Between the Buried and Me – Tommy Rogers, Vocals
So how’s touring going?
It’s good man, going good. It kinda sucks though because every band broke down but us….
So it’s a little unusual because in the past it was you guys breaking down all the time right?
Yeah. We finally got a new van so, knock on wood, we’re doing well.
Where you guys at now?
We’re in Richmond, VA.
Oh ok, and you were in Baltimore last night?
Yeah. And it was great, the whole tour’s been great.
How long’s your set?
About 40 minutes.
And since Alaska just dropped a few weeks ago, what songs are you trying to incorporate into your set off of that?
We’ve been playing a lot off the new record, the title track, All Bodies, Selkies, Autodidac, and that’s pretty much it.
No Roboturner yet?
Actually we’ve played it twice so far.
So why’d you pick those songs off of the new record to play live? Just thought that they fit best?
Yeah, pretty much. We end with Selkies, because of the epic ending….
And I’ve heard you guys haven’t been playing Mordecai much on this tour…?
No, not too much. We’ve pretty much replaced it with Selkies on this tour. We were playing Mordecai every night for 3 years, so it’s time for a change.
What’s your favorite song to play off of Alaska live?
Probably Selkies. There’s just a lot about it that I really have a good time with.
How do kids react during Selkies?
There’s a lot of different motions, mainly because anything and everything is in that song, but that song’s received a great response. When we first wrote that song, we thought “oh this will be a good cd song”, and that it might not go over too well live, but we played it a couple of times on our last tour and kids loved it. So we’ve been really surprised with how well it goes over live, and kids dig the solo at the end too. *laughs*
And speaking of the last tour, how has this tour been different compared to the last one?
This time around, the shows have just been huge. I think it’s not only a really good bill, but everybody also has new cd’s out, and the tour is just really hyped up.
And since Alaska dropped, has your fanbase really changed or diversified at all?
In the last year, year and a half it has. It’s changed dramatically, and it’s awesome, you just see every type of person at our shows, and that was a goal of ours from day one. And I think it’s awesome that all different types of people can enjoy our music.
Just from what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard, what you’ve read, how’s the ‘buzz’ behind Alaska?
It’s been really good, I’ve read a lot of good things, and obviously you read the good, and bad, and a lot of people, including ourselves, think it’s the best thing we’ve done. It’s good to know people are digging it, and it’s going over really well live.
After hearing the final product, and seeing the reaction to it live, is the record everything you expected it to be? Hindsight is 20/20, but now that you’ve been able to look back, is it what you wanted?
There’s always things that after hearing them, you thought it would sound better, but overall we’re very happy with the record. We worked really hard on it, and I think it shows. I wish we would have had a little more time in the studio, but that’s life, and that’s business I guess.
The writing for Silent Circus was pretty short too wasn’t it?
Yeah, but we got Alaska done in about 5 months. So, probably about the same amount of time.
And you guys worked with Jamie again, right? Same guy who did the Self-titled?
Yeah.
How was it working with him, the second time around?
It was amazing. It’s like night and day, and when we first worked with him, he didn’t have pro tools or anything like that.
So this time around was it a lot smoother?
Yeah. We’ve recorded with him a lot in the past, a lot of our past bands recorded with him, and I recorded my solo record with him, and we recorded a Counting Crows cover which we did for an EP. We’ve worked with him numerous times, so we know exactly what to expect.
Going along with past bands, there was a pretty big hype behind Prayer For Cleansing not only reuniting at Hellfest, but possibly reuniting after that, but it was pretty much dispelled in the liner notes of the Tragedy EP, so it’s officially done?
Oh yeah, it’s definitely done. There was never really a time where it was going to happen again, and I guess it just became a rumor. It was cool to do a few reunion shows, and as a whole it was fun, but it’s not something that will ever start back up again.
As a guitarist for Prayer For Cleansing, are you still writing a lot of guitar parts now, and even on Alaska, did you write any of the guitar on it?
I’m always going to write guitar parts, and with Alaska, we all wrote equally, and in the past, not everyone wrote but this new lineup has been amazing as far as writing. Everyone just puts in so much effort, and we all have our own style and all that just makes for a really unique record.
So with this new lineup, was the writing process at all different?
Yeah, it was just because of that fact that everyone in the band writes, and before not everyone wrote, and this time around it was easier, and more ideas came up. We were really picky this time around, I mean we’re always really picky, but we were even pickier as far as just parts, we had so much material that we didn’t think was good.
And the one thing, well two things I’ve noticed with Alaska are that there’s more focus on the extremities of tempo changes, like the heaviest, more grind parts are heavier, and the more ambient stuff is much more ambient. And there’s more progressive elements…
Yeah definitely.
