KILLSWITCH ENGAGE : BURN, WITCH, BURN...

-A : We’re not the same band anymore ! There were many reasons, but that was the main reason. He hurt his throat badly and couldn’t scream every night. We were gonna have to cancel tours, cancel shows, it was gonna be a lot of hard work to keep him in the band, and it wasn’t working out at all. He did the right thing, stepping out, and we’ve got a big black man to pick a little white dude in his place ! And that worked out very good !

-I’ve seen that he’s doing some backing vocals on the new record : so, did his voice recover ?

-A : He never really lost it, but he’s not able to scream for many days in a row. He stopped singing for a while and got back into training, and now he’s back and he’s got a band kicking in.

-So you’ve got a new singer, Howard Jones, from the band Blood has been shed, but is he now a permanent member ?

-A : Of course !

-And Justin Foley, your new drummer, is coming from the same band too !

-A : Yes, indeed : we’re slowly morphing into that band ! It’s kind of creepy ! Blood has been engaged, that’s our new name !

-Howard wrote all the lyrics on the LP, so he stepped in really quickly ?

-A : Yes, he did. Jesse wrote all his lyrics too.

-You are also producer :

-A : Yes, being a producer means trimming things up when they need to be trimmed or make things more sparkly if it need to sparkle more, and I never really could write lyrics, ‘cause I would only write about stupid things like eating steak and drinking beer, that’s all my lyrics would be about ! That’s all I care about ! Food and beer !

-And...music ?

-A : Yes, maybe, music a little ! But who wants to hear a song about riffs ? ‘Yeeaah, my guitar is so goooood !’ It doesn’t really work out so well !

-The fact that you produced this album was a deliberate choice or you didn’t find the right

producer ?

-A : No, it was a deliberate choice. I absolutely love producing records, and that’s great that other members of the band trust me enough to let me do it. I love it, it’s a great job, and I miss it when I’m on the road. Producing records is the most rewarding thing I can do.

-At the moment, you’re producing this great new English band, Johnny Truant ?

-A : As soon as I heard them, I thought they were doing something very interesting, they definitely got their own thing going, and it’s very cool to hear a band from the UK doing this. There’s a lot of copycats bands in the UK nowadays, but they’re doing their own thing and they’ve got something original kicking in, it’s cool. I’m excited, they’re gonna be fun ! I’m starting working on it this week end, and I’ll be doing the mixes later on, in May, so this should be out this summer.

-Does Howard have a role model, as Jesse said he had Mike Patton as a reference ?

-A : Howard absolutely loves Mike Patton, and Faith No More is one of his favorite bands. I hear a lot of Mike Patton in Howard’s singing, definitely. Howard and Jesse are two different guys, so it’s hard for me to compare them : Howard is more brutal, more aggressive, whereas Jesse was more emotional and kind of whiny (laughs), but both of those guys are very talented.

-How would you present this new LP ?

-A : The new one has much more extremes, the aggressive stuff is more aggressive, the harmonious stuff is more melodic and harmonious. It’s a bit shorter, more straight to the point. No more ‘dragging our feet’, we have business to do. We’ve got breakdowns to play !

-And what do you think of the so called New Wave of American Heavy Metal, with bands such as Chimaira, Lamb of God, God forbid, close to Pantera, Slayer and Maiden ?

-A : To be honest with you, I don’t care, I don’t pay attention : the only time I listen to metal is when I’m on tour, watching the bands we’re touring with, or when I’m at work. I listened to metal so much, I don't want anything to do with it when I’m not at work. But I feel close to them. I grew up listening to that style, so I’ve got this likeness. But that’s how my life is now, I hardly even listen to it for recreational purposes, I go : ‘ Oh ! gimme something softer’. I listen rock’n’roll, chill stuff !

-You said that your second Lp was rather full of positive thoughts and ideas : does this one follow the same spirit, according to his title : ‘The end of heartache’ ?

-A : Yes, but more in a different way : I think it was approached in a more indirect way. The lyrics can still be taken in many different ways, interpreted differently, but lots of messages still remain the same. Howard’s writing style is actually pretty similar but also very different, like there are some songs on this new record that Jesse would have never written, lyrically. But there’s a lot of positive stuff on this new record.

