<b>HEY AARON, THANKS FOR CHATTING WITH ME. HOW ARE YOU?</b>
I am doing great, how are you?
<b>I'M DOING GOOD. I FOUND THIS TO BE INTERESTING, YOUR ALBUM DYNASTY IS A CONCEPT ALBUM FOCUSING ON THE RISE AND FALL OF EMPIRES THROUGHOUT HISTORY. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU’VE ALWAYS HAD AN INTEREST IN?</b>
Yeah, I'm a History Channel dork. I like to watch a lot of Discovery and History channel. I’ll be the first one to admit that whenever there’s some sort of a documentary about Ancient Egypt or any big, broad spectrum of something that went down in the past, I’m always into it.
<b>I LOVE TO WATCH THOSE SHOWS ALSO. THE SHOWS I HAVE CAUGHT LATELY WERE ABOUT HOW WE ARE SUPPOSEDLY HALF ALIEN.</b>
I watched that one. There are some pretty outlandish theories going on now. I try to catch only the stuff that I’m interested in.
<b>THE SCARY PART ABOUT SOME OF THAT IS THAT THEY CAN BE SO CONVINCING. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH WATCHING THE SHOW YOU'RE ACTUALLY THINKING ABOUT IT SAYING “THIS IS MAKING SENSE."</b>
Yeah, you think that you are part Martian when you’re done watching it. I literally saw this huge documentary, the theory behind it was how meteors chip off Mars and bring living organisms to our planet through the atmosphere on pieces of Mars rock. Over time it evolved into humans that we are living on planet Earth. I was like “You’ve got to be kidding.â€
<b>EXPLAIN THE CONCEPT OF YOUR ALBUM DYNASTY.</b>
I had this idea where I wanted to cover the Fall of Rome. Originally we were going to pretty much write an entire album on the Fall of Rome. To be honest, I didn’t even know that much about the Fall of Rome, I was just interested in learning more about it. It was a combination of learning more about it combined with writing a new record. We didn’t stop there. I didn’t want to stop at the Fall of Rome when there are so many other sweet civilizations and mythology from history that we could touch on and cover on our new record. We decided to cover a broad spectrum of things. The reason I covered the rise and fall of empires is because a lot of the things that these ancient empires or dynasties did, I feel like we are kind of doing the same thing that those civilizations did before they fell. Usually the first thing to crumble is the economy and so on and so forth. I wrote the song “To the Republic†kind of addressing our current situation in the United States. That one specifically is talking about us in present day United States. Everything else is kind of like some sort of a loose reference to the fact that we are re-inventing the wheel and we come possibly be living in the end times. I mean, who knows, I’m just basing it off what we learned from history.
<b>IS IT DIFFICULT WRITING AN ENTIRE ALBUM ON BASICALLY ONE SUBJECT?</b>
I think it was a little bit harder, I’m not going to lie, Google was my best friend writing this record. I think the main reason I’m so interested in stuff like that now as an adult is because I couldn’t stand learning about it in school. It was so dull and boring when you are taught that stuff in school. I’m interested in knowing more about it now. It was a little bit harder because I had to reference Google all the time. I kind of had to learn as I went. I’m not going to say I didn’t know anything at all, I definitely knew a decent portion of what I was writing about. I just had to refresh my memory and learn new stuff at the same time.
<b>WOULD YOU SAY THAT THE ALBUM PROMISES 11 TRACKS OF PURE AMERICAN DEATH METAL?</b>
I would say it covers 11 tracks of death metal. I don’t know if it’s pure American because our guitar players are fans of all sorts of foreign death metal. They like all sorts of Swedish metal. I think it sounds like American death metal, but you might find hints and splashes of other foreign styles of death metal in there. All in all I think it’s death metal.
<b>DID YOU WORK WITH JASON SUECOFF ON THIS ONE?</b>
Jason Suecoff mixed this record for us.
<b>I HAVE HEARD HE IS EXTREMELY FUNNY TO WORK WITH.</b>
I actually didn’t ever talk to him one on one. I shared a lot of emails with him. The emails alone were like Comedy Central. Nick our guitar player is actually a producer. He produced the record and we recorded it at his studio. Once we finished the tracking there it was all sent to Suecoff, so he mostly talked to him. Nick and I both got the emails because Nick and I usually take care of most of the business stuff for the band. Yeah he is a funny guy, the emails were pretty entertaining.
