LIVE ‘N LOUD MEETS AS I LAY DYING
As we covered the Heavy MTL festival this summer, we met up with a few bands to know more about them and what was coming up for them.
Here is our interview with: Phil Sgrosso from As I Lay Dying
(Interview by Karine Juteau / Photos by Nour Haik)
LNL: How’s your day so far?
Phil: It’s good, woke up not too long ago, just chilling, waking up (laughs)
LNL: Will you be watching any shows today?
Phil: Oh yeah I’ll watch hmmm Kiss, definitely watching Kiss today for sure, I will try to catch Times of Grace too.
LNL: What was the last show that you saw?
Phil: Last show Red Sparowes, instrumental band from L.A, it’s got one of the guitar player of Isis, went to saw them it was awesome, vibe, instrumental good guitar playing and stuff, Red Sparowes.
LNL: Let’s play a little game here – Name the first thing that comes to your mind if I say:
“Heavy”
Phil: I think of bands like Metallica. Metallica: it’s the greatest heavy metal band there is you know!
“Live”
Phil: Shows
“Loud”
Phil: The loudest show I ever saw was Recover in San Diego and I almost left the show because it was too loud it was hurting my stomach and my head I was disoriented. To the sound guy: it was too loud (laughs)
“Internet”
Phil: I was talking about that to someone the other day, and the Internet is the craziest invention of all time! It’s just crazy to think what people were doing in the old days you know, how did people exchange and find informations and then now you can figure anything you want, it’s pretty incredible like you know there a tons of information at your finger tips, literally (laughs).
LNL: Do you have any advice to give to new bands that may help them in the future?
Phil: Be smart, business wise there’s a lot of good bands that never make it to the next lever because they don’t make the right business decisions. What’s really funny is that you see horrible band getting bigger and bigger because they do make the right business decisions so that’s a big part. If you’re a good band and you make the right business decision then nothing can stop you.
LNL: If there was only one album from As I Lay Dying that you had to suggest to a new fan that doesn’t know you, which one would it be?
Phil: Hmmm, first album to listen to, I think maybe An Ocean Between Us is a little bit more easy to digest for a first time listener. I think maybe our recent album pleased our fan bases and then kind of made some more fans that were in into the more extreme stuff. I think our catalogue kind of has a different vibe for that era but I think that An Ocean Between Us is definitely what has establish us as a solid heavy band beyond metalcore and stuff. I guess that’s what we felt like “man everything is in place now”!
LNL: What can we expect from the band for the remaining year?
Phil: We will be doing some European touring and this is our 10th year as a band so were going to be releasing an album, it started of as an EP but we kept adding some more stuff to it we got a few original songs we wrote, a few covers and a few remixes that we put together just to celebrate the 10 years as a band so that will be coming up at the end of year.
LNL: That’s pretty cool! Do you have any special habits while recording/writing albums?
Phil: I try to listen to good music, I try to not listen to bad music(laughs)! When I’m in a creative mode like that I don’t want to be influenced by something negative that I don’t really like. I like to be surrounded with good things that inspire me in a positive way. I don’t listen to the radio because… I don’t listen to the radio, I rather pick what I want to hear and be inspired by that. I’m at home and I focus on the computer and yeah, nothing too crazy.
LNL: Can we expect to see you back in Montreal soon?
Phil: We hope so; I mean it’s always great when we play here! I think that next year we will do a Canadian tour next year maybe…
LNL: Thank you for your time!
Phil: Well thank you!!
CLICK HERE FOR LIVE PHOTOS OF AS I LAY DYING!
Category: Interviews
