Last month Lambgoat interview guru Drew Ailes had a shocking conversation with Spitfire drummer, Chris Raines. Ok, maybe not shocking, but pretty interesting.

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It was a short tour. We're just doing a lot of weekends and stuff right now. The next big thing we have is in May. We're doing a tour with Underoath and Poison The Well.

Yeah, yeah. We've just known those guys for a long time. They just called and said, "we wanna take you guys out," so we were stoked.

All we've done so far is The Handshake Murders. Have you heard them?

Pretty much Scottie and I do it. He plays with Spitfire and Norma Jean. We've always just joked around and talked about doing a label, like ever frickin' kid probably says. So we just talked about it and we wanted to help Handshake Murders out, because we like the band a lot. They were going to record something on their own just to get their name out there, so we figured it was kind of the time to do it. That's the only CD we've put out. We just signed a band from Atlanta called Stadlur and we're putting out a...did you ever heard the band Selfminded?

They're from Sweden. They were on Solid State. They've broke up, but anyway, they did a split with Spirit That Guides Us, but it was only released in Europe. So we're going to re-release that for the States. That's the next thing we have going. That's pretty much the deal - we're not like, full-on with it yet. Right now we're just kind of doing stuff with our friends and bands we're just trying to help out and stuff like that. That's really it, just stuff that we're into.

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like every label in the world was knocking on the door or anything like that, but we had a couple offers. We were actually going back and forth with Solid State again, for a while. I don't know, Chris Logan is the coolest guy on the planet.

You can put that in big bold writing. We love that dude. He's just so easy to work with. So going from Solid State where you can't get a hold of anybody and you're the hundredth band on the label, and that kind of stuff...going from that to with Chris, where we get to deal directly with him...it's just been awesome. He's just such a cool guy and everything he puts out rules. We love all the bands on his label and, just, I don't know man. I'm really glad we decided to do what we did. At the time we were kind of wondering what to do, but at the same time, not only do we like Chris and love the label and he's easy to work with, it's kind of what I was saying before; if we went to a Solid State or a Ferret, we'd just kind of be a small fish in a big pond.

He really is only putting out what he thinks is good. He's not going to go sign...I can't say any band names, but he's not going to just go sign some lame band just because he thinks they're going to sell records. And that rules. Not that he doesn't want to sell - don't get me wrong, of course he wants to sell a boatload of records, but he's not going to go out and sign a bunch of bands he doesn't like just because he thinks they're "hot" right now or something.

He just signed another band that's friggin' awesome. I might say this wrong, but I think it's The Abominable Iron Sloth.

Will Haven.

He just signed them and that band's pretty awesome too. And of course Cursed is like, amazing as well.

Well, pretty much...what it is...to give you a great explanation - I couldn't do that. I don't write any of the lyrics. But what it is, if you're familiar with the Scarlet album "Cult Classic," all this is is kind of a second part of it. Because you know Jon sang on the "Cult Classic" record. So "Self-Help" is just the next level of "Cult Classic". So where that was an extremely dark record with a certain time in his life, and how it was about mainly suicide..."Self-Help" is just the new version of that. It's still obviously very dark, but it's a little lighter, I guess you could say, being self-help and all. It's about what people know off the top of their heads about self-help books on depression and suicide and all that stuff. It's just kind of feeding off the "Cult Classic" album in a sense. I'm sure the next record we do will have something to feed off of this one. But I think he just kind of tries to keep them all going together, even if it's just a little bit, if that makes any sense. So that's where the ideas of it all come from. The actual layout and design and stuff like that, our guitar player, Dan, did all of it. That was just pretty much...it doesn't necessarily go with the lyrics on each page.

Yeah, it's twisted. Spelled...T-W-I-Z-T-I-D.

[laughing] Totally.

Yeah.

