Straight Line Stitch Interview

HI ALEXIS! THANKS FOR TALKING WITH ME TODAY. HOW ARE YOU?
I'm good, thank you so much for doing this interview. I so appreciate it.

NO PROBLEM AT ALL, I'M REALLY EXCITED TO DO IT. ON MARCH 22, 2011 YOU WILL BE RELEASING YOUR LATEST ALBUM TITLED THE FIGHT OF OUR LIVES THROUGH EONE. THE TITLE OF THE ALBUM WILL MEAN SOMETHING DIFFERENT TO EVERYONE, BUT FOR ME, I HAVE WATCHED SO MANY BANDS TRY TO MAKE IT IN THIS INDUSTRY AND IT SEEMS TO BE THE FIGHT OF THEIR LIVES. WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN TO YOU?
That's basically what it is. The album title is a statement. It's not so much whining about what you have to do to make it and stuff like that. It's a statement about how we have gotten this far and we are not giving up. We are here to stay. We are in the fight, we are not giving up and whatever it takes we are ready for the fight. That is what the album is about.

WOULD YOU SAY ALL OF THE SONGS TELL STORIES? IS THERE A THEME TO THE ALBUM?
I think all of the songs pretty much tell stories. At that time I was really frustrated by everything, like the industry. It's a lot harder for a band in today's economy. You don't get as much help as bands did twenty years ago. They were getting big signing bonuses where they could throw out that record and live off of it for however long. I was really frustrated by that because all bands being out there on the road and working as hard as we do, we all pay our dues. It's so hard. There are great bands out there and a lot of them have fallen off because they don't get the type of support that they need.

IT IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE FOR BANDS AS THEY FIGHT THEIR WAY TO THE TOP. THERE ARE A LOT OF REASONS FOR THAT. FOR ONE THING, THERE ARE SO MANY BANDS. I DON’T KNOW ANYONE WHO ISN'T IN A BAND OR KNOWS SOMEONE WHO IS. IT IS AN OVERSATURATED FIELD.
It is, it really is. Everybody wants to be a rock star.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST STRUGGLE FOR YOU?
I guess it would be just staying together with money being tight or money being non-existent. That’s the hardest thing. We all have bills and families that we want to take care of. Making the sacrifices has been the hardest thing for us a band, not being able to do what you want to do for our loved ones. My bass player just got married and our drummer just got in a serious relationship. You want to do certain things when you have loved ones and family, but this is the dream, this is the goal.

ONE OF YOUR GUITARISTS LEFT THE BAND RECENTLY. WAS IT BECAUSE HE DIDN’T WANT TO BE OUT ON THE ROAD ANYMORE?
He got tired and it’s understandable if you tour like we tour. This is our job, this is what we do, so we are going to tour. You get burnt out and you really don’t see what other people see on the outside. People say “Oh! You guys are getting big,” but we see it as “Hey! We are still living in a van, eating noodles everyday or nothing at all.” It’s really hard and he had issues to deal with. It wasn’t anything dramatic. I talked to him before we hit tour and he is doing well. He needed to get out, take care of himself and that’s pretty much it.

THAT IS TOTALLY UNDERSTANDABLE. ARE YOU ON THE LOOKOUT FOR A NEW GUITARIST?
We tried out some people. Right now we have Kris Norris with us. He is the ex-guitar player for Darkest Hour. He is amazing and we are seeing where it goes with him. He is an amazing guitar player, an amazing person and we all love him to death. We will see how it goes. We are feeling each other out.

WITH A BAND OF YOUR CALIBUR, HOW DOES IT WORK WHEN YOU GO TO LOOK FOR A GUITAR PLAYER? YOU CAN’T REALLY PUT IT OUT ON YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE BECAUSE YOU’D HAVE THOUSANDS OF EMAILS.
Before when we had lost some members, we would put it out or they would make statements. We just decided to do it differently this time. People get crazy when they hear someone has left the band. They think the band is going to break up and they jump the gun. We decided to handle this as quietly as possible. A lot of our fans are catching on. They are like “Hey! What’s going on?’ We told them, we didn’t lie to them. We just said that it was nothing dramatic, it’s cool, we are still a band, we are looking for a guitarist and we are doing it our way. We are not making a big deal about it.

