Full Blown Chaos Interview

"Expect the Chaos" - Ed Conroy, bassist, Full Blown Chaos

If you're going to be checking out Full Blown Chaos, you had better be ready for some action, because this group delivers 100% live, with a strong live performance focused on complete and total musical destruction. The group is a touring machine, currently out on the road in support of their thunderously crushing Stillborn Records effort Wake The Demons. Erin Fox hangs with FBC's bassist Ed Conroy before the band's set at Detroit's I-Rock Nightclub.


The Gauntlet: You guys are out in support of God Forbid right now, how long will Full Blown Chaos be out with this tour?

Ed Conroy: Well, I believe it's got about a thirty day run, probably about twenty-seven shows in thirty days. It's a solid package, God Forbid, It Dies Today, Caliban, which is sick and us, Full Blown Chaos. But yeah, it's a pretty solid run, we started in Canada, coming here to Detroit, and kind of loop around the country, head back up and catch the Metalfest, we have got a couple really, really good shows on this tour, so it is what it is, man. It's good, a good deal.


The Gauntlet: So it sounds like you have really been touring a lot, the band stays out.

Ed Conroy: Yeah, we do about two hundred plus shows a year in any given year, I mean, generally maybe a little more but we'll do the average and say it's two hundred a year, including other one offs and all that bullshit. So yeah, we're pretty active, man. We stay pretty active.


The Gauntlet: How long has Full Blown Chaos been going at this?

Ed Conroy: We've been a band probably about seven years now but really like touring and with a full, solid lineup and all that, we're probably pushing about four years. Because we've only had Ray, our singer now, we've only had him for about three and a half years. Yeah, we started, we were doing the weekend warrior shit, we were in the band almost three years just playing in the basement and hanging out, we played a couple open mics here and there, like just bullshit local stuff but then we got into the weekend warrior thing, started spreading ourselves around a bit, started playing New England, getting up there a little more, Connecticut, Boston down to PA, played in Philly. We went down maybe as far as Virginia. But then we jumped on a couple tours here and there. We were lucky enough to head out with Sworn Enemy and Figure Four for a two and a half week run, it took us down to the middle of the country, it was the first time we were ever there, it took us all the way down to Texas and it was great. From there, we hooked up and met up with Stillborn and it took off from there. The first real national tour was with Sepultura, which was fucking amazing. It was a great way to start and from there we've pretty much toured with ninety percent of the names in the book, you know? We're just out there doing our thing, keeping it strong, keeping it simple.


The Gauntlet: With your band's sound, you really crossover to a wide audience. What do you think of being on Jamey's show and being exposed to that huge metal audience that would not necessarily be exposed to your group?

Ed Conroy: Oh yeah, absolutely. Right off the bat, everybody here comes from, I would say similar genres, but everybody has their own taste from back in the day. My singer really grew up on a lot of hardcore, a lot of old school stuff, same thing with me, my cousin kind of put me on when I was younger, My cousin Walter, he was in Gorilla Biscuit so, I was at Coney Island High when I was eleven, watching Gorilla Biscuit rock out and shit, so it was cool. So, we came from a more hardcore background. My guitar player Mike and my drummer Jeff they came more from the Machine Head, Metallica, Pantera thing, you know? Everybody was into the old classic rock, the Black Sabbath and the Ozzy and all that kind of shit, listening to Kiss and all that kind of stuff. So everyone has a similar view on music, but everyone has a broad view on music, so it makes that heavy mix that puts together Full Blown, you know what I'm saying'? So really, you go into a Hatebreed show and it's cool, we play the metal set, Agnostic Front, Sick Of It All, we do the hardcore set. So we kind of have a mix for everybody. It works out to our advantage. Its crossover, but it's really just what everybody grew up on. It's like what our roots are, so it balances itself out really well.


The Gauntlet: Your band is one of the most hard hitting of the groups that are out there doing this style and one of the few that are truly deserving of the term metalcore, as it actually is a marriage of the two styles, but with so many bands jumping on the bandwagon these days do you feel like there's getting to be a glut of artists that are all reaching for the same thing?

Ed Conroy: You know what? I don't want to hate at all. What you play is what you play. It's what you feel, it's what you do and that's cool. But I see a lot of bands playing shows, playing crossover, you have bands that you wouldn't even think would be on a bill, I think it's just become more acceptable. Since there are a lot of bands that are crossing over, now you're making the shows more diverse, you're opening the market to a bunch of different people. And like you say, you come in here and you've got all different kinds of metal and all different kinds of hardcore, so it's all kind of just starting to mend together.


