Interview with Bleeding for Metal

Hello Guys!

Most of our readers haven't heard anything about you. Please introduce your band and tell us something about your history.

Right now, our current line-up consists of myself, Richard Medina, on vocals, Justin Burning on guitar, Ron Clark on guitar, Dan Sobeck on bass, Kevin Leeds on keyboards, and Sage Johnson on drums. The band was formed in late 2000 and Justin, who is the founding member of the band, is the only member left from the original starting line-up, although Dan and myself joined just months after the band started. After Kevin joined the band, we went through a few different second guitarists and drummers, but now have line-up that we feel will last the duration. After working with a few smaller labels, we signed with Grau Records, in late 2008, to a four album deal—'A Life Spent Dying' being the first of the four—and will complete three more albums with them. To date, we have released three full albums, which includes this newest one, one demo EP, a split, and took part in several compilations, all of which were met with good reviews. Currently, we are playing shows, promoting the new album, and are hard at work on the new material for the next album, which we hope to begin recording early next year.

I compared you to early PARADISE LOST and ANATHEMA in my review. Is the British Death-Doom Metal from the early 90s your main influence and are there other influences?

Yes, absolutely, most of us grew up listening to My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Anathema; they were the true pioneers of death/doom. In fact, our guitar player Justin, who started the band, was heavily influenced by early Anathema. Aside from them, we also followed the works of Katatonia, October Tide, Skepticism, etc. These were all influences that inspired our music as a band, but individually, we all listen to different types of music and a lot of it is not even metal, so we get our inspiration from all other genres of music as well.

How do you write your songs and what comes first: Lyrics or music?

The music is written first, and is mainly written by Justin and the guitar players. Both guitar tracks are recorded on a computer program, along with some of the piano and keyboards, and then sent to the rest of the band so we all can write our parts. Once I receive the recorded tracks, I then start on the lyrics. I actually get the vocal pattern down that I want then write the lyrics according to that vocal pattern, that way everything fits perfectly. In some of my earlier bands, I tried writing the lyrics first and it just didn't work for me; I ended up having to change everything around to fit the lyrics and they didn't come out sounding the way I wanted them to. So, the lyrics are based solely on the music. This is the way we have been doing it since the beginning and it has worked out very well for us.

How important are the lyrics? Are they just a complement to the music or do they have the same importance as the music?

I try my best to give the lyrics the same importance as the music, that way they compliment each other and one doesn't take away from the other. I do my best to give them a personal touch, try and describe what people actually go through in life, rather than basing them on myth, legend, and other fictional topics. People ask where I get my inspiration from, and oddly enough, I get it from the news. Is there anything more depressing than the news? They are based on feelings of severe depression, suicide, hopelessness, murder/suicide, self-mutilation, etc, things that people actually go through in life, or knowing someone that goes through those things. There are some people that can relate, so I like to show them that there are those that understand.

Why are the two instrumentals on the album? I think that they're softening the gloomy, dark atmosphere of the other tracks. Is there a connection between the song 'Anhedonia' and the album "Anhedonia"?

Well, strangely, it has been kind of a "every other release" type thing with the acoustic instrumentals, although not purposely. Our demo didn't have one, our first album 'Anhedonia' has one, our second album 'A Darkness Remembered' doesn't have one, and now this one has two. We just feel that it gives the listener a bit of variety, that way every song doesn't sound the same and it gives us a chance to show our versatility, that we can write different things. Even if it may soften the dark atmosphere, we still feel they are equally sad and depressing in their own way. Not sure if we will do it again, but felt it was right for this album.

As far as a connection between the song "Anhedonia" and our first album, in a way it is connected, but it is not directly related to that album. We have always been fans of using old album titles as song titles on newer albums, not every time, but sparingly—it depends. Or even using old song titles as a new album title. But, we would probably never do that for a song that needed lyrics; we would do that more for instrumentals, which this song is.

The lyrics of 'Catharsis' are rather angry compared to the others. Is 'Catharsis' faster because of that? Why is this song at the end of the album?

Well, since the music is written first, I would say that the lyrics are more angry because the song is faster. Much like the instrumentals, we really just did this song to show versatility and variety, that we are capable of writing different styles of music. The biggest complaint about our last album was that it was monotonous and that every song was sounding the same, so we just had to try a few different things on there. The reason it is at the end, is not only to throw the listeners off a bit, but because it is the type of song that won't be typical for us on future albums and people might of gotten the idea that it would be typical if it was any higher on the track list.

What is the connection between the title "A Life Spent Dying", the lyrics and the artwork?

