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INTERVIEW | MORE INTERVIEWS | SUBMIT MATERIALInterview with Killswitch Engage | VIEW COMMENTS [0 Comments] | ADD COMMENTS |  Posted on 19 November 2009 | Interviewer Scott Bowe I don’t know any other way to begin this, so I’ll just get it out. Killswitch Engage RULES! I can’t tell you how many shows I’ve seen or how many CDs I own, but both are big numbers. On many occasion, I’ve loved the recorded release, but been very disappointed in the live performance. On the other hand, I’ve been totally floored by a performance from a group that I thought released a sub-par CD. Not since the days of Pantera has a group come forward and handed you your head in both the CD, as well as live performance. KSE nails it live. I cannot stress this enough. If you can only get to one show this year, and you want a guarantee that it will blow you away – KSE is your ticket. The reason I bring up Pantera specifically is due to the fact that I have seen them numerous times. Every time I saw them, I knew I was going to get every last bit of fun squeezed out of every single penny I put down for that ticket. No question. I never cared how much a Pantera ticket was, because I knew it was going to be worth it. I am being totally honest here – KSE is the only band I have seen that brings me back to the days of the infamous “Cowboys From Hell”. The interactions between the band itself, between the band and the crowd, the goofing off on stage, the seamless precision of the music, etc.- it’s a beautiful thing that has been absent ever since Dimebag was taken from us. I had a few minutes to sit down with KSE bassist Mike D’Antonio. Here’s some of what we talked about… Planet Loud - Mike, Thanks for sitting down with Planet Loud today. Killswitch Engage - No problem! Planet Loud - First off, how’s everything going? Killswitch Engage - Things are going well. We’re on the Mayhem tour with Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Bullet For My Valentine, All That Remains, Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth… It’s really fun. It’s a festival that’s run very organized, everyone’s treated nice. Couldn’t be happier. It’s the same people that do Vans Warped Tour and Taste of Chaos, so they really know how to run things like this pretty well. It’s VERY organized. Planet Loud - There’s rumors and misinformation all around, so let’s clear it up. Band name - killer name. Where did it come from? Killswitch Engage - Well, in my old band, Overcast, I used to keep a notebook next to my bed and one next to the TV set. Whenever I’d hear something that was cool like a phrase or a word or something, I’d write it down in the notebook. I used to write a lot of lyrics and I’m not a lyricist, so any help from any outside source is much appreciated. So yeah, I had notebooks and I would just go through them and weed out things and try to write a song from there – and the word “killswitch” was written in there from an episode of “The X-Files”. The “engage” was just added to it later. “Killswitch” on it’s own was cool, but it needed something else. Planet Loud - Did you write anything on the latest release based on reactions to particular tunes on “Daylight”? Killswitch Engage - Humm, uh, I guess I personally can only go about what I wrote. I didn’t take into account anything from before at all. I just write what I know, what I like and what I’m feeling. There’s definitely times when writing the record that we were like, “OK, we may want to stay away from that” or “we may not want to do that because we’ve been doing it a lot lately”. But there was never a conscious decision to say, “OK, this song works, so let’s write another one that sounds a lot like it”. We’re our own worst critics. We’re pretty hard on our own music and we usually flush out all of the junk by the time it reaches the listeners ears. Planet Loud - I’d say you did! I haven’t been disappointed yet. Killswitch Engage - Thanks! Planet Loud - Do you guys write at all on the road? Killswitch Engage - Can’t. No, we’re one of those bands that’s either writing, or hitting the road. No intermingling. I think it all has to do with concentration and where our head’s are at. For me, I really need to be relaxed and in the appropriate mood in order to start banging out songs. Planet Loud - Do you guys go about things with a certain formula, where someone comes in with the riff, then it gets broken into parts, then the lyrics come in or whatever… Killswitch Engage - Lyrics are always last. That’s just the way it’s been for this band. We always just concentrate on the music and getting everything as tight as possible. Everyone is bringing their own demos to practice now. We try and link three of four riffs together with drum beats underneath and a bass line. Just to give the people in the band a better perception of what the writer is going for. It used to be where I would take a riff and say, “It kinda’ sounds like this, but if you guys want to mix it up, and I don’t even know what the drums are supposed to sound like…” It’s a lot harder to write that way, rather than having something definitely in mind. It’s not like when you bring these to practice we’re like, “THIS IS IT! This is what I want to do right here!” It’s kinda’ like, “hey, if you guys have an interpretation of something that sounds like this… let’s work on it”. You know, it’s a matter of us sitting down and democratically weeding through things and talking about what they’d like to change, or how much they like a certain part and how we can make it work into a song. Planet Loud - That’s cool. Make the song the best it can be. Killswitch Engage - Exactly. Planet Loud - You’re also a graphic artist. Is this something that you had in you before you got involved in music, evolved with the music or what? Killswitch Engage - Well, originally, my parents enrolled me in technical high school, which is where all the “bad kids” go. All the kids that don’t want to go to college, or mess ups-go. I thought I was gonna’ get the shit kicked outa’ me when I went there. Come to find out, they sort of forced me to get a career. But, they obviously let me decide what I wanted to do. They were pushing me towards being an electrician, which would have been cool for this line of work as well, you know – fixing amps and stuff like that, but I liked graphic design. All my friends had bands and they needed 7” covers, cassette covers, flyers, etc. I was right near presses and I could run flyers off for bands, or stickers and stuff like that. I could make all these things for all the other bands that I knew and I was always interested in helping my friends. And it was cool making flyers that other kids would have on their wall. And you’re like, “oh yeah, I made that flyer. I actually even printed that flyer. I even picked out the STOCK PAPER for that flyer!” So it was a cool thing and I finally got into a band. And by default, I was the graphic guy. And ever since then, I’ve been the guy that does the artwork for the band. Planet Loud - So are you growing DarkicoN while you’re doing what you’re doing now? Killswitch Engage - I did that back before the band started and I worked many design jobs. I was actually working for Clear Channel in Boston doing advertising when I quit to do Killswitch. We all decided, “Let’s take a whole year, if it doesn’t work out, we’ll just say forget it, and we’ve been on tour ever since. I haven’t been growing the business. It’s actually a little bit smaller just because the band has been taking up a lot more of my time. But just keeping it there means that I can just jump back in seamlessly (hopefully) when this band is over. Planet Loud - Are you planning on doing another full length DVD? Killswitch Engage - Well, we had something come out with the special edition of this record, but I wouldn’t say it’s a full length DVD by any means. I think the last one we did was about 3 years ago. It turned out so well that it’s sort of hard to top. It sold really well right away, which is always awesome and stuff, but we get kids telling us that they watch it something like 10 to 12 times a day! It’s a lot of pressure to come up with something better. I don’t know if we ever can. Planet Loud - Well, that about does it for my questions. Is there anything you’d like to add for Planet Loud readers? Killswitch Engage - Just that I really appreciate the support. Thank you for the interview. It’s an awesome ride! Interact - http://www.myspace.com/killswitchengage Find more articles on Killswitch Engage Related Tags Killswitch Engage In Flames Chimaira Unearth As I Lay Dying Bullet For My Valentine USER COMMENTS - 0 Comments ADD COMMENT |
       
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