What happened to Nick, and how is Abraham Elias doing, will he be fulltime?
Nick left the band in September to pursue other interests. He went to school for audio recording/engineering, and moved out to California to try to get some things started in that area with some friends who have a studio out there. There's no bad blood between us and Nick - he was in the band a long time and just felt the time was right for him to move on. Abraham is doing very well and kind of surprised us all. We all knew he was a great bassist, but we didn't think he'd be as good as he is, or be able to pick up our songs as fast as he has. The first show he played with us he learned a full set's worth of material in about a week - and our songs aren't easy to play! He made the transition extremely easy for us, and we were fortunate to not have to ever play shows without a bass player. His status as being "full time" as our permanent bass player is still up in the air. He's totally happy to play with us as long as we need him, which is awesome. We have yet to really jam with him as far as writing new material (we'll be doing that very soon though!), and we'll see how things work out on the road in January to make sure there aren't any personality clashes. Things look good so far though!
Where did the name come from?
Our name comes from a line that Judd Nelson's character says in the movie "The Breakfast Club." You kinda have to listen for it or you'll miss it.
If there was one song that best describes you as a person, what would it be?
I would say the first song on our new CD, "Existentially Ineffectual." That was the first song we completed when writing the new album, and the lyrics are very personal to me in that they convey my general feelings of playing in this band for so long, as well as my personal world view. Basically the general frustrations of trying to accomplish something for so many years, or at least reach that next plateau, begins to weigh down on your psyche after a while and you begin to wonder if you're just kidding yourself. Especially when there are so many around you who are content to just give up, or conform to what they think the rest of society (or "the scene") really wants in order to get ahead.
What was the story behind the departure of Hector, and how has his replacement Laz been?
The story behind us kicking out Hector is kind of a long one, but it basically boils down to us finding out he's a low-down thief and couldn't be trusted under any circumstances. We kinda always knew he was a thief in that he stole from every job he's ever had the entire time he was in the band, but we never expected him to sink so low as to steal a large sum of money from a friend of the entire band (and former band member!), and then deny it to everyone until he thought the police were involved. We can't have someone like that in the band. When we go on the road people are extremely hospitable and put us up in their homes and whatnot - what's to stop him from stealing from a complete stranger if he'd steal from someone who was supposed to be his friend? It was inexcusable, so he was unanimously ousted, and the whole situation inspired a portion of the lyrics to "Burning The Bridge To Terabithia" on our new CD. Laz has been playing with us for almost a year now - he played his first show with us back in February. He picked up our material pretty fast, and since Izzy and Rick already kinda knew him before it made the transition pretty easy. His energy has definitely been a boon to our live performance, and since we started playing with him people who've seen us for years have told us we sound better than ever!
You guys have been on Purity Records for quite some time. What is about Jesse and his label that keep you there?
Purity was started by a couple friends of ours like 7 years ago. Their first release was a compilation we recorded a couple songs for, alongside awesome bands like The End, Neck, Beyond Reason, and Kid Gorgeous. We recorded the material for that comp in the fall of '99, and it was released the following summer. When we told them we were looking to record a full-length, they said they'd love to put it out and were really supportive of us as a band. Jesse wasn't involved in the label at that point, he was more a fan of the band and a friend who we'd see at shows all the time. He got invovled when 1 of the 2 founding members moved down to Florida and pretty much severed his ties to the label. Things were stagnant for a while, but Jesse's involvement was instrumental in the signing and release of Forever I Burn's first CD, and helped bring me further into the fold to make Johnny Cage Is A Fake's amazing debut CD a reality. As far as LIAV's concerned, we're there because they're there for us. Honestly, we recorded our new CD "It's Always Darkest..." back in May of 2005, and part of the reason it took so long to come out (aside from mixing problems we were having) is because we spent a good deal of time shopping it around to bigger labels. It just got to the point where we were tired of getting the runaround, and Purity always said they'd put it out for us if we wanted, so we went with them. We were already playing most of the new songs live, so it didnt make sense to hold off on releasing it anymore, and we didn't want to do another tour without a new CD, so we just made it happen. We don't have a "contract" with the guys at Purity or anything. We were the 1st band on the label and are simply in a situation where as long as we're willing to work with them they'll be willing to work with us.
Over the past 3 years, what are the most notable positive/negative effects you have noticed in the metalcore/metal/hardcore scenes?