<b>YOU PUT A LOT OF RESEARCH INTO THIS LAST ALBUM, BUT WOULD YOU SAY THAT EACH ALBUM IS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE IN ITSELF.</b>
Yes, I always learn something new and the music business is constantly evolving whether it’s for the good or for the bad. You have to take it as it comes, but we have definitely learned a lot of new things just being on a bigger record label in correlation with having a new record out. We are learning how things are done.
<b>IS THERE A MESSAGE YOU WANT TO RELAY TO PEOPLE THROUGH YOUR MUSIC?</b>
I always tell everyone that I like to write things that I like to write about, whatever it may be. At the time, that is what I felt like writing about. I like people to take it as their own and interpret it their own way. If I wrote a song and someone said “I think it means this..†I would say “Sure, that’s what it means.†And if someone else said they though it meant something else then I’d say “Sure that’s what it means too.†It’s how ever you want to take it and interpret it for yourself.
<b>YOU DID A MUSIC VIDEO RECENTLY FOR THE FIRST SINGLE OFF THE ALBUM TITLED "ORACLE OF THE DEAD." WHEN WILL IT RELEASE?</b>
The release date, actually it’s like a premiere /release date, is going to be Friday February 11th on Noisecreep.com. Shortly after that it will be up on all of our social networks. Our publicist will be putting out a press release for it. I’ve been told it will be sent to MTV2, FUSE and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the whole cable on demand thing. I’d really like to see it on there.
<b>CAN YOU TELL US WHAT WE CAN EXPECT TO SEE WHEN IT RELEASES?</b>
There’s really no huge mystery to the video. There is a “making of†blog up on Solid State Records. They chopped it up and put it online for us. You can basically see what the whole premise of the video is. It’s this underground, fight club, wrestling match in this old looking room. That’s really all it is. It has a storyline to it, you know, the good guys and the bad guys. It has a unique twist on it using the wrestling, so they wanted to use that as a bargaining chip to get it released on some other wrestling related outlets.
<b>YOU ALSO DID SOME TOUR VIDEO BLOGS. I THINK THAT IS COOL BECAUSE IT IS SORT OF LIKE KEEPING A DIARY. YOU WILL BE ABLE TO GO BACK LATER AND SEE HOW FAR YOU’VE COME. WILL YOU CONTINUE TO DO THOSE IN THE FUTURE OR ARE THEY TOO MUCH WORK?</b>
Definitely, the only problem with doing them is that it takes an eternity to upload the footage. I’m not kidding, you have to leave you computer for a DAY sometimes to upload them. Once you get it to them and they edit them, it looks sweet. You’re glad you did it after. It is one more extra thing to do as a band. It kind of gives everyone an inside look at your band, the members and our personalities. I think it’s totally rad. We never had that when I was kid, so I never knew what any of the members of the bands that I like were like. We will keep doing it for sure. Anything that can get you more publicity, just do it!
<b>YOU HAVE ALREADY BEGUN TOURING ON THE NEW ALBUM. WHAT ARE THE PLANS AS FAR AS TOURING IN 2011?</b>
There have been some whispers of another tour coming up here next month or the month after that. Our plan is to tour, tour, tour, but it takes time, they have to put the tour packages together and route the tours. We are speaking back and forth with our management right now and we are trying to figure out what the next tour is going to be. During that time, I think we are going to set up some one off shows around where we live and try to keep it fresh. We do have a brand new record out, we want to make sure that we are getting out there and people know it’s out.
<b>FROM WATCHING YOUR VIDEOS IT LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS LIKE TO HAVE FUN. IS IT HARD KEEPING YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR WHEN YOURE ON THE ROAD FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME?</b>
No, everything while you’re in a band is one huge joke. That is my best description for it. I’m surprised we get enough work done to write songs and make records. When we’re on the road and on tour, we keep joking all the time. Yeah, you kind of get sick of each other, but as long as you keep your sense of humor, you’ll be fine.
<b>THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. IT WAS GREAT SPEAKING WITH YOU.</b>
It was great speaking with you.
<b>THANK YOU, BEFORE I LET YOU GO WAS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD OR SAY?</b>
Dynasty is out, go buy it! Please!