I think it was just a lot of stuff combined. We were all just kind of getting burned on stuff. I don't know, things just weren't going the way we wanted them to go. At the time we weren't just feeling what we were doing. Also about that time was when Jon started doing Scarlet, and then Matt started playing in that band, Mae. So pretty much that was really it. We all started to get burned and went in our own direction. Especially the Mae thing, that was taking off really fast. So that was it. At that time it was like, we had done everything we wanted to do. We got to do a record and we got to go record where Deadguy recorded. That was like, our childhood dream, to record were Deadguy recorded. We got to do all that stuff and got to tour with all of our favorite bands...Zao and Dillinger Escape Plan...I don't know, I guess we were just like, "well, this is it." So that's what happened with that. And then, I guess about a year and a half ago, Matt quit Mae and Scarlet was just kind of on hiatus, so we were just hanging out and talked about how we missed it and missed hanging out. I guess everybody kind of realized that being in different bands that it wasn't the same as being in a band with your best friends. So that was it. We just started talking to it and we would all hang out and listen to old Deadguy records and old Coalesce records and just kind of all said, "wow, this sucks, we miss this." We just out of nowhere went and started writing some songs and that was it, man. Everything took off from there. We did the label stuff and obviously went to Goodfellow...did the record...it's just been really, really, awesome. Everything's kind of falling into place.

Well, I mean, it's totally...gosh. It's just, to us, so much more of a mature record. The first record we did we were just younger and we didn't know what the hell we were doing. I just think overall, the way we wrote this record, how we took more time with it...you know, the first time we recorded we were at Trax East we were there for seven days, whereas this time we were in the studio for a month and a half. It's a lot of little stuff like that. We spent a lot more time on it and we're just all way more confident in our playing and writing abilities. I think it's similar. There's no way you couldn't hear that it's Spitfire in both records, but it's definitely a different record. I think people will notice that for sure, and I'm sure some people won't like it. But y'know, we kind of just do what we want to do and this is the direction we wanted to go. We wanted to do a lot darker sounding stuff. It's totally different in six years.

Totally, yeah.

Right.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, okay.

Originally, yeah, it was a three-piece, but it was a four-piece quickly after because Jon joined the band. So we've pretty much always been a four-piece, although we actually recorded that record as a three-piece. Then when we got back together, we were a four-piece until Scottie joined the band, which made us a five-piece. But then, it was kind of like, "well, being a five-piece is really awesome, it fills out our sound a lot more," but then we started to realize that, holy crap, Scottie's in this really big band, and he's always gone. He comes as much as he can and he does as much as he can, but Norma Jean is super full-on. If they're not on the road, they're recording, or doing a video, or just something. He's just not here that much. So we all decided we wanted to be a five-piece as much as possible, so Scottie is the sixth member of the band, he's just not around as much as we'd like him to be around. If he lived here and wasn't in another band, we wouldn't have six people. It's just that he can't ever hardly do anything with us, and if he does, we play as a six-piece, but that's just not really that often. There's a guy, Ian, from here, that's been playing with us.

I hope that clarifies that.

No, no, no.

No, that stuff especially was always there. Hot Snakes, Deadguy, Coalesce...gosh, all that mid-nineties hardcore and of course, old metal. But at the same time, we've always been into so much other stuff. But on the heavy-wise stuff, yeah, definitely. It's hard now to even find anything new. You know what I mean? Because we're so stuck on old stuff.

Yeah. I mean, now, I still listen to Deadguy, but we listen to different stuff. We get inspiration from other things too, maybe on this new record. We're kind of all big Nine Inch Nails nuts.

Oh yeah, I think the new album's amazing.

Yeah, a lot of people haven't. I mean, it's different. It's a rock record.

He's like, buff, dude. He's like Glen Danzig.

Well, you can transfer that question to me.

He looks like a mannequin because he's freakin'...he's Trent Reznor. He can do what he wants.

That's my answer. No, but, I mean, we're all into everything. I'm probably less into metal...Jon and I. But Dan and Ian always wants to listen to Entombed and Slayer and all these old metal bands. Where Jon and I...I'm real into Nine Inch Nails and I think the new Cave In is just amazing. It rules. I'm all about that. Just a lot of darker sounding stuff like that. But then, you know, Deadguy and Coalesce, that stuff to me is just...gosh. I can remember the first time hearing Deadguy and still to this day I can't believe they did that so long ago.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

Oh, totally.

