How are you doing today? What's been up?

Nothing much man, I'm doing pretty good. We just played a show here in Baltimore. We've been playing a lot of shows actually around the area. They're our first shows with the line-up the way we have it now.

Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Jon-Jon left and you brought on Chris Csar on drums, is that right?

Yeah, Chris Csar, whose actually been in the band for four years. He's actually played every instrument in the band at this point. Guitar first, then he went to bass and vocals, and now he's on drums. He's first and foremost a drummer though. Before he joined, he was always a drummer in grind and death metal bands. So now he's in his home instrument. When he went to drums, we brought on a new bass player, and we fired our second guitarist and replaced him with this other guy, Jamie, whose actually been a friend of mine ever since I was a little kid.

Who is the new bassist you have?

His name is Nathan. Actually Nathan and Jamie, the two new guys, they play in another side project band called The Malevoiy. They're a great band as well.

So have they put that on hiatus temporarily?

Just for a little but, just until we get up to par. Then we have this two month tour coming up so that takes a big chunk of time out of their hands. They do fully plan on getting back into full swing and releasing some stuff.

Have they found a label yet?

Yeah, I think it's rumored that they're putting out something on Reptilian Records. I think they're putting out an EP, last they told me. They're definitely a band that needs to still stay around and do stuff. They're too good of a band to let go.

How did you end up on Abacus?

Before we did the spring tour last year, which was our very first tour ever, right before it, Ray from Abacus got in touch with me and said he came across our album, When White Becomes Black, and he wanted to see what our plans were for the future. We told him as far as releases went, we didn't have any plans, which is why we're going out on tour to see what comes back to us. So we just started discussing things back and forth and just took it from there. Everything seemed cool and it seemed like a good opportunity to take advantage of, so we did.

Also, as far as recording with Kurt Ballou goes, was that a decision on the label's part or yours?

That was us.

What made you go to him?

We've always been fans of his production, and of course, fans of Converge and the production he's done for them. I guess he was always sort of out of our reach as far as financially until Abacus came along and they were generous enough to afford us that opportunity to work with him, so we took advantage of that as well. Man, we're better for it in my opinion. It was such a great experience. Working with that guy was really amazing. It was so, so awesome. We were up there for 3 weeks straight, 12 hours a day, in the studio with that dude. It was intense, it was awesome. That guy is a genius — he knows his shit, he's fucking awesome, all the input he has is always golden. It was just a great experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world. And as a result, I think we're going to go to him again for the next one. I'm 100% definite, there's only one other dude I would maybe want to go with and that's only because he's been a guy I've always wanted to work with, but I don't know if he's maybe out of our reach or not. I'm talking about Steve Albini of course. He'd be great to work with, but if we don't work with him, I think we're going to go with Kurt again, which will be great.

I understand there's a change in the vocals on this album?

Yeah, a little bit. It's very different from the first album. On this album we have two singers, which on the first album it's just me the entire record. That's kind of the way it was live, just me. This album around, it was me and Chris, who's the drummer now, doing vocals on the album. Actually we did some singing to create a little dynamic, vocally, rather than just a full-throttle screaming the entire record. We wanted to branch out and try some different things to go over with. I think they went over well and I'm really happy with the way it came out. Hopefully other people feel the same. Live now, actually, it's even different than the album, because we have three singers now. The two guys from The Malevoiy, Jamie and Nathan, are singing, and so am I.

Is that something you always wanted to do with your sound?

Absolutely. Totally. It's always something I've wanted to do but I could never get together because the guys up front with me in past line-ups never really wanted to do that. But with Jamie and Nathan in the band, they wanted to. So we all divied up vocal duties and we're all singing, and it's really working out for the best. We're finally reaching the point I've always wanted to get to.

Does everybody have a hand in writing the lyrics on this album?

Jamie and Nathan weren't around, Jon-Jon never wrote any lyrics, and Cole, our second guitarist, never really did. So me and Chris wrote all the lyrics for Sirens.

How's the songwriting change, rather, how will the songwriting change having these new guys aboard?

See, that's something I'm looking very much forward to and don't really know yet. I'm excited to see. All we've really done is concentrated on getting them up to par, learning stuff we've already written. I have a few new songs in the works that me and Chris have dabbled in, but as far as the whole band collaborating, I do think the writing process will be more of a collaborative effort rather than individually. In the past, one of the dudes in the band would write almost one of the songs entirely and then presented it to the band, and then we learned it. Whereas this current line-up, we've actually had a couple of improv jams where we've come up with some really fucking great shit where we've four-tracked it and said, "God, we've really got to remember that," but we haven't had the chance to because we've been concentrating on getting everyone up to par with the material we already have. I really look forward to writing with the current line-up.

