During my MetalMartyr.com days I had the privileged and opportunity to interview a few great musicians. Since then and since starting HookInMouth, I haven’t really had the time for interviews. Below you will find some of my old interviews and even a couple of video interviews, which were actually my very first interviews with a band. (“MM” was me)

Video Interview With All That Remain’s frontman Phil Labonte from (March 5, 2008)

Video Interview with now-defunct Light This City’s Laura Nichol and Ben Murray (March 5, 2008)

Interview with Sourvein frontman Troy Medlin (March 17, 2007)

MM: I heard you broke your arm recently, How exactly did you do that and is it going to effect the Sourveintour?

T-Roy: yeah f*cking around in pool. Misjudgment, you live and learn. It won’t effect nothing for tours, I’ve done tours with broken bones before. I write on guitar to record but live I’m just up front howling.

MM: Only 5 more shows till you head to Holland. Looking forward to that?
What are your plans when the tour is over?

T-Roy:yes we are looking forward to the Road Burn Fest big time
we played the club before and its ace, lots of great bands.

Just record a bit and go right back out. We are doing a video very soon for a song off the 3rd E.P.. I think it will be for Imperial Bastard, but not sure as of just yet but it will be good.

MM: I had not heard of Southern Sludge Metal until mid 07 when they sent me the Hail!Hornet record. I wasn’t sure quite what to think of it, being so raw sounding. After a few listens I was hooked. Are you surprised how big of a fan base this metal sub-genre has grown into?

T-Roy: I hope it gets bigger. I been pushing it for over 10 years so bout time, but I know it’s not for everyone and that’s why I think I like it even better, a group of people doing what they want to do.

MM: Your next show is in Wilmington. Do you guys get a huge following and welcome from all your NC shows?

T-Roy: Sometimes we used to sell sh*t out, but its always a good time at home for the most part. Cape Fear is alive with many good bands from all kinds of styles, but we were the first ever signed to a bigger label and the 1st to tour Europe, but here they see us all the time so they are spoiled, but yeah the shows are good in wilm,nc.

MM: Hail!Hornet was an amazing album. Can we expect the crew to get back together again for another record?

T-Roy: we already have for some splits and such but yeah this summer,we all have a little more time to meet at Whisky Vince’s in the summer,not sure but I think we are doing a E.P. soon as well as talks of small tours here and there.

MM: Last, are there any other projects going on or in the works for you?

T-Roy: I am so in to Sourvein right now. I love the boys from home here in the band now my drummer Ramzi ex-Buzzov-ens killing it and Sleepy/Boone/and Cool Clyde hold it down. But I am doing a project with Nick from Graves At Sea soon and doom band Blood Of Saints with guys from Blood Island Raiders/Orange Goblin and Taint, this will be heavy vitus doom and the other project will be bleak. Also doing a solo E.P. for fun. So mostly busy touring with Sourvein.

MM: Thanks for the opportunity, T-Roy!

T-Roy: thx for the interview. Keep posted on us at myspace.com/sourvein13 T-Roy~

Phoner with F-5′s and former Megadeth Bass player, Dave Ellefson (September 14, 2008)

MM: So you guys just released The Reckoning last month. How’s that going so far. Are you guys going to start touring for that?

Dave Ellefson: Yeah, we’re actually looking to put some dates together now. To be honest we’ve been working between Jimmy’s (DeGrasso) schedule and my schedule. With some other commitments that we had. I was out on the Rock n Roll Fantasy Camp Tour and Jimmy got a call, kind of an emergency call to fill in for Eric Singer on some Alice Cooper dates so-and then he’s  actually got a bunch of drum clinic he’s doing around the world for Pearl and Sabian so it’s a typical ‘when it rains, ir pours’ so it’s kind like we’re releasing a record and then all of a sudden we’re out busy doing things so we’re trying to hop-scotch between things. In the meantime we’ve put up a new video that we actually posted on Youtube and out to few other music portals like Music Choice and Yahoo! and Myspace and various places. I think it’s kind of cool right now because the internet you know with so much more music stuff going on right now, going online and online distribution and all that, there’s other ways to be effective with keeping awareness of a record out other than just going out and touring. I think for us touring is more about the fun of being out playing live more than anything.

MM: And you’ve been doing for what, about 25 years now?

Dave: Yeah, exactly. At least.

MM: It seems like you’ve got various side projects going on and other band member as well. I know you mentioned Jimmy covering for Eric Singer. Are you still working with Avian?

Dave: You know I have not done anything with Avian since the first record but they have a record coming out shortly and I did not play on it just ’cause I was busy with so many other things that, you know I realized at some point years ago, I did so many records and it wasn’t my intention and they all seemed to release around the same time and it confused some fans and record companies got a little upset ’cause they were like ‘Oh my god’ you know which band is David really in and the truth of the matter is I was just saying yes when people called me to play on things and the timing of the release you know is completely out of my control. Just out of consideration, since we had this new F5 record and everything this year I wanted to keep the slate a little cleaner to keep things a bit more stream-line so we could just focus on one thing. I recently played on a new Alien Black record that will come out next year. I did an Iron Steel record earlier in the year and a little tribute to Dimebag that I did with some buddies of mine like Ripper Owens and Jason Bittner from Shadows Fall, you know a couple little one-of things like that but once the summer came around outside of doing the Rock N Roll Fantasy Camp Tour I really wanted to Stream-line things as far as what was getting released out to the fans and keep a bit more focus on it

[This is were I kiss Dave's ass a little]

MM: You know I’ve been a fan, and you;re probably the reason I ever became a Megadeth fan because the first Megadeth song I ever heard was Peace Sells and that opening bass riff, I was hooked and from there it just went on.

