Poison The Well

author TL date 20/03/08

On the 6th of March 2008, The tour of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Poison The Well and Stolen Babies made a stop in Copenhagen, Denmark and of course I had to get a hold of one of the bands. So I get set things up with Poison The Well, and when I arrive at Pumpehuset I enter and ask for their tour manager and am met with the response that \\\"they don\\\'t have any\\\". A few minutes later I\\\'m sitting in the band\\\'s rather small van with guitarist Ryan, realizing just how DIY they seem to be. Anyway, I have a chat with him and what comes out of it is an interesting conversation about differences in live shows, new albums, inter-band relationships and good new music. You guys can all read it right here:

RF.net: Okay first off, welcome to Denmark, it\\\'s your first visit here I know. Our editor spoke to Chris a year ago in London so to start things off, we\\\'d like to hear how you\\\'ve been since then?
Ryan: Awesome! It\\\'s been spent touring, that\\\'s all we\\\'ve done Toured and toured!

RF.net: And it\\\'s been all good?

Ryan: Yeah it\\\'s been super fun. It\\\'s been a long year because we haven\\\'t really had any time off, but I can\\\'t complain, I\\\'m happy to just be around playing shows.

RF.net: About your band, Brad and Brad have been filling in with second guitar and bass on your tours for a while, but are there any plans for filling the spots out in a more permanent fashion than them just standing in?
Ryan: Hopefully it\'ll be those two guys. We haven\'t really talked that much about it, when we get home from this tour we\'ll just sit down and start writing and then we\'ll see what happens.

RF.net: What are your thoughts for the writing process so far? Have you got a lot of ideas already?
Ryan: Yeah I have tonnes! Just sort of parts and bits and things lying around..

RF.net: So can you shed some light on what it\'s going to be like?

Ryan: Just weird! Same thing as the last one really.. It\'s definitely a step forward but I don\'t know if it\'ll be lighter or heavier or anything like that, I just sort of have a lot of guitar parts done on a drum machine so I can\'t really tell by now because it\'s all very loose..

RF.net: But you do reckon it\'ll be more like \"Versions\" than earlier material?

Ryan: Yeah it definitely won\'t be a step backwards. I ran out of good parts like that long ago - used them all up.. And it seems that since then, so many bands from our area has been doing so many albums like that, and I can\'t really think of how there could be anything left to do in that direction. You know when there\'s like 7000 bands all trying to write the hardest breakdown ever! People should just realize that Madball already did it and stop trying.

RF.net: Sounds good, it\'s just an ongoing debate between me and our editor in which way bands should progress, so we like to find out what we can expect.

Ryan: Yeah well, I\'ve been listening to a lot of surf music for a while and maybe you\'ll hear some of that in there.

RF.net: So this isn\'t your first tour of Europe with The Dillinger Escape Plan - How did it come to be that you went to tour with them again instead of with someone new?
Ryan: Yeah, Jeff and Greg have sort of a romantic connection.

RF.net: laughs

Ryan: No I\'m serious..

RF.net: Okay

Ryan: Yeah, I fully support them in every way. I\'m open minded.

RF.net: So that\'s why you choose to go on tour with them then?

Ryan: Yeah, in reality we\'re all just friends though, Jeff and Greg just happen to have a crush on each other, it\'s not a big deal.

RF.net: So anyway, those guys are known for one of the most explosive live performances around - Do you feel pressured to have to match their show?
Ryan: Absolutely not!

RF.net: Do you think you can do it though?

Ryan: No. At least not in the same way. You know, we\'re different bands with sort of different ideas and mentalities with music. We think a lot alike about music but we\'re just different people. They have their thing and we have a much more stripped down kind of thing.. I don\'t want to use the words \"punk rock\" because that\'s not it, but it\'s just more simple.. More like \"here\'s a band playing some songs.. hopefully playing them well!\"

RF.net: Could you describe what a day on your tour look like?
Ryan: Get up, get in the van, drive to food, eat food, get to the show, set up equipment, watch everybody check emails from home and then just play, get in the van and drive on. Nothing sort of wild and rock\'n\'roll-ish. I\'m sorry I can\'t say we\'ve been doing blow off girl\'s boobs or anything, we\'re just not those kind of guys.

RF.net: Can you tell us what you\\\'re listening to in the band at the moment?
Ryan: The new Witchcraft record is really popular in the van. The new Genghis Tron has been on repeat, which I guess is cool, it\'s just not really my kind of thing. The new Black Mountain record\'s been cycling as well. A lot of Morrisey which I think annoys everybody but me, our driver hates it but I love it at least. I\'m always listening to The Bad Brains personally and then Black Sabbath has been on a bunch.

RF.net: Anything new you wanna recommend for the readers?

Ryan: The new Black Mountain record is super good and also the new Cat Power. Entombed made a really good album as well..

RF.net: Can you tell us what\'s the worst discouragement and the best encouragement about being in your band?
Ryan: Well the encouragement would be waking up every morning and doing what I love for a living and doing it whatever way I choose to. I guess the worst thing would just be that I miss my girlfriend and my family.

RF.net: What are your future plans in the moment? Finish this tour and then?
Ryan: Finish this tour and then we go home and write a bit, then we play in Canada with Killswitch Engage and we\'re going to play a show in Costa Rica, then go home and write some more. Then we\'re going to tour South America, then record and then probably come back here.

RF.net: So when do you reckon.. -

Ryan: - Late 08, we\'ll probably be back on tour again..

RF.net: Yeah but about the record?

Ryan: Like spring of 09.. So not as much time between this one and the last one as last time around.

Comments
comments powered by Disqus

Legal

© Copyright MMXXIV Rockfreaks.net.