Alex DiVincenzo: First, can you tell us your name and what you do for the band?

Matt Rudzinski: My name is Matt, and I am the vocalist for Killwhitneydead.

Alex: You began the "Some Traditions Never Die" summer tour about a week ago. How has it been going?

Matt: It’s been going very good, very good. Some new markets for us, and it’s 4th of July right now, so we’re out partying here in Providence, Rhode Island, but it’s been going very well.

Alex: Do you have any special plans to celebrate tonight?

Matt: We’ve already been grilling out, and we’re playing cornhole. We haven’t pulled the vans up, but as you can see our van is red, and we’ve got a blue van and a white van over there, so we’re gonna pull them up even and take some pictures, ‘cause we got red, white, and blue. So no special plans; just drinking and cooking out, the usually 4th of July activities.

Alex: How’d the bands come together for this tour?

Matt: Our booking agent got in contact with all of them, and we had never met any of them, except for With Faith or Flames we had played with once before. Everybody’s been getting along great. It’s been awesome. All new friends, man. Everybody’s already buddies.

Alex: Do you have any good tour stories yet or from past tours?

Matt: I don’t really have any good ones yet for this tour. Let’s see, past tours… I don’t know. I mean, there’s always funny stuff. Last tour we all went swimming in the ocean on the west coast, and we all came out itching and scratching, and we still don’t know what that was from. All of us, everybody with all the bands went in at once and came out and we were all itching and scratching, and we don’t know. We talked to Carnifex, who are from San Diego, and they all just kind of looked around at each other, so it’s still a mystery to us all.

Alex: What about your worst show?

Matt: Worst show, attendance wise, would be Iowa City, but that was probably one of our best shows of the last tour, ‘cause it was dollar beers and dollar well drinks, so we were completely intoxicated. Tony Danza, they played with costumes on, and we just got annihilated. On this tour our worst performance ever in the history of Killwhitneydead was in Manchester, New Hampshire, but we have some pictures going along that somebody took, and if you saw the pictures you could never know that it was our worst show ‘cause the kids were going absolutely crazy. It was awesome. It’s not our fault; the fans bought us all too many Jager shots before playing, so we’re not to blame.

Alex: Do you think the band will ever be able to tour more often than the summer?

Matt: Probably not. I run a record label as well, and I try to do that in the off time between the summers, so Killwhitneydead is pretty much a summertime band ‘cause that’s when I can do it, it’s the easiest for me. The other guys will tour as The Demonstration with their new record coming out, but I’ll still be at home working.

Alex: What about playing outside the country?

Matt: We are actually working on a European tour and a UK tour. They really want us to come over pretty badly. We just put out our record in February in Germany, so they’re covering that. Canada we want to do, but we’ve just heard that border control is such a bitch, so we’re not really sure yet, but we love Canada!

Alex: Is it hectic fronting the band and running the record label?

Matt: Yeah, it is. Right now that I’m on the road, I have my girlfriend running the E-store, and she’s not too familiar with the whole thing. She’s not really in the scene, so teaching her how to do things and all that kind of stuff, so it’s kind of hectic getting it rolling, but yeah. I mean, it’s manageable, and I’m out here to support the label and the band and meet new friends and meet people that support the label face to face rather than somebody who’s online that they don’t even know.

Alex: Have you gotten any offers from other labels that wanted to sign Killwhitneydead?

Matt: We’ve gotten a few, but I’ve kind of put them on the back burner just because we don’t have any new records written. I don’t want to mention them, but they’re bigger labels, big metal labels, but I don’t want to sign any deals because they automatically throw you into a grinder and put you into the machine to get you spitting out records. That’s never the way Killwhitneydead has operated. Like, we were supposed to record a record for this summer, but we just didn’t even bother writing a single note. That’s how we work. It’s like, when we’re inspired to do it we do it, and if we’re not inspired then don’t. If you sign to a big label you’re just gonna get mashed up and spit out, so I don’t want to do that.

Alex: So would you ever consider doing it?

