My second interview with a MATSOD was with the ever so charming guitarist Kelly before their opening slot for Every Time I Die at the Borderline. I was interested in some follow up questions from my interview with Jake, and also asked my research questions which gave me some of my most interesting answers yet. Enjoy!
AA: How have you enjoyed the European shows with Every Time I Die? They were much smaller than Taste of Chaos right?
KSN: Well I mean they’ve been really fun but the only downer side of it I guess has been weather conditions so the turnout has been smaller than we expected. I mean last night they had an overnight snow storm that dropped like 2 feet of snow and the roads weren’t cleared, so they had a really high presale but I think like 30 or 40 people just from presale couldn’t come and then people who didn’t have presale that couldn’t come as well. That was a little dampner but we had a good time, it’s been great, it’s been our first time outside the UK playing Europe so I can’t really complain!
AA: Have you noticed a difference in the crowd? Taste of Chaos just seem to be a lot of people very into their metal, so have you found people are more into you?
KSN: It’s been interesting, when we left here for Europe, Scandinavia first and then Germany I think, we started seeing a lot of a different base. It was still metal, but there were still a lot of kids there bopping their heads and having a good time. We still see that now, but on a smaller scale of our fan base who have not yet been able to see us outside the UK, and they can come see a show and hang out with us and stuff, we’re excited. We’re going to try and come back another time, maybe the summer or later to try and do a headlining tour or with another group to see where the whole Taste of Chaos thing helped us out.
AA: Do you reckon you guys will do festivals in the summer?
KSN: I would love to, I would love to do as many festivals over here as we can. I love festivals, so it’s all a matter of booking it, it’s all a matter of time if they like it and stuff.
AA: Have you ever personally done the British festival thing of three days in a tent?
KSN: No I haven’t, I would do it in a heartbeat, I’d love to do it, I love that whole thing. I grew up in the States and there’s this big festival called Cornerstone, a big Christian festival that’s like 3 or 4 days long and it’s like 20 thousand people, and when you go there as an artist you have the option of camping out or getting a hotel and I’ve done both and it was just an incredible experience. I don’t care either way!
AA: Okay we’ll move onto my dissertation stuff now. How would you describe a pit at a hardcore show?
KSN: Oh gosh, a lot of pissed off individuals. It’s kind of weird because it depends on where you’re going to how bad the pit is. In the States if you go to the northern states like New York, Jersey and Boston the pits are a lot of pissed off individuals, very aggressive, things of that nature. But when you get to the south it’s not that bad. I would say it’s a lot of kids wanting to have a good time, and sometimes they don’t know how to do that and someone gets hurt or tempers get in the way of trying to have a good time. I guess it depends where you’re at for how bad the pit is!
AA: Would you say the behaviour seen in a pit is distinctive of the scene?
KSN: Some yes. Some areas I would say absolutely because, again, culturally speaking there’s a lot of kids that are involved in the new hardcore gangs and things of that nature and all they live and breathe for is to go to shows and to get into a pit and prove how tough they are. For me I think it’s idiotic but to each their own. I just don’t see any value in it for me. But I was that young kid once doing that same thing and pit and things of that nature, and it’s just a time in my life where I grew up in my life and then the violence subsided and it wasn’t something I wanted to be a part of anymore. I think generally it can go hand in hand.
AA: Would you say the quality of the show is proportionate to the size or intensity of the pit?
KSN: I don’t know about that. I would say it depends on the individuals who are there. I’ve played some really small shows when I was early on in my career and where there were 25 or 30 kids there just going bazonkers. I’ve played in front of 2000, 3000 people and there’s only a select group going bonkers. I’d say it’s more up to the crowd and the people who are there because you can make it as intense as you want it to be. If you see a whole crowd going crazy and the floor’s going nuts then yeah, but I’ve seen it both ways.
AA: At what point does a pit or audience become “out of control”?
KSN: The moment someone gets hurt. The moment someone gets hurt it’s completely out of line, cause everyone’s there to have a good time, everyone’s paid money to go and enjoy their evening. The moment it becomes personal, the moment it becomes violent, I mean in a sense of someone getting hurt. We’ve had a few instances in the past when we were on tour with Clutch and a guy got side punched in the face and fell on the ground and stopped breathing and we stopped playing and you, the fan whose paid money don’t get to see the show. At that point it becomes not what you’re there for, but the simple fact of being assholes and I don’t understand it and I don’t agree with it at all, I think it’s completely out of line.
