Tabitha Clancy sometimes obsesses over one song and sometimes she obsesses over a band (she listened only to Pearl Jam for about a two year stint). Sometimes it’s a lyric, or a simple measure of musical content that will grab her. She will hear the music before the words find a way. She will never say, “I love all kinds of music.” Sometimes it takes Tabitha time to warm up to a song, or a band, and sometimes that magic just isn’t there. People who are walking encyclopedias for anything music related fascinate her, though we here at think she has a good grip on music history. In fact, these are just a few of the reasons she has been writing for us since 2008. Generally, her coverage area is within the Capital District. However, she ventures beyond state boundaries to report on scene from various festivals. She often travels the country, following her favorite band, Railroad Earth.
She credits her late father’s love of eclectic and rather nostalgic taste in music for her ability to listen and enjoy the good stuff both past and current. She loves singer-song writers like Josh Ritter, folk artists, bluegrass, and rock and roll. Locally, her favorite band is Eastbound Jesus. She has not been to every venue in the country to know which is her favorite, but in New York, she believes Bearsville Theater is top notch. She loves everything about Johnny Cash, his life with June and his music. She was trained as a biologist in college and currently works as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in Albany. While she enjoys dabbling in science, she would like to eventually work full time within the realm of the music world.
Her musical bucket list has more to do with travel than it does seeing actual musicians live as she has seen many of the greats already. She would really like to get her blues and jazz education in New Orleans. She would love to visit the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. One day she will visit the Gorge Amphitheater (WA) as well as Terrapin Crossroads (CA). If she absolutely had to pick one song to be her all time favorite, it would be “Amazing Grace”, which she considers timeless and truthful.
My first introduction to this beast of a band came in late February of this year at the second-annual Upstate Black ‘N’ Blue Cabin Fever Party at Bogies. A four-piece based out of Western Massachusetts, Before I Had Wings follows in the tradition of Hatebreed, Death Before Dishonor, and Shattered Realm with a brand of brutal hardcore that simply destroys. Forming in 2009, BIHW has unleashed their aural assault on unsuspecting towns all over the Northeast, and have become somewhat of a permanent fixture here in Albany. One listen to their debut Burn the Impure will show you why – as it perfectly captures every nuance of their intense live performance; it will leave you reeling and wanting more.
I caught up with three-quarters of Before I Had Wings (vocalist Chris, drummer Nate and bassist Kane) after their set at the Black Phil Memorial Show on Sunday, July 28th. Phil Brewer, guitarist for Albany’s At Arms, lost his battle with cancer recently, and his friends in the scene organized this show to celebrate his life and to raise funds for his family. All three of them were very down to earth and forthcoming with information regarding the history of the band, its future, and – for Kane – a cheerful anecdote about his first time meeting Phil.
UM: So you guys are from Western Massachusetts; what part of Western Mass do you call home?
Chris: We’re all from different areas: I’m from Berkshire County; they’re (Kane and D.J. – their guitarist, who was handling merchandise at the time) from Pioneer and Nate’s actually from the Albany Area.
UM: That’s right, I remember hearing that. So, how long have you guys been doing this now?
Chris: Before Nate was in the band…all together, like three years. He joined about a year or so ago…Maybe 2009? I think me and the guitarist D.J., we were writing stuff in 2009 but we didn’t start playing shows until 2010.
UM: So you’ve gone through a few line-up changes since the beginning?
Chris: Basically, the only line-up change has been the drummer. We had a drummer for a long time, but he decided to quit and Nate took over.
UM: You guys are lucky! It’s so hard to replace a drummer.
Chris: I know, especially around our area.
Kane: Nate’s the best!
Nate: Thank you!
Chris: Nate’s got it on lockdown.
UM: Nice! So anyways, I remember mentioning in one of my reviews of your previous shows that your sound is comparable to bands like Hatebreed and Death Before Dishonor. Other than these two, can you tell me what other bands have influenced you?
Chris: It’s all different; it depends on who you ask. For me personally, its bands like Shattered Realm and Let it Die, you know? Like ’04-’05 core mixed with beat-down; I like Nasty, I like World of Pain, I like all that shit.
Nate: Same here, basically. Actually, I like death metal, too, but beat-down mostly – Shattered Realm, World of Pain, Nasty.
Kane: I’m into New York Hardcore. We don’t sound like that, but I’m influenced by bands like Citizen’s Arrest…
Chris: We’re not afraid to admit that we’re also influenced by Numetal – bands like Coal Chamber and Machine Head.
UM: Oh, Coal Chamber and Machine Head are awesome! You can’t argue with that!
Chris: Yeah, we have Numetal riffs and we’re not afraid to admit it. People call us Numetal, we don’t give a fuck what you call us!
UM: Absolutely, you guys are fucking awesome and I don’t give a shit what anybody says. I’ll put that in print, too! Anyways, you guys are straight edge?