-Andy Sneap mixed this new Lp as well ?

-A : We knew him, and there’s not that many people that I would trust as much as I trust Andy, who’s doing a great job. Being an engineer and producer myself, I’m kind of a control freak and it’s hard for me to trust anyone else, and Andy is the only one up there that I’m feeling good working with. We got along alright. When I was over there, I tried to eat the hottest food possible, Indian food, really spicy. We asked for the spiciest dish in the restaurant, and we tried to eat it as much as we could. I woke up the next day in pain ! But it was fun, man ! I'm sure I'm not gonna have any stomach left by the time I’m thirty, but, well, it was fun : what would I need a stomach for ?

Composing, playing, producing, do you need all those different activities ?

A : Yes, It’s kind of cool, because if I get burnt out on one thing, I can go do another thing. When I’m on tour, all I wanna be is home, working on records. It’s a cool thing, and I’ve got a lot of things to balance myself up. You lose your mind doing just one thing all the time. At the end, you’re bored by it. You end up taking it for granted...

-Mike D. designed the sleeve cover : another mark of investment in the band ?

-A : Yes, and it’s kind of funny how self-contained we are as a band, everything we do, we have a control of it, and it’s very cool.

-Could you give four records that changed my life ?

-A : Definitely Carcass’s ‘Hard work’ : that record is absolutely amazing. I know Mike Amott, he’s such a nice guy. When I met him, I said ; ‘Wow, you’re Mike Amott, you’re amazing’, and he said : ‘No, shut up’. I said he had all the right to be the biggest asshole, because he was in one of the greatest metal bands, as far as I think, and Carcass was amazing. And now he’s in Arch Enemy, which is a great band too. Also Metallica, ‘Masters of puppets’, and Radiohead’s ‘Ok computer’ is phenomenal. It really changed my life, the way I thought about music. And the new Sigur Ros record, so atmospheric, it goes in so many different directions, it’s up and down and so dynamic, beautiful.

-If you weren’t in Killswitch, what musical style would you practice ?

-A : Absolutely more rock’n’roll, I'm slowly getting out of this screaming stuff. I ‘m very much a rock’n’roll guy, most of the stuff on my CD collection is rock’n’roll, a mixture : I like old stuff and new stuff too. The greatest band of late is The Darkness : they’re awesome, amazing ! (he imitates the voice of the singer) It’s fun to listen to them !

-The first new song of this record, ‘When darkness falls’, was first heard on the soundtrack of ‘Freddy/Jason’ movie : do you have other projects in this area?

A : It’s funny you said that : actually, I was going to major in college, I wanted to score music for movies, something that I’ve always loved, like I love doing instrumentals and atmospheric, ambient style music. Instead, I went into production, which is fun too ! But I think one day, if I get back into writing music like Sigur Ros and this kind of things, very atmospheric and something very dramatic, I’d have a lot of fun doing that.

-If yourself or your band was a movie, which one could it be ?

-A : ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ ! I wanna be a pirate, dude ! Going after some long lost booty.

-Talking about the name of the band, I’ve heard it comes from an episode of X files and Star Trek ?

-A : No, no Star Trek ! It’s definitely The X files ! I’m crazy about the ‘Star Wars’ movies and ‘Lord of the rings’, those ones are awesome, but not as crazy as those who come dressed like Luke Skywalker to watch the movies ! I leave my Chewy costume at home ! I don’t know if I could do something musical for films like that, I would probably do something more moody, something dark and creepy !

-What do you think of the Internet ?

-A : I think it’s great, because you can get your music out the people who have no other way to learn about you, it’s a great tool, and anyone can hear any band anytime and checked any band. I go for E-mails and information, that’s all I do. I don’t have time to surf the web, but it rules, because E-Mail is great, if you wanna drop somebody a quick line keep in touch, it’s easy to do, instead like talking on the phone and bla bla bla, it’s really convenient, and the greatest part of it is that it can reach people in a minute at the other side of the world, that’s cool !

-And your next projects ?

-A : After this, we’re touring Japan and Australia, then a tour in the States with In Flames, then a tour in Europe and then back home and probably do another US tour, we don’t know yet. Come and see us when we play here...or else ! ! !

Interview made in Paris, March 19th 2004.

Thanks to Karine and Eric.