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Interview
by SashaS
25-2-2005
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More on: Killswitch Engage
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| Killswitch Engage: an original desire... |
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Means of re-engagement
Killswitch Engage - just like remedial bonuses
Killswitch Engage visited London before the re-release of their eponymous debut album, re-mastered and remixed by guitarist Adam Dutkiewitz, with brand new artwork and 4 bonus tracks; the self-titled LP came out in 2000 via Ferret Records. ‘Killswitch Engage’ features vocals from original singer Jesse Leech [replaced by current frontman Howard Jones in 2002] and went on to become their platform for a musical standard force to be reckoned with.
Bonus material is the 1999 demo tracks - 'Prelude', 'Soilborn', 'Vide Infra', 'In The Unblind'. ‘Killswitch Engage’ is a raw, rougher, stripped down, abrasive version of sounds to come. “It's younger, more underground sounding,” Adam D. justifies, “and the songs are definitely less polished… it's got some vigour and spunk to it!”
We caught up with guitarist Joel Stroetzel on the afternoon of their show to discuss the state of engagement such as re-releasing the debut disc, for a purely historic reason or some other purpose…?
“I think the whole idea is that we didn’t have the best distribution and the recording wasn’t that well produced… We remixed the tracks to sound a little cleaner and are getting it out to the people who might not have heard it. It’s exciting… Still, the original demos that are included here, they sound like made by another band. We’ve played a lot of since, we’ve changed, it was a different line-up…”
The band’s guitar-man, Adam D. remixed the tracks, bassist Mike D'Antonio designed new cover; what’s your special talent within the band, alongside the obviously powerful six-stringing?
“I’m not too sure… I think I am one of those music-geek types who is always playing around on the guitar… I used to be into art but now - I’m just a guitar player. I’m a band guy who can eat a lot and drink a lot of booze… These are my other talents.”
Spirits from within
Killswitch Engage's current [third studio] album ‘The End of Heartache’ was Grammy nominated for Best Metal performance which prompted frontman Howard Jones to comment: “This is unexpected, completely unexpected but very exciting. It’s nice to be noticed once in a while, especially by the Grammys!” Alas they, alongside fellow nominees and labelmates Slipknot, lost to MotorHead.
The album, originally released in May last year, is being re-released with an additional disc: ‘The End of Heartache - Special Edition’ features 6 bonus tracks, a new slipcase artworked by bassist Mike D’Antonio and the videos for 'The End Of Heartache' and 'Rose Of Sharyn'.
How open are you to your fans? Do you spend hours talking to people after the shows?
“Sometime we do and a lot of people talk to us; not only after the show but before, there are always a lot of people hanging about and some just wanna get a picture, others to get on a guest-list… All fans want to know about is little things, such as when we are making the next record, coming back to tour again and how come we didn’t play so and so place…
Fans love talking to the bands they listen to.”
What vibe do you get from them, for instance - is downloading going to alter the perception and way albums are consumed?
“No, hardly ever talked about it… But, I feel that it will change forever; people getting used to downloading one, or just a few tracks, will not get the full picture [of an act‘s music]; you spend time sequencing tracks, putting it in order you believe is the best way to present songs… But, the worst kind are listeners who listen to just a fraction of a song before skipping… We are an album band and will continue making albums; we’ve never been about one song and our contribution to ‘Freddy Vs Jason’ soundtrack, ‘When Darkness Falls’, it just happened to be a track we happened to have ready at the time.”
Will the market, now divided between pop and extreme kinds of music, be segregated even further?
“I feel it is very possible but, at the same time, it has become easier for extreme bands to make it through… Underground, extreme stuff, you couldn’t hear it on the radio, MTV wouldn’t have played it… For some of the younger kinds who get interested in this kind of music, it is new music, new style…”
They need substitute for the completely-disappeared Alt-rock?
“Totally, there is pop, punk, R&B, rap but there is not Alternative; you are right, it is done to for now… Maybe Heavy Metal is the new grunge… We’ll see.”
Shiny happy embraces
The expended limited edition of ‘Heartache’ contains three tracks recorded live before Chrimbo [21 Dec. 2004, to be precise] in Seattle, on a tour with Slayer: ‘Life To Lifeless’, ‘My Last Serenade’ and ‘Fixation On The Darkness’; the latter is voiced by Jones - the original version appeared on the band’s 2002 ‘Alive Or Just Breathing?’ debut for the label - whose maiden recording with the band is on the current album.
A single version of the title track is taken from the ‘Resident Evil: Apocalypse’ soundtrack. There is also previously unreleased track ‘My Life For Yours’. The purest gem is ‘Irreversal’, a track featuring, alongside Howie, KsE’s original singer Jesse Leach and close band friend Phil Labonte of All That Remains on vox.
Despite 'Heartache' being released some 9 months ago, KsE haven't had time to work on any new songs...
“We haven’t got any new songs, I don’t think anyone’s got any new ideas… We’ve decided to concentrate on touring for a while and after a break, we’ll start talking about it… Although we, as a band, are not great fans of touring, we’ll give this album the whole 18 months of road exposure. The reason we don’t like touring is that we don’t like being away from our families for too long. But, saying that, we’ve not stopped touring pretty much since May of last year… After completing European dates [in Germany], we’ll have a couple of weeks off before starting another US tour of eight weeks!”
When you get time off, what do you invest it in?
“Enjoyment of everyday life, seeing my friends, family, go out to dinners… Just laid-back stuff… I used to give guitar lessons between tours but there is not enough time to do it, anymore…”
Whilst touring, do you ever get time to be a tourist?
“Sometime and it depends what we have to do… If we have a lot of interviews to do, there is no time but we like to get out and see places. But, we’ve been to London four times and always played the same place and there is not much we don’t know about this part of the City. So, we spend our time eating and buying things around. As well as talk with people who arrive early for our shows…”
At this moment the guitar-tech comes in to interrupt us; it is the soundchecking time…
SashaS
25-2-2005
Killswitch Engage’s album ‘The End of Heartache - Special Edition’ is [refreshingly] released 28 February 2005 by Roadrunner
KsE’s single ‘The End of Heartache’ is available as a download-only from www.wippit.com
Killswitch Engage album 'Killswitch Engage' was re-released 24 January 2005 by Roadrunner
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