Chris: We’re a straight edge band, we just don’t sing about it. In the past, we’ve tried out non-edge members and nothing ever worked out, and not necessarily because they weren’t straight edge, but because they didn’t make the dedication towards the band. But then recently, we decided that we’re just going to stay a straight edge band, we’ll have straight edge members; it’s not a big deal. We’re not going to sing about it, were not going to put “X”s in our name, but we’re all straight edge and that’s what matters the most. I was in straight edge bands [that sang about it] before, and you basically end up cutting your fan base in half because people don’t want to hear about it.
UM: That’s cool. So I have your first full-length, Burn the Impure, which is a great album, really heavy and well-done. Do you have anything else in the works?
Chris: We’re working on something right now, but that’s probably going to take a year, maybe two [to complete]; were not rushing it. We have a title already picked out, but we don’t want to give it away. We’ve got a lot of shit going on next year, so if we start recording? Awesome, if not, you know? We’re just gonna take it slow. We’ve got the eight track Burn the Impure full-length/EP, whatever you want to call it, and then the two-song demo we released earlier this year.
UM: That’s right! I remember seeing that somewhere online…that’s two new songs?
Chris: If you go to Stereokiller you can download it for free; it’s “Unworthy” and “Bitter Man”, just look it up…
UM: Nice.
Chris: We have older stuff, but we don’t talk about it because we don’t sound like that anymore. We don’t like to bring it up, but if people are really interested, just hit us up. We’ll give you a cd.
UM: I’d actually like to hear that myself.
Chris: We were not influenced by the same stuff we are now. Our guitarist will straight-up tell you he was influenced by like Emure back then.
Kane: Times have changed.
Chris: Times have definitely changed since then.
UM: Ok, well we got a good amount of ground covered in five minutes or so. On a final note, say something about Phil. I didn’t know him personally, did you guys?
Chris: I’m from Western Massachusetts, man. I think Kane…
Kane: I hung out with him one time, and it was sick! We were at a party at Vinnie [Life Sentence]’s house, and everyone was listening to Trapped Under Ice and like moshing in the living room. Then some girl changed it and put on rap – which was awesome, I thought it was sick – but Phil got all pissed. He kept trying to run around this girl to change the music, and he had just broken his hand, so he was doing all this weird shit to try and change the music, but he couldn’t really, so that was sick…he was a good dude, though.
UM: That’s good to know, and it’s good to see that there are so many people out here tonight to support him, even those who didn’t know him…
Chris: I’ve been going to shows for probably about ten or eleven years. I probably ran into him, I just didn’t know him by name. I probably shook his hand; but it seems like a lot of people cared about him and that’s what matters. That’s what the scene is all about.
UM: Absolutely, and it seems like hardcore more than any other genre will pull together for a crisis moment or a benefit or memorial. I think that’s great…
Chris: This is probably the fifth or sixth benefit I’ve been to, if not played…
UM: Yeah, the Stigmata benefit was pretty wild…
Kane: I was crushed, literally, like on the floor.
UM: Ha! Yeah, I caught an elbow to the face for that one. I always say that if you catch a head injury at any point, it’s a good show.
Chris: We actually get frowned upon for encouraging violent dancing. We’re really into it – we think people, like, frown upon us for it though.
UM: Yeah, but Scott Vogel and Jamey Jasta do it all the time.
Chris: It is what it is.
UM: Right on. So I see you guys have been getting around a lot lately – you’ve been in Connecticut and New Jersey recently. I know you just finished up, but do you see yourself playing Albany again soon?
Chris: We’ll be back whenever Mike [Valente] or Dan [Asylum] will have us. We’re gonna take a little time off to write, but we’ll be back.
UM: Well it’s always a pleasure to see you guys; you guys are one of my favorite bands. I listen to Burn the Impure as much as possible. It’s hard though, I’ve got kids in the house and my youngest is just starting to get into music. At four and a half, his two favorite bands are The Ramones and Agnostic Front.
Kane: That’s real stuff!
Chris: Yeah that’s good stuff.
UM: Well it was a pleasure talking with you guys and I’ll see you inside.
The excited mixed chatter from the concertgoers died down as soon as the overhead lights dimmed, hinting it was All Hail the Yeti’s time to rock the stage. The music playing above quietly turned into a swamp-sounding ambience, the lights shined blue, red, and a forest like green to set the heavy mood. One by one, the band members emerged from the shadows, Connor Garritty (vocals), Craw NeQuent (guitar), Nick Diltz (bass), and Steve White (drums). As soon as the band started to perform their first song, “Deep Creek”, Garritty unleashed an almighty, bone-chilling scream, one that would make the neck hairs stand up. Following was “When the Sky Falls” filled with intense beats provided by White, Garritty’s screams intensifying, and Craw released his killer guitar skills. By the third song, “Suicide Woods”, the crowd definitely got into the band enough to heighten their head banging. The band continued with the last few heavy songs “After the Great Fire”, “Bloodguilt” and “The Art of Mourning”.
