THE RED CHORD FAQs

Where does the name The Red Chord come from?

From a German play where a schizophrenic man slits the throat of his lover, but then reverts to his normal self and asks “My love, what is that red chord across your neck?”

How did The Red Chord start as a band??

Guy and Kevin were originally in a band for several years before Red Chord. The pair, along with Mike (ex-Hassan I Sabbah), the drummer, would come together to form the unit. Multiple personnel and instrument changes, the band would play its first show in mid-2000 alongside Blood Has Been Shed and Undying at Café Mio in Taunton, Massachusetts. Adam would eventually be invited to fill the bass position, while Gunface joined to add an additional guitar player. The Red Chord finally began to take its current form after this line up solidified.

How did The Red Chord end up releasing “Fused Together In Revolving Doors” on Robotic Empire??

Guy and Mike (the drummer) were visiting Boston following the breakup of Hassan I Sabbah, and attended a party with Andy of Robotic Empire. Following a fight that resulted in a broken elbow and face, the band members passed along a demo of “Catalepsy” to Andy. The two camps kept in touch following the party, and Andy/Robotic Empire’s interest resulted in The Red Chord sending over more material. The end result was a one-shot record with the label.

Are there any scheduling conflicts between The Red Chord and Beyond the Sixth Seal??

No.

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Why don’t we start off with the formalities? Name and position in the band?

Adam: Adam, I play bass.

Kevin: Kevin, I play guitar.

Mike (aka Gunface): Mike. Guitar.

Cool. Thanks. Since Guy isn’t here, I’ll probably have to omit some of the lyric-related questions.

Mike: It’s alright. We can make stuff up.

Haha. Ok. Some of the recent stuff going on with the band: You played Goodfellow Fest up in Canada, right? How was that?

Adam: It was pretty cool.

Kevin: First day was better than the second. Second day, I think we had some problems with our equipment…like today.

Adam: Always.

Kevin: Because we’re fucking gay. And the first day was really good though. We surprisingly got a really good reaction. You know, long drives. It was good though. It was worth it.

Adam: It was a nice experience.

You played Hellfest last summer. How was Goodfellow Fest compared to Hellfest?

Adam: It was real small.

Kevin: It was small. It was like 190 people the first night, the second night was like 150.

Adam: I think there were only eight or nine days. It was one day. It was like the same five last bands in those cities. So it was definitely a small thing in comparison.

You guys don’t any “relations” going on with Goodfellow, do you?

All: No, no.

Haha. Ok.

Adam: We just talk to a lot of people.

Alright, that’s cool.

Adam: I don’t know. Premonitions (of War) might have had something to do with it because we toured with them, got along really well with them, and they’re on Goodfellow. So that might have had something to do with it.

Ok. Recently, you guys were also in A.P. (Alternative Press). You were hightlighted as “A.P.’s List of 100 Hundred Bands to Save You From Corporate Rock.” So, how do you guys feel about making that list?

Adam: I think there was some corporate rock on that list.

I definitely agree.

Kevin: Yeah, just a little corporate rock.

Adam: Wasn’t The Used on that list?

They might have been. There were just a lot of bands that didn’t belong there.

Kevin: Tell ya, we were on there. So that means there was 100 gay bands.

Haha.

Mike: You know, I listen to Huey Lewis and the News, and they were considered corporate rock. So, apparently, when they listen to us, we’re not saving them from corporate rock. We’re influencing them to listen to Huey Lewis and the News.

(laughter)

Kevin: There you go.

That might be a bad thing. But do you think this is an appropriate label for you guys? How do they perceive The Red Chord as saving people from corporate rock?

Mike: The way I see is, I don’t even care what they say, as long as they say something about us. You know, it’s like they’re talking about us to kids. I don’t care how they market it.

Any publicity is good publicity.

Mike: Right. Kids are going to find out about us, and that’s all that matters.

Adam: As long as their description is somewhat accurate, you can call us whatever. I don’t even know what they call us. A hardcore band?

Mike: Yeah, they don’t even know what to say about…cheese.

(laughter)

Adam: Cheese is important.

Of course. Alright.

Adam: I have a friend who doesn’t like cheese, and I don’t want to be friends with him anymore.

Kevin: I’m lactose intolerant and I love cheese. You don’t want to be near me when I let it loose, my friend. Sometimes I can’t help letting it loose.

Are you guys vegan or vegetarian?

All: No, no.

Kevin: Not one person in the band. We told bands that everyone was like vegan, and we’re like the only band that’s like “Give me meat, give me meat.”

Nice.

Mike: I love ripping apart meat with my teeth…

(laughter)

…and imagining killing lots of animals when I do it.

That’s very metal.

Adam: What’s your motto? If it’s dead and it moves, you’ll eat it. Or it moved.

Mike: Yeah. Yeah right. I mean, I’ll eat anything, except for a very large list of things.

