like there’s a lot of activity,” said Sullivan.

“It could be Relapse moved there a couple years ago. So some local stuff is getting seen by a pretty big underground label,” said Giles.

“That’s true. That might have a lot to do with it. Relapse moved their headquarters from Philadelphia to Portland. I’ve never thought of that. It definitely could have something to do with it,” added Sullivan.

“It’s growing. There’s a lot of people moving to town. It’s just crazy how many crummy high rise apartments are going in. It happens to every city but Portland has been a sleepy city for a long time. Now things are going to grow, and a lot of young people moved there for artistic reasons. For being on the West Coast, it’s probably one of the least expensive cities to move to. Everything has increased,” concluded Giles, about the growth to their city possibly leading towards a rising music scene.

John Sherman of Red Fang. Photo Credit: Kaley Nelson

Talks about a new album has been circulating for some time, but Red Fang has been taking their time to work on it, reportedly due out sometime in 2016. They both shared their thoughts on how the new album may shape into.

“We don’t really know what it’s going to be. We’re not trying to pick a certain genre – we’ve got some punk, kind of fast stuff, some more stoner-y stuff. We’re all over the place. It’ll sound like Red Fang. We don’t have a set goal in mind that I can express except to make music that we dig and we like,” said Sullivan.

“That’s the only rule that we have. We must all enjoy it. It doesn’t matter if we end up doing spaghetti westerns as long as we’re all on board with it…,” said Giles.

“I don’t think it’s going to happen…,” responded Sullivan.

“I don’t see it happening either but you never know. But I’m not taking it off the table…,” said Giles, in a semi-joking overtone.

“It will sound like Red Fang but I don’t know what specifically it will be like,” concluded Sullivan.

Both of them would not rule out any musical directions, and fans of the band should not rule out anything.

“We’ve always said we’re not going to restrict ourselves to any one style. It still follows somewhere in the range of heavy music. It’s not like we’re trying to be strictly stoner or strictly thrash. It’s whatever we enjoy,” said Sullivan

Giles summed it up best as a response, semi-joking, “Thrash sounds too exhausting. I think we’re too old to be thrash.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Alive and On The Road Again: Shane Told of Silverstein

Posted on July 29, 2015 by newsteam

Silverstein. Photo Credit: Anna Lee

For the members of Canadian post-hardcore outfit Silverstein, they are spending their summer once again in a familiar place, known as the Vans Warped Tour. They are promoting their latest album I Am Alive in Everything I Touch and are taking part on their sixth time around on this well documented tour.

Vocalist Shane Told shares his thoughts on the tour. “We did it two years ago. It’s a hard tour. It’s very, very hot and it’s a lot of dust and dirt and moving stuff around. Very far distances between things and you have to push gear and walk and everything, so it’s very grueling. It’s amazing we are able to do it every day and they move the entire festival, every single part of it setting it up and it’s always on time. It’s amazing they’re able to do that.”

Their trip out west to the first date in Pomona, CA from their homebase of Toronto, ON went quite smoothly. Being veterans of the road, they understood what they were encountering. “It was good,” he said, about their journey. “We took our time. We did two shows on the way out in Des Moines, IA and Omaha, NE, and we had a couple of days off in Denver and Las Vegas just to relax a little bit. We know what we’re getting into.”

Silverstein has celebrated 15 years of existence, which is a milestone within itself. After releasing their eighth full length recording, four EPs and one live album, Told talked about what makes their band work internally and externally.

“None of us have kids or anything, so I guess that helps. We don’t know how other bands work. This is the band we’re in, but we know we treat each other with respect and genuinely like each other and like each other’s company. We know how to stay out each other’s way when people aren’t in the best moods. We’ve always done that and musically, we have a lot of diversity within our music so that helps. We don’t get bored of what we do musically. We all have the same kinds of goals, so it helps.”

He also shared his thoughts on 15 years of memories within his time with the band. “It’s all a blur. It’s funny too because now at 15 years and there’s certain times when stuff feels like it just happened. Then I’ll think back and go ‘whoa that was eight or nine years ago!’ Then some stuff that happened just the other day, and I won’t remember. It’s really weird the way you remember things are sometimes different than how they were. That’s always an interesting part of it. We have so many great memories and we made so many great friends. We’re really proud we’ve done it this long and enjoyed it this long. We’re not going through the motions like you see some bands just totally jaded. We still genuinely love music, Warped Tour, festivals and love hanging out. It really feels good.”

Legend has said for the bands being on the Vans Warped Tour is hard work under extreme weather conditions on various stops along the way. But Told and the Silverstein guys knew from past experience what to expect and were able to dive in head first without any real surprises.