Hearing their set brought Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel back to when she interviewed Nick Diltz and Craw NeQuent on March 30th, when the band opened for In This Moment at Upstate Concert Hall, during sound check. To say the least, it ended up being an entertaining interview. “The band used to be called just ‘Yeti’, there was just the single word for a long time and we ended up having to change it a couple years ago ‘cause of some legal issues, there was another band called ‘Yeti’. So All Hail the Yeti was sort of like our battle cry anyway, we had it on a lot of our promotional stuff and all our URLs were ‘/AllHailTheYeti’ so it was kind of a pretty natural change,” said Diltz when asked about the history of the band name. He then proceeded to explain that a yeti is the Himalayan Nepalese term for “bigfoot.” “The singer and I are like real enthusiasts of all that kind of stuff…cryptozoology and bigfoot and all that kind of folklore and stuff and also we thought it fit the sound, just kind of heavy, slow moving, crushing kind of persona,” he continued. “Backwoods,” chimed in NeQuent. “Yeah, backwoods…mythical, larger than life all of that stuff we feel like applies to the sound and the band also.”
The description of the band’s sound that Diltz and NeQuent provided can be heard throughout the set as well as the band’s influences including Waylon Jennings, Jerry Reed, Robert Johnson, Dimes, Zakk Wylde, BB King, John Lee Hooker, Down, Crowbar, and many more. “I think that one of the greatest things about this band is that we all have kind of an eclectic musical taste; we’re all kind of different in what we listen to. We listen to so many different things, like there are so many metal bands that they listen to just metal and they live that metal life and they wear metal t-shirts and they go to metal shows…we’re just, I feel like we’re kind of…we just go so much further beyond that with our influences.” As for what their music reflects about the band, the answer to that question was briefly interrupted by banging drums. “Someone’s banging on the door let me go answer it…Hold on a minute!” shouted Craw. A moment of laughter was shared between the three before Nick proceeded to answer. “It’s the reason why I play metal, it’s so much more of the fact that I like it, obviously there’s more to my lifestyle than just making metal music but I choose to make metal because it’s fun, there’s something about it, just that energy, that pounding rush that you get from making it and the crowd response from the fan base so it’s…it’s such a unique style, it lets you get so much energy, you get to be all aggressive,” said Diltz. “It’s not formulated, we don’t go inside the studio and go ‘ok, we’re gonna sound just like this.’ It is what it is, whatever you feel that day. If you’re pissed off, cool…” added NeQuent. Before the next question could escape Drexel, the heavy banging of the drums commenced yet again. “I’ll be right there, girl! Shit!” shouted Craw, causing all three to bust out with laughter.
Apparently, this tour with Hollywood Undead wasn’t All Hail the Yeti’s first cycle with them; previously, they did a Canadian tour with the rap/metal band. “We’re actually surprised at the fans, how they reacted to us because they’re kind of a metal hip-hop band, or whatever you wanna call them but their audiences go from like literally ten years old to the parents to everywhere in between, but honestly by the second or third song, you know, hitting the gas, everybody started moshing so it’s pretty damn cool to see that,” said Nick before the guitar riffs from the tech crew began to interfere with the interview plus the heavy banging of the drums. “I don’t know if you can hear us now! There’s a little bit of construction going on! It’s Van Halen, they’re fixing my yard!” yelled Craw over the noise. “Goddammit Eddie!” Both Drexel and Diltz got into a pretty big laughing fit before she could ask the last question as well as her favorite one: what does music mean to you? “Everything. I was born living and breathing and feeling music and from an early age, I was always just like this is something I need to do, it speaks to me and I understand it. Not everybody gets to do this and so I shouldn’t take it for granted. We’re all here for the same reason, we’re hear to make music because we love it and because this is something we’ve always dreamed of.” As for Craw’s response: “Absolutely everything! Sacrifice and adaptation are two words that I live by, because you have to sacrifice everything to do this and you have to adapt to whatever comes your way, and I’ve been doing this for a little while now and I love what I do. You have to love it.”
Be sure to check out All Hail the Yeti’s self-titled album, available for digital download and check their Facebook for upcoming tour dates. This band can put on one HELL of a show.
The crowd was still hyped from the performance that All Hail the Yeti put on for them but they were in for a treat as Minneapolis’s very own 3 Pill Morning was ready to hit the stage. The venue darkened once again and the music quieted as the band’s electronic-sounding introduction took its place, and one by one, the band members made their presence known; Jeff Stebbins, Ryan Welch (guitar), Ryan Lee (bass/vocals), and Trent Laugerman (drums), all wearing suits in support of their debut record released last year, Black Tie Love Affair. “It’s actually a lyric in one of our songs called ‘Skin’ and we pulled that out and we liked the Black Tie Love Affair concept and that’s even kind of come even further to our stage show and us wearing suits on stage and all that kind of stuff, so it’s become what this whole album is about and it’s been really cool,” explained Stebbins to Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel, when asked about the album title.
