Lubbock: day one

Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. Photo from http://commonrevolt.com/post/5855729804

Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon was probably the most jam-packed 24+ hours of my life. I drove countless miles across the state of Texas, saw six different bands, accumulated a handful of scrapes and bruises, broke my phone again, and barely slept a wink.

Tuesday at 3:30 p.m., I dropped everything I was doing and left Austin to go to San Antonio for the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. The show was awesome, but it was so hot in the White Rabbit that by the end of the show I was soaking wet from my sweat, other people’s sweat, and the water the bands kept pouring on the crowd. My shorts were even so soaked that my phone got some water inside it and completely stopped working (I let it sit in a bag of rice for about 12 hours, and it’s all good now!)

I finally got home from San Antonio around 1 a.m., and it just so happened that Martin and Wes, who had been at the recording studio all day with the rest of Edison Chair, were pulling up to the house at the same time. We were all tired and dirty and beat up from our individual adventures, but we were faced with a dilemma: go to bed now and get 2.5 hours of sleep, or man up, pull an all-nighter, and sleep all the way to Lubbock. We chose the latter.

This is what we looked like yesterday. Photo from http://www.halloweencostumes.com/adult-zombie-costume.html

Was it the best choice? Probably not. Especially considering Martin and I were both complete zombies all day. Even with God Is An Astronaut gently rocking me to sleep the whole way to Lubbock, it was still hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. But my lack of sleep is no concern to me. We used those wee-hours of the morning to throw ourselves a little going away party, and it was definitely worth it.

Even though Martin and I stayed up all night packing and getting ready for the trip, we still left for our trip an hour late (and by “we” I mean my parents decided to push snooze for an extra hour). Big surprise. I bet my parents will be late for my wedding. But we still arrived in Lubbock in the afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to visit with my Granny and go to dinner with a bunch of my aunts, uncles, and cousins. The trip’s taken a unexpected turn, though, because my Granny had to leave for Houston this morning because her last remaining sister died earlier this week. So now one of the main reasons we came to Lubbock is gone. But that does mean we might come home a day earlier!

And we’re house sitting Granny’s now, and you know how much I love house sitting. Just ask Wes’ s grandma…

P.S. Four days til I move out!

Q&A with Pierce The Veil

Pierce The Veil's Vic Fuentes and Jaime Preciado. Photo by Holly Aker

This is an interview I conducted last Wednesday with Pierce The Veil before their performance on the This Is A Family Tour in San Antonio. You can also this interview at Red River Noise.

In June of this year, Pierce The Veil released their sophomore album, Selfish Machines. The album is a great example of post-hardcore at its best and features the grizzly screams of A Day To Remember’s frontman, Jeremy McKinnon, on the song “Caraphernelia.” As part of the This Is A Family Tour, Pierce the Veil played to a packed house of screaming fans and kids literally climbing over each other to reach the stage Wednesday night at The White Rabbit in San Antonio. This tour is the first intimate, club tour for the San Diego based band since releasing Selfish Machines.

We caught up with Pierce The Veil before the show to talk about collaborating with McKinnon, dating on the road and the band’s plans for 2011.

What is your writing process like these days now that you have more experience together as a band?

Vic Fuentes: It’s a collaborative effort now because we have a whole band together on this record. First record we didn’t have a full band, it was just me and Mikey. So now we got all the dudes, and we were able to jam the songs before we recorded them, which was very important in the making of the album.

Jaime Preciado: Tony and I joined the band when the first record was already done. It’s cool to actually jam out the songs, and hear them as a full band.

Where did the name “Selfish Machines” come from?

Vic: It’s about how we all have a sort of selfishness inside of us. I think to some extent no matter how morally good someone could think they are, I think we all have this selfishness about us. For example, if you are in love, like I’m in love with Jaime, I want him all to myself because I’m selfish. It’s about human nature and everyone’s inner wanting to take and have things and desire things, and I think it’s a natural thing, and I think it’s awesome.

Where were you mentally and musically when you were making Selfish Machines?

