Chimaira’s been through enough drama last through a VH1 “Behind the Music” special already…or two. The Cleveland, Ohio-based band has put out only three full-length albums but went through a label battle with Roadrunner Records and hit a low point during the production of their 2005 self-titled release. With the return of original drummer Andols Herrick and a new place on Ferret and Nuclear Blast Records, the band has risen up and is ready to start over with a new album titled Resurrection and a DVD documentary that chronicles it all. I chatted with lead singer/guitarist Mark Hunter on pushing through recent struggles and getting his band back and happy again.

SMN: What’s up man? What are you and the band up to right now?

Mark: Things are going great, man! Right now we’re just working on the new album. We’re about 95 percent done and then we’re gonna go in and master it in the next week so. Then it’ll be officially done. We’re at a critical point and we’re right on schedule.

 

SMN: Awesome. Glad to hear it. What’s the story behind the title of the new album? Usually when bands release a self-titled album later into their discography, they want to indicate a major change in their sound, but titling this album Resurrection seems to imply another change…

Mark: (laughs) We’re always evolving and changing I guess. But I felt that the self-titled record – and I still think it to this day – that we really tried to find ourselves as musicians for that album. Things may have not worked out the way we wanted them to once the record was done, so we came up with this new title because at that point we were all pretty unhappy with being in the band. We were miserable altogether and we had to find ourselves again. So that’s where that came from.

 

SMN: Has getting Andols back on drums been a big part of getting you guys back and gellin’ together, as well as defining the sound for the new album?

Mark: Totally. That was the first step in the “happiness” side of making everything right again. We can definitely tell he’s happy to be back, especially with his playing and some of the things he’s doing as well for the new record. He wants to show the world that he means business and that we’re back.

 

SMN: So tell me about this new deal with Ferret and Nuclear Blast. It seems like this has worked out so much better as compared to when you guys were with Roadrunner.

Mark: Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t so much that the record deal was bad with Roadrunner, but it was more or less that the biggest problem with them was that they put a ceiling on our career. No, we’re not some of those bands now becoming semi-popular and being called the next biggest thing in the world, but we also don’t want someone to be putting a ceiling on us and saying that we’re only going to sell X amount of records, and that’s how much effort we’ll put into you. That’s just not fair to us.

 

SMN: And obviously Nuclear Blast wants you to do the exact opposite.

Mark: They want to sell records. They want their bands to be more successful than they were in the past and put their money where their mouths are. It’s not all about that, but a big thing with these labels is that Carl, the owner of Ferret and Marcus, the owner of Nuclear Blast are both big fans of our band. I don’t even think the owner of Roadrunner knows who we are.

 

SMN: It’s the problem of being part of a big label. Roadrunner’s signed so many bands lately so you feel like you get lost in the mix.

Mark: Yeah, we were definitely little fish in a big pond on Roadrunner whereas with Ferret we’re the great white shark.

 

SMN: I heard you guys are making a DVD documentary of the production of Resurrection. Is this related to a lot of the changes you made and how you want to relate to your fans now?

Mark: It’s funny that you ask that. It’s actually not why we set out to do that; it was more or less that I’m a huge movie fan and I want more DVDs. I think Todd’s a good filmmaker, and while we were writing this album I thought it was going to be special in regards to the music itself. I didn’t really notice the attitude adjustment or change in personalities until Todd noticed it. During The Dehumanizing Process he was making a movie that was basically a super in-depth, involved, the meaning of life and “woe is me” documentary regarding the band. After starting this new one he said “dude, I don’t know how this is going to turn out.” I asked him why and he said “because I’m not used to doing comedies.” The guys have totally changed and it’s such a different bands. He said our fans are gonna be like “what the hell happened to these guys?” You’d think someone handed us a million dollars from our personality changes.

 

SMN: Well just wait until you do get that million and then you will wonder what the hell happened…

Mark: Yeah, exactly, I said “well, why don’t you stick with us for a year and see where we’re at. Maybe we’ll go downhill and you shouldn’t turn the camera off just yet.”

 

SMN: Going back to how you are a big movie buff and you like to write songs about movies such as The Shining and American Psycho, what other movies do you want write songs about?