The band began to play their first song from the set, the one that really set the mood right, “Revolution”, followed by “Nothings Real”. The fans sang along to the lyrics passionately, some having a look on their faces as though they can relate to them. Earlier in the evening, Stebbins mentioned that the inspirations used to write the album were based on life experiences, “you know, stuff you see day in to day out, ranging from relationship stuff to stuff you see other people doing that drives you crazy to that sort of call to action kind of things, you know, life, just living.” The next to play was the band’s current killer single, “I Want That for You”; the crowd bounced to the beat and mouthed the words in an excited manner. “They evolve singing lyrics into a cell phone or typing some stuff out, a guitar riff or whatever just pops into the top of our heads. It really varies on every song. The cool part about it is you’ll never know where it’s going to come from or how you got there but it gets there eventually,” explained Stebbins when asked about the evolution of their song ideas. Subsequently the band played “Take Control” to which Stebbins encouraged the crowd to wave their arms from side to side, then “Rain” and the band’s first single, “Loser” played next. “We played a lot of amazing ones, you know, right now, I’d have to say The Fillmore in Detroit…it’s got some really cool architecture to it, a really awesome room. Same thing with the House of Blues in Boston, just massive, really cool vibe there. Those two are definitely at the top of my list,” said Jeff, explaining his favorite venues and why. The band’s vibe was through the roof, just absolutely intense and incredible; Lee and Welch rocking out hard to their bass and guitar, Laugerman beating the drums with such fierceness and Stebbins, filled with such energy, jumping as high as gravity allowed him.
The last song on their set was “Skin”, and Jeff shared his answer to Drexel’s last question as well as her favorite: what does music mean to you?: “It’s changed so much over the years; I mean music to begin with was just a way that I could find a link to what I was going through and somebody I had written a song about and being able to sing about it and express myself about it. Now music has become more an opportunity to make a living and a career and something that’s a part of me every single day, you know, it’s what I do now, instead of being able to experience it as a listener or something like that. To begin with, it’s just what helps shape who you are and helps you get through those tough times or celebrate the good times, too, so it does a lot of different things for different emotions and experiences.”
All in all, the band can put on a killer performance with such high energy. Be sure to check their Facebook to see when they hit a town near you. Black Tie Love Affair is available for digital download. If you want a good time, go see this band, they certainly know how to put on a show!
“The Art of Dying comes from a longer sentence: ‘the art of dying is my life to live’,” explains Jonny Hetherington, frontman of Canadian rock band, Art of Dying, to Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel, over their lengthy Skype interview. “And it was a real late night, kind of drunken conversation that kind of came to that exact sentence, ‘The art of dying is my life to live.’ But it kind of became just, between the members of the band, just became our motto, our theme of how we live, recognizing that life is precious and your time here is kind of limited or unpredictable at least so that’s it, that’s the band name.”
Media Credit – Travis Shinn
Formed in the streets of Vancouver, BC by Jonny and the band’s guitarist, Greg Bradley, over the years this band has grown in many ways since the beginning in 2004, making band member changes along the way. Originally, the band started with Jonny, Greg, Chris Witoski (guitarist from 2005 till 2008), Matt Rhode (bassist from 2005 till 2008), and Flavio Cirillo (drummer from 2005 till 2008). In 2008, Hetherington and Bradley met their current drummer, Jeff Brown, then the rest of the current members made their way into the band, Tavis Stanley (guitar), and Cale Gontier (bass). When asked about how the band met, Hetherington recounted the details of the formation. “Greg and I met in Vancouver, I actually just moved out here and I pretty much sucked at playing guitar and singing at the same time. So I decided the best thing to do was to play on the street a lot so I would go down to Gramble Street or a couple of little spots that I had in town and I would just sit there and play my heart out all day long and all night long sometimes. One night, some dudes were walking by and they were starting a band and heard my voice and kind of…I guess they followed my voice for a couple of blocks because I was singing pretty loud. And next thing you know, that was Greg, and the next thing you know, we never parted ways since, it was like we decided to start a band right away. After a few years, we met Jeffy, who’s also in Vancouver, a drummer here, who was in a different band just a couple of doors down from us, in our jam space, and when the time was right, we just knew that after having Jeffy out once, we knew he was our guy. Then he had ties to Cale and Tavis who were living in Toronto, which is like…I don’t know…2,000 miles away. But he’s from Ontario, so he knew Cale and Tavis and we were heading out there for Canadian Music Week, which is a festival they have every year. And the timing was just perfect, we all hooked up, the five of us literally had a couple of beers together and we got along like we had been friends our whole lives, and the timing was right in our band to have them come in and the timing was right in the band they were playing with, to step away, so it was just perfect, that was about five years ago now.” He then chuckled and added, “I always joke that it was love at first beer, I guess.”