Haha. Alright. Maybe we can go into that list a little later. Kind of taking a step back, you have the CD on Robotic Empire, “Fused Toghether In Revolving Doors.” I know you’ve probably been asked this a lot of times, but if you can describe the recording process, how it went, etc…

Adam: It was three suicide days. We tracked the whole thing in three days. It was like 14 hour days.

Kevin: 14, 15 hour days.

Adam: Yeah, we mixed it in a day-and-a-half. We yelled at each other, we hated each other. It was fun though.

Kevin: That is a lie, because that was the best time we ever had I think. There was a pool table.

Adam: But we still yelled at each other. We yell at each other everyday.

Mike: Andrew, the engineer, was amazing and put in extremely long hours to help us out, and put out a great sounding album.

Definitely. I have read that it was done in three days, and the recording sounds great. Looking back, if you were recording the new album, would you want to repeat that process in terms of working under pressure? Does the band work well under pressure? Or would you rather take your time and be meticulous about everything.

Adam: No. We’d want to take as long as we can afford (“Yeahs” in background) without going over the excess. It would take like a month.

Kevin: Definitely. We want to find the best studio possible that fits us. An engineer that’ll basically push to perform better. We need time to be comfortable where we are, because you’re going into a totally different atmosphere and you need to be comfortable.

And the three days, that was because of time and budget constraints?

Adam: Yeah, we recorded that. We would’ve not gotten much money from the label.

Kevin: We ended paying an extra, ourselves, well over two grand.

Adam: We paid for over two thirds of the record.

How’s the record been doing? I think it hit like, what was it, #11 on the CMJ music charts?

Kevin: Nine at one point?

Or, right, nine at one point. And you’ve had The Syndicate pushing it, right.

Kevin: They did, they did, for six weeks. The Syndicate is amazing.

How did you guys hook up with them? Or if you can go into a brief description about who they are and what they do.

Adam: I mean, they’re just a college radio promotion. They deal with some commercial studios. When Guy was in college, he was the general manager of his station. So he was talking to all these people and like he dealt with the usual companies doing promotion, like Concrete, The Syndicate, Bullpen. And he had a good relationship with Ben and seen good results. So the decision was kind of based on that. That was really a lot of Guy’s doing-pushing to work him.

And you mentioned that you’re not working with them anymore.

Kevin: Yeah, once it fell off the top-20, we let them push it a little while longer. But then the money sort of dwindles considering we had to pay two thirds of our recording.

Adam: The usual process is that you pay for a six-week campaign or so. After that, then…

So since then, you guys have just been…

Adam/Kevin: Touring.

Are you guys keeping track with how the CD is selling?

Adam: Yeah. It keeps going, and there slowly has been more advertising added. Whatever we can do with tour and sales boosts.

Kevin: Dramatically, actually. Like, if we do a tour, you’ll notice a week-and-a-half, two weeks later, that the record will be selling triple or quadruple what it was before. So, this style of band, like, you live off touring and playing, because there is nothing else. You’re not going to be played on MTV or corporate radio, you know? Sometimes.

Ok. And you did the layout for the record, right Adam?

Adam: Yeah.

What was the influence or inspiration you drew from when designing the layout?

Adam: Well, I mean it was supposed to be based on the whole story, I believe it was in Chicago? That fire?

Kevin: No, New York. The, ah…I mean no, Boston. What am I talking about?

Adam: It wasn’t in Boston. I don’t know.

Kevin: It was Boston. It was the Coconut Grove. And 500 people.

Adam: It wasn’t in Boston.

Kevin: Yes it was.

Adam: No it wasn’t.

Kevin: Guarantee it, because my girlfriend’s grandmother had a restaurant right next door to it.

Adam: I’ll bet my first three children it’s not in Boston.

Kevin: That’s fine. We’re going to bet.

They shake on it.

Adam: It doesn’t matter. Anyway, there was a fire and there was the only exit. This was before fire exits were mandated, and the only exit was a revolving door. And everyone just crammed in the door, spun around, didn’t get out, and died. And it’s kind of based on that. A lot of pictures of burned out buildings, and the handprints are supposed to be a charred-type deal.

Do you find some sense of irony with the whole Great White thing?

Mike: I was wondering if maybe our sales would either fall drastically, or rise drastically, depending on, you know, whether people made the connection.

Kevin: We’re looking to tour with Great White because of that. How can that not happen?

I think it would work in your favor. You mentioned tonight that despite all the rumors, you still haven’t settled with a record label yet. And the record on Robotic [Empire] was a one-shot deal. How’s it been shopping around?

Adam: We’re talking to people. We’re spending a lot of time talking to labels and it’s still…we can’t say any names because we still haven’t signed anything. But it’s close, but it’s still not, like, it’s where we think we’re going to end up, but things happen, and we can’t really say. We’re writing the material and playing out as much as we can. We’ll see what happens.

Kevin: I think everyone will be sort of surprised, maybe upset, on who we might sign to, because I think a lot people are expecting us to sign to a certain label. And you never know, so I think people might really surprised about what happens in the future.

