Interviews

(2007 – 2016)

FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES Interview with Brian Deneeve & Mike Pilato

FROM AUTUMN TO ASHES Interview with Brian Deneeve & Mike Pilato

Maybe there’s something in the air, but over the past few years we’ve seen a bunch of bands come back from the dead. From Autumn To Ashes are one of the most recent resurrectors, and they recently wrapped up a West Coast reunion tour where they played a...

WOVENWAR Interview with Nick Hipa & Shane Blay

WOVENWAR Interview with Nick Hipa & Shane Blay

All things considered, it’s pretty crazy how Wovenwar started. Everybody knows the story of what happened with As I Lay Dying, but not many people know that the seeds of Wovenwar were actually planted over a decade ago deep in the heart of Texas, long before As...

PERIPHERY: An Interview with Misha Mansoor

PERIPHERY: An Interview with Misha Mansoor

During one of the only house shows Periphery ever played in their 10-year history, the floor of the place collapsed. That’s what Misha Mansoor told us after we wrapped up our interview in Hollywood. “It was the last house show we played,”...

PALMS: An Interview with Aaron Harris & Jeff Caxide

PALMS: An Interview with Aaron Harris & Jeff Caxide

Given the names involved, it’s no surprise that Palms have attracted a bunch of attention since the release of their self-titled debut album last year. The band that features Deftones frontman Chino Moreno with former members of Isis garnered endless...

SILVER SNAKES Interview with Alex Estrada on Year of the Snake

SILVER SNAKES Interview with Alex Estrada on Year of the Snake

We’ve been talking about Silver Snakes for a few years now, and if you’re already familiar with what they do you’re ahead of the learning curve. Featuring members of Horse The Band, the SoCal rock group have made quite an impression on the...

An Interview with TOUCHE AMORE’s Jeremy Bolm

An Interview with TOUCHE AMORE’s Jeremy Bolm

We interviewed Touche Amore once before, back in the day when they were supporting the release of their 2009 debut album …To the Beat of a Dead Horse. At the time the young post-hardcore band from Burbank, CA were just starting to make a splash in the music...

Animals As Leaders Interview: Javier Reyes on The Joy of Motion

Animals As Leaders Interview: Javier Reyes on The Joy of Motion

There’s no doubt that Animals As Leaders have taken heavy music to a new plateau. What started out as Tosin Abasi’s outlet to express his creativity has turned into a global sensation, resonating in the bloodstream of today’s youth. But the road to...

An Interview with Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan on Wrongdoers

An Interview with Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan on Wrongdoers

Norma Jean’s fall tour with Vanna and KEN mode has been a hectic one. The other week while passing through Chicago somebody broke into their van and took a bunch of their personal belongings. “Someone broke into our van and stole a lot from us,” the...

Cancer Bats Interview: Liam Cormier is Dead Set on Living

Cancer Bats Interview: Liam Cormier is Dead Set on Living

“We need five minutes,” says Liam Cormier to the impatient valet, who’s trying to kick us out of the lot behind The Roxy. The cars are starting to roll in for tonight’s show with Kvelertak and Cancer Bats, and the dudes at the valet booth are...

Lostprophets Interview: Ian Watkins on the Sound of Weapons

Lostprophets Interview: Ian Watkins on the Sound of Weapons

“I was thinking I was a big buff guy that wanted to fight people at every show,” Ian Watkins jokes. On a hot August evening outside a restaurant on the Sunset Strip, the Lostprophets frontman tells stories of Public Disturbance, a mid-90s UK hardcore band...

The Chariot: An Interview with Josh Scogin on ‘One Wing’

The Chariot: An Interview with Josh Scogin on ‘One Wing’

“I opened the door and it was all white,” Josh Scogin recalls of throwing flour on Alesana during The Chariot’s 2008 tour with the band. “They went up to play and every time they’d headbang there would be this powder of flour...