Since 2007, the band has released a total of three albums; their self-titled debut, Vices and Virtues (2011), and an acoustic compilation Let the Fire Burn (2012), featuring songs from their sophomore album, “Completely” and “Get Thru This”. The band definitely has a unique sound, as some fans put it, “a mix of Breaking Benjamin and Three Days Grace”, particularly because of Hetherington’s voice. Of course, according to Jonny, various artists, going as far back as Led Zeppelin, broadly influence the band. “I know Tavis and Greg both hold the highest regard for those guys, I’m learning the Zeppelin catalog myself now a little bit, so I’m just kind of…I have saved that for this part of my life, which is kind of cool to be going through that,” explained Jonny. “But the thing that changed music for me the most was really the grunge years. Just when I heard Pearl Jam and Nirvana and Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots and Alice in Chains for the first time and Tool for the first time. A Perfect Circle, all that kind of stuff in the 90s just really resonated with me and the passion they were singing with and how good the bands were, the instrumentation, everyone seemed really great with what they did, it was a very real time in music… It was such a real movement, the closest thing our generation has to the 60s movement or whatever. So I feel really fortunate to be a part of that era and just to have grown up a little bit with those bands as an influence, because we try to follow the same rules in our music and if it’s not real, then we move on from it. So we try to be as real as we can in our recordings and as real as we can on stage, and what you see is what you get in an Art of Dying show. It’s really important to us to wave that flag of ‘we’re real people, making real music’.” Well, their fan base has grown greatly over the years, and these dedicated fans call themselves, Die Hards. On Facebook, Jonny created a group for the fan club called The Die Hards (Official Fan Club for Art of Dying), where the fellow fans post pictures of themselves with the band and/or pictures with videos from live shows, as well as their favorite lyrics, personal stories of discovering the band, and questions. This is a very successful way for the Die Hards to connect with each other and possibly meet each other at nearby shows. Since the creation of the group, the members of the club have become very close with one another.
As for touring, the band is very tour hungry. They have featured in various hard rock and heavy metal festivals throughout the country including the 1st and 2nd annual Avalanche Tours in 2011 and 2012, both tours headlined by Stone Sour and Shinedown. They were also a part of the 2011 tour of Rockstar’s Uproar Festival, headlined by Avenged Sevenfold. As for other festivals, they performed at Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion and the 48 Hours Fest, all in 2011. Art of Dying has been known to tour with Disturbed and Three Days Grace. Currently, they are on the road with Saving Abel, part of a beneficial acoustic tour called Rock4Revival. When asked about the band’s favorite part about touring, the enthusiasm in Jonny’s voice was evident. “Touring, you know, I always feel like it’s our home. We all have our homes, obviously at home, but it just feels like for us the road is…as soon as we get home, we want to get back out again, so fun. It’s a little sad because a lot of the bands we’ve toured with don’t feel the same way. A lot of the bands are dying to get home and…I guess the more bands I meet, the more I realize that true friendships within bands are pretty rare, and I think a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter ask me stuff like, ‘I’m starting a band, what should I do? Give me some advice!’ My first advice is always to make sure you’re doing it with people you really like and people you really love and hopefully it’s with your friends because it’s truly how you’re going to make it or get by or survive, the support of true friendship. If it’s just a common, ‘We want to start a band, but we barely know each other…’ I don’t know! It could last too but at the same time, I just think the friendship part is very important so to me. Being on the road is just about embracing that time as a musician, as a performer and as a friend, and just really…whether it’s writing a song unexpectedly at 9 in the morning on the tour bus or whether it’s that perfect moment on stage, that night, it’s all a real good time for us.”