Probably the most positive thing I've seen, or rather heard in the scene, is that there are actually a lot of good bands out there. This music is everywhere these days (in the US at least), and it seems that everything from the biggest city to the smallest town has some kind of metal and/or hardcore scene going. Because of this there are literally countless bands around right now, and a good deal of them are good - you just have to search for them, and that's part of the problem. The biggest negative aspect is that since there are so many bands, like any other musical genre, the bad far outweighs the good, but for whatever reason in our particuar scene, both the bad and good combined are far outnumbered by the mediocre. Anyone who listens to a lot of this kind of music or has been in a band for a few years should know what I'm talking about. For whatever reason, there are tons of bands around right now that are fairly technically profecient (I can't believe how young kids are picking up instruments these days), but for one reason or another their songs come out boring and forgetable. I can't really say they suck because many of them can play well, but they're definitely not good. A lot of bands wear their influences much too blaringly on their sleeves, and since so many of them have the same influences the bands all start to sound the same. They all seem to be inspired by bands that are still around, which sucks because they end up sounding like third rate versions of bands we already know. And this isn't anything new - I've booked shows in NYC, NJ, and Long Island off-and-on for almost as long as I've been in LIAV, and I can't even count how many upstart bands circa '99/2000 described themselves as "melodic metalcore like Shai Hulud and Poison The Well." It's just so much now that it's ridiculous. Because there are so many bands, a lot of the good bands get lost in the shuffle and end up breaking up way before their time. I'd pretty much bet that anyone who's been involved in their local scene for over 5 years can think of at least one band in their area that's been working hard for years, putting out great music and playing as many shows as they can, but is still constantly ignored by the "bigger labels" who should've noticed them years ago and could actually give them more national recognition and help them move forward as a band. In the same town, or possibly one town over, there's likely another band made up of scenester kids with retarded haircuts that've been around maybe a year or so, that just signed a 5-record deal to a label that'll probably rape them down the road, simply on the strength of: connections, the apparent marketability of their trendy watered-down sound that they know adolescents who don't know any better are eating up these days, and the fact that their myspace friends count is up to five digits. But I'm not bitter or anything... Another major negative I have to mention is that most fans of this music seem to care very little about lyrics. This is of course the hardcore side of me speaking, because as metal as my band's become I'm still a hardcore kid at heart. I know this is something that's generally only brought up by older stalwarts like myself, but part of what attracted me to hardcore when I first got into heavy music was the fact that the bands' lyrics were so articulate and intelligent, and touched on numerous social and political issues that were relevant at the time, and still are to a large degree. In recent years this has become much less the case, and bands that actually have anything to say are more the exception than the norm. It's unfortunate, and since several of the "bigger" bands that are around right now are guilty of this, they're inspiring legions of young bands to choose singers not on the strength of their writing or lyrical intellect, but simply because they have a "sic voice, brah." I've said it before and still hold strong to the belief that if I'm gonna have the balls to stand in front of a crowd of people and scream at them at the top of my lungs for 30 or 40 minutes, I'd better have something important to say.
What are the guys doing to pay rent these days?
I'm a technician for one of the major cable providers in NYC. That isn't to say that I go around installing peoples cable - I work in a post production facility that edits commercials and promos for a handful of cable television networks. I went to college for Film & Video Production, so at least I'm using it for something. Rick currently has 2 jobs as a bartender and a waiter. Izzy works for a company that handles the sound design and intallation of the actual sets, speakers, cables, etc. for Broadway shows. Abraham woks odd jobs here and there, and Laz used to work construction, and now pretty much does whatever he can to keep his head afloat.
Since 2006 is swiftly coming to a close, what is your top 10 list for albums that dropped?
Hahaha - I've been putting together Top 10 lists for a few years now, and I always wait until January before even attempting to decide. This keeps things fair and allows me time to wait for releases that come outn towards the end of the year, and pull out literally everything I've purchased during the year to give it another fair shake alongside everything else. This year I think will be hard, because there were several releases I was looking forward to and knew would be good, like the latest albums from Mastodon, Unearth, and Lamb Of God, but like last year's list which had smaller and/or up and coming bands like Withered, Despised Icon, and Breather Resist, this year I think will be largely comprised of newer artists I was recently introduced to, or bands that unexpectedly blew me away with their latest output. Despite the mixed reviews it got upon it's release, I really like Himsa's latest CD that came out back in January - it's heavier and more thrash oriented, and a pleasant surprise from what I was expecting from them. I wasn't expecting it, but I think Walls Of Jericho's new CD is possibly the best thing they've ever done. i know some people who disagree with me in that they've all but done away with most of their hardcore sound and gone with a more straight forward metal onslaught with brutal breakdowns, but I think it works really well, the songs are well-written, and again, not what I was expecting from them. I'll almost certainly have the Versoma ep on my list - their incredible combination of shoegazer rock and post hardcore sounding like an amazing amalgam of My Bloody Valentine, Fugazi, and Sonic Youth is just really refreshing, well put together music from the heart. I've been getting a bit more into death metal in recent years, and this year I was really impressed with the latest from Suffocation and Decapitated. The grind/metal scene brought us 2 great new CD's from the likes of Phobia and Misery Index, and people into the big epic stuff (like myself) were surely into the latest from Isis and Cult Of Luna. I really like Protest The Hero's debut, the new Converge is great, the new All That Remains is great - I mean, it's just been a really good year. Of course there were disappointments which I won't mention, but they were far outweighed by the pleasant surprises.
Do you feel that "It's Always Darkest..." is your best effort as a band?
