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MISERY SIGNALS
INTERVIEW
March 18, 2009
As a huge fan of heavy music and a
fan of post-rock/hardcore bands like Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate,
personally I cannot think of a better band out in the world that
combines elements of metal, hardcore and post-rock/hardcore then the
US band: Misery Signals. From the first second I heard their first
album in 2004, their ability to mash music that can go from technical screaming
madness, to soothing emotional ambient post-rock, all at a drop of a
hat, had me hooked forever.
The fact that 5 years later, we would be
organizing a show for them in Hong Kong is BEYOND belief!
I am very excited and pleased to introduce the metalcore band Misery
Signals to the readers of Respect Mag and would like to thank
Respect Mag for, once again, giving me this opportunity!
(This interview was conducted via mobile phone – after talking to
Stuart Ross, guitar player of Misery Signals, for roughly 45 minutes
– my ear is on FIRE!)
Hey Stuart how’s it going? Where in the
world are you right now?
Hey man! I’ve been back home in Milawaukee for a couple weeks now.
Oh? What tour did you guys just finish up?
We just finished a headlining tour of Australia with a couple
Australian bands: Avenue Affliction and Confession. It was about a
14 day tour and everything was just great about it. Great weather,
great turnout at the shows…
Awesome! So tell us about this upcoming Asian tour!
Man, I don’t even know how this whole tour came together! Hahahahaha…All
I know is that people have been expressing interest in bringing us
over to Asia for a long time. Originally the Asian tour was supposed
to be before our Australian tour but for some reason it didn’t get
locked down. It’s actually really funny. I was surfing the website
Lambgoat and I read an announcement
that said “Misery Signals Announces Asian Tour Dates”. And I was
like “Oh? We confirmed it?!” Hahahahaha…I didn’t even know we
finally confirmed the dates! So I ran over to the other guys in the
band and told them. It was hilarious!
That’s so funny that you actually found out
about the dates through another website! So what are your thoughts
about playing in Hong Kong specifically?
I think it’s surreal! I mean I really cannot begin to tell you how
strange it is for me to think that we’re actually going to be
playing in Hong Kong! I mean I know that Hong Kong is something like
New York City! Hahahaha…I just think it’s surreal!
I’ve been organizing shows in HK for about
10 years now and I am expecting this to be the biggest one we’ve
put on for sure!
Like I said, the whole thing is
surreal! I’m so excited to get over there! I mean I have absolutely
no idea what to expect!
We’ve also put on shows for bands that are
friends of yours like Comeback Kid and Parkway Drive – have they
given you any advice about touring Asia? Or have they warned you
about anything?
Warned us? Is there something that we should know!?
Hahahahaha…No, just in general what have they said about coming
out to Asia?
Well I haven’t spoken to the Parkway Drive dudes yet. But Casey
(guitar player of Comeback Kid) is actually coming to my house
tomorrow because I have a side project with him and Matt (Comeback
Kid’s current bass player).
Oh really? What type of music?
It’s more straight forward rock and melodic punk rock like early
Saves the Day.
You mean like Lifetime?
Yeah like that! Like early Equal Vision Records type of stuff. We’ve been doing this side project band since October
and have about 20 songs now. We’re going to get together and start
recording some stuff.
But anyway, the reason I brought up Casey is because he was just
over there in Asia playing in Comeback Kid and he said the
greatest things about playing over there. Of course he’s a really
positive person anyway! Hahahaha…But he had the greatest things to
say so we’re all just incredibly excited.
On your myspace you have tour videos up –
will you guys be doing the same thing on your Asian leg?
Absolutely!
But I know from booking your flights, it’s just the 5 of you guys
coming?
Well we do have a sound guy that we take on almost everything we do.
He’s a really faithful guy and we always include him as much as
possible. It just wasn’t possible on this specific week that we’re
touring Asia. He will meet us after the Asian tour in Europe when we
tour there a few weeks after.
As someone that is into hardcore, the recent
tour you guys did with Comeback Kid, Bane, Shai Hulud, and Grave
Maker was probably like a dream come true for me tour. What was that
like?
Oh that was easily probably my favorite tour
we’ve ever done. We’ve known the guys in Comeback kid for years
basically through their old band Figure Four. We’ve been friends
with Andrew (singer of Comeback Kid) for years and years and years
and our paths would always cross. If we toured Canada he would come
out and check out the shows, and if they ever came here we would
come out. So we have always been hanging out with those guys and
we’ve always talked about touring together.
Finally, we were back out in Toronto one time and Comeback Kid told
us that they were booking a headlining tour of Canada in the fall.
We were also in the process of booking a headlining tour around
November. So we finally decided you know what? Forget our tour,
let’s just jump on this tour with Comeback Kid if they'll have us.
Actually it’s kinda funny, we’ll be touring with Comeback Kid in
one form or another for almost an entire year now. We did that Canadian
tour with them, then we went to Europe and toured with Architects
and Andrew’s other band Sights and Sounds opened up for us, now
we’re going back to Europe after the Asian tour and opening for
Comeback Kid!
What kind of tours are you guys more
comfortable on? I remember seeing a post about the Dream Theater
tour with Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and was thinking that
would’ve been a GREAT tour for you guys to be on!
That would’ve been amazing! I don’t know how we
get on tours like that. I love prog-metal bands like that and to be
able to tour with a band like Dream Theater would be incredible. For
us when we toured with Strapping Young Lad that was great! We’ve
toured with lots of people from Every Time I Die, Norma Jean,
Bleeding Through, Darkest Hour, etc., but to have toured with Dream
Theater would’ve been great!