Mark: Well, I’ve done a few on this one and I’d rather people figure it out on their own. I went nuts with that this time around. I wrote three songs this time that are based around movies, and I think it’s a bit more exciting when fans figure it out on their own. I don’t think the American Psycho reference was picked up until about a year later, so it’s kinda cool to watch it all evolve.

 

SMN: In terms of other songs you’ve written on this album that aren’t related to movies, can you pick one and describe why you decided to write it?

Mark: Yeah, I wrote the title track under the impression that people would assume right off the bat that the song is pretty negative towards Roadrunner. Which is not the case, but I think that I stated earlier in the conversation that the band itself was at a low point in our career because we were unhappy as individuals, and some dudes wanted to leave the band. We weren’t happy touring or doing what we were doing. Some of it did stem from Roadrunner, but a lot of it was from not being able to communicate as adults. Once we got all of that out of our systems, it was a breath of fresh air. Just to be able to go up to someone in my band and say “hey, can you please not do that, it’s upsetting me” instead of letting it build up and turning it into “you fucking cocksucker” and getting into a fight over it. That’s where the song is more in-depth with. All the trials and tribulations we’ve been through as individuals. It’s a song where you’ve got a wall in front of you, and you can decide to stand there or figure out a way to get over it. That’s what we did.

 

SMN: This of course ties back to the title of the whole album.

Mark: Yeah, but the rest is evil and darkness and mutilating people though. Don’t worry, there’s only one positive song on the whole album.

 

SMN: Well yeah, you do have to stay brutal and all the nasty metal stuff to appease your crowd.

Mark: Exactly.

 

SMN: Now you play guitar sometimes with the band as well, and you’re known to do it live quite a bit. Do you prefer performing with a guitar live or just doing the vocals?

Mark: I actually enjoy playing the guitar. There’s a song on the new record that I tracked completely and I plan on playing guitar for it live as well. And then there’s another song in the vein of instrumental-type tracks where there are a lot of three-guitar things that I’ll play, and I have a good time doing it. I don’t want to do the whole time, but it’s something different going on with our live show and it’s what our peers are doing. I always like playing the guitar though because someone will come up to me and crack a joke about LSD – Lead Singer Disorder – and I say “well, I’m glad I don’t have that because I’m a guitarist!”

 

SMN: Do you play any other instruments or want to take up any?

Mark: I actually started off playing drums, but I’m just godawful so I quit. I like to fuck around with keyboards and the electronic side of things. It’ll be very apparent in the DVD that I’m heavily involved with the programming and keyboard side of things. Chris is way better at it than I am, but I love to get involved with it and come up with some ideas here and there.

 

SMN: So I assume after recording this album that you guys are gonna be hitting the road pretty hard again?

Mark: Yeah, from what management and the label are saying, it’s basically the “say goodbye to your life for two years” attitude. We didn’t tour much on the last record, but that wasn’t really in our hands. We were out for about a year, year and a half maybe, so we can expect a similar schedule again.

 

SMN: Does being away from Roadrunner also open up how you put together your touring schedule?

Mark: Nah, they never really had a say in our touring, we always put ourselves out there for tours. They helped us get on a few tours and wanted us to, but after the first initial tour we were pretty much on our own and we had many offers. We actually turned down Family Values and a few other things, but what’s the point in going out and promoting a record that’s $29.99 and you can’t even find it in stores anyway?

 

SMN: What’s the best part about being on tour besides rocking out for all the crazy metal kids?

Mark: You’re talking to someone who hates touring so you basically answered your own question! That’s pretty much it, just going out and playing every night. The rest of it is…well, the drummer and I have contests every night to see who can sleep longer. You do meet a lot of awesome people and new bands though.

 

SMN: Speaking of, what bands do you want to tour with that you haven’t yet?

Mark: Well, I’m not gonna be cliché and say “we wanna tour with Metallica!” Although that would be awesome too. I’d like to tour with Decapitated and Gojira. I’m a big fan of Gojira’s latest CD.

 

SMN: Awesome man. Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it! Good luck with the rest of the album and recording.

Mark: Thanks man. Seeya later!

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 1st, 2006 at 12:00 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

blackdahliaincarnate wrote:

Dude, I love Mark…I seen Chimaira in July in Columbus..I kind of felt bad for the bands because the Columbus crowds bite ass..But yeah, I love Chimaira, as a true Ohioan, I can’t help bu tlove and support them. They kick ass man!

October 25th, 2007 at 9:42 pm

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