Jaime: I think we wanted to write a record that was going to be fun to play live since we’ve been touring for so long. So that was our main influence. Bunch of kids, seeing them everyday. Because on the first record like we said earlier, we’d never played the songs as a band before, so playing them in front of kids, you get a different feel. You get to see what kids to react to.

Vic: Yeah, every night on this tour I’ve been thanking the crowd for their inspirations for the new record. Whether they realize it or not, they really had a big part in it. We actually picture being on stage when we’re writing, what we feel would be cool on stage for us, so that was kind of the driving forces we had on the record.

How was it collaborating with Jeremy McKinnon on the song “Caraphernelia”?

Vic: It was awesome. It was all done from long distance. I had the part for him, and it was all written, and we just sent it over to him. He was in a studio. He was producing a record at the time, so we just sent him the stuff, and he recorded it in his studio that he was at, and we just took his vocals and put them into the song. It was kind of the same way with the video. He did all his stuff from Germany when he was touring with A Day To Remember over there. So he just shot it one night over there and sent us the footage.

Mike: Broke a pay phone.

Vic: Yeah, broke a pay phone, end of story. But it was cool.

Mike: He’s got a mean scream.

Vic: Yeah, he’s got a crazy scream, and I think it really helped the song. It took it to a new level.

Mike: Hopefully one day we can tour with them and he’ll do the screams.

Did you have him in mind for the part when you first wrote the song? Was he on board as soon as you approached him about it?

Vic: Yeah, well not at the very beginning, but when I had that chorus I knew I wanted it to be a screaming part, and I didn’t think I could do it justice the way I wanted it to be done. I kept hearing his voice on it. I think it would have been really cool, so I asked him when he was at our show in San Diego, and he said he was down. It came out cool.

Selfish Machines seems to have a recurring theme of relationships that didn’t work out and the video for “Caraphernelia” shows the struggles involved with having a long distance relationship on the road. Who was the inspiration behind the song

Vic: My old girlfriend Cara was the inspiration for it. The video and a lot of the song is about something we can all relate to. Just trying to have relationships on tour. I mean Tony’s got a girlfriend, and I’m sure that’s kind of tough.

Tony Perry: It can be. I’ve had relationships that I’ve tried and have failed on tour, and so far this is going good, everything’s good. We’ve all had issues with something like that, which is cool because even though it’s written about his girlfriend, every one of us can relate to it in some way because we’ve all had the same kind of problems. The video itself was really cool because we’re able to make a visual of the things we’ve had to deal with on the road like past relationships

Vic: I met this dude the other day. He came up to me at the L.A. show, and he was like, “Dude, I’m about to tryout for some major league baseball team.” I forget which one it was, but he was like, “I’m about to make the team, but I’m kind of scared because I’ve got a girlfriend. I just want to know how it is traveling. I don’t know if I want to do it.” I just explained to him, as long as the girl’s supportive and as long as he’s super passionate about what he’s doing, you should definitely go for it. You still got to do what you love. By the end of the conversation he was super stoked.

Do you have any advice for people in that situation?

Jaime: I would say do what you love because in the end it’ll always work out.

Tony: I’ve had relationships that didn’t work out, but if you’re with someone that would cheat on you or something like that because you’re away, that’s not someone you should be with anyways. You got to do what you’re going to do, and you hope for the best that that person’s going to support it. If it works out, it works out. I would never change what I’m going to do for someone else because if they really care about me then this wouldn’t be an issue

Mike: I mean I haven’t had a girlfriend in like 8 million years. So obviously it’s working out perfect for me. I have my band that loves me.

I’ve read that the song “Million Dollar Houses” is dedicated to Mike and Vic’s parents and is about some of them money issues they’re going through. Tell me about writing that song.

Vic: This year our parents lost their house that me and Mike grew up in, and so we wrote the song about how they’ve been together for so long, and they never let money or things like that tear them apart, tear their relationship apart. I just thought it was such a cool thing that they’ve still been together over all these hard times that they’ve had, and especially this one. Our dad is actually a painting contractor; he’s an independent contractor, so it’s tough. We wrote the song as kind of a gift for them just talking about their relationship and how it’s so strong.

