Here
is my interview with Chris from In This Moment. Hope you all enjoy it!!!
AK:
How is the tour going so far? It’s
probably the most mundane question but everyone wants to know.
CHRIS:
The tour has just been awesome so
far. We’ve gained lots of new fans on this tour. We’re getting a lot
of, ‘I’ve never heard of you before’ to ‘this stuff is awesome’.
AK: Good! Well I
know you guys were in Madison about a week ago. Madison can be very
crazy for a lot of bands. Especially last week, it was practically hell
week for shows coming through here. I’m not sure how that went for you
but I’m sure it was pretty packed.
CHRIS:
Oh yeah! It was awesome, it was an awesome show.
AK: I know you guys
played WJJO Band Camp in ’07. The band was taking a break off Ozzfest
for that day and almost all the bands coming into town last week like
Black Stone Cherry and Bobaflex said we’re going to play this year. We
don’t care what we have to do we’re on. Do you remember Band Camp at
all? It was a while ago.
CHRIS:
Oh yeah! It was so much fun! We want to be there again it was so much
fun.
AK: I know In This
Moment is doing Warped Tour this year and in my opinion you are
definitely the only true metal band. Do you know what stage you’ll be
on yet like the Ernie Ball stage, the Hurley stage? Do you have any
idea so far?
CHRIS:
Yeah, we’re gonna be on the Ernie
Ball stage. We’ll be headlining the Ernie Ball stage and playing with
Aiden and a few other bands on there. The cool thing is we’ll be
playing the same time everyday more towards the evening so we don’t
have to be up at like 8am or 10am. We’re so excited it’s going to be
amazing.
AK: Will you be playing the entire Warped Tour
then or just a partial part?
CHRIS:
It’s the whole thing.
AK: In This Moment
also played Ozzfest and about two weeks ago there was a press release
that Ozzy will not be playing Ozzfest this year but the tour will still
go on. How do you feel about that? Do you think it will be the same
without Ozzy headlining?
CHRIS:
Uh, I don’t really know about that.
I mean, I love Ozzfest, I love Ozzy, and you know, I know he’s working
on his record right now. That’s probably why he’s not doing the
Ozzfest. I can’t wait to see what it is this year. You know Ozzy, it’s
Ozzy! He’s gonna keep going and the tour will still go on. I think I’m
really excited to see what happens with Ozzfest in the next couple of
year.
AK: So let’s talk
about your new album, “The Dream.” for just a quick minute. The album
charted on Billboard at #70 on the 200. I mean, that had to be an
amazing feat! Explain to me how you felt when you found out it was on
the charts.
CHRIS:
We were really excited. It’s one of
those things too we heard about it and knew we worked hard to do it. We
worked really hard on the pre-sales and fans knew about it. We were so
excited! I mean, we broke into the top 100; we sold 8,000 copies the
first week, so it did better than our first album. We were really
excited and still are and there’s really nothing better than that.
AK: There’s a lot of
talk about Track 7 on the album, “Into the Light.” It’s definitely one
of the most powerful songs on there. What inspired the band to do the
song and I’m curious who played piano on the track?
CHRIS:
Everyone loves the track in the
band. We’ve written a whole bunch of stuff back and forth. Some of the
guys live in LA some live in New York so we had to do that a lot in the
recording process. This is the only track that came in after the fact.
This is a track that is all Maria. She came up with the piano part and
had a great vocal melody. She played it for the producer and us in the
studio and everyone was like oh my god, we have to put that on the
album. Maria played the piano on it and also came up with some of the
arrangements on piano. It’s Maria’s song, she came up with it. The
lyrics are written from the heart and she sings it great. It’s
definitely a fan favorite.
AK:
Would In This Moment ever think
about doing a live album at all?
CHRIS:
We haven’t done it yet. It’s only
talked about when you talk about talk about we need 2 more albums. We
never really actually talked about it but if the right circumstances
came about we’d defiantly think about it.
AK: Would the band ever think about doing an all
acoustic album or EP like Walls of Jericho did?
CHRIS:
Absolutely, we actually talked
about it off the last album we were almost thinking about doing it.
Maybe release a special edition thing but it never really came about.
We’ve always talked about that. It’s always something I think it would
be really cool if we did it right. Maria’s really into it. We thought
about it as this thing and we’ve definitely talked about it a lot. It’s
definitely a real possibility for In This Moment to do something like
that.
AK: Any new music from other bands you’re
looking forward to hearing this year?
CHRIS:
I’m looking forward to the new Lamb of God. I haven’t really heard
anything as of yet.
AK: I’ve heard the first single…pretty damn
good. Can’t even lie.
CHRIS:
Yeah I’m just looking forward to hearing the entire album. They’re a
killer group of guys.