“It’s nice because you know what to expect going in. One of the amazing things is how little the tour has changed. Literally the first time we did it in 2004, it’s all the same people, a lot of same venues and the way they run it, the set times being you don’t know what time you’re playing until the morning…plus it’s the same it’s always been. The familiarity is really nice coming in to it, but at the same time we sort of know how we’re going to feel halfway through. The sun’s beating down and we’re like ‘oh man…we still have three more weeks of this!’ There’s always that…I don’t want to say breaking point but there’s always that moment where it’s like ‘oh man we know what we’re getting into’ that could make it harder too.”

Told shares who he is looking forward to seeing while he’s on the tour. “We have so many friends on this tour. Walking around yesterday, it’s the first day, it’s like ‘hey man! Hey man…hey man…’ everywhere you go. Some of our friends like Beartooth and there’s this new band called As It Is from the UK. They’re a really good new band and we’ve done some shows with them recently. Those are some newer band we should go check out.”

A 20 year anniversary for Silverstein is around the corner and another milestone for them. While Told denies ever thinking about it, some ideas began floating about.

“We have not thought about it. I know it’s going to come up fast. It’s amazing how fast these things go by.“

“We’ll get a cake. We love cake so much that any excuse we have to buy one…we’ll buy one – anyone’s birthday, our guitar tech gets a girlfriend [and] we’ll buy them a cake. We did one for our millionth Facebook Like! We’re ridiculous but…”

Ironically, no songs about cake were ever written, but another one about food belonging to another band member did get mentioned.

“We did write a song about stealing Bill’s [Hamilton, bass] food from the bus once, because he’s got the best food. It’s called “See Ya Bill” [on 2012’s Short Songs]. It’s about seven seconds long. It might be about a vegan cake. I’m not sure specifically about the food items but he does have some good cake kicking around once in a while. Check it out. It’s on Spotify.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Rise of the Deathless- Miss May I

Posted on July 28, 2015 by newsteam

Miss May I has been known to be one of the hardest working artists on the heavy music scene today and rarely leaves much downtime in between recordings. They spent the summer on the Unicorn Main Stage on the Vans Warped Tour, in support of their forthcoming album Deathless (out August 7, 2015 via Rise Records).

“It’s important to have something new and exciting to do these summer fests. We dropped [the last] record a little bit before the summer tour last year and it worked really well for us, so we pushed real hard to write a really good one for this year. Luckily we got it done just in time,” explained bassist Ryan Neff, about the quick turnaround on the new album.

“We didn’t have any breaks really. We just slept after it was done for a month straight,” said vocalist Levi Benton.

“It was three or four weeks off right before this [Warped Tour], but we’ve pretty much been out solid, between touring and going into the studio to do this record, since January,” added Neff.

The band had debuted a new song within their set list “I.H.E.,” giving fans a taste of what was coming from Miss May I.

On Deathless, the band reunited with producer Joey Sturgis, who worked on their Rise Records debut – 2010’s Monument. While they worked with someone familiar, the subject themes on the album took on a heavier yet darker overtone.

“It’s mainly written about the struggles we went through as a band. I know we’re young but we’ve been around for a long time. It’s our fifth album,” explained Benton.

“We had a rough year behind the scenes. I think it’s the first time we’ve ever gone into a recording session with a…I don’t want to say a negative attitude because we were obviously very excited about doing a record…the meanings behind the lyrics that Levi would write and then I would write with him a little bit. There’s a lot more aggression on this record than we’ve ever had before,” added Neff.

Miss May I at Warped Tour 2015 (via Facebook)

Following a year’s worth of solid touring behind their last album, 2014’s Year of the Lion, they began working on new material immediately following the conclusion of their album’s touring cycle. They began writing new material and got the creative juices flowing.

“We came into the studio with over 20 songs on the last record, and then we slim it down to ten. Our guitar players (Justin Aufdemkampe, B.J. Stead) are our main writers. They’re on their computers making riffs all day. So we’re always constantly writing.”

“We wrote songs right when we left the studio. We left the studio, went home for a couple of weeks and there were already a couple of songs. They’re like ‘ah…we’ve got some ideas,’ “ explained Benton.

“It’s a lot different than we used to do it, where we went and got started until that time to record everything. We’d try to have everything done, or at try to start it so the ideas are forming and we can starting working on stuff a little bit earlier now,” added Neff.

Miss May I Deathless Sessions (via Facebook)

They spoke about reuniting with Sturgis, and how working with him differed from working with two different producers on the past couple of albums.