Interview: Bevan Davies & Kyle Sanders Tell the Story of MonstrO

Interview: Bevan Davies & Kyle Sanders Tell the Story of MonstrO

In the early 2000s when MonstrO drummer Bevan Davies moved to LA with his band Comes With The Fall, one of the group’s first-ever fans was Alice in Chains mastermind Jerry Cantrell. “When we had a show…[Cantrell] would come out and do encores with us on...

For Today Interview: Mattie Montgomery on the Rise to Immortal

For Today Interview: Mattie Montgomery on the Rise to Immortal

On the loading dock of a security-intense venue during the Anaheim stop of the band’s headlining tour, For Today frontman Mattie Montgomery reminisces of signing with Facedown Records in 2008. “Our drummer David [Morrison] was on the Facedown street team...

August Burns Red Interview: From the Beginnings to ‘Leveler’

August Burns Red Interview: From the Beginnings to ‘Leveler’

Hours before the group’s sold out show at House of Blues Sunset, August Burns Red drummer Matt Greiner speaks of growing up on Solid State Records bands. “My parents didn’t let me listen to anything else,” Greiner laughs in the dim green room...

Stray From The Path Interview: Bringing it Back to the Streets

Stray From The Path Interview: Bringing it Back to the Streets

On an early November morning en route to Salt Lake City, Stray From The Path had a run with disaster – a patch of black ice sent the band’s van and trailer swerving off a frozen U.S. highway before the break of dawn. “We flipped and then a semi-truck...

Dead Letter Circus Interview: On Building a Fanbase in the US

Dead Letter Circus Interview: On Building a Fanbase in the US

Awaiting an order of gourmet sandwiches at a restaurant on the Sunset Strip, Dead Letter Circus guitarist Rob Maric and frontman Kim Benzie speak of mainstream media and its influence on society. “It’s not natural to have violence broadcasted to you...

Thrice: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Thrice: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

During the band’s infancy in the late 90s, Thrice would perform at any shows they could get. “We played at a SeaWorld [parking lot],” guitarist Teppei Teranishi laughs, speaking candidly in the green room of Los Angeles’ Mayan Theater....

It Prevails Interview: The Growing Pains of a Hardcore Band

It Prevails Interview: The Growing Pains of a Hardcore Band

On a day in 2003, Ian Fike received a phone call that changed his life: his Portland-based band Ever We Fall landed a deal with Rise Records. At the time a sophomore in high school, Fike found himself in the studio recording what would become the band’s debut EP,...

Scale The Summit: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Scale The Summit: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

When Scale The Summit played Prosthetic Records their four song demo in 2006, the label had little interest in signing instrumental bands. “[Prosthetic] said word for word: ‘[we’ll] never sign an instrumental band,'” guitarist Chris Letchford...

Animals As Leaders Interview: The Second Album & T.R.A.M.

Animals As Leaders Interview: The Second Album & T.R.A.M.

Five years ago, Animals As Leaders guitarist Javier Reyes auditioned for Periphery. “He didn’t make the cut!” jokes lead guitarist Tosin Abasi. As he laughs and shakes his head, Reyes defends himself, “They were 20 years old, and I was 26. I...

Dredg Interview: Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy, Dan The Automator

Dredg Interview: Chuckles & Mr. Squeezy, Dan The Automator

It’s been a couple years since my last interview with Dredg, and within that time, I’ve become infatuated with Dan The Automator projects Handsome Boy Modeling School and Lovage. As I get reacquainted with Dredg vocalist Gavin Hayes and guitarist Mark...

Periphery Interview: Music Philosophy, The Next Album, & Haunted Shores

Periphery Interview: Music Philosophy, The Next Album, & Haunted Shores

It’s Friday night in West Hollywood, and Periphery guitarist Alex Bois just picked up an unexpected souvenir. “We got a $100 ticket [for parking on Sunset Blvd],” he exclaims. “But it’s ok, it’s Friday night and we’re here in Hollywood.” Perhaps optimism like this is...

The Chariot Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

The Chariot Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

Given the current state of the music industry, it’s often hard to know if a band creates art, or if they’re a manufactured product designed to sell. Half of the time at shows, it’s hard to tell if a band is playing for real, or if they’re playing to pre-recorded...

