Bleed the Sky Interview

The Gauntlet: What the fuck has been up?

Noah: Shit, just been working our asses off. We've had the last 3 or 4 months off. We've been working on new material with our producer and stuff; just pre-production stuff, trying to tighten up as much as possible. We are trying to recover from our trailer and all our gear getting jacked on our last tour.

Wayne: We got a name for the new tour 'Where the Fuck is the Trailer' tour.

The Gauntlet: So the trailer and gear were never found?

Noah: No, we didn't have it insured and this sounds stupid and foolish, but there was a lot of shit involved with why we couldn't get it insured. We never heard anything back. We had to start all over from scratch with all new gear top to bottom. That's one of the reasons we took time off, we had to go out and get jobs and fuckin worked and saved. We got our gear back up to par. We have new gear now that's even better. It's a lot better gear and sounds a lot better.

The Gauntlet: Last time we met, you stated no writing til spring '06.

Noah: We've been just tossing stuff around when we had a few days off. With this extended time off, we are really focusing on everything now.

The Gauntlet: Who are you looking at to produce?

Noah: Christian from Fear Factory. He's a fucking great guy. He has the best fucking sense of humor. That's a must for us. We are idiots that goof off all the time but we take our music seriously. Working with Christian is the perfect choice for us. He has a great studio and has a producers ear. He's not just a great musician but has the ear for it.

Wayne: We know he's going to bring the best out of us.

Noah: Just last week we went up and did pre-production vocals on one of the songs. I thought the stuff sounded good, but he was saying "fuck no, I have heard you scream, you need to do better than that. If you need to change the lyrics to make it mean more to you then do it." It's going to be fucking night and day and more aggressive at every level for us.

The Gauntlet: My problem with a lot of the musicians turned producer is they only know their instruments and how to bring out certain tones that sound how they played.

Noah: Christian has worked on a lot of stuff people don't know about. He worked with Cypress Hill back in the day. He's bringing to the table what we are bringing to the table. He was raised on rap, punk, thrash, and metal. He knows everything. He heard some of the drum stuff and bass and said some needs to change. He also wrote the keyboards for Fear Factory. He knows notes, good and bad rhythms, screams, tones, etc. He does know a lot, probably more than any of us about our instruments.

The Gauntlet: Bleed the Sky has members from very diverse backgrounds which lends to the bands sound. Will this be evident in the new album?

Noah: [Disco (bassist) is yelling in the background he wasn't on the current album] Disco wasn't on the record, so the first main thing is to make the bass more noticeable. We have a bass player that is actually a fucking experienced musician. He takes as much pride in playing bass as we take in our instruments. This is crucial for us. We are bringing in so many different elements that we never thought we could incorporate. We have been a lot more influenced by Meshuggah and still listening to a shitload of bands like Alice in Chains and Pantera. I think we are bringing a lot more of these influences to the table than we knew what to do with on the first record.

Wayne: We also take a lot of pride in our material. This material feels like we have reached our element, our niche.

The Gauntlet: The last album was basically 3 years in the making. Most of the songs were fairly old material from the early days of the band. Do you think the next album will show a big progression since the band has now matured into their instruments?

Wayne: I think so, absolutely. We are probably going to write the stuff pretty quick. At the same time we are all anal retentive assholes when it comes to our shit. We like it to be perfect, we wont settle for anything less. Like you said, we have all matured into our instruments. It's a lot easier for us to get together and throw a song together as we now read each other. We aren't worried this time about any deadlines. I think it's going to be fucking awesome.

The Gauntlet: 'Paradigm In Entropy' wasn't very well received at first by the critics. A lot of people compared you to Chimaira.