Right now in the US I think we have leveled
off. Right now we’re as big as I think we can get. Actually, after
we released Controller things have picked up. But for the most part
we have leveled off. Kids here in the US are more into that
deathcore stuff that is going on. And that’s not really our cup of
tea.
But as far as what tours we’re more comfortable
with? It would have to be touring with our friends bands. Touring
through Canada, Australia and the UK is always wonderful because we
feel more established there.
As a band it seems like you guys have a
hardcore background even though you guys are more metal.
Oh totally! We’re still into hardcore bands and the hardcore scene.
When we toured with Bane that was a HUGE deal to us because we have
loved them for a long time and have been watching their shows
forever. I also listen to a lot of Outbreak and now we’re going to
be touring with them through Europe. Comeback Kid musically is one
of my favorite modern hardcore bands.
We still have roots in hardcore bands…
How did the Misery Signals sound evolve – the best way I could
describe it to people when I first heard you guys was take Shai
Hulud and slam it with a band like Mineral.
That’s so cool that you said Mineral! That’s our bass player’s
favorite band!
Yeah Shai Hulud was a big influence on us as were bands like Sunny Day
Real Estate, Mock Orange, Mineral, and other post-hardcore bands and
for lack of better words, those earlier 90’s “emo” bands. You know
those parts that just build and build and build. If you know bands
like Mineral then you know what I’m talking about. So we knew we
wanted to include those types of parts in our stuff.
But if you don’t mind me saying, your last
record didn’t really have any of those parts. Was that a conscious
decision?
For Controller we were concentrating on making it heavier and
upbeat. Recording the album before (Mirrors) was a very weird process
both the writing and recording. We wanted to include on Controller
what we didn’t include on Mirrors. Ryan and I (our other guitar
player) talk about writing music for our next album almost daily and
we have so many ideas. But like you said, we’re thinking about
adding more of those clean-ambient sections and more post-hardcore
stuff into our newer songs.
Can you tell us about that collaboration with Fall Out Boy? How
did that come about?
Well, we live with the drummer! I live in his house right now. The
drummer of Fall Out Boy Andy is someone that Ryan and Kyle (the
guitar player and drummer of Misery Signals) have known for over 10 years now and they
used to live together in a small horrible house. Then when Fall Out
Boy exploded Andy bought a house and said to Ryan and Kyle “You
guys should just move in!”. They had an extra room in the house so
Andy asked me if I wanted to move in. So that’s how we’re all living
with Andy now.
But Andy used to play in hardcore bands a long time ago, bands like
Racetraitor and Kill the Slave Master which was a Vegan-Straight
Edge band. Andy’s still Vegan and Straight Edge today.
So we’ve known them forever. Then we had that one song where we wanted
to add a singing part to it because we never did that before.
Well you kind of had some parts on the first
two albums...
Yeah I guess we did. But we thought why don’t we ask Patrick of
Fall Out Boy to sing on this song. He thought it was going to be cool so he agreed to do
it. Surprisingly, we thought that there was going to be a lot
paperwork with the major labels, but it was all very
easy! I guess it would've been different had we sold a million
albums!
Lastly, what do you want to say to your fans
in Hong Kong?
Obviously it’s a huge honor to get over there! There are so many US
bands here touring all the time but they don’t get to do all the
cool stuff that we do internationally! I cannot even begin to tell
you how thankful we are to be able to do these things! It’s the
beauty of this band! We’re not trying to make a lot of money or be
on the radio. For us it’s always been about touring and meeting
people. To be able to be welcomed by a scene over there is so
appreciated. The thought of going to Hong Kong is so surreal.
We have no idea what to expect!!! We’re so excited! See you all
soon!
MORE INFO ABOUT THE SHOW:
APR 3, 2009
MISERY SIGNALS
VENUE: Hangout 蒲吧
ADDRESS: 1/F, 2 Holy Cross Path, Sai Wan Ho,HK 西灣河 聖十字俓2號 1樓
TIME: 7:00pm
TICKETS: $200 (Advance 預售), $250 (Door 即場)
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT (ON SALE MARCH 1):
Zoo Records
Tel : 3188 2303
地址 : 旺角彌敦道582-592號信和中心地庫B31號舖
Shop B31 Basement, Sino Center, 582-592 Nathan Road, Mong Kok
White Noise Records
TEL: 25910499
銅鑼灣堅拿道東4號1樓 (鄰近鵝頸橋∕地下門口是飾物店舖)
1/F., 4 Canal Road East, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (close to Times
Square and Canal Road Flyover)
Records Rendezvous
Tel : 2716 9333
地址 : 九龍尖沙咀梳士巴利道3號星光行地庫B23h鋪
Address : Shope B23h, Basement Floor, Star House, 3 Salisbury Rd,
Tsim Sha Tsui
Kowloon City Shop:
216-B, 2/F., KCP (Kowloon City Plaza)
128 Carpenter Road,
Kowloon City
九龍城 九龍城廣場 2樓 216-B舖
Tel:2716-9335
OPENING BANDS:
Shepherds the Weak
The Lovesong
Maniac
CHECK OUT ALL THE ABOVE BAND'S MUSIC:
MISERY SIGNALS:
http://www.myspace.com/miserysignals
Shepherds the Weak:
http://www.myspace.com/shepherdstheweak
The Lovesong:
http://www.myspace.com/thelovesong
Maniac:
http://www.myspace.com/maniachk
THIS SHOW'S FACEBOOK PAGE! See
if any of your friends are coming!
CLICK HERE!
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