Matt: Oh, I’ve definitely considered doing it. I’m in constant contact with the labels that talk to us. You know, they know the deal. They’ve watched the band from the beginning and what we’ve done, and I’ve just told them that I just don’t want to be thrown into the machine. The next record we do has to be great, so we’re just gonna take our time at it, you know, do it when we want without pressure.

Alex: And nothing written for the new material yet?

Matt: Not a single note, actually. We just got busy with life, and the guys in The Demonstration were signed. They actually have a new record coming out on Mediaskare/Century Media, so they spent the time writing that. It just seemed like it became too difficult to try and do two records at once again, so we stopped.

Alex: Who do you think is the next Tribunal band that’s going to get big?

Matt: Wow, that’s tough. I just signed some European bands recently, but they won’t get big in the U.S. because I can’t afford to bring them over. But I really like A Thousand Times Repent. They’ve got a great sound, a good attitude. Hopefully we can get them on the road and push ‘em. They’re an amazing band from Georgia. And The Murdered. The Murdered are back on Tribunal after their foray into the “major label” arena, which never actually happened, but they’re back. The new album will be out soon, and hopefully we’ll just get them into a bigger audience than the EP did. They’re amazing.

Alex: You released early material from Atreyu, From Autumn to Ashes, and He is Legend. Those bands have gone on to a lot of success, but they’ve also changed their sound over the years. How do you feel about that? What do you think of their new stuff?

Matt: This is a tough one, ‘cause they’re all my friends. I won’t mention names. One of those bands, I think, personally, their sound changed too much. Animosity got way heavier on their new stuff; I love it. And He is Legend, Suck Out the Poison was one of my favorite records released – was it last year or the year before? Amazing record. Their new direction, I have to hear the whole thing; I’ve just heard demos. It’s definitely a big change. It’s not anything I’m too into, but those first three He is Legend records are incredible. But I love you guys!

Alex: You simultaneously released two albums last year. Was that something you planned, or did you just come out with more material than you expected?

Matt: That’s exactly what happened. We were writing songs, and we do it a little weird. The guys wrote twelve or thirteen songs and then had all these other parts and we recorded everything, and then wound up writing all these songs out of everything. And when we started recording I was like, “Well I can’t release a seventy-eight minute Killwhitneydead record, so why not? We have enough songs for two records.” And we just released two records. One you can only buy on CD, because I’m very anti-iTunes – I’m not anti-iTunes, but I’m anti-everything-becoming-digital, so I figured, why not make a statement on my own that says “Only available on CD and fuck the digital format.” Don’t know if I can curse. Sorry about that; I feel strongly.

Alex: What do you think about all the downloading?

Matt: Legal downloading is fine. I don’t quite get it, but if kids no longer want real artwork in their hands or a physical product and they’re happy with something on their iPod, then more to ‘em. But as far as illegal downloading, it helps a little bit by people finding out about new bands, but I think in the long run it hinders because people still don’t buy records. I mean, it’s obvious. You can see it in the downward sales trends of everything - not just independent labels but major labels. You know, people aren’t buying records anymore.

Alex: How did you decide which songs to put on which CD when you released two?

Matt: I tried to break them up evenly. We have some rock songs, we have some death metal songs, so I tried to break it up evenly, and I definitely tried to make it so it didn’t seem that either album was B-sides. I’ve had fans say they like Hell to Pay better than Nothing Less, Nothing More, so it’s just a matter of songs you wind up digging. I just kind of did it that way; I kind of picked out what style they were and tried to make both albums even sounding. It just worked out.

Alex: Do you have a preference between the two?

Matt: Not really. For me, it’s a record; it’s all the songs we wrote. I love all of it. I mean, there’s some songs on there that I wasn’t too stoked on. I won’t mention what they are, ‘cause if I do then fans will be like, “Oh, I love that song,” so I’m not gonna say. There’s some songs I totally didn’t dig, but then I’ve had fans come up and they actually love those songs, so it’s kind of cool. It’s everyone’s interpretation.