Yeah, I think it's very possible to do it and I think they did. All the did was take Today is the Day and make it a hell of a lot better. That's my opinion.

Exactly, and I think all Dillinger Escape Plan did was take Deadguy and speed it up and make it more technical. Which rules, because I think Dillinger Escape Plan is just absolutely amazing...but yeah, we're into everything for sure, musically. Those are just some of the bigger ones that we've always been into.

Yeah, our old bass player.

Yeah, definitely. I mean, we've never, ever, been a preachy band. Nothing like that. It's the kind of thing where if somebody comes up to me asks me if I like Deadguy, sure, I'm going to talk about it. It's that kind of thing. So you know, if someone comes up to me and talks about it, then yeah, we talk about it. It's conversation. But we've just never been a preachy band. If people ask, we say "yes," and that's it. It's just our faith and something we feel strongly about, but it's our business unless somebody wants to ask about it. That's just not why we do the band, if that makes sense. But at the same time, I'd be totally BSing you if I was saying that it has nothing to do with our music or lyrics because that'd be a lie, because whatever you're into comes out in the music. But yeah, it definitely isn't something that we go out and try to do...we do the band to do the band, but we are Christians.

Um...not really.

You can put that Scottie and I are in a band called Gardenwolf.

Yeah.

It's kind of like a side-joke band we have. It's kind of hard to explain. Uh, it's just kind of weird stoner rock stuff, but it's kind of a joke at the same time.

It is, although that band The Swords is pretty awesome.

Really?

And Swords, I know, I know.

There's uh...nuh...well, there's The Swords, there's The Sw- no, there's The Swords, there's Swords, and now there's a band in Richmond, Virginia, called Sword.

The Swords.

They just came out with a record, like, two weeks ago.

No, they're The Swords, it's plural. But there is a singular. Yes, they're from Richmond, and they're also stoner rock.

That's...wait, maybe I'm wrong then.

They have, like, um...

Yeah. Is that The Sword?

Okay. That's the band that rules.

Dude, they are friggin' awesome.

I'm way into that band.

You don't like them?

Really?

Maybe, it could be. One of those guys is from Virginia Beach. We used to play together all the time. He used to be in a band called Facade Burn Black.

Facade Burn Black. We used to play shows together all the time. He's a really cool dude.

Ah, not that I know of.

For sure. Yeah, you're right, it is The Sword, from Texas.

I probably shouldn't answer that question.

It's just going to piss off a bunch of people on Lambgoat.

Honestly, the east coast and lower east coast is awesome. I hate to say it, but we kind of just feel like that the only place we don't ever do well is our own hometown. As sad as that is, it's just kind of always been like that for us. We just played a lot of shows in the Carolinas and they were awesome. Every show ruled. We're playing to 600 people at Tremont, and then we come home and if there's 150 people there, we're stoked. It's weird, man. It's really weird.

Yeah. For not playing in Raleigh for six years and having no one know who the hell we are, there were 150 people there so I wasn't complaining. The Brewery isn't a huge place, so 150 people there is pretty good. We're playing in Virginia Beach tomorrow night for our CD release show. If 500 people are there I won't be like, "oh, weird." If 50 people are there are I won't be like, "oh, weird." But if Norma Jean rolls into town, it's sold out with like, 1600 people.

Exactly. So, it's weird, man. But it's cool. Our whole thing is, if there's five people there and one person gets stoked on it, it's worth it.

Yeah, that was freaky.