“He definitely brought the heavy back out of us, like the first couple of records, which was fun. We haven’t worked with him in a while so it felt like high school again. It was nice to jump in there,” explained Benton, about the working environment with Sturgis.

Joey Sturgis Producing Miss May I (via Facebook)

“We did one with Machine [2011’s At Heart] and one with Terry Date [2014’s Rise of the Lion]. We bounced around for a couple of records, and the thing about those two records was, with those two particular fellows, we didn’t know them before we started the recording. So you kind of have a two week period where you’re getting to know each other and try to figure out how things work, and with Joey it was Day One and we were already friends, ready to go and the working atmosphere was really great for us,” said Neff.

“We brought a whole new sound too. We’re the band that hates releasing the same thing twice, so it’s nice to jump back to Joey because it’s completely different from the last record,” added Benton, about the musical direction on Deathless and working on it with Sturgis.

Miss May I Warped Tour 2015 Crowd

As they are now reaching five albums with the release of Deathless, Neff admits building a set list covering a cross section of their catalog has become a lot tougher to please both themselves and their fans watching their shows.

“It’s such a pain in the ass! It is the longest discussion that we have as a group. We all have the same goal – make as many people who are watching our band as happy as we can, and everyone has a different opinion about what particular songs to use. For us, it all still comes down to we only get 30 minutes to play and we’ve got five records with at least 30 minutes of material on it. So we can play one fifth of what we’ve created in our career. Maybe a little bit less. It’s a lot more difficult than it used to be.”

“I remember when we did this tour the first time when we had two records obviously we would play these six or seven songs. Everyone would know these six or seven songs. It was easy. It was a lot more difficult this time.”

While pleasing both themselves and their fans on what songs to play, they have occasionally thrown in Miss May I’s versions of deep cuts, which is met with mixed results.

“I remember we tried in the winter with August Burns Red, we threw in this song ‘Tides’ off of our first record. It’s a diehard fan from the early days would know that song, but we played that and it was a whole lot of arms crossed like ‘what the hell is this?’ We’re on stage having a great time, like ‘I remember this song!’ It’s a lot harder to do those to go over real well. Like I said, the whole point of the show is to make the people buying the tickets happy. Sometimes what we feel like playing is not exactly what they want to hear.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Road Tested: Kyle Gunther of Battlecross

Posted on July 28, 2015 by newsteam

Battlecross (via Facebook)

Battlecross is part of a new breed of modern thrash metallers who have earned their stripes through constant touring and attracting new fans along the way. Since their beginnings in 2003, the band has built their brand from the ground up, and never looked back.

They have completed recording their forthcoming album Rise To Power (out August 21, 2015 via Metal Blade Records) and are about to complete their Los Angeles stop on their now completed North American tour supporting Crowbar. Frontman Kyle “Gumby” Gunther, nursing a sore back, talked about the tour after their longest time off of the road in a while.

“The Crowbar dudes are extremely awesome. They’re always out and always doing something there. They invited everyone on the bus a couple of times. We rarely see a headliner that acts like that. They’re really awesome dudes. The show’s been good. No bum nights yet,” he said.

“In the last four years, these past four months is the longest I’ve been at my house. We try to keep a seven or eight month tour schedule every year. We’ve hit that three out of four years.”

Battlecross, by Meg Loyal Photography

Coining the tag “blue collar thrash metal,” Battlecross are notorious for being road dogs, but also are constantly writing new material for future releases.

“They write on the road. It’s pretty much Tony [Asta, guitars] and Hiran [Deraniyagala, guitars] write riffs and Don [Slater, bass] would write a song. Alex [Bent] would put his drums on it and I’ll try not to suck at lyrics,” he said, sarcastically.

He shared his writing process entering Rise To Power, and his approaches towards song topics. “[I write about] just everyday life. I don’t write mystical, stupid ass songs. That’ll never happen. I write songs about everyday life, and a lot of Game of Thrones references are going to be on the next album. I wonder who’s going to call me out on it? I went HARD into Game of Thrones.”

What part of Game of Thrones inspired the writing on Rise To Power? “I love the Starks. Any story with the Starks in it is awesome. I named my dog Aria. Me and the old lady were trying to trick the kid into naming it Aria. He’s like ‘I don’t want that name!’ Yes Caleb [Gunther’s son] – that’s what we’re naming it.”

Hiran Deraniyagala of Battlecross. Photo Credit: Meg Loyal Photography

While that is a small piece of what went into the new album, Gunther shared more about what was running through his mind towards lyrical topics.

