Archive for the ‘Interviews’ Category

JB (centre) and Dustin (right)

You may have recently read my review of August Burns Red’s opening slot for Lamb Of God at the Brixton 02 Academy. I was fortunate enough to catch up with guitarist JB and bassist Dustin before the show for a quick chat.

AA: How’s 2010 going so far?

DD: I have a bum finger but otherwise…

AA: You slammed in a door right?

DD: Yeah my index finger. It’s weird, it doesn’t really hurt it’s just weird. It’s cold right now so I’m trying to warm it up.

AA: Are you okay playing with it? Is it alright?

DD: Yeah well I played with my middle finger last night. It just feels weird when I move it up and down.

AA: It looks a bit swollen

DD: It’s not bruised though, which is a suprise!

AA: Just keep taking ibuprofen, it should be okay. So what plans have you got for this year, festivals? Headline tours?

JBB: Well after this run with Lamb Of God ends in March we’re home for about 2 weeks and then we’re touring with A Day To Remember in America and Canada for 6 or 7 weeks, it’s a long tour. Then I think we’re doing Download, some festival in Finland, some stuff in Japan, some more American stuff and then we headline in the States and here.

AA: With Constellations, why did you choose to stream it on myspace a week before release?

JBB: I think we actually got the myspace front page thing, and if you get the front page of myspace ad, it’s part of the thing that you stream the record on myspace. You know what, I think our label has found that streaming the whole record is actually beneficial to boosting album sales rather than posting a couple of tracks, that’s what they’ve found out over time with it.

AA: Is there anywhere in the world that you would like to tour that you haven’t already?

DD: I’d like to see New Zealand, I think it’d be a cool place to go

JBB: I’d like to go to Iceland, we fly over it all the time so why don’t we stop and look around?

AA: How would you say that your sound has progressed? The band started when you were in high school so have the inspirations changed too?

JBB: Mhm, for sure! When we started out we were way more into hardcore bands than metal bands, like moshy stuff, Broken Wings, Evergreen Terrace, Bury Your Dead, stuff like that. Then we started getting into more metal stuff like Between The Buried And Me, we just sort of adapted more into a metal band rather than a hardcore band over time. I guess as our ability increased we were able to do more metal.

DD: I think the writing, as we got older we got better and we started writing stuff that would challenge us to play. Plus I think it’s less scatter brained, alot of the old stuff, it’s very different to the new stuff, yeah less scatter brained as we’ve grown up.

AA: What made you get into your respective instrument?

JBB: I had a bunch of friends who were starting to play in bands and stuff in high school and I just went to shows and thought it would be cool to play but didn’t really do anything about it. Then one day I just picked up a guitar, when I graduated I just picked up like a little starter kit and just fiddled around. I definitely didn’t plan on playing guitar for a living, it just worked out that way I guess.

DD: I had always wanted to play guitar for a living….

AA: And you made it happen.

DD: I made it happen! I started playing when I was about 13 cause my friends needed a bass player so I picked it up and started playing in a pop punk band. Then I progressed, broadened my horizons, started playing guitar, bass, drums… saxophone! I’ve been around the block as far as instruments!

AA: Have you been technically trained in them?

DD: No I never took lessons. I was going to take drum lessons but it never worked out. I feel like if I had I could’ve been better. I don’t any more, but I used to be able to read music for saxophone cause I played it in school.

JBB: When did you play?

DD: From 6^th grade

JBB: Till?

DD: Till 8^th and then I didn’t want to join marching band!

JBB: I played violin 4 through 6

DD: I played flute for a year too in 5^th grade! I played till I found out that you were gay if you played flute. I didn’t know what gay was when I was in 5^th grade and then I quickly found out by the time I was about to start 6^th grade and I though “I guess I can’t play flute anymore because I’m not gay”! I still wish I could read music for guitar though, or piano and stuff like that I think it would really help me out, but I haven’t taken lessons or stuff like that.

JBB: You don’t really think that you’re gay if you play flute right?

DD: I got made fun of

JBB: Yeah well kids are dumb

DD: I was the only boy that played flute!

JBB: You weren’t gay though

AA: Look at Anchorman, jazz flute!

JBB: Yeah!

[DD cackles]

AA: What do you think of bands being made into role models?

JBB: I think its fine, and I think it’s just going to happen. People look up to bands that they respect I guess and you’re put into the role model position whether you want to be or not. You need to be aware of that and that what you’re doing and saying is affecting other people. Whether or not you like it and you’re playing in a band and people are coming out to see you play they are going to care what you say and do.