You have had several side projects like Cinematic Sunrise, Isles & Glaciers, and Mikey Whiskey Hands. How do you find time to balance multiple bands at once?

Vic: The Isles & Glaciers thing only took 10 days to record

Mike: It just came at the right time.

Vic: It’s all about timing. We had this perfect gap to do it, where we weren’t touring, we weren’t recording, so we just took the chance and did that. You guys have the Whiskey Hands stuff.

Mike: That’s a lot on the road, recording on the road.

Jaime: I make a lot of random stuff, and whenever Mike and I have time, we just sit down. I’ve been doing a lot of solo acoustic stuff too

Vic, you lent your vocals to Chiodos’ new song “Love Is A Cat From Hell.” How did that come about and what was it like working with them

Vic: It was cool. They just called me up, asked me if I would be down to sing on the song. We knew Brandon [Bolmer] for years because he was in a band called Yesterdays Rising from San Diego. So he’s an old friend, and the Chiodos guys are old friends as well. It was really easy. They sent me the song, told me the spots where they wanted vocals, and I wrote some stuff at home and sent it back to them. Jaime actually recorded them from his house. We just sent them all the vocals, and they were stoked on it. I thought the song was super cool. Long before I even sang on it, I was like, this song’s awesome, and I was super stoked to be a part of it. I think it came out really rad.

Mike and Vic, how is it being in a band with your brother? What are some of the pro and cons?

Mike: It’s a nightmare.

Jaime: They’re always measuring their biceps all the time.

Mike: I think it’s cool because me and Vic never really fought growing up as kids. We were always just looking out for each other. It’s cool that we get to play on the same stage everyday.

Vic: Yeah, we get to travel, get to see the world together. It’s cool to be with family in those times. It’s good. I love it.

Jaime: It’s funny when you [Mike and Vic] fight. They fight for a good 30 seconds, and then minute later it’s like it never happened. It’s so funny.

Mike: We’ll be arguing about a part in a song or something retarded, and we’ll just go off for maybe two minutes, and that’ll be it.

Tony: I want you guys to fight right now, just show her now.

Vic: It’s got to be natural. You can’t force these things.

Pierce the Veil did a cover of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” on “Punk Goes Classic Rock” that was released earlier this year. Why did you choose that song? Or was it given to you?

Vic: I wanted to do “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen but then Never Shout Never did it. It wasn’t even on the list of songs. I was so angry.

Jaime: I’m almost glad we didn’t do that because that would have been 500 tracks.

Vic: But that was my second guess, the “Reaper” song. I love that song. I think it’s such a cool, dark song with weird dark lyrics. Plus the cowbell skit with Will Ferrel’s amazing. I like all the music for that song. I like the vocals. I think they were at a good range for me to sing as well, and there’s tons of harmonies and I like doing harmonies, so that was another reason why I liked it.

Jaime: If you actually listen to the end of the track, you can actually hear me yelling at Mike to stop hitting the cowbell, and I think I threw something at you. It made it, so if you listen closely, it’s like, “Mike, we got it!”

2010 was a big year for Pierce The Veil, you played SXSW, you were on Warped Tour all summer, and you released a new album. What were some of the highlights of the year?

Mike: For me, it was some overseas stuff that we did: Australia and Japan. It was out of this world, literally. And Warped Tour was fun too.

Vic: Yeah, Warped Tour was rad because it was the first tour we did with the record. Actually this tour is kind of rad because this is the first club tour we’ve done on Selfish Machines, and it’s cool to see it a little more intimate as opposed to being outdoors on Warped. It’s cool to see kids singing and going crazy.

You have tour dates posted up until January 2011. What are your plans for the rest of 2011?

All: More tours.

Jaime: That we can’t tell you about.

Mike: Writing. We need to start writing more on the road.

Vic: Yeah, we have Silverstein coming up, and after that there’s an awesome tour that we’ll announce fairly soon. Then we’ll just be touring pretty constantly and writing in between.