Out of the three albums, the band has a total of six singles with catchy yet powerful lyrics and tones. These singles include “Get Through This” from their debut record, yet another version was released in 2011 from Vices and Virtues, “Get Thru This” along with “Die Trying”, the very first song from that album. In 2012, from the same album, “Sorry” and “Raining”, and this year, “I Will Be There”. These profound songs manage to touch the Die Hards’ hearts and those songs remain to play a big part in their lives. After Drexel asked about song ideas and their evolution, Jonny recalled how he had coincidentally wrote a song that morning. “So this is actually typical in some ways for me, I woke up this morning, and I was dreaming. In my dream, I was writing a song, which is kind of weird, but this actually happens to me all the time now. I’ll either be on stage in the dream or I’ll be writing in my dream or I’ll just be humming a melody in my dream or something and that’ll wake me up, and when I wake up, I try to force myself to get up and go work on the song. Because if you’re lazy and just sometimes like, ‘Fuck! I just want to go back to sleep!’ then you totally miss your chance because it’s gone. So like this morning, it was way too early to get up but I just forced myself to get up. I pressed ‘record’ on my voice recorder, and hummed the melody from the dream and then grabbed my guitar and started working on the melody for about an hour. Then I kind of made some coffee and set the guitar down for a bit, and I like to let the musical ideas kind of mix up a little bit in my head for a bit and then I sat down with my guitar again and kind of found…I don’t know what the word is but it just all of the sudden clicks. The ‘Oh yeah, there is where it has to go!’ and it feels good and it feels right so you just follow that and then about three hours later, I got some lyrics now and I’ve got what I really think is a strong chorus and the whole thing, just…I got the verse, pre-chorus, and the chorus, and I know the bridges, I’m going to finish that as soon as this interview is done,” said Jonny, both he and Drexel shared a hearty laugh. “It’s just like that are really, really fun ‘cause the song kind of comes really easily. I know this one is coming that way. Sometimes there’s a song that sits around for three years and it’s hard to finish it because it’s not an easy one, but yeah, that’s generally how it works, and if I don’t write lyrics, or if I get busy and if I don’t have time to finish the words, I’ll usually do that later…I love Cuban cigars, so I’ll just light up a two or three hour cigar and just finish all the words to a song or two. Actually, recently too, there’s this really awesome friend of mine in Vancouver that lent me his store at night. He owns an amazing coffee shop, but it closes at night so he lent me that place to go finish songs, so I’ve been doing that a lot recently, and it’s just great to be in this dark, closed coffee shop, alone with my ideas and I’ve been able to write lyrics for two songs a night when I do that, so yeah, it’s pretty cool.”
While talking about their songs, Drexel was eager to find out the story behind “Raining”, one of her favorite Art of Dying singles, featuring the former frontman of Three Days Grace, Adam Gontier. “That one’s weird, the lyrics for that one found me, and I think it’s all about fears and coming to terms with the fact that we’re all a little bit crazy, and we’re all a little bit messed up inside at times. Sometimes I feel like I have the best life on the planet, I’m in a rock band, I’m having fun, I have people in my life that are brilliant, and I love them, and so I often think, ‘Wow, I’m the luckiest guy in the world’. But then there are days when I feel like complete shit and just things inside are not right, and I hate those days, but I think I wrote ‘Raining’ to kind of say to myself that we’re all that way, and it’s ok and we’re all kind of…you know, it’s raining inside for all of us at different times and it’s ok. So it’s kind of like that comfort in numbers or something, just realizing that it’s a normal part of life.” Kate admitted that on rough days, she finds herself having the song on repeat at times, to help her get through them. “That’s actually how Adam Gontier wound up singing on it with us, he’s Cale’s cousin, and so we always bounced ideas off of him and stuff, just as a friend, and he always came back saying that song was his favorite in our group of songs that we were going to make the record with, so we just asked him if he wanted to sing on it, and he said yes, so I think that song runs deep for people, including Adam.”
Through all the madness of touring and recording, Hetherington admitted to not having a lot of downtime, trying to manage the band with various documents and preparations for upcoming tours, from work visas to union dues being paid. “I’m always trying to get through these crazy to-do lists of stuff. I don’t just play music in the band; I do a lot of the business in the band as well so I’m always just whittling away at different things on the list of what to get done…It gets a little crazy when you care about your band, you want everything to work all the time and I don’t know whether I’m a bit of a control freak or whether it’s just I care so much that I want things to work, just always busy with either music or band stuff or trying to cook some food.” However, there is one downtime activity that Jonny is very passionate about, cooking. On Facebook, Pintrest and Twitter, he tends to post recipes for fantastic looking dishes. “When I cook, I really love it. I put a lot of passion to that too because it is one of the things I enjoy, really good food and having a beer or wine or cocktail that goes with that food. I love the whole experience of mixology and dining and eating and cooking and I think that’s probably…it’s a necessity in life, you might as well enjoy it and make it a really fun moment every day.” A little chuckle escaped from him as he added, “Although this morning, I just had a fried egg sandwich and a pickle, so I guess that’s not much of a moment.”
As of mid-May, Art of Dying is on the Rock4Revival acoustic tour with Saving Abel, originally created by Kayla Riley, one of the DJs from Sirius XM Octane. It all started with a small benefit acoustic show, Rock 4 Recovery, in downtown New York at the Gramercy Theatre in January of this year. Bands included Smile Empty Soul, Hurt, Art of Dying, Adam Gontier, and Before the Curtain. Because of the show’s huge success, Riley wanted to continue this as a benefit tour. “They took the bands from that evening and split it up into two tours and Adam from Three Days Grace couldn’t do it, so they got Saving Abel to do it. So basically it’s just Saving Abel and a couple other bands, I know Hurt and Smile Empty Soul are doing one leg of the tour, we’re doing the other leg and it’s all acoustic, and we’ve only announced a few shows right now, but it’s going to be almost two months of touring, so it’s going to be really cool. So we’re going to be all over the place with our acoustic set and it’s a lot of fun for us to have those intimate, really lower volume but still really fun shows. So on our Facebook and our Twitter and our website, we will be announcing the shows over the next few days, so if you wanna know if it’s coming near your city, just find us online and we’ll be announcing stuff daily.”
