How's the tour going?
You know so far so good, to be honest we really didn't know what to expect; going over in mainland Europe for a month before coming over here and, I mean that is still a long tour especially to be headlining. But we didn't know what to expect with the shows and we've been really excited at the amount of kids coming out every night.
Is it a surprise when you've come across the ocean so far and been all over Europe to find people know your material or has it become normalised?
Even when kids come show up in my home town I'm surprised. You know, that someone would actually take some time out to memorise the words, and playing over in the UK is almost the equivalent of playing at home.
You live in Canada separate from the band, is it difficult being in a band and working so far apart?
It would be if it not for the amazing advances of the internet. Right now, some of the dudes have relocated to Milwaukee Wisconsin, I'm in Canada. So those guys will always work together getting something recorded, they send it over to me, I tell them if it sucks or not and we work on it from there.
You're touring on your Controller album which you recorded with Devin Townsend, as a Devin Townsend fan I have to ask; what's it like recording with the Dev?
OK, the first record was done with him but that was before I joined the band, so the rest of the band already had a working relationship with him before I came into position. The only other experience I had to go on was when we did our second album Mirrors, which was the first one with me. We recorded with a guy who wasn't really involved other than the production aspect of it and he would just push record. So I didn't know any different, it was my first time in the recording studio and I just assumed that's the way it is. But then when we came to work on the next record Devin actually approached us and said, 'I want to do this record'; and it was that push that he actually came to us. We didn't have to hunt him down and plead for him to do it, so his interest in it right off the bat was enough for us to say 'Ok well let's do this again'. I don't know, just the environment that dude creates when you're all just in the studio is just...magical things happen.
Did you hear any of his upcoming work?
I might have.
How much might you have heard?
A few demos, and if you look hard enough on youtube there's a few recording clips.
Yeah I've seen them, just watching him work it seems that he knows how to get results.
I don't know how he does it, but he just works wonders when he's there and that's why a lot of bands try to get him. I think a lot of the feel of Controller was due to him and his ideas. I mean we did two weeks of solid pre-production where we would just take all the demos and he would just sit there with us and say, 'Ok, well this part right here, needs to be longer. This part, cut it. This part; got to go', and he had a large input on the structure as well.
To you is there anything special about the scene in Canada?
I mean the scene over there is a lot similar to places like here and Australia; a lot of the same vibe. Kids come out to the shows and want to have a good time no matter what. You meet a lot of people who have just come out because there's a show on, not necessarily knowing what bands are playing, but the fact is there aren't as many shows going on down in these states - you can't really pick and choose which ones you go to. Quite often when you're coming back to these cities half the room is brand new people.
Has the recession affected you?
It's not really had an effect. I guess, to be fair, the only side of it a guy in a band sees is the shows when you're selling the merch and we haven't really noticed any difference. Kids are still coming out to the shows, buying the merch so. I'm sure it's effected some people but the guys who come to our shows probably aren't huge property owners or anything. *laughs*
What was the inspiration for Controller and how did you approach it?
You know...how did I approach this album? *laughs*
Yeah, the way I write things down and go about things...it's funny because I was asked this question by a kid who came out. And he was asking me questions about lyrics; I just told him that the way I write there's not really a right or a wrong answer to these songs and he came up and said, 'oh this song is about “this”' and I go, 'yeah, sort of'. I mean if you think it's about a certain topic then yeah.
Is the message important then, or is it in the hands of the audience?
Yeah, I like to write these words so that kids can take what it means for them, and take from that what they can. It may not necessarily be exactly what I was talking about.
Was there an overall theme for the album?
The album title itself was the last thing to get chosen, and we ran past several deadlines trying to make up our minds for a title for this thing. Controller was decided upon because we looked back over all of the songs and there was a general theme of control, whether it be someone's got a hold on you, or this issue that's out of your hands is still effecting your life; even though it had nothing to do with it directly it was in every one of these songs so we thought, 'yeah why don't we just call the record something to do with that?'
It wasn't [a conscious choice] but at the end of it when it was all said and done we were like wow there's actually a recurring theme here so let's roll it with it.
Have there been any particular memories good or bad, hopefully good, you'd like to share from this tour?
Well the way this tour's been routed we had to travel a lot in Germany...the few times where we had to cross over from East Germany into West, and each time we've done that we've been pulled over by the police, and it was the same spot both times once going West to East and once going East to West. It was two guys in plain clothes in an unmarked station wagon and pulled us over and start asking, 'What are you guys doing here? You're in a band? Yeah, ok'. And they pull all the gear out of the back and search it all.
It was just a few hours out of our time each day, and we'd end up getting late to the show and everything runs behind, but what you going to do?
And has there been anything or anywhere on this tour you've really liked?
We actually got on this tour to visit Spain, which we've never done before, we got to play in Madrid and Barcelona. Barcelona's always been a place I wanted to go as an avid skateboarder and it's like the city for skateboarding- any video you watch, probably the extent of it is in Barcelona. So I had a tour guide with me that day, he took me to all the famous spots. It's something I've always wanted to do so that meant a lot.
...So aside from the German thing it's all been good. It's been fun. All the guys on the tour and in the other two bands that we're with are all the best possible group of dudes that we could have. We've known both of these bands awhile, we've played a couple of shows with Your Demise in the UK when we were on tour here with Architects, and we just finished the US tour with Protest the Hero and The Number 12 so I mean over the course of those tours...if you're not a fan of the bands before the tours afterwards you are and having heard them time and time again you at least get an appreciation for what they do.
Have there ever been any problems where you haven't got on well with bands on tour?
Errr...there's been a few. A few bands. The most memorable one would be one that happened years ago, before I joined the band so I don't even know, that had nothing to do with me. Let's just say it ended with a brick flying through a bus window. There have been bands where they don't really...I guess they take themselves too seriously as the rockstars they think they are, and that's just not a good scene for everybody. They're not out there to have fun and say things like, 'stay out of our dressing room, you're not allowed in here' 'don't drink our beer', you know.
There are always bands you go on tour with and have the time of your lives with, and we're not going to say 'stay out of our dressing room, don't eat our food'. No, come on in. Let's party!
Do you know what you're going to be doing next. You've done the album, you've done the tour, I'm assuming there's a relaxation period after this?
Yeah, with the band this'll be the last tour we'll be doing on the Controller record. January this year, we'll just stop...we're going to take it slow before the next record.
Is there anything you haven't done yet with the band that you feel you'd like to do?
The only thing we haven't really done yet is been to South America, we still haven't gone there or Mexico; those places are a little harder to go to. If we go down there then we've done it all basically.
And as to the future?
We're not trying to write the next Black Album, we're comfortable where we are and as long as we can stay ourselves and continue touring the world writing music, then that's all we need.
