When I first put The Ocean’s latest album Precambrian into my CD player, I went into a mental state of loss. When the CD unfortunately stopped, I thought I had awoken from a dream. The only cool thing about dreams like that is that they have a repeat button. Just a week later I got the opportunity to compose an email interview with founding member, Robin Staps. Of course I was super psyched to be able to pick the brain of a musical genius. Upon my picking, I found out what hardships he has endured through the abundance of lineup changes, the thoughts behind their newest album and the goals he wants to achieve with The Ocean.

Shout!: As the founding member, can you give a brief description on how you got to this current lineup?

Robin Staps: [Laughs] There is no brief description for that…over the years, more than 40 or 50 people were in and out of this band. Recently it’s been a lot more stable, but in the first years it was a nightmare. You don’t really want names, do you?

I’ll give you the story of the most recent change in lineup, the addition of vocalist Mike Pilat. Mike found us through the internet. He saw that we were looking for a bass-player and sent us a few tracks of his other bands that quite impressed us, so we got him to Berlin for an audition. He turned out to be a really nice guy and a kick-ass bass-player, drummer and guitarist, so I really wanted to have him in the band. Mike recorded the major part of the bass-tracks on ‘Precambrian’ during his next visit in Berlin. During the recording session we also tried some backing vocals with him and realized that this is where his real talent lies - Mike can do anything from clean melodic singing to rough ‘throaty’ singing, from death metal grunts to high-pitched shrieks and anything in between. So we ended up recording more and more vocal parts with him.. and in the end it turned out that he did the majority of the vocal parts on the album. After the Black Dahlia Murder tour in Europe, where Mike played bass, we decided to look for another bass-player and have Mike as a main vocalist, together with long-time member Nico Webers. So now we need a new bass-player again and the cycle starts anew…  Continued »

Many scenarios come to mind when the phrase “story time” is heard. Whether it be around a campfire with smores and blankets or huddled in a circle around the room, it usually calls for a good time. I really wished I’d had some hot chocolate and a blanket that cold December day when bassist Matthew Leone of Madina Lake and I sought refuge behind the venue to begin telling tales.

Matt Leone has got to be one of the most down to Earth and happy-go-lucky guys I’ve ever conversed with because we kept getting sidetracked during our chat. Through the endless laughs and chit-chat, we did get down to business where Matt opened up and revealed his intense views. Continue reading on to find out Madina Lake’s tragedies, successes, and futures…

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you four got together?

Matthew Leone: Yea, sure. We all met in Chicago and Nathan and I were in a band already there. Dan and Mateo were in another band that had a management opportunity there. They were originally from Florida, moved around and ended up in Chicago due to that management gig. That was coincidently our management as well! That manager screwed us out of a lot of money at the time and the four of us were just unhappy with our musical situation and we kind of bonded over that. Then we decided just one day that we’d all get together and write songs.

S!: Why do you think the four of you work so well together?

Matt: I think there is some sort of intangible chemistry between musicians that go deeper to their personalities. When you connect on an ideological level and then you all respect each other on top of that, then you create the best environment. …  Continued »

Pop quiz: If you’ve played at Ozzfest, Marilyn Manson, and Slayer, who are you? Answer: Bleeding Through! Since 1999, Bleeding Through has had an abundance of lineup changes, varied progressional sounds, and have packed some massive tours under their belts. It is safe to say they are still skyrocketing in the music biz and are a band to keep your eye on. Things aren’t slowing down for the band as they were just on tour with H.I.M where I got to sneak off backstage with drummer Derek Youngsma. We got a chance to speak about those crazy tours, their latest album and you, the fans!

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you all got together?

