BLEEDING THROUGH : Blood on the tracks

Meeting with Derek, bloody drummer, before their Paris gig.

-First, how did you start the band ? How did you meet ?

-D : The band started four years ago : I was friend with a few members before, but at the moment, they had a different drummer, and, when he left to do other stuff, I kind of jumped it because I wanted to play with them. We’ve been friends for a while with Scott and Brandan, and Brian was another acquaintance of ours, who filled in as a guitar player ; we met Marta a couple of years ago in Seattle : we needed a keyboards player, and she was done to move to be in a band, and then Ryan as well, from Orange County, went to our shows and we met through people. Most of us met during shows ; we’ve been in different bands before playing together, and then went to shows, hang out and see each other on week ends, that’s pretty much that.

-What bands did influence you when you started ?

D : My father was a drummer : he taught me how to play, showed different styles of music that I’m still listening today, old bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, stuff like that, so I owe him that background, and when I’m listening to those drummers and those bands, it’s totally integrated in my mind like, and when I was twelve or so, I went to hard core and punk rock shows, and was very influenced by many bands like that : Minor Threat, the Misfits, Agnostic Front, I got way into all the old hard core bands, that gave me the idea, a thirteen years old kid to start a band and play shows, that kind of got me into that, and every since then, things are going up and up for that type of music as well as metal. It’s a great opportunity.

-And today, what do you listen to ?

-D : I listen to a lot of stuff, really, as far as heavy stuff goes : for example, Cult Of Luna, the band we’re touring with, they’ve been just great, they make an amazing show every night, they’re really cool guy. I really love Mastodon and Isis too, those kind of bands, and I think that, as Slayer and Pantera were big influences on us, they get an hard core integrity. And a lot of other stuff too !

-Talking about Pantera, do you have any statement about the Dimebag Darrell’ death, and are people afraid to be on stage now ?

-D : Dimebag Darrell is a pioneer of our kind of music and a lot of people talk a lot about the time we metal were at his lowest, and Pantera were still there and caring the torch for a lot of bands and things that wasn’t around for. It’s tragic : we were on tour when it happen, with Cradle of Filth, when we heard it and we were not that far from where it was, and it was a big shock, you would never imagine something like that happening, and especially for someone like that. It’s a kick ass guitar player, and amazing musician, who definitely left his mark on that type of music and we’ll be missed forever. I don’t think people are much more afraid to go on stage, because it’s something you never expect : this guy who did it was out of his mind, it’s pretty rare to something like that would happen. I hope not, but I don’t think that much more of that would happen, but it’s still on the back of pour mind, when something like that happens. But I don’t really think of it that much. It’s like when to take a plane, it’s always on your mind that plane could crash or terrorists be on board, but well...

-‘This is love, this is murderous’ is your first Lp distributed in France, by Roadrunner : I suppose you’re happy of that ?

-D : Yes, that’s great. We’ve got a lot of gigs in Germany and Holland where people from Roadrunner came at the shows, they are very supportive and works definitely very hard for us, helping us in many ways, like this radio show

we have tomorrow for the BBC. For the distribution, it’s great to see our records out everywhere now, and people are able to get it without paying the import price and whatever.

-Talking about the lyrics, is it strong themes in it or a general idea, a general inspiration for this record ?

-D : I don’t write the lyrics, but I think they’re definitely sincere, it’s stuff from real life, we relate to people and lyrics and about things that really happen, it’s a lot of emotion, a lot of love type stuff.

-Being close to hard core bands, would you feel to do some stuff like, for example, System of a down do, more political and engaged songs ?

-D : It’s not really in our character I guess, as we’ re more focused on personal level and stuff, but there are some stuff we feel strongly about, and when people ask about it, we talk about it, but not on lyrics.

-Ulrich Wild produced this LP : how did you choose it ?

-D : We actually met him in L.A, he knew some people we knew, as our manager and other people, and we really liked what he did for bands such as the Deftones, Static X and Pantera as engineer too, and so of course, like that being our first kind of big record, we were very excited to work with him. I did a very good job for us, and it’s cool to record with somebody who’s been in the industry and seen many big stuff.

-Do you think you’ll work with him for your next record ?

-D : No, actually, we’re gonna do it with the guy who produced the last Cradle of Filth and Agony Scene records, among other stuff, Rob Caggiano, and we were really impressed with his work. For the most part, the band collaborate on many things, writes everything, makes decisions, and, in a way, we’re also involved in the production.

-Some records which changed your life, or at least made you wish to start a band ?

-D : Let’s see, I would say ‘Paranoid’ by Black Sabbath for sure, everything the Misfits ever did, especially ‘Static age’ as well as Black Flag, but for me a big one was Metallica’s Master of Puppets’ : when I grew up and got into heavy music and stuff, that’s the first I kind of got into.

-If your band or your life was a movie ?

-D : Behind the scenes, we could be kind of ‘Big Lebowsky’, or stuff like that, but musically, as a band, it would be an horror movie I guess, like ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ : that’s how I’d like to be portrayed, I guess !

-Next ? New album on the way ?

-D : Yes, it will be out in the fall, we’re in the middle of writing material for it, we have almost half of the record written. We are mid way to this tour, and after that, we go home and finish writing it in the studio. And this one should release at the same time in Europe and the States.

-What can we expect ?

-D : We’re always pushing and searching for new things, and the big thing we discussed about this one is that we want to invent kind of our own sound, we want to somebody who put the record on could say that ‘that sound is Bleeding Through’. But if not, it’s not far from the old stuff, but better, we’ve got more intensity, more written stuff, and I’m really proud of it : it’s not a huge change for us, but it’s definitely a progression, we’re very excited about the new songs. This touring, a solid year and a half, during which we were writing stuff, and everybody in the band has stuff and ideas stocked in his brain the whole time, so I think it will help us to have songs written in short time when we’ll finish this tour, we had five songs in about a month, they just kind of came really easy, ‘cause we all had so many ideas, and we’ve been definitely influenced by all the stuff we’ve been listening to, and people we met and places we’ve been.

Interview February 9th 2005 in Paris.

Thanks to Karine and Sabrina, from Roadrunner France.