Dave: Thank you, Thank you.

MM:So You’re working for Peavey now?

Dave: Well I’ve been endorsing Peavey for many years and I actually do a position that I assist them on some liason work with endorsement and to be honest with you it’s like an extension of my endorsement and you know it’s just a cool position where I can help them as far as being ablt to expose their products to a lot of friends of mine and other people that I think are, you know, that are cool players and cool musicians and some companies like that have positions like that. I really enjoy that. Things that are music related but not playing related.

MM: Now F5, was that something that you brought together or you and Jimmy got together and formed it up from there or…?

Dave: Well the band formed in ‘03. I had been going around the country doing a bunch of developmental production deals with some young bands that were looking to record songs get on the radio, get signed and that is how I met most of the guys in F5. Then in early ‘03 me and the guitar player, Steve and Dave (Small) and I got together in a room and started writing some songs and there was an immediate spark right there and that’s what spawned the formation of F5. So throughout the year 2003 my singer Dale Steele moved down from Minneapolis and I met him working on a  production job and Steve brought in the other guitar player John Davis who he had know and worked with a little bit before in Phoenix and that was how the group formed. We recorded our first record in ‘04 and released it in ‘05 and toured up in to early ‘07 and then our drummer Dave Small decided to step away and that’s when I brought Jimmy in and that’s the 15 second synopsis of how F5 came together and how we got to where we are now.

MM: So your trying to work some dates ion the future. Is this something that you want to make a permanent thing sooner or later?

Dave: You know I think it is a permanent thing for me, it’s just that now I do other things too. I think that’s how I look at it. It’s like whenever we can do F5 we’ll do F5 but at the same time it;s a brand new band, essentially new and there’s a lot of work that goes in to getting a band off the ground and a lot of that stuff is luck of the draw so rather than get frustrated if things don’t move forward on a schedule that we would like it to we kind of don’t force it and we just let it naturally move at it’s own pace which I think let’s it be more organic and focus more on the record and the music instead of trying to force it and the band gets frustrated and breaks up and there’s all kinds of different dynamics that happens with bands. It’s not that everyone isn’t committed to it because everyone loves the band. We’re at different points in our lives than we were when we were 18 and you had one band and that’s all you did. You know so, now we’re trying to approach it with a bit more maturity.

MM: As far as songwriting goes, is it an everyone comes together sort of thing?

Dave: Yeah, everybody in the group writes. This time around Jimmy wasn’t part of the group composing the songs but he was a big part of the songs developing once he got in the studio and he was really brought in right at the 11th hour righ before we went in to cut the record. His performance, hi playing, his creating on the drums really brought a huge shift that brought everything up to a new level.

MM: Let’s talk about your signature bass. You developed you signature bass.

Dave: That instrument really developed out of a need, I think that Peavey had for a different line of basses, which I worked with them to help create and that process they decided ‘look, let’s spin out a signature model’ since i’m one of the creators and help focus on that instrument and so I just worked in particular with mine to give it the feel I liked and help them get an instrument that works well various music style especially young rockers guys, guys who wanna thrash and rock. So that is what I did particularly on that instrument.

Unfortunately this is where Dave’s call dropped. Which was ok. I asked the relevant question and we pretty much hears what Dave Ellefson is doing these days. If you get a chance, check out F5’s The Reckoning.

Interview with Trivium’s Corey Beaulieu (October 18, 2008)

MM: How’s the tour been going so far? Any bumps in the road, besides Melissa’s (tour manager)obvious mishap?

Corey: Awesome, nothing really. It’s been a really smooth tour and the shows have been fuckin’ awesome. Great start off and we’re almost done, go home in 2 days so, for a short, brief time and back out again.

MM: Who are you going back out with this time?

Corey: Next Friday we’re going back out to tour with Slayer…

MM: That’s right, on the Unholy Alliance tour. That’s awesome. One of the big bands you’ve been wanting to get on tour with?

Corey: Yeah, it’s always awesome going out on tour with a band that you grew up listening to and stuff like that so it’s always fun. So we’re looking forward to that and there’s a lot of cool bands on the tour so it’s going to be fun.

MM: Shogun just came out a couple of weeks ago and sales have been pretty good so far, I’ve been looking at that. I don’t know how much you guys really care about that, but every cares about CD sales though right?

Corey: Eh, I don’t really pay much attention. It just came out so we’re just trying to get it out to as many people as possible. It’s a long tour cycle so I’ll start paying attention probably near the end and see where we got it to. Right now it’s a record that just really word of mouth and people hearing it and just talking about it and stuff like that because we’re really not a…especially in the states because we’re not a big mainstream media, like band so it’s just all about going out and playing show, letting people hear it and see us.

