The sun calmly sets over Southern California’s vast land, while security escorts me to Circa Survive’s green room. The dim silhouettes of transplanted palm trees against the starbust sun, gently swaying with arid Santa Ana winds, bid me farewell like waving hands, as I enter the venue’s west corridor. On this unusually warm November day, the 97-degree temperature would have even straight edge kids feeling a slight bit faded.
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 the minds of creative people that are relevant, or maybe even just somewhat relevant, to the music community. Because beneath the surface of inflated personalities portrayed by media, it’s important to remember that music is still an art. And these interviews attempt to filter out bullshitters.
My most recent interview of fascination: Eyal Levi of Daath, the complete opposite of a B.S.-er. Levi recently hung out at the RRS headquarters for a couple beers, and to shed some light on his musical philosophy. I asked him about his views on music and modern recording technology.
“It just depends how you use it. It’s like how water can drown you or give you life, it’s just a tool. For me, the medium is when technology is used to fake something that should have been done manually, then I don’t like it. If it’s used to put a project together, to mix something, to record something, some basic editing — use it as a tool.”
The conversation continues:
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 know anyone that’s bought a CD in the past five years. Nonetheless, when I found out last week that the band was projected to rank high on the Billboard charts, a question came to mind: In a time where metalcore is seemingly at its peak, how does a band adjust to the constantly changing music scene? All That Remains guitarist Mike Martin insists that the key is not adjusting.
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 can go on to influence generations of bands. So recently I got to thinking, what was the hardcore scene like in the OC back in the day? The last time I was at Chain Reaction all I saw were kids in those green and purple neon-colored shirts that have 1st grade cartoon drawings of animals with brains gushing out. Is that what hardcore has turned into?
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 chicks on Facebook all day while listening to Orbs, and then listen to more Orbs. Needless to say, I’ve been smoking the shit out of this band in my iPod for months.