Underoath Interview with Spencer Chamberlain

Underoath Interview with Spencer Chamberlain

I often wonder about the tipping point of bands. At what moment in any given successful band’s career — in conjunction with marketing, public relations, and relentless touring efforts — did they enter the forefront of public consciousness, and what caused...

Trap Them Interview with Vocalist Ryan McKenney

Trap Them Interview with Vocalist Ryan McKenney

What is the definition of a successful band? A band that graces the covers of mainstream magazines, or is success defined as consistent touring, playing in front of 20 kids per night? Trap Them vocalist Ryan McKenney has little concern for mainstream notoriety or...

As Blood Runs Black: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

As Blood Runs Black: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

A year ago this December, As Blood Runs Black posted a demo version of a song with a new vocalist, who ironically quit the band merely a few weeks after joining. Their next vocalist, who was introduced in February, left the band in August in the midst of a tour with...

Daath: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Daath: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Out of the hundreds of interviews that I’ve done for Ryan’s Rock Show, only a select few have truly been fascinating. While some bands may see a Ryan’s Rock Show interview as a cheap exchange of public relations, for me these interviews give first-hand insight into...

All That Remains: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

All That Remains: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

First week numbers are in for All That Remains’ new album For We Are Many — the record sold nearly 30,000 units in the first seven days of its release, landing at number 10 on the Billboard 200. That’s a pretty crazy number considering I don’t...

Bleeding Through Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

Bleeding Through Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

If you’ve been a Ryan’s Rock Show reader for a minute, you may remember the interview I did a while back with Death By Stereo. I got into a pretty long discussion with the dudes about the early Orange County punk scene, and how a small community of kids...

Orbs: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Orbs: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

I’ve been really diggin’ this band called Orbs. So much to where my daily summer routine goes like this: wake up and listen to Orbs, pee, listen to Orbs while eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, post news on Ryan’s Rock Show and pick up hot...

Touche Amore Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

Touche Amore Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

Last October when I did this interview with Thursday, Geoff Rickly talked up Touche Amore and claimed that they were one of the best hardcore bands in LA. So the other night while I was watching “Blossom” reruns and getting drunk on Four Loko, I randomly...

The Acacia Strain Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

The Acacia Strain Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

I have a pet peeve with the term “music journalist”. I guess technically what I do for Ryan’s Rock Show is a form of journalism, but sadly my image of a music journalist is no longer Lester Bangs. To me, the term “music journalist” has...

36 Crazyfists Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

36 Crazyfists Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

You gotta wonder about the fate of some of these younger bands. Will majority of them just put out an album or two and vanish, or will some groups actually have the lasting power to stand the test of time? The “test of time” meaning that they’ll have...

I Am Abomination Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

I Am Abomination Interview on Ryan’s Rock Show

Months leading up to the death of Michael Jackson I went through this crazed MJ obsession where I couldn’t stop listening to “Dirty Diana”. Literally, I was smoking that song in my iPod for at least 60 days straight. So one day after his passing I...

Red Sparowes: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Red Sparowes: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

I was straight edge in high school. Not one of those snobby hardcore sXe kids that only ate vegetables and refused to hang out with anyone that smoked weed, but I was the poser that would sharpie my wrists and sign English tests “Ryan xxx”. I broke edge my...

Zechs Marquise: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Zechs Marquise: The Ryan’s Rock Show Interview

Back when I was a wee lad, 15 or so, At The Drive-In was by far my favorite band ever. Even today their music is on my top all-time list of kick ass bands next to groups like Fugazi and Faith No More. I remember in my pubescent years always thinking, whoever got to...

Destroy The Runner Interview On Ryan’s Rock Show

Destroy The Runner Interview On Ryan’s Rock Show

Tough I don’t really like to do phoners anymore for Ryan’s Rock Show, I’ve been hearing that a lot has been going on with the Destroy The Runner camp — so I decided to get the dudes on the phone. The band just released a B-side to their album...