MM: Shogun. There is not a whole lot of simplicity in that album at all, or is that simplistic to you as far as guitar work goes.

Corey: Well it’s really not that difficult for us because we write it so it’s just what naturally comes out so everything we do is just pretty basic for us. Other people might think it;s really pretty whacked out but we get it.

MM: It’s not something that you can really just listen and learn to play. For most people it’s probably just reading tablature and hope you;re good enough to keep up.

So with the Crusade, you guys changed things up a little bit. You guys said that you were going to do what you wanted and didn’t care. I read an interview where Matt said something to the effect of “This time around we just said ‘fuck it’, we’re going to do it how we want an if people don’t like it too bad.” And it came over like that because a lot of people started saying a lot of that “Metallica Clone” B.S. after it was released. People love to hate Trivium, but for every hater there are like 5 others that love you guys.  But you know, I didn’t hear that until about 6 months after it came out, but I was thinking, you know, maybe the first or second song on the record might have a little Metallica feel to it, but as far as that I really didn’t see it. With that said and a lot of people saying that stuff, when you go to write a new album do you guys take in to consideration what people were saying about the last album or do you just get out there and start writing a new album?

Corey: ah, we just start writing and whatever comes out, comes out. When The Crusade came out, that album had to be made at that time to keep things interesting. If we wrote another album like Ascendancy we probably wouldn’t still be playing anymore because it’s not..with The Crusade we kept things interesting and try something new and make it exiting and fun by experimenting and showing people different sides of what we can do and not be pigeonholed to the same thing all the time. That record was a big stepping stone to being able to do what we did on this record. If we didn’t do the Crusade, this record probably wouldn’t sound the way it does. We just did it and we knew we had some changes in the dynamics of that record and people might wonder what the fuck happened because of the drastic difference from the previous record. The point was to make a record different than the one before, so we try not to repeat ourselves so we try to introduce something new to our next album. Some new shit so…

MM: I listened to Shogun a handful of times and I really like it and it;s a lot different from let’ say The Crusade because it kind of sounds like a mix of a lot of stuff from Ascendancy and The Crusade coming together because of all the fast breakdowns and slowdowns, clean vocals again mixed with screaming again and I like it a lot. Anyway, a lot of bands say that they write their songs for themselves and not necessarily for their fans. Is that like a half-truth or how much truth is there to that? Do you write your songs with the thought in mind “Is this catchy? Are the fans going to like it? Does it have good hooks?”

Corey: Ever since we started, before we even had fans we write songs and if it sound cool, if it something you dig then that’s what you go with. And then eventually the stuff that you like that you write and fans like you just got to…If you enjoy what you write, you hope the fans feels the same way because that’s what you start off doing in the first place. You don;t have fans when you first start jamming with a few people in your garage, writing songs so. If the four of us back it and we dig what we wrote then we feel it’s strong enough to put it out. Before a record comes out, no one hears it but us, so we have to feel good about it and if you feel good about it you put it out, and hopefully the fans do too. Every record we’ve done we’ve just written songs that we enjoyed playing and we’d listen to it because we’re fans ourselves.

MM: How many songs did you originally write for Shogun? Did you have like 15 or 20 songs and then have to cut it down too…?

Corey: The original guitar demos was just like song ideas of 20 some songs and whittle it down to the strongest ones and focus on those we got it down to like 14 songs or some shit like that for the album.

MM: Now is it different going in to record…like back when you did your first album and you had the demos and then you get in and record in the studio. Is it a bit different now where you might go in to the studio with a bunch of bits and pieces and get in to the studio and put it all together?

Corey: Well wee all wrote some riffs and “Click-tracks” and kind of pass them along to each other and jam them. By the time we go in to the studio, the songs are already put together but we might change some riffs around here and there, but with how expensive studio time is, we make sure everything is set and ready to go when we get there.

MM: So you guys to a lot of pre-production?

Corey: Yeah, we do a lot in our rehearsal space and our producer will come down and kind of iron out stuff in songs and change up drum parts. Maybe experiment a little in different directions, a change of the drum pattern here or there might change up the dynamics and make it sound cool and more interesting. We do all that stuff in the rehearsal space and fuck around with the songs till we feel it’s the best it’s going to be and then we go in to the studio bust out all the songs.

MM: Now 4 records and 4 different producers? (Obviously I’m clueless about their producers at this point)

Corey: Um actually all of our first 3 records were done with the same guy and with new record we worked with this new guy….

MM: Have you guys thought about keeping him for the next record or look in to someone new?

Corey: Um, same guy we did this record with, we definitely really want to work with on the next  record. He brought something new to the table. We really only recorded one way with the last records and he brought a lot of experience and different way to capture what we were looking for and his personality fit really well and had a great time in the studio and had a really good working vibe and stuff. So, definitely the next record. We learned a lot about recording now and it was a learning experience, so definitely the next one.

MM: So you’re heading out on the Unholy Alliance tour with Slayer and you opened for Iron Maiden earlier this year, right?

Corey: That was like 2006.

MM: Really? I thought you guys opened for them recently?

Corey: Well we opened for one show.