What is it specifically that you’re looking for in a label now. You know, some of the positives that a label can offer that maybe Robotic couldn’t offer The Red Chord at the time?

Adam: We just want someone who believes in what we do and has the means and the knowledge to push us as far, you know, help us take us as far as we can. I mean, this is what we do. This is all we have in our lives right now and, like, we want someone who feels the same way and will put in as much effort as we’re putting in.

Kevin: And it’s pretty obvious that some labels have more faith in us than others. So, that would make a huge, huge difference you know.

You already mentioned that you’re writing new material. I’ve read in other interviews where you guys talk about the music in terms of maybe becoming even more extreme and what not. If you can talk about what direction is the music taking, are you adding new elements into the music, or just building on what you started from the last record?

Kevin: I think we just write music. Like, I don’t know how to look at it. Guy might express that we’re going in a more extreme direction, but we can all agree that we just want to write music…

Adam: Music that we’d want to listen to.

Kevin: Yeah.

Mike: We just want to write music that’s cool.

(laughter)

Ok, that’s good. “Cool” is good.

Kevin: I don’t think…there’s nothing, we’re not looking at anything with where we want to be. We just go practice, we did this, and we see what happens.

So you’re not trying to pigeon-hole yourselves…

Adam: We’re not concerned with labels or anything. I don’t know who said this, but someone said there’s only three types of music: music I like, music I don’t like, and music I haven’t heard. And I think that’s how it should be. Like, all these labels. There’s so many it’s ridiculous.

Mike: Some people call us a grind band. Some people call us a hardcore band. Some people call us a death metal band. We’re not any of them, really. We’re just sort of a noisy band.

Kevin: We’re just five guys that love to play music, and we play music. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. Ta-daa.

Cool. How about in terms of recording the new record-is there any specific producer or engineer that you have in mind that you’d like to work with?

Adam: We’ve talked about working with Andrew Schneider again, and he’s expressed interest. And I definitely want to work with someone who wants to work with us. You know, so it’s not just a business “I’m trying to get paid”-type thing. Honestly, that’s a long way down the road. We’re still writing.

Kevin: Most likely, the way it looks right now, our record, we probably won’t even record it until 2004.

Don’t pull a Hatebreed or Shai Hulud. Five years between records.

Kevin: I know, I know. We have a lot more touring coming ahead of us, and we take a long time writing songs, and, if we can’t, like, practice one week and go on tour the next week and try to write a new song the first week, it just doesn’t work. You need to just sit there and just like, weeks at a time, work on stuff. Eventually, the summer we may just take of time and just start buckling down and writing tons of stuff. But, most likely, it might not happen until 2004. Most likely.

Haha. That’s not good news.

Adam: Yeah, we’re super anal.

How about, off the subject of the record, as a band, do you champion any sort of message? Is there any mission statement behind The Red Chord or is it all about music?

Mike: There is definitely no one statement because…

Adam: I think for the next record it’ll be videogames.

Kevin: Or cheese.

Mike: The thing is, everyone in the band has, we don’t all share the same, any same belief or credo, really. So, there will be no one message.

Kevin: The answer is “No.”

Ok, I can take that. I did a lot of homework and reading about you guys…

(Nick Fletcher of BTBAM passes by)

Adam: Did you do your homework about Nick Fletcher?

Haha. No.

Kevin: Of Between The Buried And Me? That kid’s gay.

(laughter)

That’s what I heard!

Mike: I think he’s one of the best people ever.

That’s very kind of you. Shoot, what was I saying?

Mike: You were doing your homework.

Yeah, I was doing my homework. I was also reading, I think that was Guy, saying that you play a lot of hardcore shows where you get a better reaction, versus metal shows where people are just standing around with their arms folded, headbanging. This sort of relates to what Gunface was saying about the music and labels-Do you get a lot of crap from hardcore kids saying “Oh, they’re too metal,” or metal kids saying “Oh, they’re not really metal.”

Kevin: Absolutely.

Adam: We get that all the time.

Mike: Everyone who’s latched on to every genre has their own whiney, bitchy thing to complain about. I don’t really care. People are going to pick you apart no matter what you’re doing, so fuck them. Whatever. I don’t care about any group of kids. I just care about the kids who like us.

Kevin: The answer’s “Yes.”

Ok, very good. How about in terms of changing your style of music to earn a living? Would The Red Chord suddenly play melodic metalcore?

Mike: You’re asking if we’d change our sound to make more money?

Yes.

Mike: For a long time, I thought I had this certain idea about selling out. About people. The only time I think you’re selling out is when you’re compromise your music and you’re not happy with it. If we had compromised our music to sound more mainstream, and we liked the music that we’re playing, yeah, we’d do that. As long as we’re happy, that’s all that matters.

Adam: For me, though, I’d just start a new band. If I was trying to get on the radio I’d just start all over.

Kevin: I don’t even care.

Mike: Whatever. Do everything.

Adam: Give me all your money.

Kevin: Cheese.

Mike: My motto is “Do everything.”

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