Was this all thought of ahead of time?
Not really. We never really try to think ahead, we just start writing and see what happens. I guess naturally all that stuff happens, and as far as slower stuff, we wanted to create moods with the slower stuff, more ambient, atmospheric stuff, and some of the older stuff just wasn’t quite there. I guess we wanted to be real super-slow with the newer stuff.
Was there any direct influences you drew before going in to write Alaska?
Well, music as a whole is a huge influence on us all, and I’m personally a cd addict.
Yeah, I haven’t even listened to it yet. I’ve been hooked on the new Cave In.
Yeah the new Cave In is amazing. It’s really good. And there’s this band called Pilot Drift, they’re from Texas, and they’re just this really weird rock band. I just listen to lots of rock, and older prog, and metal of course, but bands like Dream Theater, but mainly just music and life in general are the two driving influences in this band.
That’s cool. And going back to the tour, how’s Dusty holding up?
He’s doing good, he’s sitting down every night…. But he’s alright.
Are you guys done for the year after this tour?
No we’re not, we have a whole other tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, full US tour.
So you’re still doing it? I heard you were going to drop off because of Dusty’s back?
Not so far, not that I know of.
They were saying Horse The Band was added, and that would replace you guys since Dusty is hurt.
I hope that’s not the case.
Me neither, that’s quite a nasty tour. But going back to Alaska, you’ve seen how Victory’s promoted it, but if you were given the chance, how would you promote it?
Haha, I don’t know, that’s a hard question because I’ve never had to promote anything. Obviously the internet is such a big promoting tool, so that, and MTV2, Fuse, and all of that. Everything Victory is doing though, I’m agreeing with, but maybe I’d like to see some more non-metal magazines review Alaska.
Have any zines outside of metal covered it?
Not that I know of, but I’ve met a lot of people who’ve told us that they don’t listen to a lot of heavy music but they really like us, so that’s awesome. But we’re obviously 80% a death metal band, so it’s probably hard for someone to dig us when they’ve never heard a blast beat before.
And having such a diverse fanbase, what’s your favorite type of mosh or crowd interaction?
I just mainly like the kids up front who sing along, and go crazy. And other than that, I just see a ton of mischief going on in the background.
Haha, yeah. So after this tour and the DEP tour, what’s the plan?
We’re going to just take some time off to let Dusty’s back heal, and other than that, we really haven’t even thought about it honestly.
Oh ok. Well, you’ve filmed the first video for Alaska, and it’s the title track, how’d that go?
We filmed it out in LA about a month ago.
Has it been released yet?
Yeah, I think it debuted on headbangers ball a few weeks ago.
Have you even thought about putting out a second video yet?
No, not yet. I personally hate doing videos.
Any reason why?
I don’t know, there’s just something weird about fake-playing.
I haven’t seen the video yet, but what’s the concept behind it?
It’s just the idea of writers block, and the song is basically about the weird shit that goes through your head when you’re in the middle of the desert. It’s just a kind of dark video, and we wanted to have real close up shots of our instruments, and the only stuff that matters aside from our cool hair *laughs*. I mean I think it’s cool, and one day I want to do something totally out of hand.
Moving along with something out of the box, or out of hand, are you going to continue with Giles?
Yeah definitely. I don’t know if Victory is going to put out another Giles album or not, but I’m definitely going to keep writing for it.
Yeah I saw the video for it the other night, and wow man, just….wow.
Yeah it’s pretty weird, it was a lot of fun.
And one final generic question is, well…since you’ve been in nearly a thousand bands, and all the shows you’ve been to, how’s everything changed, and where do you think this music is headed?
Well when I first got into it, a huge show would be 60 kids, and now a huge show is 900 kids so it’s definitely changed. And metal is on the rise right now, and it’s a good thing, it’s helping a lot of bands get recognized. But just like any trend, there’s hundreds and hundreds of bands coming out for the sole purpose of becoming a big band, they’re not in a band because they love music, they’re in a band to make money.
Do you see all of the over-saturation in the Swedish Death Metal Metalcore just now, or was it evident with a lot of the tech-metalcore bands on Tribunal a few years ago
Well yeah, just like when anything becomes popular, it happens. Look when 90s grunge was popular, there were so many bands trying to write off that to make money. It’s just like anything, and I think in a few years it’ll die down a lot, and the stronger bands will remain.
If you could predict the next trend in heavy music, what do you think it’d be?
Next trend…. Hmm…. A capella death metal. *laughs*. I don’t know.
Hey anything’s possible. We’ll just wait and see.
Yeah we’ll just wait.
Well that’s about all I got Tommy, thanks for taking the time out to do the interview, and good luck on tour.
Sure buddy, thanks.
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