MM: Looking back there was something on the Internet where Avenged Sevenfold opened for them and they were not received all that well.The people there absolutely hated them. How were you guys received by the fans?

Corey:  We toured with them over in Europe and it was awesome. We had great crowd responses. We just went out there and fuckin rocked everybody and they fuckin’…we enjoyed it. There were a lot of shows where it was pretty amazing how the Iron Maiden crowd got really in to it. You just got to…Hopefully with those kind of bands you just go to go out there and fuckin’ hammer them. You can’t go out  and sit there and expect them to respond to you immediately, you got to go out there and fuckin be aggressive and berate them. Yell at them and be aggressive.

MM: Well Avenged Sevenfold is a totally different band so I can understand why they didn’t take to them kindly.

What are some of the tour essentials, besides the obvious macbook. (everyone seemed to have a macbook on that tour. I don’t know if Mac was a sponsor or what) What are some “Must haves”?

Corey: Laptop, iPod, phone, a big bag of bathroom stuff and DVD, video games, but no video games on this tour. Whatever things you can bring from home to make it comfortable. Make it livable on tour and being away.

MM: How about drama? Is there any head butting? Any Arguments?

Corey: Not really, we all get along pretty well.

MM: Ok, cool. Last questions and these are just kind of fun type questions. First one…Who would win a fist fight, Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson?

Corey: Dickinson.

MM: Guitar duel, Dave Mustain or Kirk Hammet?

Corey: Mustaine.

MM: Death Metal Karaoke, Chris Barnes or Glen Benton?

Corey: (Pause) Glen Benton.

MM: More evil, Glenn Danzig or Kerry King?

Corey: Um, I don;t think either are evil at all…I’d have to go with Kerry King though because he’s got “God Hates Us All” Tattooed on his arm.

MM: And last one…who can drink more Matt Heafy or Corey?

Corey: ME!

MM: How do you pronounce your last name?

Corey:  Beaulieu (Bowl-yur)

MM: that’s not how it looks, but shit, I might have spelled it wrong anyway. Can you spell it for me?

Corey: B-e-a-u-l-i-e-u

MM: I’m just curious, man cause every time I… (Laughing)..ok. I really appreciate your time and we’ll see you out there.

Corey: Thanks.

Interview With All That Remains Guitarist Mike Martin and Oli Herbert (October 18, 2008)

MM: Hey Mike, how’s it going?

Mike Martin: Good, we’re just watching the Sox game.

MM: I’m a Yankees fan, myself.

Mike: Then you must hate us.

MM: Nah, I’ve had 4 years to get over it. (Referring to the last time the 2004 play-offs where the Yankees were up 3 games and then lost the next 4.) Good thing I didn’t put money on that series.

I was scheduled to talk to Phil and all these questions were geared toward him so maybe you can answer them and maybe not…

Oli: We’ll try to answer them like Phil.

MM: On the new album. With all the layered clean vocals, a lot of people were not necessarily saying that their bad, but weird. Was there any reason why they layered them so much?

Oli: You’re talking about all the vocal tracks?

MM: Yeah.

Oli: Just to give it a bigger sound.

MM: To make it sound bigger? Something different than before?

Oli: Just to give a thicker sound.

Mike: It wasn’t to specifically to piss people off. They’re going to freaked out when they hear more singing regardless, they’re going to hear more singing and say (In a kind of deeper condescending voice) “Oh, That’s not metal”.

MM: Was that something that Jason Seucoff suggested doing?

Oli: Absolutely.

MM: You guys covered Nevermore’s Believe In Nothing. I thought it was a good cover. Some people said it was good but it made you want to hear the original. Right after it was released it was announced that Firewind did a cover of the same song. Are you guys familiar with Firewind?

Mike: Yeah, we got a kick out of that. We shared a bus with them in England.

MM: I saw them live back in May, they were great, I expected Firewind’s cover to be a lot better because Apollo has a different range than Phil does because he’s got that big power metal sound but I actually liked your version better. (Shameless ass kissing)

Mike: Anytime you read anything on the internet, most people get on there just to smash the band, especially Blabbermouth. They’re going to comment (again with the voice)”Uh, that’s the worst just cause I feel like saying it.

Oli: You’re never going to top the original, but you try to keep it as close as possible. We changed it a bit with the chorus and a little guitar and added some more layers.

(Mike Martin claps at the TV because the Red Sox just scored. He comments that everything started going well in the game ever since I got there. I guess I was like a good luck charm or some shit. Too bad the Sox lost the next day)

MM: IN the new Revolver and how You (Oli) and Jason would get in there and you (Mike) and Phil would get in there and would ask them to “Dumb it down” a bit.

Mike: Yeah, definitely as far as Oli goes, Jason being a drummer…I think every drummer we’ve ever worked with has gotten mad at us because at some point we might say “Hey, can you just do a really dumb Metallica beat there or something.” and they would say (Once more with the voice) “That just sounds stupid” It’s always like that with a drummer go, you’re gonna deal with that all the time. Sometimes a really heavy riff just sounds so much better with like the dumbest possible drumming that there is. A lot of drummers don’t want people to think that they’re crappy drummers and want to put something complicated over it, but we want to do whatever fits the song best. Oli writes some very aggressive stuff sometimes too, sometimes he comes with a whole song on the computer and if we did it exactly how it sounds, the computer would not sound like the band at all. We have to strip it down here and there.