I do, in that it accomplishes what I set out to. All 3 Locked In A Vacancy CD's sound different, which is great because we're constantly evolving and progressing as a band. Like most bands' debut album, "Exit The Futility Ward" wasn't written as an album, but a bunch of songs we were writing at the time until we thought hey, I think we have enough songs for a full-length, let's try and put one together. We had a couple line-up changes between that and the writing/recording of the "Ethos" ep, and with those changes came a much stronger melodic metal influence from the likes of Iron Maiden (who we cover as a bonus track at the end of the disc), and the Swedish death metal bands that were increasing in popularity here in the States. We retained the noisecore/techmetal influence we had from the beginning, but the melodies and harmonies incorporated into the more straight-forward metal parts of the disc definitely helped add a bit of cohesion that was somewhat missing from our previous output. Although I love those songs to this day, the main note I gave to the guys was I didn't want to get any more melodic than we were at that point, and in fact wanted to bring out some of the more brutal elements that I think were more apparent on our first disc, meanwhile mixing things up more so the next album would be more varied stylistically than Ethos was. Everyone basically agreed, and when it came time to write the new disc we were all in the "go heavier, mix it up" frame of mind. With that in mind, I'd say we definitely succeeded in putting out what is, as a whole, the heaviest and most diverse collection of Locked In A Vacancy songs ever. Every song on the album sounds different, yet the songwriting is so strong and cohesive that it actually works both as an album and when taken individually. And although I struggled with the lyrics right up to and including the recording of the disc, in the end I feel it contains some of my best writing, and a concept that really brings it all together thematically.
What do you guys have in store to push "It's Always Darkest..."?
Well, Purity has already done their part in sending more out to press than they ever have for one of their releases. We're trying to orchestrate a college radio promotional push and already shot our first video that we'll try to get on the air soon. But the main thing we really want is to actually go full time off this record and tour our butts off. Because of line-up changes and a string of bad luck in one form or another, we simply haven't been able to tour as much as we'd hoped in recent years. We fully intend to change that and support this record as much as we can by staying on the road.
When LIAV started back in 1997, could you foresee the band lasting until now?
When LIAV started back in 1997 I couldn't foresee the state of this scene being what it is right now, so of course not. There was no such thing as bands going "full time" or actually making a living off it. Forget about hearing any of this stuff on the radio or seeing it on TV. It just wasn't in our heads, and I'm glad for that. We started the band for fun. I was the only member of the original line-up that was somewhat knowledgeable of hardcore and "the scene" - the rest of them were recent converts from the alternarock scene who had recently discovered our earliest influences: Kiss It Goodbye, Shai Hulud, Indecision, Candiria, and eventually Coalesce, Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Botch. I'd recently moved back home to NYC after going to college upstate, and was intent on either starting a hardcore band or an industrial band (!?!) as my first order of business. When we started we just wrote with the intent of eventually playing shows (we did after about 6 or 7 months - basically when we had enough songs to play for 30 minutes). It was my idea to record our first demo tape - something that never occurred to the rest of the guys. Then we just kinda took things as they came. A friend of mine from Rochester, NY had recently started his own label, and offered to a do our first split 7" with another band from upstate, so we went back and recorded a couple more songs. We started to contact people and promoters in other bands through the internet (a totally different ballgame in the days before myspace and messageboards) and played our first out of state shows. Some friends of ours started Purity Records and we recorded a couple tracks for a comp. they were putting out, and another for a comp. that was later released by Triple Crown. At this point we were playing all over the northeast pretty regularly, and I became known as somewhat of a promoter for putting on shows at Coney Island High in NYC, the M&M Hall in NJ, and Ground Zero in Long Island. Our name was really out there, and NYC bands who'd been around several years longer than us began asking how we were able to get so many out of town shows and get on so many good bills. But I don't think it was until we released our first full-length and completed our first 10-day northeast tour in the spring of 2001 (with Groundzero) that we took a step back and thought hey, we just might be able to do something with this. The scene was starting to get big, and I think it was around then that we decided to take a look and really consider what our place would be in all of this. I don't think I could foresee myself being in this band this long, because it just wasn't something that was thought about by bands that were playing the kind of music that we were. These days, it's unfortunate because you have young kids really starting bands for all the worng reasons. They see certain bands in the scene that are doing pretty well for themselves, and literally start a band with the intent of being a rock star, or blowing up in a relatively short time. This notion is then perpetuated by the numerous young bands who sign ridiculous contracts to ridiculous labels without ever having payed their dues, yet for some reason feel deserving of all of this. These same bands generally put out a record or 2 and then break up and fade into obscurity - keeping at least one hardcore tradition alive: most bands don't have a very long lifespan.
Thanks for taking for the time to do this. If you have anything you would like to add, please feel free to do so.
I honestly think I've gone off on too many tangents and spoken in way more detail than was necessary, so I don't have much else to add. Continue to support good bands, and don't support the garbage, trendy BS. Pick up the new Locked In A Vacancy cd "It's Always Darkest..." and look for us on the road!