 

Breaking News: Vans Warped Tour reveals first round of bands

We Came As Romans. http://thesoundalarm.com/?p=3496

Much to everyone’s surprise, Vans Warped Tour announced its first five bands today. Normally, Warped Tour holds onto this information a little bit longer, but personally, I like seeing the line up earlier because it lets me get all the more excited.

Dance Gavin Dance, Every Avenue, Go Radio, We Came As Romans and The Word Alive are the first five bands to be playing the tour. This line up already proves that Warped Tour will have a line up catering to everyone’s tastes. Just in this group there’s everything from metalcore with The Word Alive to pop punk with Every Avenue and everything else in between. With such a variety, Warped Tour is looking to be amazing, once again.

Warped Tour also announced the exact tour dates today. The tour will start June 24 in Dallas and wrap up on August 14 in Hillsboro, OR. The tour will be swinging by our neck of the woods on June 26 in San Antonio, which is unusually early for the Texas dates.

Breaking news: In Fear and Faith loses lead screamer

In Fear And Faith. http://www.findmusicplx.net/2010_05_01_archive.html

Yesterday, Alternative Press reported that Cody Anderson has quit In Fear and Faith.

According to the online article, Anderson announced his departure through a Facebook post. Anderson wrote, “I have left In Fear And Faith. I will not tell you why because its none of your business. Nice meeting you all. Buy whatever CD they come out with next. Scott [Barnes, vocals] has a better voice than any of these other shitty bands out there. If you live in SD lets hang out. Please don’t talk shit cause its a pain to go to your home page and delete you.”

For In Fear and Faith fans this news couldn’t come at a worse time. The band is currently on the This Is A Family Tour with Attack Attack!, Emmure, Pierce The Veil, and Of Mice & Men, and the tour still has 13 more stops. It will be interesting to see who the band plans to recruit to fill Anderson’s spot for the remainder of the tour.

Anderson has one of the best screams in the hardcore scene, and he will be missed greatly by his IFAF fans.

This Is A Family Tour raises the hardcore bar

As I expected, the This Is A Family Tour was mind blowingly awesome. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the entire show. However, the reason I missed the first band was because I got in line late because I was interviewing Pierce The Veil. So I’m not upset about it all.

Of Mice & Men. Photo by Holly Aker.

When I did get into the venue, In Fear And Faith was finishing up their set, but what I did hear sounded pretty good. Of Mice & Men followed In Fear And Faith, and they put on quite a show. For one of the opener bands, Of Mice & Men was able to get the crowd jumping, pushing, and ready to roll some heads. One kid in the crowd got so rowdy that he started yelling profanities at the lead signer of Of Mice & Men, who in turn threatened to jump off the stage and pummel the kid.

Pierce The Veil. Photo by Holly Aker.

Pierce The Veil was up next, and like I predicted, they turned it up to 11. Maybe even 12. Even though Pierce The Veil was the poppiest band of the night, they started off gnarly, attention-grabbing, mosh-pit-evoking  bang that set the tone for the whole set. Vic Fuentes, Pierce The Veil’s lead singer, had everyone singing along with his almost-too-unbelievably-high vocal range, and crowd surfers were flying every which way trying to get to the stage. Even though Pierce The Veil’s albums don’t have very much screaming, the live performance was full of gut-busting growls, which just got the whole crowd even more pumped up.

Emmure. Photo by Holly Aker.

Emmure was the fourth band on the This Is A Family line up, and although they would have won the one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-others game, the band had quite a following present at the show. Everything about Emmure was different compared to all the other bands: they didn’t wear skinny jeans or  jorts, they didn’t have lip rings, they didn’t wear eye liner, they didn’t have the straightened, side-swooped hair (or have long enough hair for that matter), they didn’t do the hardcore, running in place dance or the grand plie style of guitar playing. They just played straight up metal. No hints of emo or even singing. It was just straight, throat-shredding screams. And it was good.

Attack Attack! Photo by Holly Aker.