MM: When you (Oli) write the main riffs and leads and rhythms and it comes down to what Mike will be playing, so you suggest to him how he should be playing it?

Oli: I usually have both the parts written.

Mike: Everybody kind of picks everyone’s parts apart and sometimes say, “Hey you should try this” and sometimes it sounds a lot better. Everybody pretty much knows how to push each others buttons the right way and it works out for the better.

Oli: I write the guitar and bass parts…

Mike: He’s a writing machine…

Oli: I take each guitar part and work on the sound and try to make it sound as big as possible.

MM: Phil keeps it lyrically simple without over-thinking the lyrics by throwing big words in there. You don’t have to sit there and wonder what that means.

Mike: Some people might say it’s stupid but by keeping it simple the kids really relate to it. There are so many people on the internet with tattoos of the lyrics all over them.

Oli: It’s not as dumbed down as like, let’s say Hatebreed, it’s just obvious, especially in metal, you have to have a straight forward message.

MM: You guys sold like 28,000 in your first week and that’s twice as much as the last record. Some people say “I don’t give a shit about record sales because I don’t make my money off of cd sales” but every cares how many people are buying the cd. You guys care, right?

Mike: Numbers to an extent don’t lie. There are some bands that don;t sell a lot of records but they draw a ton of people, but for the most part numbers are numbers and it gauges how you do to an extent.

Oli: It looks good on paper too

Mike: Yeah, it always looks good on paper, even if you;re not drawing a lot of people, the venue might see the numbers and say, “Oh, you’re selling this much, we’ll give you this much money.

Oli: We don’t see money from cd sales for a long time, but it’s always better to sell a lot of albums. We don’t write the records with the though in mind that we’re going to sell a million records, we just right the songs the way we think they should be.

Mike: It’s all like a resume thing.

MM: What about label support? Do cd sales key in to a lot of label support meaning, like the bus is a big expense. Does the label help out fund that kind of stuff.

Oli: The label does but you have to pay it back. They might say, we’re going to give you $40,000 to pay for your bus, but that money will come out of your record sales. You’re way better off being able to just pay for it yourself as a band and not take money from labels because they’ll just take it back. It’s an advance and you always have to pay it back.

MM: I just wanted to better understand that. Do cd sales directly effect label support going in to the future?

Mike: Sometimes with festivals you have to take some money for tour support because you get so little money from festivals.

Oli: You take as little as you possibly need because…

Mike: You don’t want to dig yourself a hole.

MM: How many bottles of Jim Beam do you guys usually go through on a tour

Mike: Jim beam…hmm.. that’s been really slacking off on this tour a lot. Jeanne and Phil  are the main ones and they have barely drank at all on this tour. Phil quit smoking this tour so his Red Bull and whiskey intake has really slacked off cause the two kind of go hand in hand. For a little while there it was getting pretty impressive.

MM: You gu8ys still big in to Guitar Hero on the bus?

Oli: We haven’t had it this time around. We’ve been rockin’ the Whitesnake live Still Of the Night DVD. We have NHL Hockey and he (Mike) kicks my ass every time. Sometimes I feel like cross-checking him on stage sometimes.

Mike: He hit me in the face with his guitar yesterday…

Oli: Yeah, that was for the game.

MM: First thought. First thing that comes to mind…

Oli: We both get to do it?

MM: Yeah why not? ok…Sarah Palin?

Mike: Stupid…

Oli: Hot

Mike: I don’t know why everybody says that.

MM: She’s got a cuteness too her but she’s ridiculously stupid

Mike: I saw her on that Katie Couric interview and I was like ‘Oh my god’, I could have answered that question and I’m a moron.

MM: Favorite city to tour?

Mike: New Haven Connecticut. Last night was so out of control you would not believe it.

Oli: Want to know the worst city to tour in? Sioux Falls South Dakota.

MM: Why’s that?

Mike: It just sucked. The turn out sucked and the kids just stood there with their fingers in their asses the whole time.

MM: What’s the worse job you’ve ever had before playing in ATR?

Mike: I’ve only had one other job, it was a family business awesome, so I’ve never really had a shitty job.

Oli: Dishwashing at Dennys. That’s a bad fucking job. I got fired and I was happy.

MM: What kind of music do you generally listen to, Oli?

Oli: I like a lot of progressive power metal. I also like a lot of traditional music like classical and jazz.

MM: It’s seems like a lot of your guitar playing is classically influenced.

Oli: Oh yeah.

MM: How about you mike?

Mike: I like a lot of 80’s hair metal, it’s like my favorite thing ever as a kid. I also listen to an insane amount of bubblegum pop because I really like bad music. I can’t help it, I just like it.

MM: Favorite porn star?

Mike: I’d say right now….I love Gina Lynn.

MM: I have no clue who that is…

Mike: I know them all…I’ve done a severe amount of masturbating…

Oli: I would say Belladonna because she’ll do anything dirty

MM: Well that’s all the questions I have. Thanks for your time and I’ll see you out there.