Be sure to follow the band on their Twitter (@ArtofDying) and be on the look out for updates on their tour on Facebook. This is a band you will not want to miss out on!
Spotlight on this small metal band from Central California who gives off a certain indescribable vibe to their music. Ladies and gents, I give you Half8n! “It is a play on the phrase Half Eaten. The spelling is reflective of the age of technology. Shortened words and slang so to speak. Quietly, in the dark, the other half has been eaten, consumed by the world and by what has been created for us and by us. Reflecting the behaviors of the people within the world with our music. Half of me/us has already been eaten away, the other half that’s left here in this shell is the half that I/we keep for ourselves,” explained the band via email to Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel. The band consists of Dalton Whitman (lead vocals, guitar), Eric Avila (guitar, backing vocals), James Ruiz (bass), and Justin Casselman (drums).
Bands such as System of a Down, Alice in Chains, Tool, Pantera, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, and Primus influence Half8n. “These are just some of the bands that influence our sound. What influences the topics, or subjects we touch on vary from: life, current events, love, sadness, the list goes on. There are so many emotions, and feelings, and things happening in the world, that we have influences coming from every direction. Having four separate band members, with their own lives, trials, and tribulations, gives us that much more to go off of.” When asked if the band had the opportunity to collaborate with another band, who would it be, they answered that it was a hard question to answer, but they ended up choosing Tool. “Every band has their own heros, but if we have to pick one, we agree it would be Tool. Tool – because the underground scene is still so original and pure. Fans are still about the music not the look or amount of money spent on advertising and costumes. All that aside, we believe that Tool could teach us a lot. Not just from a musical point of view, but a spiritual point of view as well.”
The topic then turned to their music, about the evolving of their song ideas. “Dalton usually comes to practice with a general idea for a song, it’s usually a catchy hook, or a basic melody. Then as the four of us come together, and put our own mark on it, the catchy hook or basic melody evolves into an entire song,” they explained. “And it doesn’t always stop evolving when we’ve recorded, mixed and mastered it. Some completed song will be shelved even after mastering is complete simply because we feel like the song has not finished evolving. Some of our current songs are actually excerpts from a handful of our unpublished songs. Proving that we are not in control of the evolution of any one song, and we do not decide when it is complete. The pen is doing all the writing and we are simply holding onto the pen.” The band then individually answered Drexel’s favorite question; what does music mean to you? To Dalton, “Music is a chance to create”; Eric: “Music is a voice, a voice to be heard by everyone”; Justin: “Music to me, is perfection”; and James: “Music is our battle cry.”
Be sure to follow the band on Twitter (@half8n), and check their music out on reverbnation.
Jenni Wilson joined the team in the Fall of 2012, writing about shows in and around the Capital Region, specifically the Albany area. She has spent a significant amount of time around live music, growing up with two parents who both played in bands and introduced her to much of the music she listens to and appreciates today. From a young age she traveled to many shows and festivals with her family, seeing everything from bluegrass, to jazz, to psychedelic jam bands. Later in life she established her own love for music, branching off from the roots that were established at a young age. Some of Jenni’s favorite bands include Phish, Sound Tribe Sector 9 and the Grateful Dead.
Jenni also runs the Albany local promotion company Zen Rose Productions, booking a wide array of artists that have included Abakus, The Manhattan Project, Organik Time Machine, Business Casual Disco and many more. Jenni recently graduated with her Bachelors degree from the State University of New York at Albany. Now she spends her time painting, traveling, seeing live music and spending a significant amount of time with her two German shepherds, Django and Dharma (pictured above with Jenni). She currently lives in Albany.
Her Musical Bucketlist includes The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Van Morrison, David Grisman, Talking Heads, Elton John, Daft Punk and Yanni.
Darren Kemp has lived in Upstate, NY his entire life. Despite being born in Binghamton in 1973, he spent most of his formative years in the small Tioga County town of Candor before heading to Alfred State College in 1991 to pursue a degree in architecture. After graduating with an associate degree he relocated to Rochester and spent a few years at the Rochester Institute of Technology in various engineering majors. Post-college he has worked in the internet/information technology field for the past 18 years for various companies.
Currently, Darren works at the University of Rochester during the day. Music has always been a large part of Darren’s life, starting as early as seven years old when he purchased his first cassette tape, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. His interests were largely in classic and metal based rock until the early 1990s when a fellow architecture student introduced him to some Phish tapes.
Darren now lives in the historic and cultural Park Ave neighborhood of Rochester’s Southeast quadrant and often can be seen at shows all over the city throughout the week. After working with a handful of other music publications, he joined in early 2013 and has covered many shows both as a journalist and photographer. He also curates a fan based blog for the Buffalo group Aqueous and has a keen interest in gardening, photography, spending time with his wife and raising his autistic son.