I don't know if this is still applicable because of the line-up change, but I read in an interview that you guys are influenced from anything from Modest Mouse, to Aphex Twin, to even Tori Amos.

There's so much shit that we like. But most people like to just mention the heavier bands and...I listen to probably more non-metal stuff, me personally, and I think Jamie does too. We listen to so much different shit, man. You'd look at our CD collections and wonder, "and you're in a metal band?" I mean, metal is instilled in us. Of course we love metal and all different forms of it. But there's so much other stuff we listen to that we'd probably listen to first before we'd listen to anything heavy. There's a full range of influences, there's just too many to get into the specifics about. The three bands you just mentioned as well as so many more.

What about the term "A-Bomb Rock"? Did that come from the band?

[laughing] Yeah, yeah. It's kind of funny. I just made that up a couple of years ago, we were just sitting around. We get that question so much, "what do you guys consider yourselves?" I don't know...metal? That kind of got old.

Yeah, because the genre you guys are a part of has yet to be named.

We just feel like we have a lot of different styles going on, a lot of different things we like to tap into. "Metalcore" I've never really agreed with, and calling it "metal" is just too plain. I don't know, so we were just sitting around the practice space - I specifically remember, and we were just like, "what?" We've always described the sound as very explosive, and I was like "dude, it sounds like we're droppin bombs, yo, A-Bomb Rock," just trying to be funny. So you know, I mentionted it one time and it kind of stuck around. It kind of sums it up a little bit. Explosive sound...big...like a bomb? I don't know, kinda covers a good deal of it. Kind of a silly thing, really. I guess you could call us that and it'd be okay.

Do you consider it flattering to be compared to bands like Isis, Neurosis, Cult of Luna, Knut...?

Sure...I mean, all those bands are excellent. I love Isis, love Neurosis, love Mastodon...all of those bands. Cult of Luna's cool...yeah, it's flattering. That's great if people think that. I don't think we sound specifically like any of those bands, but I can definitely see saying that and maybe getting away with it. I guess we sort of tap into, textually, some of the types of sounds of those bands.

That's pretty much what I'd say. While people group together Isis and Neurosis, it's...

It's totally different, yeah. So it's definitely flattering, it's great.

So your tour coming up is with Misery Index, Ion Dissonance, and Strongarm?

No, no, no. It was originally supposed to be Strong Intention, which Zach from Strong Intention, the singer, is the one who's booking the tour.

Okay, I've heard Strong Intention, but not Strongarm.

No, no. Strongarm was never on the tour.

Strong Intention were out with Internal Bleeding not long ago, right?

Correct. So it was supposed to be them, us, Ion Dissonance, and Misery Index. That was the original idea. Then after two weeks into the idea, Misery Index pulled out of the tour. I think they were doing too much touring and they hastily agreed to tour without...I think if they had done our tour, it'd mean they did five tours in a row, so I think they just kind of wanted to take a break and collect themselves and take a break. So that was a little disappointing, especially because I'm good friends with those guys and I was looking to go on the road with them. But you know, whatever. So then it changed to what it is now, which is Strong Intention, us, Ion Dissonance, All Shall Perish, and the headliner is Psyopus, who I'm sure you're familiar with. That's the line-up for our tour. We're going out for two months, while that part of the tour is only going out for the first month. Then after that, we're picking up, I believe, it still needs to be confirmed, we're picking up two weeks with The Number 12 Looks Like You, and one other band I forget. For the final two weeks, I don't really know yet. We have to figure that out, it's still too early.

I know you guys are friends with Meatjack, is there any chance you guys might go out together?

We may, we've always talked about it. I've known those guys for almost 10 years now and we've always talked about doing some touring together. I don't know what it comes down to, maybe just scheduling conflicts...or...I don't know if you're familiar with their story, but they've had so many problems with drummers.

Yeah, I tried seeing them about a year ago. They were scheduled in a small bar in St. Paul, but something happened.

Yeah, they're an excellent band and certainly a band I've always wanted to tour with and still do. But their drummer problem still exists today. They have Christian from ex-Kylesa who's jamming with them now, just filling in, but I don't know how much he can really take on as he owns his own business so I don't know how much time he can take off. I mean, we have our touring schedule so...I don't know if it'll ever work out. I'd love it to, but it's just never worked out. I love that band and I think the two of our bands would be great.

I was going to ask you about playing with Ion Dissonance and those other bands. You have a pretty different sound than they do.

Yeah, I know. We kinda are very different. The other bands on the bill sorta kinda go together, but theyre all different too. But we're in the middle there and we're kinda just like...ehhh.

When I saw you guys were playing with Misery Index, I was wondering how people are going to react to it.