Alright, so we pull into Wilmington last week and Ian and Dan just happened to look down this alley as we're driving down this street to get to the club. They start freaking out and talking about how there's this body under a white sheet and there's all these guys in suits and cops all around it. It was marked off with police tape and stuff, so we were really freaked out. So anyway, we get to the club and we walk back over there to see what it is, and we're totally...I mean, what do you say? There's a dead body there. So we're all just like, "oh my gosh," and I'm just like, "dude, I don't even want to look at it." So we kind of just left it like, whatever, and didn't talk about it. We made a big deal about it...to just roll into Wilmington, which is a super nice town, and see that. It was freaky. And then like, two hours later, some girl was like, "hey, did you know they were filming a movie out there?"

I was like, "are you serious?" We felt like complete asses.

Nobody knew, and I didn't recognize any of the actors or anything, so I have no idea what it was. The way it was down the alley, you couldn't see any cameras or staff or anything. You could only see what was being shot by the camera, so it just kind of worked out to where we thought it was real because we couldn't see anything else. If you actually went down the alley, you could see all the people.

Yeah, we went back there and there was nothing left there. Not very exciting after all.

Yeah, Underoath, Poison The Well, and As Cities Burn.

No, that's it. Right now all we've been doing is just short weeks or weekends with our friends. We just did these shows with Hopesfall, and we did some with Bloodjinn...we're going to do some with Classic Case in April, and then we're doing the tour. We're going to try to do stuff with The Minor Times. I don't know if you've heard them, but that band rules. We're just trying to do stuff like that right now and then whatever tours we can get on, obviously we'll take.

For sure. But if you go to a hardcore show and ask kids if they like Deadguy or something they're going to look at you like you're an idiot.

Yeah, yeah.

The Minor Times for sure...Classic Case...have you heard them yet?

They're from Chapel Hill. It's one of the guys from Beloved's new band.

Go to Myspace tonight and check it out. It's not heavy - at all. It's rock, for sure, but it rules. It's one of the guys from Beloved and the drummer from Glassjaw. Which is weird.

This was the drummer that did the first big tours and didn't record on anything, but he's back in Glassjaw now. So it's not the first drummer and it's not Sammy or whatever his name is, but yeah. Classic Case is definitely a big one. Gosh, what's some other stuff that we're into that are some friends of ours...? Definitely The Handshake Murders. There's a band also on Goodfellow called The Secret, they're from Italy, and they rule. They need to get their butts to the U.S. so people know who they are.

That's a good question. I don't know, but it's a pretty good one, because they're awesome. So those bands are kind of bands...I mean, we bro-down with a lot of bands, but those are just bands that people dont really know of yet. Definitely Norma Jean, they're recording a new record, so I'm sure that's going to be awesome, so I'm excited about that. They're writing it right now and they're recording it with Ross Robinson, which is going to be absolutely insane, so we're all very excited about that too. But I'd say, yeah, that's pretty much it. Those are the bands that I'd definitely like to see go somewhere that I think are awesome.

Um...not really, man. I can't really think of much else.

I mean, honestly, it's the worst band name on the planet. It is. It's freakin' terrible. But when you're 16 and you think certain things are cool that aren't as cool when you're 26. You know what I mean? When we were 16 and starting a band and doing whatever, at the time, it was like, somebody I guess at practice was like, "what about Spitfire?" Then everyone just yelled, "Yeahhh!"

Totally. But dude, trust me, that's one thing that if I could go back and change I would do it in a second. I can't stand it. And yeah, no one...they don't give a shit about it or anything, but it's just one of those annoying things where...you've got Spitfire Tires...and then you've all these other different companies...

Yeah! And not to mention there's probably like, a hundred bands with kids 15 and under with the name Spitfire.

The best; this is something I've seen on messageboards a couple of times; I guess if you just do Myspace.com/Spitfire, I guess it's just these kids wearing big pants...and so, I saw on a messageboard, someone had "thank god Spitfire's back together as a three piece," and I clicked the link and pulled it up and was like, "oh god."

Yeah, Raines. Yeah.

No, no. But I've heard that one before, trust me.

Yeah, that was really lame. I don't know what the deal with that was.

Yeah, that's fine. Keep in touch.

You too. Thanks again.