Derek Youngsma: There have been a lot of twists and turns but we’ve been a band for about eight years now. Actually, Brandan is the only original member now and I guess I am the second oldest. I joined after the first drummer quit because he couldn’t go on tour. So I’ve been on every tour as well as Brian has done almost every tour now. That was a similar situation since he replaced our guitarist Chad that wasn’t able to go out on the road all the time. Brian had filled in for him and we just decided that we needed someone to be full-time so he just joined in. Later on, we got Ryan and Marta came a little later. Then just recently Scott, our original guitar player, split ways and we brought in our friend Jona in. He is from Australia and was in a band called I Killed The Prom Queen. This is only his third tour with us.

S!: Do you think you have an advantage having a woman in the band?

Derek: I think so. I …  Continued »

I’ve been sitting here in front of the computer for over half an hour now trying to gather the words to attempt to describe who Nightwish is. Oh, where to begin!? I could always tell you that they are a female fronted Finnish symphonic rock band, but that just doesn’t seem to cover it. Maybe I could  tell you that they’ve had a couple of lineup changes and you could welcome their new signer, Anette Olzon. I could even tell you that their new album Dark Passion Play dropped this past October and went triple platinum in a month. Yet that still doesn’t seem to begin to grasp the concept of Nightwish. I guess you’ll just have to keep reading this interview with bassist/ co-vocalist Marco Hietala to find out the real story behind the band…

Shout!: You have a lot of history with the band since 2002, but can you give a brief description on how this lineup came together?

Marco Hietala: At first I guess we got to know each other when I was playing in this other band called Sinergy. We went to Europe to support Nightwish for about five weeks on one of their tours. Over that much of time you really get to know the bands you’re touring with and usually end up doing vocals with them on stage by the end of the tour. That was in 2000 and in 2001 they started to have some kinds of problems with the band. There were a couple of choices to either pack the whole thing up and call it done or the other thing was that they would just find another bass player and that is what they decided to do. So the former bass player had to go and he had already …  Continued »

If you know anything about Chimaira, it’s probably the basics: they are a freakin’ sweet metal band from Cleveland, Ohio, they’ve had some lineup issues, and they put out a DVD of sorts. What you don’t know, and what you’ll find out if you read on, is the official background of Chris Spicuzza’s involvement with Chimaira, his personal goals with the band, his opinions on the new album, and the sacrifices he has endured to get this far…

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you got involved with the band?

Chris Spicuzza: The band started in 1998 and they played next door to the band I played bass in during High School. We played for about a year after that and I wasn’t into the direction of the band that I was in so I was looking for something else. I had made friends with the guys from Chimaira just by jamming next door for so long and hanging out, and they knew I was into toying around and dealing with electronic music. I was into techno and just doing weird stuff and whatever. So I asked them if they would want me to try and add an extra element to the band and Mark was into the idea. They brought me in, I ditched the other band, and I became the right decision. Not even a year later we were being courted by Roadrunner and almost signed and stuff then so it was pretty cool.

S!: When did you really start playing keyboards?

Chris: Well I had been playing bass since I was a freshman in high school. I didn’t really start dabbling with keyboards until the second Chimaira album. I started out really just sampling and stuff. I was in a learning phase and as time progressed I …  Continued »

Many bands through the years are alumni of Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos. A lot of bands have caught breaks and have gotten pushed in the right direction. However, not all bands have M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold as their producer and personal guiding hand. Luckily for The Confession, that worked in their favor.

Jamming right out of high school, this band got their act together, threw out an EP, and is already set to conquer the US. Hailing from Orange County, CA it didn’t take them long to start out. After taking a slight turn in the musical direction, ever-evolving band The Confession has come a long way in a short amount of time. Supporting A7X on the last headlining tour of ‘07, I sat down with frontman Taylor Armstrong, guitarist Kevin Fyfe and bassist Matt Pauling to pick their brains about the music industry, their latest album and what’s in store for them next…

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you all got together?

Taylor Armstrong: We all went to the same high school. We just started jamming and we were all under the same musical influences. We somehow became us five now. [Laughs]

S!: Most bands solidify their music and then break out. What is it like to evolve in the public eye?