I felt that too, but I've always been of the mindset that I like to branch and play to all different types of scenes and all different times of genres and whatever. See how many people from each individual genre would connect, or not, without music.

It's surprising to see how many people will actually get into it, going out to a death metal show.

I know we don't go over very well with the death metal crowd. We played the Maryland Death Fest last year...and we were the very first band on the very first day, but by the time we played there were probably 200 kids there. There was barely any applause between songs, nobody was standing up front, they were all in the back, not paying attention. I think that's one scene we really don't fit in. You could just tell they really didn't like us, for whatever reason.

You guys are shooting a video for "Hookworm" soon?

Yes sir, we fly out actually in less than a week from today. We fly out next Wednesday, the 15th.

Where are you actually filming that?

Where? You know what, I don't know the name of the place. Actually it's a couple different sites. We're shooting with Carlos Batts, and he said he has a couple locations that he's scouted out. One of them being this hall, almost like a hall where they'd hold an opera or something, like a really big burgeoise, nice, really big hall. That's what he was describing to me. Another place is sort of in an outside location, like a run-down building sort of feel. I think the performance pieces are going to be done in the hall, while all the other action/storyline/character stuff is going to be done in the outside location. But that all may change when we're actually out there, having creative involvement with the video and everything.

So you've got kind of a tentative idea of what you're going to do?

Yeah, the feel of the video and everything. We've got it loosely based around an idea, but that all may change slightly. We have a very good skeleton of an idea.

What state was this being filmed in again?

It's going to be done in Hollywood, right in LA. Carlos lives right in the district where they hold the Oscars and shit like that.

That's a weird area.

Yeah, it is. We actually played in that area on our last tour at the Knitting Factory last spring. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it, I'm excited to see what comes out of it. I'm not really sure what to expect but I'm expect it'll be fun no matter what. We've never done anything like this, so it's something different. We'll see how it goes. I think it'll come out cool. Videos are always weird though.

I just hope you don't do the generic...

Yeah, thats what I'm saying. You know, videos are always weird. What videos are really cool? They're always sort of cheesy, simply because you're doing a video. But I trust Carlos' vision and I'm very familiar with his work. He's always done stuff slightly different.

Who else has he worked with?

He's worked with a whole range of people. Danzig, Snoop Dog, Dog Fashion Disco...

For some reason when I read you guys were doing a video, the only band mentioned that he worked with was Dog Fashion Disco. I thought that was kind of weird.

Yeah, I dont know why that was. He's worked with so many other people. He shoots porn, too. I don't know if you knew that. He does photos, not video. He's worked with a bunch of different people, and it seems like the idea he has for our video is a little bit different, but once we get out there and have some hands-on stuff, I'd like to think we'll make it as unique as possible. I'm hoping we don't walk away from it with as little of a cheesy idea as we can have.

Did you ever see the Immortal video? The only thing I remember is the three guys on top of the mountain, and one of them's wearing a witch's hat. It's really funny.

Yeah [laughing] no witch hats for us. No mountains for us either. Maybe a little snow, but no mountains. We'll see. Chances are the video'll come out and guaranteed people will be complain, but whatever, I welcome that. I think there's something to say about shooting a video though, it's a good means for promoting your band. It offers some good. You have to accept the cheese along with the good. Bring on the creative and constructive criticism, or even the negative non-constructive criticism. Whatever. Overall though, I think it's a good opportunity.

I wanted to know if there were any other Baltimore bands, or any bands for that matter, that you feel like being nice enough to mention.

I was going to say The Malevoiy, but you're already familiar with them. Definitely this band from here, this newer grindcore band. They've got a little bit of a buzz right now, but they're fucking awesome. They're called Triac. They're awesome. They're really really good. They just put out their full-length album on Reptilian, and I think they're doing some touring on the west coast soon with Pig Destroyer and Phobia. Doing like, ten days or whatever.

Wow, that's awesome. That's a hell of a chance there. What style of grind is it?

They switch it up a lot, which is what I like. They're not all purely grind, which I don't like. They switch it up. They've got some Eyehategod sort of dirgey, dirty, sludgy shit, along with grind. They tune down kinda low, and the drummer is sick. He hits hard, he's fucking on point — he's awesome. They're just really talented and I think they've got a good thing going. I see good things happening for them. Definitely a band worth mentioning from here. Another band, this band we actually played last night. They're a crust/punk band called Nux Vomica, they're really excellent. They're putting out something on Profane Existence. I'm a sucker for crust/punk stuff, if it's done well.

That's pretty much it. Anything else you care to add?

Well, thank you very much for the interview. Put something about how much we love Lambgoat. Those guys on there have really supported us a lot.