Overall, everything we come up with is based on our concept of the band, which is personal depression, loss of hope, suicide, self-mutilation, murder/suicide, etc. The title of this album refers to those who suffer with depression all of their lives, can never find hope or happiness, and whether it lasts their whole life or they commit suicide, it's not about the death more than it is that they spent their entire lives dying. So, the lyrics really reflect that idea, they show the anguish and the suffering that is involved, not just the death, which may be the peaceful end to their depression. The artwork, done by Robert Hoyem and At The Ends Of The Earth Design, is basically his interpretation of the title and lyrics. We never game him any ideas for it; that is what 'A Life Spent Dying' meant to him, and it worked out great. The whole product came together to express our concepts and ideas perfectly.

"A life spent dying" was recorded 2007. It is released 2010. What were the reasons for the delay?

The main reason for the delay, from then until now, had to do with trying to finance the album ourselves and trying to find a label to release it. We kept falling short on money to do it ourselves, so we really tried to work with a label on it, but until Grau came along, we never had any luck. We did end up signing with Grau a year after it was recorded, but with all the issues the label had in their separation with Prophecy Productions, it kept getting pushed back longer, so at that point it was out of our control. But, we were finally able to get it released this year and now that the label is back on track, there should never be a delay that long again. I can tell you that we hard at work on new material, have most of a new album already written, and hope to get back into the studio by early next year.

What are the differences between your old albums and the new one?

Well, we believe that this album is much more diverse than our other albums. As I mentioned on a previous answer, people thought that some of our earlier albums were too monotonous and that the songs all sounded the same, so we really wanted to show our versatility. Like I said, that is why we included the acoustic tracks and 'Catharsis', to give the listeners a little something different and so we don't continue to do the same thing every time. Not sure that is going to be the case for future albums, but will always try to be innovative and do some different things every now and then. It may not be to the delight of everyone, every time, but at least no one will be able to say that we sound the same every album anymore.

How was recording with Ryan Butler and how satisfied are you with the sound of the new album?

Working with Ryan was great. He has been a good friend of the band for years and pretty much does all of the recording for the extreme metal bands here in Arizona. He has also worked with national acts such Misery Index, Nightrage, Phobia, The Funeral Pyre, etc. He is also the guitarist for Landmine Marathon, on Prosthetic Records, so he knows a lot about metal and how to record it. Before him, many of the engineers around here didn't know much about metal and how to record it, so we love having him here. We are very satisfied with sound of the new album. We wish would could have had more money to spend more time on the production, but that wasn't his fault, and we look forward to recording all of our future albums with him.

What are your concerts like and can we expect to see you in Germany soon?

Although we don't play many shows out here in the states—mainly because our style is not so popular here—we still get some good crowds and people respond very well to our music, even though it's all about brutal death metal out here. We have our CD release show coming up here on June 12th and it's looking like it could be quite successful, so we are excited about that. As for Germany, and other parts of Europe, yes, we definitely hope to be out there soon, especially since our biggest fan base has always been from overseas. Right now, we are working with Lugga Music, a touring agency from Spain, and are on their roster, so they are trying their best to get us out there late this year or by early next year. So we hope that we will be seeing you soon!

On metal-archives.com are some other bands connected to you. Can you tell us something about them?

Well, ever since the band started, we have all taken part in other projects, just to give us other things to do, but most of them are not around anymore. When I first joined the band, I was doing vocals for a band called Occision, brutal death/grindcore, but that ended shortly after I joined FoE, and Kevin, Ron, and myself also did another band called Kilk, which was more of a melodic death metal band, but we put that to rest a few years back. Right now, the main project still going is The Liquescent Horror, which Justin and I do on our own. It is horror tinged, ambient funeral doom. I guess the best way to describe it, is if you take a horror film score and intertwine it with the bleakest funeral doom. It is mainly keyboard, piano, soundscapes, and programming, along with some guitar and guttural/gurgled and spoken/whispered vocals. We have recorded one demo, one full length, and are currently working on our second full length. The plan is to eventually do horror film scores. I can say that it is probably the most original project I have ever been a part of, it doesn't sound much like anything else, so if you get a chance, check it out.

Anything you'd like to address to our readers?

We would just like to thank your readers and all of our fans for their continuing support, we really appreciate it! Now that this new album is out and with our label being back on track, we will continue to work hard and will be as active as we have ever been. We have almost a whole new album written, will continue to write more, and should now be able to release albums on a regular basis, without delays. Also, if you guys want to see us out there, continue to email/message your local promoters and the head of all of the festivals and let them know you want to see us play, that way they can book us. Like I said, hopefully we can be out there soon and meet up with all of you. Thanks again, and thank you so much for the interview, we always appreciate the support and look forward to future interviews and reviews.

Thank you very much for your time.