Alex: Would you ever release two CDs at once again like that?

Matt: Never again. Never.

Alex: Why’s that?

Matt: It was the hardest process to ever go through, like mixing and that kind of stuff. When you have to listen to your record over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, when mixing it to get all the levels right, especially with samples ‘cause you have to tweak every one. When you have to listen to a 78-minute reference, that’s like an hour and twenty minutes of your daily life every day or sometimes three times a day listening to the record. And then you find one little thing and you’re like, “Crap, we gotta fix it,” and then you hear something else, so never again. We’ll make another thirty minute record so it’ll be easy.

Alex: Do you think the current line-up of the band will be a permanent one?

Matt: Yeah, definitely. I think so. I mean, we’ve had a little inner turmoil and some member problems, but the core of the line-up has remained the same. We got rid of a guitar player due to some personal issues, but I think that the core of the line-up is gonna be pretty solid, ‘cause like on stage, we gel really well.

Alex: Is it difficult for those guys to write music for two bands?

Matt: No, we didn’t have any problems. I mean, timing-wise, yes. As far as stylistically, no. It’s a matter of just timing. Like I said, The Demonstration had their record and, again, signing to Century Media/Mediaskare they had that deadline. They had that crunch where they had to get their stuff done, so Killwhitneydead just kind of went on the back burner, ‘cause we had just released two brand new albums, so we don’t need a new record, even though fans are screaming for one already. I’m like “You got twenty-four songs. Go enjoy them.” It’s never enough. No, it’s okay.

Alex: You just had a song featured in Z13: The Zombie Within. How did that come about?

Matt: A guy named Blake Faucette, he did our DVD and he’s done a bunch of our live videos and he had done the “Put a Sock in It” music video. In Greensboro, [North Carolina] there’s a company called All Aces Media, which is like he and three other guys, and they make independent movies. They had this zombie movie and they wanted to feature our song in it, and he said that the director or the guy who was producing it wanted a video, so they took us back to the warehouse where they shot the movie, and we just set up and shot a video. I think we shot it in like three hours. We ran lights and stuff off of our cigarette lighter and we ran power ‘cause there’s no power in the warehouse, but it was pretty awesome. Blake’s a great fan and made a cool video for us.

Alex: You mentioned the DVD [Scene of the Crime]. Did you like finally getting out the truth about the band or were you wear of taking away the mystery?

Matt: No, I was kind of happy to get it off my back. When I started the stories I never thought it would get to the level that it did, so creating those stories was fun in the beginning but then trying to have to recall what I said three years prior… When people start to find out it’s really kind of hard to lie to them to their face when they kind of know but they don’t, and I never did it to be truly deceptive; it was just kind of something that happened. I was definitely happy to get it out and explain why I did it ‘cause so many kids didn’t know why, but I finally got it out. That’s the purpose of the DVD, to just get everything from the point where the DVD was made before out so people knew what was going on, and then we could move forward from there.

Alex: Any plans for another DVD?

Matt: We were working on one. We film all kinds of shows, of course none like the quality of all the stuff that comes out on DVD now; we just kind of like, gorilla style, shoot one or two camera angles ‘cause that’s just the way we prefer them to be shot. There’s discussions of it, but we haven’t really gone through much of the footage, so we’ll see. I’d like to do one but it’s quite time consuming to get something out, but there’s always discussions for one.

Alex: Have you ever considered doing songs without samples under a different moniker or anything?

Matt: We actually have discussed – Rob, the new guitar player, and I, when we get home are gonna do a different band, but honestly it’s really hard for me to not use samples. I have to use samples. Myself and some guys in Jonin did a cover version of [Corrosion of Conformity’s] “Vote with a Bullet” and it didn’t have samples in it, and I had one intro sample set up to use. And then if you listen to it, which you can download it on our Myspace page, the whole song has samples through it. It’s just impossible for me not to mess with something; I have to do it.

Alex: Is there anything finalized regarding the KWD on vinyl?