THERE YOU GO! I READ THAT "CONVERSION" IS ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE SONGS ON THE ALBUM. TELL ME WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT AND WHY YOU LOVE IT.
I love "Conversion" because I felt like I was being changed. I see myself as being a pretty easy going person. I’m nice and if you’re nice to me, I’ll be nice to you. I like to think that I’m slow to anger. I think a lot of the past couple years has changed me. I’ve seen how a lot of the people in the industry really don’t give “two shits” about bands or people in general. I feel like it’s changed me and conversion means to change. I felt like I was shedding a skin, I felt things more and it was angering me. I felt like I was going to explode. I was shedding this skin, I was becoming this new person and I wasn’t going to take it. I’m not going to take being treated like crap. I’m a person and we are out here grinding everyday. We deserve respect. “Conversion” is about that. I’m changing and I’m not going to be that carpet that you want to run all over. That is one of my favorite songs for that reason.

IT WILL BE THE FIRST SINGLE RIGHT?
Yes, it will be the first heavy single.

YOU DO A MIXTURE OF SCREAMING AND CLEAN VOCALS. YOU HAVE A BEAUTIFUL VOICE AND THERE IS A GOOD BALANCE. DO YOU HAVE A PREFERENCE ONE OVER THE OTHER?
It depends, sometimes when the screams sound really good I love it! Other times the screams don’t sound so good and then I like the singing. It goes back and forth. I like it the same. When it sounds good I love it and when it doesn’t sound good I hate it.

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SINGING?
I’ve been singing ever since I came out. I was hollering and screaming. I knew from an early age that I wanted to be a singer. I wanted to be a singer and I knew I was going to do it. I have a one track mind. When I was in school, I didn’t do cheerleading or any of that girl stuff. I was singing and banging on pots and pans. I was singing every commercial on TV and my brother and my mom were like “Shut up! Please! Just be quiet for a second.” I knew this is what I wanted to do. I didn’t know that it would be metal because I grew up with an R&B background at first. My mom re-married to my step father and I got into rock because of him. My brother got into it because he was in school and that was the crowd he was hanging out with. They listened to Pantera and White Zombie. I used to give him crap about it, but then I developed a love for it because it was so different. I was doing R&B and I didn’t want to blend in with all of the other black girls that were doing it. I wanted to stick out. I joined my brother’s band when I was fourteen and I stuck with it and kept on pushing until I got a band.

I'M GLAD YOU DID BECAUSE YOU ARE REMARKABLE AT WHAT YOU DO.
Thank you so much.

YOU'RE WELCOME, YOU WORKED WITH JOHNNY K AND BEN SCHIGEL. THOSE ARE TWO OF MY FAVORITE PRODUCERS. WHAT WAS THAT EXPERIENCE LIKE?
They are both amazing at what they do. They have this ear and a knack for getting out what we hear in our heads. It was cool working with Ben because he is a singer. He did most of the album, Johnny K did two songs and mixed the record. Working with Ben was awesome because like I said he is a singer, so I can relate to him a lot more. Working with Johnny was nerve-wracking because of his caliber. He has made Disturbed what they are. They’ve gone triple platinum and he has all those records on his wall. It was a little intimidating, but he was cool to work with. He was very nice and chill. He’s a sweet guy. I had a great experience working with both of them.

YOUR LAST ALBUM WHEN SKIES WASH ASHORE RELEASED IN 2008. THERE WAS A COUPLE YEARS IN BETWEEN ALBUMS. WHAT WERE YOU GUYS DOING IN THAT TIME? WERE YOU ON THE ROAD CONSTANTLY?
We were still on the road and still working. It took us a long time to record a record. There was so much going on. It was a tough time. We had just recorded an album and we weren’t anybody. It was our first record. We had recorded records, but they were independent records. Nobody knew who we were and it was really tough trying to get tours. We weren’t doing buy-ons because I think those are bullshit. It was a tough time, but it was a learning experience. During the time that we didn’t have a record out, we were fighting to get on tours. We did a lot of it going out by ourselves and using what we had. We were touring during that time.