AA: Would you say there are more younger, say under 21 or older people in your audience?
KSN: I would say before III and before touring with Clutch it was 23 and under. Because of the tour with Clutch and their fan base being alot older, it’s 40 year olds all the way down to 15 year olds so it’s kind of interesting to see.
AA: And kind of aside, have you noticed a difference in the age of your audience because of the WWE stuff?
KSN: Well we haven’t had a chance to tour the States yet with it. We toured with Harddrive Live and All That Remains and the WWE stuff was just coming out so we didn’t really get to see it, I mean we saw a little bit, but it’ll be interesting to go back and see how that transcended.
AA: More male or female people in your audience?
KSN: Male, for sure. I mean it’s funny though, the last tour we did was more females because it was with Lacuna Coil being out and Christina [vocalist of Lacuna Coil] being there and that had a lot to do with it. I would say about 70:30 though.
AA: If there are more females in a pit, would you say that affects the behaviour?
KSN: Unfortunately yes, and I don’t mean it in a positive way, I mean it in a negative way. I know guys that get hyped up about a girl being in a pit because they want to hit a girl and that’s the kind of stuff again that’s really irritating because it’s like “really? Is that really what you want to do?” I mean it’s not that I’m anti dancing or anything like that, it’s just that I don’t want people to get hurt. That reflects fully on us as a band, we pay as a band. I mean there’s a kid in Boston who during the very last song “Caution” got blindsided in the face just because he was singing into the microphone, gets blindsided, falls back, hits his head and goes into a seizure. We have to stop the show again, he’s rushed to the ER, he’s got no health insurance so we’re paying for it. You’ve got to understand that those ramifications don’t reflect on you, they reflect on us and comes out of our pockets and that sort of stuff just irritates the living crap out of us because we’re all here to enjoy ourselves, don’t make it personal.
AA: What would you say the unspoken rules of being in a pit are?
KSN: Respect. Respect the people that are around you, respect the bands that you’re on tour with, even if you don’t like them, because they’re doing a job. Here’s my thing, there’s not many bands that I don’t like, and it’s not because I don’t like them musically or personally, if I don’t like somebody it’s because they don’t give me the same respect that I give them. Respect is given and respect is earned and I haven’t done anything for you to disrespect me so give me that courtesy. I think that mutual respect is a huge thing of ours, being a Christian band as well…
AA: It’s treating others as you want to be treated
KSN: Yeah! Treat others that way. There are times when I don’t even agree with someone and I’m like “hey, they’re disrespecting me so I’m going to disrespect them”. There are some boundaries that I won’t cross to let that friendship nuture and I’ll do my utmost, I’m not going to treat them poorly, but at the same time I don’t have that common respect for them and that’s the biggest thing for us.
AA: Do you have any examples or experiences of a pit that you would like to share?
KSN: I can think of one pretty brutal one. It was a festival and Sick Of It All were playing, there were probably 2 or 3 thousand people there. It was the worst attack I’ve seen. Some skinheads showed up, Sick Of It All just seem to bring some of them with them, and so these skinheads show up and some kids took it personal, went outside, took off their socks and filled them with rocks, came inside and as soon as they started they started whipping those socks around and hitting them in the face. It was a brutal attack, more than I’ve ever seen. I mean yes, I’m all about respect and I don’t agree with what some skinheads stand for or how they live their life but if they’re not hurting me or anyone around them then I can’t justify someone attacking them. It all boils back down to respect. I mean I’ve seen fights and people getting into little altercations but that was the first time I’ve seen such violence, something with that extreme hatred. I mean I come from a bi-racial family so I’m against racism of any kind so I understand it, but violence doesn’t solve it, violence doesn’t solve violence.
AA: Do you have any cool things you’ve seen in a pit?
KSN: Oh yeah! I remember growing up and there was a crew growing up in Florida and I remember guys doing back flips in the pit, jumping on each others’ backs to do back flips, you know cool stuff like that. I think it changed in around 2003/2004 and the early 90s, when I grew up in the scene where kids would just dance and you’d enjoy watching. Now it’s like how many people can dance at once, then you’re stepping on peoples’ toes, then someone makes it personal. It’s kind of weird now. But those are some of the coolest experiences and things I’ve seen, I mean guys just doing back flips and it was great to see because I could never do it!
Leave a Reply