At last, Attack Attack! took the stage, and they nearly reduced The White Rabbit to rubble. From the first note that the band played, everyone in the entire crowd was jumping, moshing, and causing complete chaos along to synth infused hardcore beats. In November, Attack Attack! lost their clean vocalist, Johnny Franck, but his stand in, Sean Mackowski of My Ticket Home, was actually a lot better compared to live videos I’ve seen with him. Lead singer Caleb Shomo made an announcement to the crowd about Franck’s departure, assuring everyone that it was Franck’s decision to leave and that they’re all still very good friends. Soon after that, Mackowski announced that it was Shomo’s birthday, and he led the crowd in a round of “Happy Birthday.” Attack Attack! ended their set with the crowd favorite “Stick Stickly,” which featured some of the best ear-splitting vocals, electro-dance-party beats, and a breakdown so slow and brutal, time nearly stood still.

 

This Is A Family Tour: The Justice League of hardcore

Tonight is a very exciting night for me. Although I have a million projects due and hundreds of chapters to read and my apartment could use a good scrub down, I will be ignoring all of these responsibilities tonight as I drive to San Antonio for the This Is A Family Tour. The tour includes Attack Attack!, Emmure, Pierce The Veil, In Fear and Faith, and Of Mice & Men, and with such an awesome lineup, this may be the best show of the year.

Of Mice & Men. http://theinterlude.com/2010/02/24/of-mice-men-streaming-full-album/

Of Mice & Men is a post-hardcore band from Costa Mesa, California. Although the band has only been around for a relatively short period of time, they’ve gone through quite their share of drama. In this year alone, the band lost both of the founding members, Jaxin Hall and Austin Carlile. The band has since found replacements for both, but it will be very interesting to hear if the band still resembles their sound from their self-titled debut album.

In Fear And Faith. http://www.findmusicplx.net/2010_05_01_archive.html

In Fear and Faith, who got their name from the Circa Survive song of the same name, is a hardcore/screamo band from San Diego. The band released “Imperial,” their second full length album, this summer to eagerly awaiting fans. The band’s first album, “Your World On Fire,” made a very impressive name for the band in the hardcore world, and “Imperial” kept up that legacy . Although In Fear and Faith follows the same sing/scream pattern that many bands use these days, they have been able to craft the perfect balance of clean vocals, grizzly screams, and breakdowns.

Pierce The Veil http://mixtapemedication.com/home/2010/8/24/interview-with-vic-fuentes-of-pierce-the-veil.html

Pierce The Veil, probably the softest band on the tour, is a post-hardcore band from San Diego. While still under the post-hardcore genre, Pierce the Veil sticks with clean vocals for a large majority of their songs. In fact, the only screams heard on the band’s new album, “Selfish Machines,” were from Jeremy McKinnon from A Day To Remember. Although Pierce The Veil’s sound might be called “emo” by some, I know for a fact that when they play live, they know how to turn it to 11.

Emmure. http://brokenglassonline.com/news/emmure-post-new-song

Emmure is a deathcore band from New York, and is no doubt the hardest band on the This Is A Family Tour. The best way to describe Emmure’s sound is to compare it to being hit in the face with a bag of bricks, and I honestly mean that in the best way possible. I think adding Emmure to this tour is a very gutsy choice, and it should definitely be interesting to see the differences between Emmure and the other bands like Pierce the Veil.

Attack Attack! http://www.last.fm/music/Attack+Attack!/+images/12213487

Attack Attack! will wrap up the show with their perfect blend of hardcore and dubstep, which they call crabcore. Reigning from Ohio, Attack Attack! is one of the first bands to popularize crabcore. Although I used to think crabcore was the stupidest word ever invented and the genre was even worse, Attack Attack! showed me my mistake, and I am now completely in love with it. Attack Attack! do crabcore better than any other band I have ever heard, so tonight’s show should be one for the record books.

