HMTV Canada Interviews Armed For Apocalypse

 

HMTV Canada Interviews Armed For Apocalypse

Hey guys, Congratulations on becoming signed to Metal Blades Ironclad recordings.

HMTV Canada: Can you tell us the highlights of your new Debut Album Defeat that’s going to drop on us like a bomb on September 16th?

Cayle: Fortunately, it doesn’t take too long to get to a highlight because the first track is called “We Fell from the Bottom” and it’s a heater. It’s one of our favorite songs and it sums us up as a band very well.  If you don’t like that song you probably won’t like the rest of the CD because it’s got all of our main components in it. Tempo changes, sludge parts, fast parts, crunches, and all three vocals make an appearance.  That song is followed by “The Demon Who Makes Trophies of Men” and that may be our heaviest song, so we really started the album off with a bang.

HMTV Canada: Who writes the bands lyrics and what do you mainly express in your themes?

Cayle: Kirk and I both write lyrics, but he writes the lions share for sure. The lyrical theme of the album is centered around loss, but it wasn’t a pre-conceived direction. After the music was written for each song we would listen to it and try to clear our minds and see where the vocals should be placed and what should be said over the music. We kind of believe that songs have a life of their own and it’s our job to get out of the way and let them say what they want to, so a lot of the lyrics felt like they wrote themselves.

HMTV Canada: Can you tell us who is helping engineer Defeat from the recording, mixing and mastering process?

Cayle: Our former guitarist and lifelong best friend Matt Pedri engineered the entire thing. He is incredible to work with for so many reasons, but my favorite is that he never says no. We wanted to record an insane amount of guitar tracks with hardly any time and even less money and all he said was “let’s go for it.” We wanted to use a handheld mic for vocals to get more energy out of them and not a mic on a stand and he made it happen instantly. We wanted to record 6 songs in two days and he jumped right in to it. We wanted to record with a click, without a click, and sometimes only one part with a click and he didn’t even flinch. The man is a genius and we can’t wait to work with him again.  We were also lucky enough to have Eric Stenman mix and master the entire album, and the things he did to it are mind blowing. We went to him with raw tracks and said “here’s what we want it sound like” and he went far above and beyond our expectations. He really hit it out of the park with the job he did and we can’t thank him enough. He has a great ear and is a great person.

HMTV Canada: Will Armed For Apocalypse be producing any music videos off the song tracks of their Album Defeat?

Cayle: We hope so. We haven’t decided yet because there is nothing worse than a video that looks amateur. So if we can either get the budget or the right person to make it look legit, we will be all over it. We would LOVE to make a video.

HMTV Canada: Can you provide us with a little history of the band how everyone met?

Cayle: I actually met Kirk and Corey when they were 13 and 14 years old respectively. They used to go to shows and watch my first band Oddman play and then during the week they would come visit me after school at a record store where I used to work. They were good kids and liked heavy music, and one day they handed me a boombox tape recording of themselves jamming in their parents living room. Even then Kirks voice jumped out of the speakers, and his guitar playing was well beyond his years. It’s crazy we ended up in a band together years later.

Cayle: Nick and I met around that same time. We both grew up in a town called Redding California and we knew a bunch of the same people, but we never actually met. I met him at that same record store one day and immediately starting trying to recruit him to play drums for my band. Haha. That never worked out, then he started Red With Envy, I moved to Sacramento to start Ghostride and that was that. But one day when I was frustrated with music and his guitar player had moved to Antarctica to work; he called me up and said “you and I are doing this. It’s meant to be.” And that’s how it started.

HMTV Canada: What other bands did the members play in before forming Armed For Apocalypse?

Cayle: I played in Oddman, Ghostride, Will Haven and The Abominable Iron Sloth. Kirk and Cor played in Brain in a Cage and Blood of Cain. Nick played in Red With Envy (and Fluorescent Brown!!! What what!!!)

HMTV Canada: Do all the band members share the same influences for their music and do they like to experiment and try new things to their sound?

Cayle: I think we all grew up on totally different music actually. I didn’t get in to heavy music until kind of late in the game, and the first heavy band I really attached myself to was Helmet. Betty was the first CD I ever owned and it changed my life forever. So that’s the school I came from. Older stuff. Down, Crowbar, Sepultura, Danzig, things like that.  Kirk and Cor grew up at a time when the heaviest thing they could find was Nu-metal. It was Korn and Limp Bizkit and all of that stuff, but they managed to pick up on Slayer and other cool bands during that time, and when they grew up and started searching for music of their own they started turning in to huge death metal heads.  Nick was a total pop punker growing up!!! Haha. He can probably still play every beat on every Lagwagon, NOFX, and Propaghandi album in their catalog. He was a huge Nirvana fan, of course, and a lot of other good alternative stuff. But one thing I will say about all of us: a lot of people start out listening to heavy music and their tastes get lighter and lighter over the years. We are all the opposite. Our musical tastes have all grown heavier and darker the older we are, and we are all on a constant search for heavier, dirtier sounds, and new things to help us get there.