The Gauntlet: It's like the lines are really blurring and these genres are moving forward into this big thing that no one really can describe yet except to use that term, but as messed up as labels can be, you have to find a way to communicate to people what is going on.

Ed Conroy: We always shoot down the metalcore thing, we say this is metal and it's hardcore. It's a mixture of everything. I mean, I know there's a tremendous barrier in music right now, but everyone's starting to open up to everything. You've got one kid standing there with a Slayer shirt on and he could listen to Throwdown and think it's the best thing ever, which is great. Because that kid is going to be at the Slayer show and he's still going to be at the Throwdown show, so now with Slayer, you're coming out and playing all your metal shit to him and with Throwdown, you come out and play all your hardcore shit to him. The kid loves you twice as much, because you got the metal end to him and you got the hardcore end to him so the diversity, I think, is picking up. It's what's making it stronger. I mean look you got your bands like Unearth and Killswitch and Lamb Of God and they've got heavy hitting riffs, but there's other things involved, you've got the singing and you've got everything. It's turned into one big grey area where everybody's into everything and shit, it helps the bands.


The Gauntlet: Like you said, everything is opening up to where kids are listening to all of it, whereas, back in the day, if you were a hardcore kid, you only listened to hardcore, period. And the punk scene and metal scenes were the same way and a lot of kids missed out on some really cool shit.

Ed Conroy: It was like it was militant or something, you know and if there were metalheads there, we have to beat them up or something. It's making it easy for kids to go out and go to a show and not really worry about what they are going to. I think a hardcore kid feels comfortable going out to a metal show and vice versa. It makes a difference.


The Gauntlet: In a live situation, it seems like the band's name really just sums it up.

Ed Conroy: It pretty much does, my friend. That's what you get, you get Full Blown Chaos and that's what it is man, the pit, the music, everything.

The Gauntlet: Have you been getting a lot of cool pits these first couple of dates?


Ed Conroy: Yeah, the reactions have been great, we've only played two shows and the reactions have been fucking ridiculous. I mean- (Hot chick walks by)-sorry.


The Gauntlet: Hey, I was looking too.

Ed Conroy: Yeah, I just looked! She is way too good looking to be listening to this music! Nah, I'm just playing, it's all good, man

Ray Mazzola: It's all good muhfuka!

Ed Conroy: It's been real good, yesterday was really, really good, we had this sick ass wall of death, man. We've been incorporating that back into the set. We just went out with Sick Of It All and they do the whole Braveheart thing and I'm like, you know what, we're going to bring that back. So if the kids are feeling it and you feel like it's the right time, you do it. We do it up, we've even got the old school circle pit, we're doing it up man, and we're having a good time.


The Gauntlet: Any specific songs the fans are going nuts over?

Ed Conroy: From start to finish, people just pretty much get ignorant, it's great and so far so good, we've been pretty lucky, the past few tours, it's been like, no fighting. There's been no problems like tons of kids getting hurt and everything else, and everybody's still getting involved, circle pits, walls of death. I mean, you see a wall of death shoot out with like seven hundred kids and nobody gets into a fight? That's a good show. And we have yet; knock on wood, to have anybody get hurt in any of them, no lawsuits, no crazy shit like that. Sometimes, you walk into a place and you can smell the lawsuit as soon as you walk into the room, but lucky enough none of that shit yet.


The Gauntlet: Is it hard for you guys coming into places that have "No Moshing" or "No Diving" rules and things like that?

Ed Conroy: It's not our club, so we're going to respect that. We're not going to taunt kids like "Oh, yeah, destroy this place." We don't tell anyone to destroy the place, we want to come back, you know. We don't want to piss anyone off, we want to come back. But what you're going to do is what you're going to do, so to tell someone to stand still listening to this kind of music is absurd. The whole new record, "Wake The Demons", that's what it all is it's like you know what, to sum up the whole record in like, two sentences is do what ever your daily life is, whether you're a cook or a fucking cab driver, I don't know, everybody has a way to release their demons. This is the way we release ours. That's why the album's called "Wake The Demons". You come in, you're all frustrated or whatever, you get out your frustrations at the show, and at the end of the show, you walk out a better person. Then, when you go in and you play the show and no one gets in a fight and all bloodied up and you're like, "you know what, that was it- that is what we came here to do." Then, our job is done and we're on to the next state.