Hey, December. You look awesome.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=149865658376952

With only a few hours left in November, it’s time to look back at all the fun had in the last month and look ahead to all the fun still to be had in December. November was full of turkey time (or tofurkey for those of you like me), guys who refused to shave their facial hair, three times the fun at Fun Fun Fun Fest (what else was to be expected), and so many good shows. But now December’s finally here and that means the end of 2010, holiday cheer, and of course a million and one fun things to do. December is quite possibly the best month in general, but this December looks extra awesome.

Wednesday, December 1 – This Is A Family Tour. This tour is a great way to end the year. By combining Attack Attack!, Emmure, Pierce The Veil, Of Mice & Men, and In Fear and Faith, this is tour is like the Justice League of hardcore. I’ve been so excited for this tour for so long, I’ve barely been able to contain myself.

http://attractions.uptake.com/blog/trail-lights-austin-texas-982.html

Various dates in December – End of the semester! Starting next week, finals begin and the semester ends. For me, this end will be next Tuesday, December 7. It’s a very stressful, yet exciting time for students, and I know we’re all ready for a break.

Sunday, December 5 – Zilker Tree Lighting Ceremony. Even though the city of Austin nixed the Trail of Lights this year (which is a travesty and I could nearly cry), the Zilker Tree will still be on display. Austinites looking to spread some holiday cheer can grab some hot cocoa and spin under the giant tree until they puke or run into a stranger.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/20279841@N00/27814549

December – 37th Street Christmas Lights. While it’s hard to pin down an exact date for this light display, it’s one you can’t afford to miss. The crazy, cooky, bizarre light display that residents of 37th Street put up is what keeps Austin weird. For decades these people have been putting lights on anything from an oven to a dinosaur, to a broken down car and calling it festive. If you’ve never seen these lights, you need to get down their ASAP. They won’t soon be forgotten.

Saturday, December 25 – Christmas! Oh, Christmas. In my opinion it’s one of the best holidays all year. The whole family gets together and (if it’s cold enough) starts a fire and plays Christmas tunes. It’s all so magical and fun. I can’t wait for Christmas!

Q&A with Chiodos lead singer, Brandon Bolmer

Brandon Bolmer. Photo by Holly Aker

Last Tuesday night I went to the Congregation of the Damned Tour with Chiodos, Blessthefall, Atreyu, Architects, and Endless Hallway in San Antonio. With the help of Red River Noise where I’ve recently started interning, I was able to secure an interview with Chiodos lead Singer Brandon Bolmer. This is what we chatted about.

Do you know how the dynamic has changed in the band since you and Tanner Wayne joined Chiodos?

Bolmer: Since I joined it’s gotten a little heavier. Not drastically, but I think the vocals fit the music a little more. That’s just my opinion because I’m new, so coming from before and now, if I was to take myself out, and if I was to think of me as someone else and critique both, I would say that vocals fit pretty good.

What about the personalities?

Bolmer: I’ve gotten the story of how bad things were before Craig left the band, how upset and frustrated everyone was, and now everyone seems to be really happy. The attitudes of everybody are a lot more positive, and everyone’s excited again. It’s fresh.

Did the band have you in mind when Craig left?

Bolmer: No. When they let Craig go, they had nobody. They weren’t really looking yet. They started writing a lot of music, and didn’t really have anyone in mind or weren’t really worried about it at the time. Then they started doing their auditions. So I came later. It wasn’t like they had already planned on it.

A lot of fans were really upset that Craig wasn’t in the band anymore. How did you deal with the backlash from those fans?

Bolmer: I knew when I joined the band and was deciding to join the band that that was going to happen, so I was already mentally preparing for it. I’ve seen a lot of that shit online. I’ve seen a lot of people talking. It happens with every band. It happens with bands that didn’t lose their singer and are still just bands that put out a record that someone didn’t like. That’s always going to happen, so to me it’s not childish because I know those people really cared about Craig and enjoyed the music and they’re bummed about it, but it doesn’t really bother me.

Were you involved much in the writing process of Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: In the lyrics and the singing, yeah. That was all me and Brad [Bell]. Mostly all original. Nothing was re-recorded that was already written by Craig. Everything’s original by me and Brad. I wasn’t involved much in the music, but I was there for about half the writing process for the rest of everything.