Interview with Opeth’s Fredrik Akesson (October 28th, 2008)

MM: You have quite a resume as a guitar player with bands such as Arch Enemy, Tiamat, Human Clay, Krux and now Opeth.

FA: I never played in Human Clay, that’s actually wrong. I think I may have played a guitar solo on one of their albums as a guest solo, but I was never in their band.

MM: So obviously you can’t trust everything on Wikipedia?

FA: Exactly. Maybe they put that in there because I may be credited in one of their albums for a solo.

MM: Now that you’re with Opeth, is this a temporary thing or is it a permanent gig?

FA: It’s a permanent gig, it’s been like that for a long time.

MM: You’ve know the band for quite some time?

FA: Yeah, when I played in Arch Enemy we were on Gigantour together, so we hang out a lot. I used to hang out a lot with Ax (Martin Axenrot) and Mikael. I knew Mikael before and I’ve known him for about five years and we’d meet at festivals in   and Stockholm.

MM: Back to Arch Enemy real quick. When you signed on for that gig, was there anything in the back of your mind thinking that Chris (Amott) might be coming back at some time?

FA: Yeah, I did think about that because you have the fact that they’re brothers and Chris was there from the beginning, but when I joined Mike Amott told me that he (Chris) wasn’t coming back, so I was like the permanent member. But he was away from the band for those two years and maybe he realized it wasn’t so fun, maybe he realized that he wanted to be back in the band so. It was cool for me because their brother so I understood. I still have good contact with both of them, Mike and Chris.

MM: How long have you guys been touring the US now on this leg?

FA: we’re right at the end of  a six week US tour.

MM: Was there any time for you to catch the Carcass reunion?

FA: yeah last summer we played a bunch of European festivals together and we actually played a couple of gigs with Carcass, so we actually went out in the crowd and watched them, in Greece actually. It was really good.

MM: What’s the major difference between playing with Opeth and playing in Arch Enemy?

FA: Playing in Arch Enemy was good for me because there’s a lot of thrashy, faster type of riffing. It was more…high adrenaline all the time in the live sets. And the Opeth song are more complex, longer songs and more diverse type of guitar playing. In Arch Enemy its more of a metal thing. A lot of solos in Arch Enemy. I don’t play as much solos in Opeth but I do play some

MM: Do you play any of the melodic acoustic parts?

FA: Oh yeah, I play like melody solos and acoustic parts and everything. That’s another difference with Arch Enemy because the Opeth type of rhythm guitar playing that Mikael does, the way he puts his riffs together is very odd, if you say?

MM: So he has his own unique style.

FA: Yeah, I think and it makes the gig even more fun to play and also there are a lot of acoustic parts with finger style picking that I put a lot of time in to. So it’s very cool and very different. It took me a couple of months to adjust to the sound but I was a big Opeth fan before so it made it east because I got to play with one of my favorite bands.

MM: was it difficult to learn some of the back catalog?

FA: Yeah, not so hard but more challenging but I like challenges which hopefully drives me to better guitar playing. In the beginning I was like ‘Oh shit, there’s so much material I have to learn’ but I took one riff at a time, one song at a time and Mikael showed me the riffs so that made it easier too.

MM: Any plans in the future for Krux?

FA: Yeah, I still play with Krux. It’s the only band I play with apart from Opeth, which is my main priority. Leif  who is the founder of Krux, Leif Edling (Krux Bass player) from Candlemass, he’s quite busy with Candlemass and the other guys have families. They used to be in Entombed, the drummer (Peter Stjärnvind) , the rhythm guitar player used to play bass in Entombed…

MM: Jorgen

FA: Yeah, Jorgen Sanstrom

MM: he used to also play in Grave

FA: Exactly, he used to sing in Grave.

MM: I liked Grave better when he was singing, but that’s just my personal preference.

FA: He’s cool, he has some other bands now and Peter, the drummer has Nifelheim. So everyone in Krux is busy with other bands but we will do a new record, it’s planned for the end of next year.

MM: How many tours have you been through North America?

FA: This is the fifth. Three times with Arch Enemy and this is the second time with Opeth.

MM: What’s the best thing about touring North America.

FA: I like it. I like also being on the bus and not having to go in to hotels with your bags and stuff all the time. It’s cool to always have a place to stay. It’s different, it’s a cool variation going to the east coast and the west coast…

MM: You catch it at the right time you get all four seasons. Does that ever become a problem going from hot to cold and maybe getting sick with different climates?

FA: I got a cold for about a week but it’s bound to happen with everyone on a  tour bus. It kind of gets passed around.

MM: What’s maybe the worse thing about touring North America?

FA: Some venues don’t have showers, but we can deal with that and sometimes you’re just dirty for a few days.  Another problem is that you really don’t get to see that much. I never got to see the grand canyon and you miss out on a lot of stuff. It’s not like being a tourist.

MM: Are you still playing ESP guitars?

FA: I played ESP when I was with Arch Enemy, but I went over to PRS after I joined Opeth. I still have a couple of ESP’s that I might play on the road but now I mainly play a single cut PRS guitar. They’re really good sounding guitars and they stay in tune.

MM: What are some of your favored guitars?