The Gauntlet: That's it too; the music is a rally positive way for the fans to unleash their aggressions in a positive way, and for the band as well.

Ed Conroy: It is, because we're not up here telling you to beat up a cop or destroy something or go out and fucking rob somebody, I don't know too many bands that do that. Everybody just does their own thing, they have their own message. This is what we bring to the table, this is how we vent our aggressions and this is what we do. As crazy as it is, it is Full Blown Chaos; it's peaceful, because it's not hurting anybody. It's not a negative; it's a positive approach to releasing your aggressions.


The Gauntlet: So is the band pretty psyched up for the Metal and Hardcore festival?

Ed Conroy: We're always psyched about Metalfest, Metalfest is insanity and we play that every year, man. That and Hellfest and shit. Scott Lee, you've got to give it up for Scott Lee, give him a shout out in this interview, Scott Lee's the man! The Palladium is just great. We love all the crew there, we love the security guys and it's like a second home, we kind of just go up there and just kick it! You know everybody, just walk in, you don't need a laminate. I walk in with my fucking pajamas.


The Gauntlet: That show bears a lot of the responsibility for bringing these two scenes together.

Ed Conroy: Metalfest is a great opportunity, especially for bands that are trying to make their way, there's always kids everywhere, there's kids in there from the start of the day until the end of the day so it's like if you're on that, you know I got my own little budget label going, my own little bullshit label I just started to kind of help out one of my friend's bands, Through The Discipline. Real good metal act, real solid dudes. They were in a band before we were, they helped us come up and so when we had the opportunity to pay it forward, I kind of jumped on it. I had some loot stashed in the bank, I mean, were on tour all the time and I had nothing to do with it, you know? So it was like, "hey, you know what guys, look, let's do some low budget stuff and I'll get you on Metalfest, I'll get you on Hellfest", so it was a great opportunity for them. That's a band that went out there and sold a bunch of CDs, a bunch of shirts, and now have a better following for it. Now, when they go up into the New England area, get a little bit lost in the city, they've got kids. They got fifty, a hundred kids here and there that will come out, like "I saw you on Metalfest, man, that shit was great!" To me, at the end of the day, that's paying it forward. Those guys, basically were at the point where they had a record recorded on pre-production and were about to quit. They were about to quit being a band and that shit wasn't never get recorded. But to me, that, technically was the most expensive CD I've ever bought in my life. But it's one of the best CDs I ever had and it just makes us feel good, that we could help the dudes that were there for us. I'm not trying to be all mushy about it and shit, I'm not trying to be all faggy, but it's the truth. If it weren't for them, there would have been nights where we wouldn't have had a bass amp; we wouldn't have had a guitar amp or a hi-hat stand or things like that. As a matter of fact, that singer, when we were in between singers, he actually came out and covered for us for a month and a half and this kid was singing shows for us. And that's love, man. That's keeping it real quote, unquote, you know, that's a stand up dude, that's paying it forward. So Metalfest, yeah that shit helps. It is the same thing with Hellfest. Even the Croc Rock fest, man Tammy, she is putting something crazy together over there, I can totally appreciate it.


The Gauntlet: What is sick is that she hooked it all up so fast! She did a really fantastic job of putting a great package together.

Ed Conroy: I know, I know, I know! She called me up and she's like "I got this, this and this and all these locals on and they're all ready, this and that, three day festival" I mean, she's got a lot of locked in headliners, she's got names on it, it's got the draw, it's not a problem. Now think of all the local bands that are on that show. If I was one of those local bands in fuck nowhere PA, I'd be like "Holy shit, It's the biggest show!" For some kids on that show, that's going to be the biggest show they've ever played, with the most amount of kids showing up. And I remember those shows, man. Those are the things you look forward to. You find out two months in advance that you're playing some crazy big fucking show and you went for it. You're just practicing every day for that show.


The Gauntlet: What do you have to say to all of these kids coming out to see this tour over the next month?

Ed Conroy: Expect the chaos, man, expect it, it's Full Blown Chaos! Just come on down, check it out support, tell a friend. Come down and check out the show, buy a CD. Its well worth it, the best ten or twelve dollars you ever spent.




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Tags:  Full Blown Chaos  , Ed Chaos, interviews

EF    May 07, 2005