Given the fact the Craig was the face and the voice of Chiodos, did you feel a lot of pressure while writing Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: There was definitely pressure. I definitely had to live up to the fans’ expectations. At first it was kind of stressful. It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t bad. It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t horrible stress or anything, but at times it would be frustrating just wondering what people were going to think about it. I’d say yeah, it was a little hard. A little bit of pressure.

Where did the title “Illuminaudio” come from?

Bolmer: We never sat down and were like, “What are we going to call it?” We just wanted it to come to us. Then one day me and Brad and Tanner [Wayne] and a couple other dudes were chilling at Brad’s house and running over some ideas. We really liked the idea of the word “illumination” or “illuminate” because as far as the band’s struggle and the dark times they went through and how it is now, it represents finding a light at the end of the tunnel for the band. So that’s where “illumination” came from, and then “audio” obviously, it’s a CD. It [“Illuminaudio”] means a sound that will enlighten or an enlightening soundscape. We thought it was cool, and like I said, the band went through a lot of shit, so this is kind of like the rebirth of Chiodos.

Did you have any specific influences while writing Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: Maybe a little bit of Deftones for me. When recording, I don’t really listen to a lot of music because, I don’t try so hard to be original, but I want it to be something fairly new sounding. So I just do my thing really, but I have a lot of influences. Maybe Deftones, Muse.

What is your favorite track off of Illuminaudio?

Bolmer: Favorite song is either “Modern Wolf Hair,” “Notes in Constellations,” and “Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together.”

“Those Who Slay Together, Stay Together” seems to be one of the most powerful songs on the album. Can you tell me a little bit about the meaning behind it?

Bolmer: Well first, I think it’s one of the most powerful because we spent a lot of time on that song. When I first joined the band, they had already written the music. They wrote the song with the intention of having it being a zombie-story-type song. Me and Brad watched “28 Weeks Later,” it’s a zombie movie, or not really zombies but an infected, virus type thing. We got a lot of inspiration for the song from that movie, but we twisted it in a way to where the song goes along with the movie a little bit. We tied this idea into the song of a group of people just basically sticking together for one purpose. So at the beginning of the song, the purpose for the group of people, which could be our band or could be any group of people, a family, a couple or whatever. The idea is that at the beginning of the, I’ll call it a movie, the group of people are uninfected people that are trying to survive basically to avoid this deadly virus. In the middle of the song that’s where there’s an attack scene and the people become infected by the virus. And then their ultimate goal is still to stay together but also to obviously, as the movie would be, to infect everybody possible. It’s about sticking together. It kind of represents the band and how they stuck together through all the tough times they went through. It’s kind of about that.

You’ve been on the Congregation of the Damned Tour for a little over a month now. What has been one of your favorite moments while on tour?

Bolmer: I have a lot of favorite moments. This tour has been really cool. Every band and every person in each band is really down to earth and friendly. No one’s an asshole or cocky or any of that. Everyday something funny happens, something cool happens. One of my favorite shows would probably be Montreal. Atlanta, Georgia was cool. There’s been a lot of cool shit that’s happened. Everyday’s been awesome. I always get this question, and when I’m not asked the question, I know and I could answer, but then when the question pops up and I’m on the spot, I can’t think of anything. There’s been a lot of funny shit. Sam [Carter] from the Architects keeps us pretty entertained a lot. The singer of the Architects; he’s a pretty funny dude.

You haven’t posted any new tour dates for the rest of the year or really at all yet. What do you have planned for the remainder of 2010 and then into 2011?

Bolmer: For the rest of the year, we’re going to chill, kick back a little bit, enjoy the holiday. Then next year we have a tour booked in March. It’s not announced yet, so I don’t want to announce it myself, but that’ll be a good tour. I’m sure we’ll come back around this area. We might even book something before that at the beginning of the year, and if not, we’ll probably start writing something just to use the time wisely. But for the rest of the year, we’re just going to chill.

