NEW YORK (RoadRunner Records) - Roadrunner UK street team member Steve Birkett recently won a competition to interview
Killswitch Engage. Here is the interview that he conducted:
"I make my way up to the tour bus with a surprising lack of desperate groupies trying to catch a glimpse of their heroes..perhaps this cold snap has killed them all off? Upon entering a pretty neat and tidy tour bus, I'm greeted by a relaxed but tired looking Adam D, slumped in front of a PS2 and what looks to be... a fishing game?
Roadrunner UK: Who are you and what are you doing here?
Adam D: I'm Adam D. and I'm playing rock guitar...and fishing!
Roadrunner UK: You're playing a wet, rainy fishing game on a cold winter tour of the UK? Fair enough! What gift did you most want this past Christmas and did you receive it?
Adam D: Ahhh, what did I want? Actually, I wanted a Game Cube and I got it. We didn't bring it on tour, though, so it's waiting for me to play when I get home.
Roadrunner UK: The re-release of your self-titled debut album gives more recent converts a chance to hear a more raw, abrasive version of things to come. How do you feel these songs compare to the newer material?
Adam D: It's definitely the early beginnings of the band...much more raw, stripped down versions of song writing. It's younger, more underground sounding and the songs are definitely less polished..it's got some vigour and spunk to it!
Roadrunner UK: How did it feel to have
Jesse Leach back onstage with Killswitch recently? Was there a reason behind the choice of 'Take This Oath' for his appearance?
Adam D: (yawns) Excuse me! It was really cool. Jesse's such a good friend and such a rad dude. It was a cool thing to have him up onstage and let people know that there are no hard feelings between us and that we just bro' down, so it was cool. We just chose that song because he helped us out with some of the vocals on that one for the last record.
Roadrunner UK: Are you conscious of KsE being tagged 'standard bearers' for the resurgence of heavy music in the last few years?
Adam D: What is it we've been tagged? Really?! I don't know, I just sit here and play video games and I'm like "what??". Those labels just pretty much roll by us and whatever we get labelled we get labelled, pretty much.
Roadrunner UK: Which Killswitch song do you think best displays all elements of the band?
Adam D: Lemme think about it..I'm trying to think of a song we all wrote together. On the new record, I guess the song 'Hope Is.' was one we all did. We kinda got everyone's take on that one and it has something from everybody in there. It goes all over the place.
Roadrunner UK: When you're not ripping fan's faces off live, what do you listen to, to wind down and chill out...whilst you're fishing and all that?!
Adam D: I'm really listening to the
Killers at the moment! I don't know why...I guess it's just the tunes, I'm stoked on it man. It's number 1 over here right now? Cool!
Roadrunner UK: What would you do for a living if you weren't destroying eardrums with Killswitch Engage?
Adam D: Definitely producing records man. Definitely.
Roadrunner UK: Was that part of the reason for bringing
All That Remains out on tour?
Adam D: No, actually. Of course they're our friends and we've wanted to bring them out on tour and they've been wanting to come out with us. They're fantastic though, so it's a good one.
Roadrunner UK: Do you have a favourite story or moment from being on tour with the band?
Adam D: Well on this tour, I guess the other night we got kinda out of hand in Glasgow! Jeez, we were real pissy, SO drunk. I ended up so drunk in a nightclub in the place we played that I stole this girl's sachet, put in on, then tipped a bucket of beer and ice all over the floor so I could wear that as a hat. Put it on my head and then just started disco dancing with our roadie on my back, slapping my ass!! I actually ran out shortly after that and just started vomiting..now I've been sick for days!
Roadrunner UK: How do you think you fared in the notoriously difficult 'Slayer support act' slot on the recent Jagermeister tour of the USA?
Adam D: I'll be honest with you, it was definitely kinda hard because there are definitely a lot of kids that come out just for
Slayer and like to take the piss out of all the other bands that are playing. We just went out there with our own attitude that, whatever, they're gonna do what they're gonna do, and I think we did alright I guess.
Roadrunner UK: Name one venue that ranks as 'Biggest Shithole we've ever played'
Adam D: BIGGEST SHITHOLE huh? I gotta think about this one..I wanna say there's so many of them! There are a lot of shitholes. I know that I just missed one of them on this last tour, a place down in Arkansas, that's actually a pizza joint. It was the middle of summertime too, with no air conditioning, so it's like 120 degrees. It's just brutal man and I actually missed it!
Roadrunner UK: Who is the dirtiest member of Killswitch Engage, be that mentally or physically?
Adam D: Hmmm, dirtiest member? I don't know, I try to bathe on a regular basis sooo maybe Howard? He kinda just sits around in his den of filth! I know he's the less frequent of showerers so..
Roadrunner UK: Well, this is going up on the website so, it's official,
Howard Jones it is, dirtiest member!
Adam D: Yeah, you got it!
Roadrunner UK: What do you think the band can achieve in 2005?
Adam D: Umm, shoot, hopefully I can trim down, I'm getting fat....that's my goal!
Roadrunner UK: Definitely avoid those kebabs here then..
Adam D: No man, I LOVE the kebab! My most proud moment from here is eating a Chicken Phaal in a curryhouse, then as soon as I was finished we went to get a kebab. I went from eating the hottest meal in Britain to the crappiest meal in Britain one after another, just for the challenge!" -
Killswitch Engage are releasing
The End of Heartache Special Edition on 3/1/05 featuring 6 bonus tracks, and the videos for "The End of Heartache" and "Rose of Sharyn." They will also be appearing on the
Taste of Chaos tour all winter.