Matt: Nothing yet. We’re waiting for our underlord, Jamie King, to actually remix the first three albums. Once the audio’s remixed we’ll put them on vinyl. Other than just having them on vinyl I want to do something a little different for it. I want to remix the audio for it ‘cause those records are kind of old and recorded on basically a shoestring budget. We didn’t really have much of a following at the time, so we just kind of spent minimal money on it and just did it. Whereas some bands will spend like fifteen, twenty thousand dollars or whatever we spent like a thousand on a record, so it’s kind of like getting a second chance to put them out on vinyl so the kids can have big artwork and things like that.

Alex: Did you ever considered re-recording any of the older stuff?

Matt: Jamie wants to re-record the record, and I would love to redo the vocals on the first record considering I think they’re really, really bad, but that’s just my take because I’m a little more experienced than I was then. If we do do it when we do the vinyl we’ll probably offer the original record remixed on one side, and if we re-record it we’ll offer an additional version ‘cause there are some diehards who absolutely love the first one, and I don’t want to take that away from them.

Alex: How do you respond to the criticism regarding your lyrics?

Matt: Fuck ‘em! No, I don’t really pay attention to it. I mean, we have so many girls at our shows and so many people that could be offended by what I say but they truly love it. And if people are that wrapped up in it then they just need to relax. There’s always people that things too far when they read lyrics; I’ve met plenty of our fans that that do. But I’m just like any horror story, like Stephen King or Clive Barker. I’m anybody like that; I write horror stories. Mine just happen to be set to music rather than to actors and on film, so if people take it too seriously they need to talk to Stephen King and all that kind of stuff.

Alex: You have some violent lyrics, obviously, but how do you feel about violence at shows?

Matt: I hate it. I absolutely hate it, and I say that all the time because it really is just hurting the scene. I know a lot of bands promote it and think that it’s awesome to see people get hurt at shows, but those are people that won’t come to shows anymore and then the more you weed out, the less record sales you have and then the more clubs get shut down, the less places you play and then eventually the scene will crumble. People think because it’s getting bigger and bigger and bigger and more record sales that clubs will tolerate it, but clubs won’t tolerate violence and they won’t because it’s insurance, it’s lawsuits. We played a show in Virginia Beach and apparently some girl, I don’t know if she was paralyzed? We didn’t even get to play ‘cause a fight broke out during one of the other bands, and kids got hurt, security guards got hurt. It’s just so stupid, it’s just pointless. I’m a lot older than a lot of these kids so I have less tolerance for it ‘cause I’ve seen what it can do. It’s stupid.

Alex: Some of your newer lyrics are more sexual. Was that a conscious effort?

Matt: Oh yeah, definitely. You can only write so many songs about decapitating women or killing somebody you don’t like, so I just decided to take Killwhitneydead in a different angle. And for me it kind of keeps the spark alive, ‘cause it allows me to write different stuff and experiment and see where I can take my lyrics and if I can fit those types of themes into Killwhitneydead songs and then challenge me once again to find samples that correlate to that. It keeps everything fresh for me. I don’t really do it for the fans. If they fans dig it that’s awesome, but it’s more to keep it fresh for me. You know, five albums in it’s just kind of like, “Alright, what can I do different?”

Alex: You clearly enjoy movies. What are some of your favorites?

Matt: I love Tommy Boy. I love Alien, Halloween, Strange Brew. I just like all kinds of movies, but those are some of my favorites: Halloween and Alien, and Strange Brew is one of the funniest movies ever made. As of recent movies, I can’t stop watching Hot Rod. I think that’s one of the funniest movies in the last five years. It’s great.

Alex: Do you have any closing remarks for the readers of The Gauntlet?

Matt: Not really. Just thank you very much for the support. And if you haven’t checked us out please do, and if you have again we thank everybody for spreading the word about the band. If their friends don’t tell other friends about us then we wouldn’t be where we are now, so we’re just very grateful that people talk about us, good or bad. You could tell everybody about how much you hate us; that’ll work as well ‘cause then they’ll definitely check us out.