Taylor: I think every good band evolves no matter what. I don’t think with us that we ever want our band to be solidified and say that this is our box and we’ll never step outside of it. It’s good for us, and as musicians we want to get better at music and we always want to try different things. You’ll always end up liking different things and using that. It’s a good thing to evolve in front of the …  Continued »

Back in September I was excited to see Scary Kids Scaring Kids on their headlining tour. Admiring the opening bands, one in particular stuck out in my mind. That band was Pierce The Veil. I had my back turned away from the stage when they ran out and in seconds started jamming. I was doing photographs at that show, and I was so entranced watching them I almost forget to start snapping. Needless to say they blew me away with their miniature 20 minute set.

It has only been within the past year that Before Today changed the name and lineup to become what Pierce The Veil is now. I was super stoked to receive a call on the day of their show this November asking if I wanted to snag an interview with singer/guitarist Vic Fuentes. Jumping to the occasion, I scribbled down some questions in two minutes and this is what I got…

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you all got together?

Vic Fuentes: Sure! The band was formed by me and my brother Mike, he’s the drummer. We were in a previous band called Before Today on Equal Vision Records and that band had broke up. We wanted to do another record so Mike and I started writing and ended up recording an album from just me and him in Seattle. That was produced by Casey Bates who produced the new Chiodos album and Gatsbys American Dreams’ new album. So, we did that and then we needed members to tour with and fill the band up. We met our friend Tony at Guitar Center and he is a really great guy and a great guitarist. We tried him out and he was awesome. He was in another band and ended up bringing …  Continued »

As you may know, Shout! is based out of South Carolina. It’s usually only when you live in a larger city that you can say your roommate in college or coworker from Guitar Center went on to be a big band and play their asses off on headlining tours and join festivals. Not so much for friends of the guys in Emery.

Based out of Rock Hill, South Carolina and alumni of our own Winthrop University, these guys let their imaginations soar and set goals accordingly to accomplish dreams. Setting out to Seattle the fateful day of September 11th, the boys almost took it as a sign of fate and turned the car around. Thankfully they didn’t and they are even further along in their career than they probably could have imagined. Along that journey, I got a chance to settle in and chat about what happened that surreal day, their latest album, and what they’ll be doing after the holidays…

Shout!: Can you give a breif description on how you guys got together?

Matt Carter: We started in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Devin, Toby and I went to Winthrop University there and we decided that we wanted to start a band. We moved with our old bass player, Chopper who went to Winthrop also to Seattle. We met Josh at a Guitar Center where we worked and he joined the band. Our old drummer quit so we picked up Dave who lived in Indianapolis.

S!: What was it about Seattle that provided a better musical envirnonment?

Matt: Well it wasn’t like the scene was this or that or we didn’t agree with it but there just wasn’t one at all. I was in a band in high school that played cover songs and we were the only band that I knew of. …  Continued »

It was nearing the end of the day when I finally met up with bassist Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse. Sound checks were still buzzing in the air and the bouncers were starting to arrive. The line for the show was already wrapping around the venue and as I walked past the chaos to the tour buses I heard random screaming fans call “Get me in”, “I want to go” and an occasional “Where the fuck is she going?”. I can’t help but smile to myself as I approach the bus and knock on the door. The bus was filled with friends of the band and a movie was playing in the background and I glided towards the back. After catching up on how the tour had been, Alex and I discussed their new album Kill, being censored, and just hanging with the dogs.

S!: As a founding member, can you give us a brief description on how you all got together?

Alex Webster: There were a few different bands in Buffalo that we were all apart of. Pretty much it was me and the one guitar player Jack Owen that was in a band called Beyond Death. The other three members were in a band called Tirant Sin. Both of these bands had a lot of lineup problems and were basically breaking up so sorta rose out of the ashes from those two combined. That was back in December of 1988 when we first all got together. That is pretty much how it went and we did our demo a few months later and got signed relatively quick. We’d only been a band for about six or seven months before we had gotten signed so that was pretty …  Continued »

Some of you are thinking that’s a line in a Chevelle song, but it just means I got the opportunity to have a sit down with Jasen Rauch, guitarist of RED again. It had been a couple of months since he and I last talked, so it was exciting to hear about them being on tour with three awesome bands and jamming in sold out arenas.