FA: I used to play a Les Paul custom but I don’t bring that out on the road anymore. In the late 90’s I played some Floyd Rose style guitars…

MM: something with a nice fast neck?

FA: I always like to fast guitar but I also like a guitar that makes you fight for the tone a little bit

MM: That’s all I have for you. What time do you guys go on?

FA: 10:00 I think. It’s like a two hour set.

MM: Wow. Well thanks again and I’ll see you out there.

FA: Thanks. Take care.

Follow Up Interview With Light This City’s Ben Murray after disbanding (November 3,2008)

MM: It’s been almost 5 months since you announced LTC’s disbanding. What have you been doing since then?

Ben: Well, I personally started attending UC Berkeley in August, so I’m busy with that.  I also have an awesome job at Pirates Press, who do all the vinyl manufacturing for all major metal and punk labels.  Other than that, jamming on some new music and enjoying life! Laura is bartending and most likely going back to school next year.  Jon, Ryan and Brian are all just working and looking for another project.

MM: Are you still in touch with the other members of Light This City and is there still a friendship factor there? Do you still work with Laura at all?

Ben: I won’t go into details, but MOST of us are on good terms. There was a bit of drama after Laura and my decision to break up the band, understandably.  There were some emotional times for a while, but for the most part things are great now.   As for Laura and I, we are working together on a new project that won’t be uber-professional and full-time,  so yeah Laura and I will still team up on something new, but I don’t want to divulge too much about that yet…

MM: You announced the disbanding on your myspace back in June. A lot of people were disappointed to see this happen so early in to your success. You kind of touched base on why you guys chose to go this route due to how touring full time had taken it’s toll on you, but it was still kind of vague to most. Would you care to elaborate on any of that?

Ben: Again, let me clarify it wasn’t everyone’s decision, just Laura and mine. In that sense we feel bad that we had to cut this career short for the other guys, we definitely do, but they are incredible musicians and they will bounce back soon.   In terms of the decision being early in our success, I am sure we could have gotten much bigger and sold many more records, but I had been doing this band since I was 14, so it was 6 years. We did 4 full length records and it was just enough for Laura and I. We were burnt out on the touring lifestyle, massively in debt, and not so excited about playing that style of music every night.  I guess it happens if you are exposed to it so often, but the band lost its fun and innocence that we really lived for in previous years.  We wanted to end it on a high note with “Stormchaser”, and we always promised ourselves we wouldn’t keep doing it if our hearts weren’t in it anymore.  We also had goals we wanted to accomplish before it got too late, and touring full time with the band wouldn’t allow those to be achieved.   We never wanted to do this band half-assed or 50%, so we decided to stop it altogether. So between all of those factors, we decided it was the best decision for us personally.

MM: Was that one of the toughest decisions that you’ve had to make? To bring to an end something that you put so much time in to?

Ben: It was definitely the hardest decision we’ve EVER had to make, but it suddenly became so clear to us.  It was a gut instinct, and we always follow those.  I don’t regret it, although there are aspects of the band we will always cherish and miss.

MM: The new Album comes out on the 11th. Obviously a lot of work went in to writing and recording this album. After the disbanding do you ever feel like all that work was in vain or is it more or less just another stepping stone in your career?

Ben: No, not at all. None of it was in vain. For me, metal and music in general has always been about the record, the songs, the listening experience. Sure, live shows are great, but sitting there with your headphones and really connecting to the music is what meant everything to me.  The new album is truly amazing, and undoubtedly our best work ever, and I feel honored that our fans will buy it and love it. What matters most to me is that our fans are able to pick up the album and appreciate it, which I am sure they will.  The absence of live shows they can live without I’m sure, but I am happy to leave them with this last record, which really does rule.

MM: You guys worked with Chuck Billy of Testament on the track “Firehaven“. Did you guys work directly with him or was the track finished and he recorded the vocals elsewhere?What was it like working with a legend in thrash metal?

Ben: We worked directly with him. He lives in the Bay Area as well so he just drove over to the studio and hung out with us for a day!  It was really awesome, and totally surreal.  He kept asking how we wanted this and that, and we were just like “Dude, you’re Chuck Billy.  You could do anything to this song and we will love it.”  It was a little crazy having to tell Chuck Billy what to do, but he was awesome!! Totally killed it, and the track is probably the heaviest thing we have ever done.

MM: Are you working on any different projects or bands that we might see in the future?

Ben: Jon, Brian and Ryan are already working on new projects, not necessarily together, but they will have new things in the works soon.  Just stay tuned to the LTC myspace site as we will keep people updated. As I said earlier, Laura and I are working on some new music, which won’t be metal, but will definitely be awesome.  I don’t want to talk much about it though being that it won’t come to fruition for a while, but we will let you know when it does..

MM: Is there any chance that Light This City will ever perform again, if not just for a local show or two?

Ben: We are trying to work out a last San Francisco show, but it is slow coming. There are a lot of details to work out, so it may or may not happen. But I will never rule out any reunions or shows years down the line.  Who knows what will happen. All we knew is that for right now we wanted to stop the band, it was what was best for us as people and musicians.

MM: What is your main focus right now as a musician?