YOU WERE OUT WITH NONPOINT RIGHT?
We were just out with Nonpoint. That was a really fun tour. It was really more than I expected. I was like “Oh, okay we are going on tour with this radio band and I know it’s not going to work out.” We are a little bit heavy you know? Nonpoint is really good at what they do, they draw well and they are on the radio. It was really, really good. Their crowd really liked us and I think it’s because we stuck out a little bit. Those guys are really cool. We are usually on tour with bands that are like us. Everything sounds the same, so it was cool to break out and touch their audience. It was really good and it really is smart.

CURRENTLY YOU ARE ON THE ROAD WITH TIMES OF GRACE. HOW IS THAT GOING?
It’s going really well. They are an awesome band and everybody is really hyped up because it’s pretty much old Killswitch. They are amazing guys and their new album is amazing. The tour is going well so far.

I AM EXCITED TO SAY THAT YOU WILL BE ON THE ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL THIS YEAR WITH BANDS LIKE DISTURBED, MEGADETH AND GODSMACK. I WILL BE AT THE VERY FIRST SHOW AND I CAN’T WAIT!
You have to seek us out and say Hi! I’m going to be a nervous wreck on that tour. I’m so nervous!

WHAT WAS YOUR REACTION WHEN YOU FOUND OUT?
First of all, I got the call when I was in the van sleeping. We were on tour and I got the call saying we are on Rockstar Mayhem. I was like “What?!” I was literally like a zombie, I ran out of the van and said “We are on Rockstar!” Everyone was like “No! No! No, we’re not!” I was like “YES! We are on Rockstar Mayhem!” We freaked out. We had a couple beers, we cheered and we were like YES! It is the highlight of our career so we are all stoked!

WHO ARE SOME OF THE BANDS ON THE TOUR YOU HAVE NOT PLAYED WITH YET?
There are a lot of bands that we haven’t played with. There are a lot of bands that we would die to play with that are on this tour, like In Flames and Machinehead. We are stoked to see these bands play everyday.

WILL YOU BE DOING DAILY SIGNINGS ON THE TOUR?
I sure hope so. I want to be out and about and talk to people. I think that is definitely how you make real fans. You make time to hang out, so I sure hope that is on the agenda for us. If not, I will find a way to be out there hanging out, signing autographs and taking pictures. It means a lot to people and it means a lot to me.

I'M SO HAPPY WHEN BANDS GET BIGGER, THEY SEE THAT AND THEY WANT TO HANG OUT WITH THEIR FANS.
Some people get it twisted and they don’t understand. They think "Oh! I'm a rock star and these people put me on a pedestal." The way we see it as a band is that these people, or fans, are the rock stars. They support us, come to shows, buy our albums and they make us who we ultimately become as a band. It isn’t anything to give them a moment of your time, hang out and shoot the breeze to say thank you. We don’t let anything get in the way of our fans, not anything.

I HOPE I RUN INTO YOU AT MAYHEM.
I hope so too. I'll be looking for you saying "Where's Shauna? She said she's coming."

THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE INTERVIEW. IT WAS AWESOME TALKING TO YOU. YOU ARE SO MUCH FUN AND YOU ARE A GREAT PERSON. BEFORE I LET YOU GO IS THERE ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO ADD OR SAY?
I wanted to say thank you again for doing this interview and to all your readers thank you so much. If anybody wants to reach out to us, they can hit us up on our Facebook or Myspace. We are in control of it. If you reach out, you are talking to us. You are not talking to anybody else. Be sure to hit us up. We look forward to meeting and talking with you guys.

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Tags:  Straight Line Stitch, Alexis Brown , Alexis Brown - Vocals, interviews

Shauna O'Donnell    February 10, 2011