Noah: If anyone compares us to Chimaira, we tell them we are friends with those guys and why would they want to take us on tour with them if we were ripping them off? We don't take shit like that to heart, but at the same time, a lot of the negative shit, we pay attention to. You gotta look at it like maybe they are right. Maybe something we thought was a strong point isn't as strong as we thought. Maybe we should focus on that. Every album that comes out has the good and bad critics. The new Metallica gets torn apart, but it's the biggest selling metal album. At first when I read a few reviews that weren't good, I took it personally. I expect as many good and bad ones on the next one, but I expect the good ones are twice as strong. I don't know why people are turning around an supporting us. Maybe they had time to see us play live and think that we are amazing onstage. I have talked to a lot of people who have given us bad reviews and are very critical. By the end of the night we are doing shots with them. If you rip on us, I'd like to talk to the person and see what they meant by it. Not in an offensive way. We are pretty open minded when it comes to this�except for fucking Wayne. He walks around crying and calls me up saying "Dude, is this band going anywhere? This guy said we are a Chimaira rip off, let's just quit. My hair is messed up, let's just quit."

Wayne [laughs]

The Gauntlet: At this stage, does it look like the next album will take you to the next level?

Noah: I think so, definitely.

The Gauntlet: Will the old fans be able to tell it's still Bleed the Sky?

Noah: I think this next record is going to be much better. I am expecting it to be our 'Obsolete' of Fear Factory. I love some of the songs on the first record but some of the songs are three years old. We aren't trying to reinvent the wheel or anything. There are a lot of new styles going into this. There is a lot of southern influence.

The Gauntlet: When you say Southern influence, do you mean Southern California influence? Like the nu metal rapcore stuff?

Noah: [laughs] No! Southern California isn't Southern. We are talking Down, Alabama Thunderpussy, Corrosion of Conformity. The shit we grew up with. A lot of it is fast like the stuff on the last record, but it's still really heavy and got a good groove. Kinda like Pantera, the shit didn't have to be fast to be heavy. The style of Southern shit is what all of us grew up with and we want to bring some of that in.

The Gauntlet: How's the touring?

Noah: Tonight is the first night. Soon we will join up with Silent Civilian in Oklahoma. The first night with Silent Civilian will be in my home town. That's gonna be our party night. That's were our slumber party kicks in.

Disco: Isn't that kinda weird that the tour kicks in on a Monday. So in Oklahoma we will party on Monday and Tuesday?

Noah: No, every night's a party on tour.

The Gauntlet: The last time you spoke with The Gauntlet, we heard about the 5lb shit. Can you give me a tour story that tops that?

Noah: Did we ever send you pictures of it? We also have the video of it. It was this big a round and this long. So you want a good tour story. Oh fuck. One night Disco got super fucking smashed on the American Headcharge tour. He was ripped beyond belief and running around the parking lot in Flint, MI. He runs around to sober up. He made like three laps around the parking lot, comes over and passes out into this river of my piss. He could have fallen anywhere but ended up falling where I just pissed like three gallons. It was a shit load of piss. His hair was all in it. His head was just laying right in it. He didn't get a chance to take a shower for like three days.

The Gauntlet: In Discos defense, Michigan winters are very cold and I'm sure he just saw your piss steaming in the snow and wanted to keep warm.

Noah: I didn't think of that.

Disco: That was a 6 day bender! I was so drunk they had to roll me onto my stomach so I didn't die. It was bad that time.

Noah: So he got put on a time out after that. We kind of wrangled in his drinking. He was passed out, I mean out, doing the whole puking thing. We had to stay awake all night checking on him, checking his pulse.

Disco: It was Headcharges fault. They would not stop buying me drinks.

The Gauntlet: That is true, when a headlining band buys you a drink, there is a law stating you must drink it.

Noah: Yep. Kyle doesn't drink. If Kyle is bought a drink, he hands it right to one of us.

The Gauntlet: Anything else you want to add?

Noah: I just want our fans to be ready. This album is going to blow their heads off. This album is so much heavier and complex. We really open up on our instruments and play. Kyle is one of the best guitar players. Wayne is quicker than anybody. He's like a machine. His stuff just drives the songs. Its fucking fast and heavy. We will hit the studio possibly end of August into October. Nothing is set in stone.


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Tags:  Bleed the Sky  , Noah, Wayne, Disco, interviews

Jason Fisher    February 24, 2006