Interview

Road Rage 2005 Roundtable Interview March 10th, Philadelphia PA

I recently attended the Road Rage Tour 2005 and had the chance to do my first ever round-table interview and also at the same time too Zach from Still Remain was doing his first actual interview ever. This is how the interview transpired:

Mike (corrosivemind): How’s the tour going for you guys so far?

Mike (The Agony Scene): It’s going great, awesome dudes to be on tour with, played some very kick ass shows. Having a good time, it’s not nearly over yet, though.

Corey (Trivium): The tour has been great, so far every show has been amazing and all the bands on the tour are rockin’ out every night.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Judging by last night’s debauchery I think we’re just getting warmed up.

Zach (Still Remains): It’s been sweet; we’ve been pretty intimidated playing with some of these awesome bands taking us under their wings. It’s sweet; it’s awesome getting to know everybody.

Mike (corrosivemind): Have any of you guys ever played a show together before?

Mike (The Agony Scene): No, we’ve never actually played with any of these guys.

Corey (Trivium): Actually, like a month ago or a few months ago. We played up in Worcester, Mass. At the time we were on tour with Ill Nino and 3 Inches of Blood was on tour with Satyricon and we had the chance to play the black Christmas up there. So it was our first time we got to hang out with those guys. After that we were just looking forward to this tour.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Well, Corey just said that so we’ve only ever played that one show with Trivium before this tour, other than that we haven’t played a show with any of these bands before.

Zach (Still Remains):No.

Mike (corrosivemind): What’s the craziest thing to happen while on any tour?

Mike (The Agony Scene): Nothing comes to mind (laughs), we’re lame.

Corey (Trivium): Last night, we played CBGB’s and after the show they had an open bar. You know, everyone in a metal band, you can’t turn down free alcohol like that, especially in a bar. So, me and two of the guys from my band took a lengthy cab drive from the venue to Jersey City. I can say I was the most sober of them and Paolo, our bassist, was completely wasted. Half way through the cab ride he kind of dozed off and smacked his face like on the plastic-like glass that separates the back from the front of the cab. Then he pukes all over the back of the cab, the driver rolled down the window and was about to puke himself while he was driving. So the whole cab smelled like Jack Daniels and puke and the cab driver was pretty pissed. We had our equipment in the trunk and we got to the hotel and he wouldn’t give us our stuff back until we gave him extra money to clean up the cab. Paolo said he’d pay since it was his fault; he roamed around looking for an ATM that wasn’t there and wound up walking into the glass door of the fucking hotel. So I ended up paying the cab driver, plus toll and the money to clean his cab, gave him 100 dollars just to get our equipment back from him. That was a fresh story from last night, there’s even more added on by another person.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): There’s plenty that comes to mind, a good vomit one. A few weeks ago we were driving after a late show. We had way too much Jagermeister was consumed, Jagermeister and sparks is a bad combination. Justin was dead unconscious in the back seat, bolts upright in his seat all of the sudden, whips the hat off of his head and pukes into it and like perfectly fills it to the rim. He’s like holding this bag of vomit in his hand. It was great pretty good; just the speed of his reaction, from unconscious to having a hat off his head that he filled, with perfect accuracy is good.

Mike (The Agony Scene): Actually, I have one but I can’t suggest the person that it happened to and having him yelling at me. It involves a candy bar and an ass.

Zach (Still Remains): I broke two-hundred lines in Tetris in the van, that’s the most exciting thing that I’ve accomplished. I drank four cokes on the van last night. I know we’re going to eat 50 tacos with one drive yet on this tour, in one sitting.

Mike (corrosivemind): Who would you say influenced your band’s sound the most, person or band?

Mike (The Agony Scene): Probably like Far Beyond Driven-Era Pantera, I mean, we’re such different people, so it’s such a broad range of stuff. I’m into like more of the 80’s hardcore kind of stuff. Chris is into Machine Head and Fear Factory and a lot of us come from so many different places. So it’s hard to say where we’re mainly influenced from. I guess maybe Pantera would be the one that at least everyone in the band likes.

Corey (Trivium): A lot of 80’s thrash metal, like Megadeth, Testament, Metallica, Pantera, and Slayer. Just old –school metal stuff, like Maiden and stuff like that.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Lots of New Age of British Heavy Metal stuff, like Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, all that good stuff. German stuff like Running Wild, Kreator, and stuff like that. As well as a lot of Angel Corpse.

Zach (Still Remains): A lot of European stuff, like In Flames, Soilwork stuff like that. Slayer and Pantera, Vulgar Display of Power, stuff like that. Also, a lot of pop stuff too like The Killers a lot of bands like that, The Faint and a bunch of other ones.

Mike (corrosivemind): In each of your band’s states or countries is the music scene there any different than any other spot in the U.S.?

Mike (The Agony Scene): What music scene? There’s probably like 10 bands where we’re from. We’re the only metal band, and there are a lot of kids but not a lot of bands.

Corey (Trivium): In Orlando, well Florida anyway, has a huge name for itself as far as death metal bands that came out of there. Orlando right now the big thing is the hardcore/emo/screamo thing. You just see kids all over, they flood shows and everything. Metal, there’s some bands in Orlando. We haven’t been there in a while so I don’t know what’s cookin down there. The local scene is really strong and when tour packages comes trough town everyone goes out to them.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): There’s tons of technical death-metal bands, a lot of good grind bands and black metal bands. Strapping Young Lad is from there, Blasphemy. Lots of good bands in Vancouver, lots of basement, keg parties too. Like 300 people shoved in a basement with music blasting and kegs everywhere, it’s a good place to live in.

Zach (Still Remains): The scene is starting to blossom, there’s not like a lot of a certain scene there. There’s a lot of good indie bands, a lot of good punk bands and hardcore bands it’s really well-rounded. It’s starting to draw a little more attention to the area.

Mike (corrosivemind): What are your summer touring plans, have you been contacted about Ozzfest or any other big tours/festivals?

Mike (The Agony Scene): We’re doing Strapping Young Lad immediately after this and for the summer we’re in talks for things. Not doing Ozzfest this year but there are other big plans up for grabs.

Corey (Trivium): No Comment. (Note: a few days, or maybe even a week or so after this interview it was announced that Trivium is on Ozzfest for this summer on the second stage.)

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Other than going to Europe after this with the Road Rage Tour plans have yet to be determined.

Zach (Still Remains): Aside from going to Europe after this it’s all up in the air from there. We have a lot of tour packages handed to us but things are constantly changing and it’s all still kind of left open for right now. There’s a few exciting plans being tossed around though.

Mike (corrosivemind): I’ll ask a couple more individual questions and then let you all go on your way. What kind of car do you drive when you’re not on the road?

Mike (The Agony Scene): I have this huge ass station wagon.

Corey (Trivium): I have a Honda Accord V-6.

Mike (corrosivemind): This one is for Jamie from 3 Inches of Blood, what is it like having two lead singers? I know there has to be some times when one of you two have nothing to do and you just kind of wait there for the next part, is that annoying or does it not matter?

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Yeah, totally. The worst part is just there’s so many of us dorks up there that we’re always banging heads against one another. But, no, it’s easy we’ve known each other for years so it’s like a family we all get along and it’s a really great thing to be a part of.

Mike (corrosivemind): Ok, that’s all thanks for doing this you guys.

Mike (The Agony Scene): No problem.

Corey (Trivium): Thank you too, man.

Jamie (3 Inches of Blood): Take care, thanks again.

Zach (Still Remains): See ya later, enjoy the show.