Darren’s Musical Bucket List includes any Pink Floyd reunion that includes Gilmour and Waters, a Led Zeppelin reunion with remaining members, Radiohead, The New Mastersounds, ALO, Porcupine Tree and the remaining Beastie Boys, Adam and Mike D.
The crowd of eager fellow concert junkies and music lovers formed before the Jäger Stage of ROTR, waiting for the next band to make their appearance. Then the band makes their appearance known and the crowd begins to cheer, most in an excited manner, while some drunken. They began to play their first song, “We Are Stars” and the crowd threw their horns up, bouncing along to the beat. This band was very interactive with the crowd, made them feel like they were a part of the next big thing. This incredible band continued their set with “Ready”, “Invisible”, and quite a few more before performing their latest single, “Burn It Down”, which dropped recently. Who is this band, you ask? Introducing, Mindset Evolution.
Originating from Peoria, Il., Mindset Evolution is a five piece active rock band, with members Rob Ulrich (vocals), Skylar Baer (guitar), Bradley Prentice (guitar), Josh Bodeen (bass), and Joey Gibbs (drums). They formed in 2005 with a goal to get to where they are now. “We wanted a way to say that you have to find a way through, over, or around obstacles, and sometimes you have to completely change the way to do that, so it takes a mindset evolution,” explained Ulrich to Upstate Metal’s Kate Drexel last night at Rock on the Range, in the air conditioned media tent. Well, indeed they have gone through many obstacles like working very hard to go from playing in their hometown to being a part of the Warped Tour lineup. And with that, they have a strong fan base, as well as becoming the winners in the Best Buy Music Gear Battle of the Bands. Throughout the years, Mindset Evolution has toured with bands such as Seether, Hinder, Breaking Benjamin and quite a few more well known names. “Honestly, a lot of it came from our home rock station. They have been huge supporters of us for a long time and they would always throw our names out for us, and it started picking up that way. Last year, we won the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Battle of the Bands and then we got to tour the whole nation. Last year, we got to tour with Godsmack, Shinedown, Staind, and Adelitas Way…it was killer, killer,” said Rob when explaining how they got to tour with such major bands. “And In This Moment,” chimed in Joey, when pointing to Drexel’s white rubber In This Moment bracelet. “Ah, they are murderous, they’re so good live, love them!” said Rob, enthusiastically. When it comes to their influences, the band as a whole has a very eclectic taste in music. For Rob, “Tool, well, everything that Maynard James Keenan does, Eagles, Beatles, Clearwater Revival, Jay-Z, Eminem, kind of all over the board…a little Garth Brooks, I love Garth Brooks.” As for Joey, he makes the statement that makes Drexel very excited, “I have to say Trent Reznor is a God, that’s about it. I’m a huge Nails fan.” Then he proceeded to mention that he listens to Motley Crue, other 80s music, as well as “a lot of electronic music, like Depeche Mode.” As a band, according to Ulrich, the genres are very diverse for each of the members. “I think that’s awesome, that’s what makes bands…it gives them the opportunity to create something special and have those kind of influences coming, they’re so diverse, that when they happen to come together in a song, it creates something unique for that band.” Gibbs added that, “It’s a unique influence for the band especially when we sit down and write together, different elements are coming out of our style.”
Be sure to look out for their upcoming record, Brave, Bold and Broken, out this summer and their latest single, “Burn It Down” is out for digital download.
Lindsay Jones joined the team in 2012, reviewing shows in the Central New York area, where she was born and raised. She loves to travel and tries to see new music in every city she goes to. She credits her small town upbringing and subsequent need for adventure as a catalyst in her quest for live music.
Her favorite band is Phish and in following them from Maine to California, she has been able to see music in some of the most beautiful venues countrywide. Other favorites include Jimkata, moe. and the Felice Brothers, all of whom hail from Upstate NY.
Her Musical Bucketlist includes The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Rush and Lady Gaga. Lindsay is a Senior Insurance Underwriter with a major Insurance carrier, and works with small technology businesses.
She currently resides in Utica, NY, and is always on the lookout for new bands and adventures.
She credits her late father’s love of eclectic and rather nostalgic taste in music for her ability to listen and enjoy the good stuff both past and current. She loves singer-song writers like Josh Ritter, folk artists, bluegrass, and rock and roll. Locally, her favorite band is Eastbound Jesus. She has not been to every venue in the country to know which is her favorite, but in New York, she believes Bearsville Theater is top notch. She loves everything about Johnny Cash, his life with June and his music. She was trained as a biologist in college and currently works as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in Albany. While she enjoys dabbling in science, she would like to eventually work full time within the realm of the music world.
Jenni also runs the Albany local promotion company 
