Ekotren Interview

HI JOHN THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME. WHAT ARE YOU UP TO TODAY?
Yeah absolutely, I’m hanging out, not really doing much. It’s the same old Florida day, but it’s actually kind of cold down here. It was 25 degrees this morning and that’s not normal for Florida.

IT MAKES ME NERVOUS WHEN THE WEATHER ISN’T RIGHT.
The world is just going to explode.

I HEAR YOU ARE GETTING READY TO RELEASE YOUR SOPHMORE ALBUM ON JANUARY 25, 2011 TITLED THE DEAD OF NIGHT. CONGRATULATIONS ON THAT.
Thank you very much!

YOU ARE ALSO ON BURNHILL UNION RECORDS NOW.
Absolutely!

HOW DID YOU KNOW THEY WERE THE RIGHT FIT FOR THE BAND?
By just talking to them. Everything that they said so far has been backed up 100%. We are extremely happy with them.

WHAT OTHER BANDS ARE ON THE LABEL?
I'm not sure; I think they are looking to sign other bands.

THERE ARE A LOT OF SMALLER LABELS OUT THERE NOW. THEY TEND TO HAVE MORE TIME TO WORK ON EACH INDIVIDUAL BAND.
Exactly, that’s how it’s pretty much been. Usually you have to talk to five different people before you get to the main guy. We are talking to the main person every time we have a question or a problem. It’s straight to the mouth.

YOU HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME ON THE ROAD IN BETWEEN RECORDS. WHAT EXPERIENCES THAT YOU HAD ON THE ROAD HELPED SHAPE THE NEW ALBUM?
We have grown a lot as a band from being on the road touring with other bands and touring by ourselves. We have learned a lot. We’ve learned who to trust and who not to trust. We have a new drummer now, Frankie, and everything is going really good. As a band we are doing better than ever right now.

DOES THE ALBUM HAVE A CONCEPT BEHIND IT?
No not really, it’s pretty straight forward.

WAS THIS ONE EASIER TO WRITE THAN THE FIRST ONE?
It’s kind of weird; it was kind of more rushed this time. On the last album, I had probably 90% of the lyrics written before we went in to the studio. I may have had to write two or three songs while we were in the studio. On this album I wrote pretty much 90% of it in the studio. Right when we were recording I was pretty much writing lyrics. I would write a verse, we would record it and while he was editing I’d be writing the next verse. It was pretty crazy.

DO YOU LIKE DOING IT THAT WAY?
Yeah, I do better under pressure I think. I need a little bit of pressure on me to write the better lyrics.

DO ALL OF YOU WRITE TOGETHER?
We write the music together. We all get together and jam out riffs. Everybody throws in their ideas and then I write all of the lyrics.

YOU ARE REMARKABLE AT BOTH SCREAMING AND CLEAN VOCALS. WHICH DO YOU PREFER TO DO?
It actually depends on my mood. I like the whole mix of it. I like being able to do both. Some people like to do all screaming or all singing, but that’s just not who we are and everybody in the band likes it that way.

I LIKE THE WAY YOU MIX IT, IT FLOWS REALLY WELL. IS IT HARD TO TRANSITION FROM ONE TO THE OTHER WHEN SINGING A SONG?
As long as I'm healthy and I take care of my voice, then usually it's not bad. If I get sick, then it's terrible. That's what happened when we played the Key Club when you came out and saw us. I think it's harder to do the screaming than the singing sometimes. A lot of people are thrown off by that thinking it would be easier the other way around. You will totally screw your voice up if you don’t do it right.

TO ME, THE NEW SONGS SEEM HEAVIER. WAS THAT THE INTENTION?
We did that EP that has three of the songs that are going to be on the new album. We don’t ever really say we are going to write heavy or that we are going to write melodic. We just write the best music that we possibly can. If it came down to us having to pick a heavy song or a melodic song and we had to choose, we would pick the better song. We wouldn’t pick it because it was heavy or because it was melodic.

I LOVE THE BEGINNING OF "THE END OF THE DAY." IT'S DEFINITELY ONE OF MY FAVORITES OFF THE NEW ALBUM.
Thank you, that is one of our favorite tracks on the album. That’s going to be the first track on the album.

I NEED TO MAKE SURE I GET ONE OF THE ALBUMS.
We’ll be at the Key Club on January 27th, we are playing with Ill Nino again.

I’LL BE SURE TO COME DOWN. YOU GUYS USED PAUL TRUST AGAIN TO PRODUCE THE ALBUM. DO YOU FEEL HE REALLY GETS YOUR MUSIC?
Yeah we are most comfortable with him. We have been working with him since 2007 now. We like his vision and he sees what we are trying to do. Every time we get back with him it gets easier and better.

YOU’LL CONTINUE TO USE HIM ON FUTURE ALBUMS THEN I’M SURE.
Definitely, I can’t imagine going with anyone else.

WHAT ARE THE PLANS FOR VIDEOS?
We are doing a video hopefully within the next month or two actually. We are in the process of picking the song that we are going to come out with as a single. We are going to push it to metal radio and make a video for it as well.

DO YOU PREFER THE LIVE PERFORMANCE VIDEOS OR ONES WITH STORIES BEHIND THEM?
I like both, but probably more toward the performing side. I don’t really like videos where there is no performance. I like a good mix of it.

AT FIRST GLANCE THE ALBUM COVER LOOKED LIKE TWO BUILDINGS SHAPED LIKE GUNS. IS THAT WHAT IT IS?
No, but you’re not the first person to say that. I’ve had a couple people say that.
It goes with the theme The Dead of Night. We are really happy with what the artist came out with, it’s really cool.

YOU HAVE BEEN ON THE ROAD WITH SOME AWESOME BANDS. WHICH TOUR WAS YOUR FAVORITE?
One of our favorites was probably with Straight Line Stitch, Bleed the Sky and Within Chaos. It was one of the funner tours we’ve done. It was the only tour we’ve done where every single person and every single band got along. It was nuts. There were no problems whatsoever, which never happens.

I IMAGINE YOU WILL SPEND MOST OF 2011 ON THE ROAD IN SUPPORT OF THE ALBUM. WHAT ARE THE PLANS?
We go out with Ill Nino, Anew Revolution and Fashion Bomb starting in January. It’s still being put together. That’s what we are doing first, but while we are on that tour I’m sure we will be booking the next. We will be out and about quite a bit!

WHAT ELSE HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING YOURSELF BUSY WITH?
We have been rehearsing getting ready for the tour now. The CD is done so now we are just chomping at the bits waiting to go on tour.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. IT WAS GREAT TALKING TO YOU AGAIN. IS THERE ANYTHING YOU WANTED TO ADD OR SAY?
No, I think we’re cool!

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Tags:  Ekotren  , John Sheldon, interviews

Shauna O'Donnell    December 14, 2010