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Hi Kirby, Rob here... guitarist for Neuraxis.

Neuraxis was formed in 1994 in Montreal, QC, Canada. Since then we've released 4 albums, and gone through many line-up changes. The current line-up is Yan on bass, Ian on vocals, Tommy on drums and myself on guitar.

Well after 12 years, it's cool to finally gain some ground in the US. I think "Trilateral" has opened up a lot of doors for us, especially with the new generation of metal/hardcore fans. I'm sure a lot of those fans first heard of us through our new album, but it's not too hard for people to have access to our previous albums, everything is available in the US, Canada and Europe. To a lot of people Neuraxis appears to be a new band and I think it's good because it keeps the name fresh and we don't feel like were oldtimers draggin on...hehehe.

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the new album. With "Trilateral" you can hear that it's Neuraxis, but with some new elements. We focused on creating songs that would better flow and have more space to breathe. At the moment I feel it's our strongest album, but we will see with our next one. I agree that we like to keep our roots, but add some new elements each time to keep things interesting. Already we are working on new material and it will have some new ideas, were really trying to push our songwriting to new boundaries. Nothing competes with the classics like Death, Carcass, Pestilence!

It's a great feeling to hear that music you create is memorable to others. I don't think it's our main focus on making everything memorable, but it definetely has a place in our songwriting. The main priority is to write music that we enjoy playing and hearing, once it's recorded and released it's in the hands of the listener to decide if our music is memorable. The fact that we have a varied range of influences and are including them into a style of extreme metal helps us to create something less generic sounding.

The music is first written from guitar riffs. Once there is enough riffs to form a song, the drums come into play with structuring and creating arrangements.The bass and vocals will be added once the structure is complete. It varies from song to song, some take only a few jams to finish, others take a few months to work out. The important thing is we don't limit the music to just one idea, we go over all the parts and usually we come up with new ideas each time.

The recording sessions went very well. I won't lie to you and say it was easy, but the conditions were much better than before. We were better prepared with the music, so it was just a matter of getting the best take of each song. We like working with Yannick because he has a good attitude towards recording bands. He is very patient, he always has good suggestions and has a great ear for sound engineering. We were one of the first bands that Yannick started working with back in 2000 for A Passage into forlorn, so we know each other very well when it comes to working in the studio. This time we had someone else mix the album, Jason Suecof(from Capharnaum). Willowtip suggested we use him. Jason is a great musician and he did a great job with the mix. Scott Hull did a good job on the mastering as well.

Willowtip have been treating us very well, ever since we signed with them back in 2004. Were lucky because they're giving us a lot of attention. The fact that they have a very good roster of bands is a plus and they are a label that is growing as we are growing. They're a smaller label that doesn't sign every trendy band under the sun, we feel more of a priority to them. So far they have released our triple discography, Truth-Imagery-Passage and our latest album Trilateral Progression. It's been beneficial to us because they signed a license with Earache Records to have all our albums properly released and promoted in the UK/Europe. Willowtip are also very cool and friendly guys to work with, big props goes out to them!

I agree. We started having guests back on A Passage into forlorn. Since then each album usually has a guest appearance. Everyone we ask, we are usually fans of their work. Sometimes we're lucky because the person is only in town for a day or two and it's coinciding with our recording, like with Jason from Misery Index. They were on tour and were playing in Montreal the same day as our recording. On Trilateral we had some previous members guest on it; Maynard (vocalist on Imagery) and Alex (drums on Passage/Truth). It was a cool to hear Maynard still has his brutal vocals! Alex did a great job as well, I really like his vocals. Having all these guests adds a lot more color to our sound on the albums.

The lyrics have always been related to things that we are interested in. If your referring to standard topics such as gore or evil lyrics, I think that is more attached with old school death metal. Most newer bands I have seen usually have lyrics dealing with more realistic subjects. Our lyrics have always had themes of philosophy, spirituality, psychology, science, conspiracy. Ian is the bands lyricist and most of us share the same interests on his lyrical subjects. On Trilateral, the overall idea is describing a human's evolution through three levels: philosophy, spirtuality and science.

The tour was really cool. At first I wasn't sure what to expect, when we arrived at the first gig all the guys in Decapitated were very friendly and even helped us load in our equipment. The shows were good, we gained some new fans from this. Even though we've played all those cities many times before, a lot of people that were fans of Decapitated had never heard us and were digging our stuff. The tour was pretty short, 8 shows, so it went by very fast. I wasn't really a fan of theirs before this, but after seeing them live I like what they do, and they do it well.

Each of us have our own political stances that differ from one another, but we don't preach our views in our lyrics. The reason is that we respect everyones decision to believe in what they want to believe. I don't really care for politics being preached in metal. To each his own.

Yan and myself play in Torn Within, Tommy will be doing session drums with us for our next album. TW is less extreme than Neuraxis, and focuses more on a thrash/melodic side. Tommy and myself were also playing in another band called Jester. Recently we had to put this on hold since we don't have any time to do a 3rd band. Ian is in the process of putting together a book on the history of the metal scene in Quebec. It's a big project and might come out sometime at the end of this year or early next year. Everything from Voivod to Despised Icon is included and it will be an interesting read.

We leave for Japan on March 8th. This is our first time. Its crazy to think about! Definetely something we all have wanted to do for a long time. We look forward to playing with our buddies in Misery Index and Defiled. From what I heard Japanese people are very polite and treat you very well when you tour there. Should be a hell of an experience. We play 2 shows and have 3-4 days to see the Japanese culture.

All I can say about this is that it wasn't working out anymore with having Steven in the band. He knew it and we knew it. He made the first step by leaving. He is continuing on with with music and so are we. I think everyone will remain friends with him.

We have a lot of people interested in auditioning, but we will take this slow and see who fits best. For the time being we're only searching for a live guitarist. The band will remain a 4 piece. We're not lookin for any hot shot shredder, just someone that plays well and has a good attitude.

The scene is very strong in Canada. It's encouraging to see so many good bands support each other, and when a band has a bit of success outside of Canada it's motivating to see. I started paying attention to the scene in Montreal back in 1996 when I joined Neuraxis and I've seen it at low and high points. The band has stayed together for so long because we still have a lot of goals we want to achieve, so we keep perservering and good things eventually happen. The scene is also very strong because we have some good promoters, good labels and good media that support Canadian metal.

We get the usual jokes like the expression "ay." Besides that most people are respectful of us being from Canada. I remember one person I met in Virginia, after we finished playing, he came up to me to talk... He asked where I was from and I told him from Montreal, Canada. He says "what state is that in ?" I had a good laugh about that.

Culture wise, Canada is very rich in arts, languages, politics and sports - especially in the province of Quebec. Living in Canada is for the most part very easy going. We have a lot of middle class. There is not a sense of police authority ruling our streets. Canada is a fucking big country, so if you're a band wanting to tour here be prepared to drive a lot!

Thanks for your interest in Neuraxis, and shout outs to everyone that continues to support us by buying our albums, coming to our shows and getting crazy in the pit!