Don’t forget to check out their previous interview archived in November 2007 and remember, RED is on tour NOW so go check them out and see what you’ve been missing. In the meantime, read on about their Deluxe Edition DVD, quirky traditions, and what they plan to do after the holidays!

S!: How has life been since we last chatted?

Jasen Rauch: Good! We’ve been really busy since we’ve seen you last!

S!: You’re back on tour with 3 Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin. What’s it like to be reunited with them?

Jasen: It’s been good and we even did a small run with Seether, the third band on the bill so we know everybody here. We know all the guys from all the bands because we did a lot of shows with them so we’re like family. Everyone know each other really well so there isn’t that awkward moment that happens on tours when you meet the other bands and then you finally break down and get to know each other. We didn’t have to experience any of that this time.

S!: What do you do in your down time with them?

Jasen: Just hang out, like today a couple guys went and played golf. Some of the other guys went running around this huge campus. Eat, sleep, read, and we’ve been doing a lot of writing. We got some new XBOX games. Not Guitar Hero quite yet though. …  Continued »

I was slightly bummed out that 3 Days Grace wasn’t able to do an in-person interview with me while they were on tour. I understand they are quite busy so I started to catch up on some research for an email interview.

What do you ask a band who has done everything? They’ve had not only one but two Platinum albums but I’m sure you already knew that considering you own both of them. (And if you don’t, you should!) After gathering some dirt, I sent off the questions and impatiently awaited their response. I wanted to know the answers just as badly as you!

So here they are, the answers you wanted to know about from the start of Groundswell to Adam in rehab and back on tour.

Shout!: Can you please give a brief description on how the band formed?

Neil Sanderson: Third day of grade 9, I met Adam in the smoking section at high-school. We got a band together. I lived about a 30 second walk from school, so we’d jam at my house at lunch, and sometimes fill my bedroom full of people and rock out for them. We moved to Toronto at 17 and started playing everywhere, and eventually some record companies started coming out to our shows.

S!: You all started out as Groundswell, why the name change?

Neil:  We were kids when we formed the first band, and as we went, a couple of members left, and are music had drastically changed, so we decided to start fresh.

S!: Most bands suffer with numerous lineup changes. Why do you feel this lineup works so well?

Neil: Because we’re all best friends. It never feels like business. We know how to communicate with each other and not blow up over silly things. Bands that argue …  Continued »

I was halfway done with my list of bands to harass throughout the day by the time I sat down with the guys from The Absence. Guitarist Patrick Pintavalle and now ex-drummer, Jeramie Kling settled themselves on the same grassy area as Guy and I were sitting previously.

This had to have been one of most fun interviews I had done considering we were all relaxed and acted as if we had been long term friends. Continue on to find out what it was like starting out, their new album, and what they’re going to do with all those Trivium shirts!

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how you got together?

Patrick: Sure, basically Jamie and I started the band probably about four or five years ago. Back then though it was pretty much a different band with the same name. The former members in the band at the time didn’t really want to take it to the next level so we picked up some guys that did. That’s when Jeramie, Nick and Peter came along.

Jeramie: Yeah, Peter and I were already jamming and kind of doing our own thing. Actually with Jamie and Pat as well.

Patrick: Right, we were going to do a side project and then we just decided that if we were just this game about it to go ahead and do it.

Jeramie: So we did, we freakin’ did it! [laughs]

S!: What was the metal scene like in Tampa when you first started?

Patrick: Uh, not. [laughs] Actually I feel like it still is not.

Jeramie: Well, it is getting better. Look at that Metalfest we did. Remember how many bands were there? There weren’t even that many metal bands when we first started jamming. The few that we did have are already gone now though.