AK: Chris, what inspired you to pick up a guitar
and who are some of your first guitar heroes?
CHRIS: I
was a kid and Kiss was huge with
the makeup. Even when they took the makeup off it didn’t associate that
with the music. Also Van Halen, Randy Rhodes, and Zakk Wylde.
AK: In This Moment
is a heavily tattooed band. Who are some of your personal favorite
tattoo artists and would you like to have any work done by any one you
haven’t yet?
CHRIS: I
see great art all the time. I
say, ‘Wow I wish I could have work done by that person,’ and it’s all
random people or whoever. I don’t know all the names of the famous guys
but I’d have to say Paul Booth. I heard he does all his stuff freehand
and he does amazing work.
AK: Ryan from
Mudvayne is doing private bass lessons on this tour. He’s giving a
portion of the proceeds to the American Humane Society. Would you ever
think about doing something like this and to what causes?
CHRIS: I
think it’s a great idea for him
to do that. The humane society is a great cause I can’t think of a
better one. If I had to do something different than that it would be
maybe MS or something a little more personal. I love animals so I think
that’s a great one.
AK: Maynard James
Keenan makes wine, Marilyn Manson does art, and Rob Zombie directs
movies. What is one thing you would like to do as a profession outside
the music industry?
CHRIS:
Outside the music industry, I’m not
sure. I’d maybe do something with movies. I’m a big book reader. I read
a lot of books that I really love I would love to see something done
with into film.
AK: This is quite a
loaded question. Otep said in an interview about 2 years ago that all
female vocalists in metal are lesbians whether they want to admit it or
not. How do you feel about that statement?
CHRIS: I
think Otep is Otep, she’s very
eccentric. I’m not sure if she has a reason to think that. I know Maria
is not a lesbian so that’s not true. Maybe she means that in a
different way. That’s something that is I wouldn’t say manly but is
anti-prissy girl about going up there and belting it out. I know Otep
has talked to us before and gave us congratulations on the album and
our band. Maria has a boyfriend and everything so that’s not true here.
AK: Do you feel that
having a female vocalist will have you work twice as hard and end up
with less than half the payoff as time goes on?
CHRIS:
With the way the band works I don’t
think so. The band has worked really hard and I know of bands who’s had
a popular front woman and said see ya later to the band and went off
and did a solo project. In This Moment is comprised of everyone
involved and it wouldn’t be In This Moment without all the people.
Everyone brings certain things to the table and you just can’t recreate
that. This band has something special together.
AK: If Maria could
make an all female metal singing group like a thrashy Destiny’s Child
or Spice Girls, who do you think she’d want on her team? AND Who would
be the designated diva like Beyonce or Diana Ross?
CHRIS:
(Laughter) Like metal, not singing?
AK: Yeah! Just metal (Laughter)
CHRIS:
Maria would definitely be Diana Ross! She’d probably bring on Candace
from Walls of Jericho and Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil. I don’t
really know! (Laugher)
AK: Last question is
for you because you are an Ozzfest veteran. In This Moment played in
2007 and 2008. Previous bands I have interviewed have said they’ve paid
around $75,000 to $80,000 which if you do the math is about $3,000 a
day for 20 minutes. How did you guys feel about paying that much!
That’s an extravagant amount but it is a huge tour.
CHRIS:
The reason those bands pay that
money is for the exposure. These bands pay to get on Ozzfest and the
tour has had a huge impact on their careers. For example, the sales of
their records increase tremendously. In the end it’s way beyond the
$75,000 that you pay just to play. It’s the sales that you get and the
exposure of the band. For certain bands that’s a huge gamble and it
sometimes doesn’t pay off. There are other bands like Slipknot that it
has helped overall. In This Moment is a great example of that. We got
on the tour and were on the second stage and were so honored. We were
so excited especially because of the free ticket promotion. To In This
Moment, Ozzfest is what opened the band wide open. We were selling a
certain amount of cd’s each week before the tour and then we played
Ozzfest a couple months after that tour our sales were 15 times higher.
People were talking about the band and Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne said
wow look at ITM. We’d love them on the tour. And at Ozzfest you know
fans could buy our cd to get it signed and there we were the number 3
band right after Lamb of God and Hatebreed! Then they were like ok
let’s get them on the Ozzy Osbourne arena tour and that opened up all
these doors. Not only did it the cds sell better but we then we were
also offered to open up for Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie on their arena
tour. So it was definitely worth the money for In This Moment to do.
It’s a gamble for any band to do but for In This Moment it paid off way
more than $75,000.
www.myspace.com/inthismoment
www.myspace.com/inthismoment
AK
myspace.com/arikakaosa
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