“I’ve got uplifting songs, and songs about the government and how it sucks. I’ve also got songs about how people suck – how they’re sheeple. My kid doesn’t take it sometimes very well when I go on tour and takes it out on me. I get that but it still hurts. I took that into consideration for one of the songs. We all leave home and we all leave our loved ones. So that’s what the song ‘Absence’ is about. It’s going to be our first music video. ‘Not Your Slave’ – pretty much self explanatory. I’m not your slave. You’ve got people that are like ‘my view is this’ and ‘my view is that.’ They don’t understand that you have a view as well and you’re entitled to that view. I appreciate everyone’s view but fuck off. I’ve got my own.”

Their homebase of Detroit also becomes an inspiration for them as they watch their surrounding suffer through tough times. “Detroit was once known for working its ass off,” said Gunther. “We defeated the Nazis. Now the state’s left in shambles. Dow Chemical runs the thing and it sucks but whatever. We have a good time at it and we take that work ethic and go forth with it. I grew up in the Michigan that was the best state in the union. I’m not a rich ass kid but we didn’t go without. I would have been the sixth generation to work for General Motors, but then they left all of the jobs to go to different countries.”

Tony Asta of Battlecross, by Meg Loyal Photography.

The band returned to Audiohammer Studios to work with the production team of Jason Suecof to work on the new album. Being this is their third album, they have found ways to work together without changing too much of the chemistry between them.

“We did it the same way we’ve done all of them. Jason Suecof and Mark Lewis did a bang up job on steering us in the right direction. They didn’t change anything. They were like ‘why don’t you try this?’ That worked out killer,” he said.

“It’s fun watching two people with ADHD try to work together. Sessions are long. Fortunately enough, he had a band cancel after not being able to obtain visas when they had their time booked. He’s like ‘well I have this time open…’ [He] readjusted the pay and went on from there. We got an extra three weeks out of him. That was fucking awesome.”

Being known for their craziness in the studio and some well documented antics involving musicians being thrown in the pool at the studio, Gunther shared his own experiences. “I actually had to go swimming for my phone in the pool. It took two of the biggest bounces I’ve ever seen a phone take into the pool. So it was a cold, rainy night and I was like ‘ah fuck it.’ I went in the pool.”

Battlecross has now reached a pinnacle moment in their careers, and now they have placed various personal challenges on this one after setting the building blocks on their careers from the first two albums.

“I only got to write one song on the first album,” said Gunther, looking back on the Pursuit of Honor. “They wrote that album over six years. That first album was no first album. It’s like ‘are you going to take this one? Sweet…’ We don’t have to write a new one. I was the new guy at the time. Take that and it’s like you wrote songs as a local band because you love to do it and that’s what you’re doing.”

“When we had to do War Of Will, it was like we’ve got to do something because we’ve been around. We knew we were going to [Rockstar] Mayhem [Festival]. We were doing big shit so this has got to be good. There was pressure. Metal Blade – on the first album, they were like ‘alright we’ll take that.’ On the second one, ‘alright we’ll need this…’ And on this one, the pressure was on. Third album – this is pretty much make it or break it, and I hope we make it. I hope we made it. Tour experience, playing with bands and it all came together.”

Don Slater of Battlecross, by Meg Loyal Photography.

Battlecross has ventured around the globe but there are still some spots they would like to hit on this upcoming tour run. “I want to go to Australia. I got to go to Germany. I got to go home. That was awesome. That was always a life goal to go to Germany and I’ve been twice. Even my sister was like ‘you motherfucker…’ That was cool.”

Their hard work has been noticed by many people, but Gunther shared one of the compliments coming from an unexpected place. “It’s really cool when Matt [Byrnes, drums] from Hatebreed was like ‘hey we’re gonna hook you guys up for a tour…but you already have a tour! You’re always touring.’ So that’s actually a really big compliment for me from the Hatebreed dudes.”

By Rei Nishimoto

Ghost Cult Magazine

Music News, Interviews and Reviews that matter.

Category Archives: Ghost Cult Exclusives

Space Truckin- The Devil Wears Prada

Zombies and Dinosaurs Everywhere- MC Lars

Miss May I – Talks Mayhem vs Warped

A Masked Apocalypse: Drama Club

My Vans Warped Tour Memory: Silverstein

Feed Her To The Sharks Talk Australia

Surfing With Whales and Leeches- Red Fang

Alive and On The Road Again: Shane Told of Silverstein

Rise of the Deathless- Miss May I

Road Tested: Kyle Gunther of Battlecross