Patrick: …  Continued »

Picture any day on Metalblade’s 25th Anniversary Tour. Crazy, hectic, loud, and fast-paced. I could go on telling you about what the bands do and their mindset to get through a day but it’s no different than any other super awesome metal tour. My job that day was going to be an eventful challenge.

Guy Kozowyk, vocalist of The Red Chord, was my first interview of the day. After watching the bands load in backstage, I met up with Guy and followed him past the buses to a grassy open area behind the venue where we could get some peace. We relaxed for a moment, relieved to be out of the middle of chaos and started to chat about their relationship with Metalblade, sacrifices, and their new album.

S!: Can you give a brief description on how you all got together?

Guy: Not really, it was a really long time ago. [laughs] I can’t even remember back that far. It’s going on eight years now though.

S!: What was the music scene like in Massachusetts?

Guy: It’s always been okay. Mass. is definitely one of the tougher music scenes though. If Mass. likes the bands, then the kids there are really supportive. It seems that there are all these little band that will go on tour and they can play a lot of the cities around there. It is really brutal to get started there though because I guess the bar is just set so high. We get so much good stuff out there that the second rate stuff just doesn’t fly.

S!: Why did you go through so many members over the years?

Guy: I’m kind of the only original guy. Me and Gunface actually. I’m not very well liked and I guess people that were in the band kept getting complexes.

S!: Why do …  Continued »

Everyone was eager to see Aeon take over the US and leave a little Swedish metal lingering over our ears. Since they were unable to play on the Metalblades’ 25Th Anniversary Tour with their friends in the US, I was fortunate to receive word that they still wanted to dominate in some shape or form. Luckily they agreed to do an email interview so that the fans that were bummed about the tour could still get a savory taste of Aeon. Read what guitarist Daniel Dlimi had to say about his thoughts on Metalblade, their new album, and what really happened with Nils…

Shout!: Can you give a brief description on how formed?

Daniel Dlimi: Aeon was formed back in 1999 by four members from the newly broken up band, Defaced Creation. Zeb (guitarist) continued to write some death metal songs on his own after the break-up and when he had 6 songs, he asked Arttu if he wanted to jam those songs with him. Both Zeb and Arttu felt that this was some really strong tunes and that they needed to get them recorded just for fun. Zeb asked Tommy (vocals) if he was interested in laying some vocal tracks on the songs and he agreed and likewise with Johan was asked to play the bass tracks. But since Zeb was playing guitar he didn’t mind asking Jörgen (other guitarist of DC) since he could put down all the guitar-tracks himself. Instead he asked Morgan Nordbakk to do some crazy guitar solo’s on some of these songs instead. A six track demo was recorded and since the band Defaced Creationwas formed by Jörgen who wasn’t a part of these songs / recording they decided to release this demo as a new band. So Aeon was born. This demo was …  Continued »

It just so happened to be one of the coldest days of the year that I stood outside waiting for the tour manager. Could it be that I was actually somewhat nervous to meet the one and only Wes Borland, super musician? I’ve interviewed several bands that were in the heart of the public eye and many people that I’ve been a fan of but this was surreal.

As with many fans of Borland, I’ve followed his work with Limp Bizkit, Big Dumb Face, and everything up through his newest project Black Light Burns. Trying to remember that he is in fact just as human as we are and not some magical God, I shook his hand and followed him through the corridors backstage where we defrosted.  I had so many questions I wanted to ask and so little time to pick his brain, but I got to talk to him about his artwork, his new position as a frontman, and how his diverse resume is ever-growing.

S!: Can you give a brief description on how everyone got together?

Wes Borland: The band in its form right now is myself. I’m the only one who played on the record out of the people who are on tour now. These guys were assembled as a live band to come and take the songs which were put together by myself and Danny Lohner. who was in Nine Inch Nails for a long time and produced the record. Danny and I pretty much made the record together with Josh Freese. on drums and Josh Eustis. who is an electronic musician did a lot of electronic based engineering on the record. We made the record sort of as a collage of sounds and basically built the songs over a long period of time as opposed to …  Continued »