Escape The Fate announces new tour

http://www.altpress.com/news/entry/escape_the_fate_announce_the_dead_masquerade_tour/

Get excited! Escape The Fate announced today that they will be heading back out on the road in January.

Besides Escape The Fate, the tour, entitled The Dead Masquerade tour, will include Alesana, Motionless in White, Get Scared and Drive A. Although Motionless in White does seem to be the odd one out in this line up with their hard-as-a-brick-wall sound, this tour looks like it will be top notch.

The tour will be in support of Escapes The Fate’s new self-titled album that was released earlier this month. The tour will also act as a welcome back for bassist Max Green. Green entered rehab on Nov. 12 for drugs and alcohol, which caused Escape The Fate to cancel their European tour alongside Bullet For My Valentine.

The Dead Masquerade tour will start in Tuscon, AZ on Jan. 20 and wrap up in San Diego, CA on March 12. Unfortunately Escape The Fate left out Austin while planning this tour, but no fear, they’ll be hitting San Antonio on Jan. 25. Also, with the tour ending on March 12, the possibility of the band playing South By Southwest is even better. Cross your fingers!

The Fall AP Tour throws it down

Emarosa guitarist. Photo by Holly Aker

I want to start off by saying thank you, Alternative Press. Your fall tour blew my mind, introduced me to new bands, let me see Bring Me The Horizon for the first time, and gave me an all-around amazing way to spend a Thursday night.

The Bands: Bring Me The Horizon, August Burns Red, Emarosa, Polar Bear Club, This Is Hell

When: Last night

Where: Emo’s outside

The Highlights: This is Hell opened up the show with one of the best opening acts I have ever seen. They got everyone in the crowd moving, whether it was by choice or to get out of the way of the big guy moshing next to you. Their unique, fast-paced (almost punk) hardcore stylings and shout-based singing were like an electric jolt to the whole crowd to the anxious crowd. I was lucky enough to be right where the pit opened up, so I was able to circle the outer edge of the pit and snag a prime spot at the very front of the stage where I posted up for the rest of the night.

August Burns Red lead singer. Photo by Holly Aker

Although things calmed down when Polar Bear Club took the stage next, the band put on a really great show. Their more poppy-melodic version of hardcore was accompanied by the free-spirit dance styles of the cute little lead singer.

Emarosa played next, and their show definitely made me want to go out and immediately get their new CD that I’ve been continuously putting off buying. Lead singer Jonny Craig’s near-angelic voice mixed with the hard, grinding sounds of the guitars made for a quality show that sounded just like their albums.

August Burns Red guitarist. Photo by Holly Aker.

When August Burns Red started playing, the feel of the show took a complete 180. With their hard-as-rock music and bone crushing breakdowns, the crowd went insane for ABR. Their shred-tastic guitar riffs and brain-scrambling screams made for one of the hardest shows I’ve seen in a while.

Finally, headliners, Bring Me the Horizon took the stage, and all hell broke loose. As soon as the band played the first note and lead singer Oli Sykes belted his first growl, kids hit the air. Throughout BMTH’s entire set, there was a constant stream of crowd surfers and stage divers. Fans were climbing over each other as if people were stairs to get to the stage to scream along with Sykes. Being at the front of the stage, people had to climb over me to reach the stage, and there was one point where I was a little scared for my safety.

Bring Me The Horizon lead singer. Photo by Holly Aker

Despite that worry, the show was top quality. The band has the same crushing sound and thrashing guitars as the album, and it was great to finally see BMTH live.

The Damage: Throughout the complete destructive chaos of The AP Tour, I did sustain some bodily harm. Although it wasn’t anything too serious, I’ve never really walked away with so many injuries from a show. As soon as Emarosa started playing, the crowd smashed everyone against the stage, and this pressure never halted. Being right up against the stage, my hip bones ground against the stage all night, and I walked away with bruises so bad that it hurt to sleep on my stomach later that night. My other injuries included two head wounds: one on top of my head when someone threw a beer can that landed on my head, and the other was on the side of my face when a crowd surfer kicked me as he was trying to reach the stage.