AA: Overall, what would you like to achieve as a band?

JBB: I’d say my goal at this point in longevity. I think it’d be awesome to continue doing what we’re doing successfully for a long time while continuing to progress as musicians and in our albums, making good music. I think that’s the goal at this moment, just keep doing what we’re doing and keep growing.

AA: Do you want to add anything?

DD: That’s it, I’d like to keep doing it as long as we can do it cause I have fun doing it and I can’t picture myself doing anything else.

AA: Fair enough, so we’ll move onto my research questions. How would you describe a pit at a hardcore show?

JBB: At a hardcore or a metal show?

AA: Either, start with hardcore.

DD: Be careful if you don’t know what it’s all about!

JBB: Yeah, lots of kicking and flailing. It’s not from my experience of a hardcore show it’s not like a push pit it’s like the whole hardcore dancing and spin kicks, that whole vibe, so if people aren’t necessarily trying to hit each other they’re trying to dance I think. When I was going to hardcore shows and stuff people weren’t trying to hurt each other, it wasn’t a meathead mentality, for a lot of people it was just trying to dance and that’s how people dance.

AA: So would you say in metal they’re out to hit each other?

JBB: It’s more barbaric for sure, more meathead.

DD: Really more people that just want to beat kids up.

JBB: Yeah they want to push each other, I guess they love the contact of it. The slam dancing.

AA: Would you say this behaviour is distinctive of the respective scene? For example hardcore pits would be the same everywhere?

JBB: I wouldn’t say that, I’d say somewhere the push pit thing is still going on at hardcore shows. In certain areas some people don’t know any better. In Dubai kids were definitely just pushing, I guess it was more of a metal crowd though. I guess hardcore and metal kids come out to see us. I guess at smaller shows the pit’s more hardcore dancing. At bigger shows because there’s so many people who don’t, I guess know the hardcore mentality they just push. Which is fine, I don’t care.

AA: Would you say the quality of the show is proportionate to the size or intensity of the pit?

JBB: I say kids going nuts in general; it doesn’t have to be the pit. The pit doesn’t have to be brutal, if kids are just moving and jumping or have their hands in the air and bobbing their heads anything is just as exciting to me as seeing a pit go nuts.

DD: I think so long as you’re not that person standing with your arms crossed cause then we’re like “okay, that person’s not here to see us”.

JBB: If they don’t care we don’t care.

AA: At what point does a pit or audience become “out of control”?

JBB: Well if everyone’s getting on stage and the stage is getting cluttered with kids making it hard to play and their screwing you out, that’s out of control for me. That’s when it’s like too much. First and foremost I want to play the songs and I want to play them well and do my best so I don’t like when kids are on stage and run into me and screw me up cause that sucks for everyone who’s not on stage trying to watch the band.

AA: Would you say there are younger (under 21) or older people in your audience?

JBB: I’d say younger.

DD: There’s both I’d say, younger definitely in the States. I’d say around 21.

AA: Is you audience more male or female?

Both: Male

AA: If there are more females in a pit, would you say that affects the behaviour?

JBB: I kind of hope it does because I don’t like the idea of girls getting pounded in the pit, at the same time if they’re going in there I’m sure they know what to expect so… I think people would probably be aware of a girl around them and try not to kick the crap out of her or break her nose

DD: Unless it’s Jersey Shore

AA: What would you say the unspoken rules of being in a pit are?

JBB: Pick someone up if they fall down. If someone’s dancing like an ass… pull them out. If someone’s being a bully I’m sure he’s going to get ganged up on.

DD: True. I guess if someone’s hurt then help them get out if you can.

JBB: Everyone should be there to have fun, not be a bully. No one likes a bully.

AA: Do you have any examples or experiences of a pit that you’d like to share?

DD: Brent got knocked out

JBB: Brent got kicked in the head at a little hardcore show in Maryland, this is back in 2004. Got knocked out cold, couldn’t remember our songs and we were the support that night. I’ve been in many a pit. I used to go all the time, that was why I went to hardcore shows was to dance so I don’t know, I don’t have any particular story that’s standing out. Oh wait, here’s one that goes for the unspoken rules. I was at this show at a little fire hall in Reading, Pennsylvania and there was this drunk kid that was just pushing everyone as soon as they started dancing, he would just come up behind people and just shove them. It was starting to piss everyone off and he shoved a friend of mine at one point, so I pushed him and he came after me and just immediately got swarmed by all the hardcore kids and the cops got called.

DD: What show was that?

JBB: Just some local show, and the cops came and the kid got arrested for being drunk and underage so justice was served.