HMTV Canada: How have your live shows been are there many places to play at in Chico California and does the band have to deal with pay to play at certain nightclubs in that area?

Cayle: Our live shows in Chico are always awesome. The great part about being from a tiny little down in the middle of nowhere is the people here really want to be proud of us. They want us to succeed. In bigger cities they don’t start noticing you until you are on the radio or MTV, but here if you work hard to promote and put on good live shows word spreads quickly and attendance at shows goes right along with that. People that don’t even listen to heavy music will go out of their way on a weeknight to show up and support us and it’s a great feeling. It’s a very artist-friendly, tight knit community here and there aren’t a lot of “haters” like there are in other places. There are 6 or 7 quality venues to play, which is a lot for a small town, and we have never done the whole “pay to play” thing. Not here or anywhere.  We hate that whole process. It’s usually clubs taking advantage of new bands desire to move up and start being legit, but in reality, the club doesn’t care if a single soul shows up as long as they make their money. And it’s the struggling, broke, upstart bands that are making the payment on the club owners Mercedes.

HMTV Canada: Has the band played at any venues or music festivals in the LA area?

Cayle: The closest we have been to the LA area so far is Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. We played SB twice, once with Snot and once with Unearth, and we played San Luis with Unearth as well. We will be down in LA soon and often. We have a lot of great friends there and we think there are a lot of folks there that will dig what we do.

HMTV Canada: Is Metal a popular genre in California or more of an underground music scene?

Cayle: Metal is huge in California. Obviously, some cities it’s more popular than others, but in general it’s a fairly mainstream thing. There are a ton of underground bands and venues, but I think that’s true no matter where you are. We are thankful that metal is so welcome in so many cities in our home state.

HMTV Canada: What have been the bands most memorable, crazy funny or killer shows that they recently performed at?

Cayle: I would say our favorite show as a band thus far is the show we played with Unearth in San Luis Obispo CA. It was our last of three shows with Unearth and Lazarus A.D. and the place was electric. The people there were incredible and had so much energy we couldn’t help but feed off it. From the first note we played the pit was insane and they never let up. It was exciting and humbling and our first glimpse in to what we hope is the future for Armed For Apocalypse – playing quality shows and making a genuine connection with people. But in the future our dream is to have the people know the words and the music and sing along with us because that makes it less like us being a juke box and more like an interactive experience with everyone sharing a moment together.

HMTV Canada: If the band had a chance to perform anywhere in the world what country would they like to tour to?

Cayle: At this point our number one priority as a band is to tour Europe. There are so many different countries and cultures so close together over there and so many places of historical significance it’s mind blowing – not to mention the amount of people that love metal!!! But honestly, we want to go to the most far off weird places and play just to do it. Just for the experience! Places nobody tours regularly. Russia, Brazil, ANTARCTICA!!  Haha. Everywhere there is a captive audience that may get what we do, we want to play there.

HMTV Canada: Are there any bands that Armed For Apocalypse would like to share the stage with when it comes to touring?

Cayle: So many!!! We have already been lucky enough to share the stage with some GREAT bands, but there are tons we would love to play with in the future. Our idles are who we dream of playing with and it’s kind of why we all started playing music in the first place. Down is definitely up at the top of the list. Lamb of God, Slayer, Crowbar, Bloodbath just to name a few on a very, very long list.

HMTV Canada: What’s the focus for the band for the remainder of 2009 are the members working on new material for a full length Album or just tours or live shows at the moment?

Cayle: Our main priority right now is touring. We are very proud of this album and we want as many people to hear it as possible. The only reason we make CD’s is so we can have an excuse to play shows, so we’re looking forward to being out on the road for quite a while trying to convert people around the world. We will always write though. Our debut album hasn’t even come out yet and we already have songs written for the follow up. I think if we didn’t work on new stuff for too long, we would all go crazy. We need to be creative.

HMTV Canada: Before we wrap up our interview does the band have any shout outs to fans or friends?

Cayle: A special shout out to our girl Kelli at Metal Blade for doing so much for us and always going above and beyond. She is the best!! And an extra special shout to all of the people that have helped us along the way with no thought of reciprocation. Matt Pedri for one, Eric Stenman, Ryan Bentley, Randy Blythe, Trevor Phipps. All great people. And of course, the greatest shout out goes to any person that has ever, or will ever spend a second of their time listening to our music, or spend a dime to support it in any way. We will NEVER take that for granted.

I would like to thank Armed For Apocalypse and Metal Blade Records for this interview. Horns High You Rock. HMTV Canada

Answered by Cayle Hunter