If Hope Dies Interview

The Gauntlet: How's it going?

Gary: Pretty good. I am playing a poker game right now, just got a flush.

The Gauntlet: Are you playing for money?

Gary: No, it's on the Playstation. We are about to leave for two and a half months for tours and poker keeps me alive. We get all these bands together and it's the only way we can make money; can't live off $10 a day!

The Gauntlet: You better hope the members of the other bands aren't practicing their poker skills too.

Gary: Two of the other bands a Christian bands so I don't know if they'll play poker. But Demiricous is on tour with us and they have long hair and seem pretty cool so I'm sure they'll play. It will be nice to tour with a straight up metal band, no breakdowns. I hate when people know we are metalcore and ask if we sound like Norma Jean or Poison the Well.

The Gauntlet: What else is going on?

Gary: We are getting ready for the CD. It finally comes out tomorrow. There is so much we had to do to get ready for it. There are so many interviews, it's been crazy. Last album we did 6 hours of press total. Today I am doing 8 hours, tomorrow I have 6 hours, then next week is the same. I love doing interviews though. We did something cool last night though. Do you watch horror movies?

The Gauntlet: Of course.

Gary: We went to see "The Hills Have Eyes" advanced screening. That Mike guy who was in the first one was there shaking hands and shit.

The Gauntlet: That's cool. The original "The Hills Have Eyes" was my favorite horror flick of all times. Last month I went to the World Premiere for the new version. They played the 1977 version by Wes Craven and he was actually there talking about the movie and answering questions.

Gary: Oh shit. That beats me man. You win. That rules. That's awesome.

The Gauntlet: I liked the first one, but the new one was good.

Gary: Yeah, the new one was great. I like a lot of the remakes. I liked the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. I like the super gore movies. Anyways, we are getting ready for the album and the tour. We have been practicing like crazy. We have one show with Children of Bodom, and then head out with Still Remains and Demiricous for 5 weeks. Then we have 3 days to drive from New York to Los Angeles and we have a tour with God Forbid and DevilDriver. We are all huge God Forbid fans.

The Gauntlet: God Forbid are awesome anytime. They are so tight when they play. "Life In Ruin" is out tomorrow. How long has it been completed?

Gary: We had it finished in October. I think press copies went out in January. I am glad it is finally coming out.

The Gauntlet: That's good that Metal Blade isn't rushing it to the shelves.

Gary: It was half that. We are kind of on two labels. We are also on Iron Clad. But when we finished the album, and by the time the label got it in November, it was too late. This industry shuts down in December. They didn't want to do any promotion, then take 3 weeks off. So we started promoting worldwide in mid-January.

The Gauntlet: This is the bands first album with a Euro release?

Gary: Yeah, our first time getting an album in Europe and Japan and elsewhere. That's the most exciting part about all this. We will get to tour over there now. We now have a bunch of offers overseas and we are just trying to see what we can do. It's crazy, a lot of people can't even read our lyrics but they are insane fans and love the music.

The Gauntlet: I hear Jason Seucof produced and mixed the album. Where you looking for a thrashier album?

Gary: He did the Trivium album and that sounded great. We found out God Forbid was going to the same place and they have a similar sound to us so we wanted him to do it. We stayed at his house for a few days. He did a really good job. He brings a heavier sound out. You should interview Seucof, it will be the most ridiculous interview ever.

The Gauntlet: Was the band looking to go into a different direction from the previous album.

Gary: We wanted to do some things differently. We listen to all sorts of music and draw influences from it. We wanted to play all this at once. It is kind of hard. We kind of just wanted to write an album we'd want to play for the next couple of years. We wanted to keep the songs under four minutes, add choruses, and have them more structured on this album. Some of the parts we actually did in the studio.

The Gauntlet: It has been about 3 years since the bands last album. Was this long release cycle due to re-releasing the album?

Gary: Yeah, that's pretty much what happened. It was out for a year or so just through Iron Clad. They came up with a whole marketing thing to re-release it. So we had to tour for it again. We had been writing stuff forever.

The Gauntlet: I understand you shot a new video for 'Anthem for the Unemployable'

Gary: Yeah. I think that's out today. I thought it was out a couple days ago, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I think we got word they are going to play it on Headbangers. That's another thing we are all really proud of. It came out amazing. It's so weird. It's kinda like the movie "Office Space", sort of. They rented out a office building. We all dressed up in ties like we were at work. We had a bunch of extras too.

The Gauntlet: The band is also added to the New England Metal and Hardcore Fest

Gary: Yeah, this year it is more metal. I used to always go to the fest so it will be cool to play it. Dragonforce is there! And Cryptopsy and Nile! I love Cryptopsy live, but hate the new guy.