Ben: I am actually writing a lot of music on guitar, as I always have, and really enjoying it.  Writing different kinds of music is totally refreshing, and pretty exciting. I am constantly buying new CDs of new bands that people tell me about. So I would say my main focus is honing my songwriting and really delving into what makes a song amazing, and trying to accomplish that in the future.

MM: Your label Creator-Destructor Records has released Mirror Of Dead Faces new cd and SignedNekrogoblikon this year. Is there any other new acquisitions or are you just focusing on the bands currently on your roster?

Ben: I am also putting out a new EP by the Funeral Pyre, who’s last record was put out byProsthetic. That is called “December” and should be out in March 09. Other than that, I am just focusing on Mirror of Dead Faces and Nekrogoblikon. The MODF record is out now, and it absolutely crushes.  Make sure you melodic death metal fans out there check it out, it is true quality!

MM: That’s all the questions I have. Is there anything that you’d like to say or add?

Ben: I just want to thank you for this interview and helping get the word out about this new record. A lot of press are understandably not interested in covering a broken up band, but this album is the best thing we have ever done and definitely deserves the attention. Pick up the new and final record, “Stormchaser” on November 11th!!

Interview with Suffocation’s Frank Mullen (March 17, 2009)

MM: Last time you guys were here you almost started the place on fire.

FM: Yeah, we had a little fan accident there, so…

MM: I thought it was just the speed of Mike [Smith's] blast-beats that ignited it.

FM: [laughing] Yeah it was crazy.

(when they toured with Carcass last year there was a lot of electrical conversion going on with the gear on tour. During Suffocation’s set, the motor in a small fan that was behind the drum kit burned up halfway through a song. Frank smelled it and stopped the song. I don’t think he wanted another Station nightclub incident)

MM: You guys just signed to Nuclear Blast records a little less than a year ago, what kind of opportunities has that maybe afforded you that you may not have had in the past?

FM: You know, I don’t think it really changes anything as far as opportunities go. Pretty much every label we’ve been on have been good labels with Roadrunner and Relapse. We signed a two year deal with Relapse and we just  wanted to see how things worked out. After we were done with Relapse we figured we’d start looking around for a new label and Nuclear Blast has been around forever and they’ve wanted to talk to us in the past about coming aboard and we talked to them and they came up with a nice package and it’s pretty much like a one album deal and we’ll take it from there and see how it goes.

MM: You a Yankees or a Mets fan?

(As a Yankees fan, this is where I was going to ask him what he thought about the whole Clemens/A-Rod performance enhancing drugs thing. Not a metal question, but sometimes it’s nice to ask about other things besides the music.)

FM: Ahhh, I don’t like baseball.

MM: What’s this game concept that we’ve heard about?

FM: Yeah, someone came up with the concept of doing like a first person shooter perspective type game and it’s in the works and stuff and you know it’s supposed to be comin’ out soon, you know. I think it’s just going to be a pc based game. That will be coming out, I’m not exactly sure when but they’re working on it now. You know, it’s just something that’s going to revolve around all the different albums and concepts.

MM: You guys toured with Carcass last year and have a couple more dates this year, right?

FM: We toured with Carcass before, a long time ago. It was a nice opportunity, the shows were great, really great and packed out.

MM: Any particular bands that you’d like to tour with in the future?

FM: I don’t know, I’d like to get on something kind of big, you know, like um, Slipknot, Slayer, Mudvayne,Lamb Of God, you know something like that or whatever. I’d like  to try to get on something bigger where we’d be playing something like arenas, halls, whatever. That’s something that we’ve never had the chance to do, so I think that would be really cool.

MM: Coming up in the NYC death metal scene it didn’t break out as much as let’s say the Florida Death Metal scene with the exception of Cannibal Corpse, who came out of Buffalo and I don’t mean to compare you guys to them but do you think if you guys came out of the Florida scene, do you think you’d be bigger than what you are today, not saying that you guys aren’t big, you have a huge following and I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t a fan.

FM: I don’t think so. I think what made it unique about coming out of the NY scene was that we had a different sound and approach to the music. I think that’s what made us unique. I think what hurt us at the beginning was, you know, I was newly married and had a child and I couldn’t tour the way that those bands could. Death metal at that point didn’t make any money. You went out on tour and you might only make like $2000 on tour for an entire month, so it’s like, and I had good job at home and you just can’t do that when you have a family to support. I think that more or less what hurt us as far as going to the next level like the bands coming out of Florida, because you know, they had the opportunity to tour like crazy and it really blew up in the scene.

MM: Are you kind of surprised that um, well I’m sure it was the same way for you, back when I was in high school, metal wasn’t cool. You wouldn’t see too many kids wearing metal shirts and these days it has exploded and it’s a lot bigger, maybe with more scene kids…

FM: Yeah, metal, different forms of metal will always be around around. I can remember when I was in high school it was Slayer and Ozzy and things like that. That was the real heavy stuff, Celtic Frost, Destruction. I just think people will always be looking for something heavy no matter what generation and how it passes down and translates through death metal or extreme music, kids are always looking for it. I think the only thing you’ll never really see again is the hair metal or glam metal, I don’t think that’s going to come back where you see guys teasing their hair and wearing the spandex. That’s not going to happen…