Libby: I just saw you selling merch out of a box on the street – how do you feel about more and more venues taking commission for merch these days?
Liam: I want to sell my own merch, it makes a huge difference. The dudes at the venue are super nice but they don’t give a fuck about your band, he’s not gonna care about selling it. Our merch guy is a friendly guy, if hose kids don’t have money I don’t give a shit, I’ll cut a deal. The upside is you get a night off so we tend to head up to Wagamamas – I head there’s a few on the east coast but there’s none in Canada.
Libby: How was getting in on the Eastpak Tour last week?
Liam: It was awesome, it was actually their idea. We had some time to kill because of the cancelled shows and we were driving past Birmingham anyway on the way to Leeds. We’ve toured with them before and we have this Canadian brothership. The guys from Alexisonfire just told us to go on and play during their encore. We didn’t introduce ourselves or anything. We knew the kids would get it. People who tend to like their music like ours or at least know us. We wear each others merch and help each other out and drop each other in interviews and stuff. It’s all about helping each other out. Like this tour it’s really great to be touring with fellow Canadians.
Libby: So what’s in store for us on the new album – is the song (Darkness) you played in your set tonight representative of what you’ve recorded?
Liam: The album is done! No that’s the thing that’s just the first song we’ve written, almost like a flag ship song. Our new stuff is slow and dirty, sounds like Danzig and Life of Agony. There’s still tonnes of Cancer Bats stuff on their though, some of the fastest, slowest, heaviest and melodic stuff we’ve ever done.
Libby: So when can we expect to get our hands on it?
Liam: Hopefully by the middle of March. We’re really hoping to come over around then too, but there’s nothing confirmed yet. Look out for that.
Libby: You’re well known for being Straight Edge – it was recently national Edge Day, is that something you celebrate?
Liam: No, I totally forgot about it actually. Everyday is edge day for me.
Libby: Do you feel that it’s becoming more gimmicky now?
Liam: Do kids still X up? That’s cool. I guess its different scenes, it’s not for everyone but some of those kids who X up and go outside and smoke maybe it wasn’t for them, but for the few who stick with it it’s something positive in their life. Like that’s how I got into it. When you’re young you just want to have something you can identify with and helps when lots of your friends are into that. It’s not for everyone but it’s like whatever you get most positive out of. Bands like Bane, Youth of Today, Strife and Earth Crisis were definitely influential.
Libby: Ok so what would your top 3 most influential bands or albums be then?
Liam: Every Time I Die – growing up so close to Buffalo, they’re a big hardcore band who would cross the border and play. We had a really good scene with bands like Swarm. We also had a lot of American bands who would come and play. Top three though? Whoa, I guess I’ll have to say Every Time I Die, Led Zeppelin and Beastie Boys. Seeing the likes of Every Time I Die still put out records makes us feel okay that we’re older dudes still putting out heavy music rather than getting a job.
Libby: Are there any bands you recommend we check out or watch out for?
Liam: New Doom Riders and Converge are amazing, as is new Every Time I Die. I feel like any of the bands I’m recommending people will already know. Like Black Breath, Nails, Trap Them. I like Trash Talk, they’re fucking brutal. It’s awesome, we’re not the most hardcore band, but kids these days are making bands as hardcore and as brutal as possible. One of the biggest bands right now are Bring Me The Horizon, that band are really fucking heavy. No matter what you say about them Olli has like no singing, it’s really fucking brutal. And it’s great, kids get into this shit and then they get into other hardcore and that’s way cooler than getting into any pop shit that’s on the radio. The Blackout are as punk as fuck – put that n the interview. Those guys are always on tour, they’re hardcore and the nicest bunch of guys.
Libby: So Halloween’s coming up, what are you guys going to dress up as?
Liam: Last year we just threw it together. We were on tour with Funeral For A Friend. Apparently, we didn’t know this, but people who go to Funeral For A Friend shows don’t dress up for Halloween. There were maybe 7 of us in this huge venue who were dressed up so we just freaked everyone out; I think they just thought our band wear corpse face paint all the time. A great idea is to buy a little kids costume and forcing it to fit!