Interview with Killswitch Engage

Killswitch Engage . Germany . Bielefeld . Ringlok Schuppen . 11.17.05 . Interviewer: Cloë

Killswitch Engage - Rose Of Sharyn

Mike D’Angelo, one of the founding members and bass player of Massechusetts’ melodic metalheads of Killswitch Engage, was introduced to me in the back of the big freezing parking lot of Bielefeld’s Ringlokschuppen, where they played the Taste of Chaos Tour. He looked definitely different than expected, since I had seen him just on older photos before, and now he was totally wrapped in a warm jacket, a hat .. and BEARD. But his open character and the fact that he – coming from the northern part of the US and probably being used to cold temperatures – was freezing too, made him likeable immediately.
In the bus, which opposed to what I expected was not a lot warmer, this very interesting interview started.

Punk76: This is one of the last days of the Taste of chaos Tour, how is it going so far?

Mike: Its great! This is our first non-metal tour ever, there is no attitude and we made a lot of good friends on this tour. We played already in Australia, Japan, the UK and now we are here in Germany. But this tour is just the last part of almost 1 and a half year of constant touring for our last record’s promotion (Anm. “The End Of Heartache”, release date Feb. 2005). We have 4 days left and are ready to go home!

Punk76: Killswitch Engage developed great success over the past years. That’s great, but is there anything you would like to change right now looking back to the old times, like playing smaller, more personal shows again?
Mike: Every tour we do, it seems to step up to another level. Which is great, because you don’t want to go backwards, and if you do it tells you your time may be limited. But the thing that keeps us going is the fact, that every day something new and good pops up, like playing Ozzfest or being nominated for a Grammy. After 15 years of making music, and having started with simple basement shows playing in front of 10 kids, all this is like a dream which I never thought id be able to live! Its just too good to be true. On the other side, I really do love playing more personal shows at smaller places instead of all these huge festivals. Just to hang out and have less stress just leaving for another big city. But I wouldn’t change this life for nothing!

Punk76: Did you experience that fans and friends from the way early times see you in a different light right now when KE become really huge? Any bad feedback?
Mike: No, never! I think people from our hometown know us, and we would never develop any attitude. We just did a DVD shooting at one of the clubs we ever played at, one of the places we call home. We try to keep it “as real as possible” and show love to the fans who stop by to see us play!

Punk76: As you said, you just released your new DVD “(Set this) World Ablaze”, you were nominated for a Grammy, KE obviously reached so much success, where is the band’s goal now? Is there anything you still dream of reaching?
Mike: Oh yeah, we definitely want to purchase a space shuttle sometimes (grins)! And we plan to play on Mars, whether there are people or not! But we are thinking about a lot things, so we made this list of all what we would like to reach. Besides this space shuttle idea, we want to drill to the center of the earth and play for the Molten Man. But seriously, Hawaii and Alaska are the places we want to go for sure (laughs)! We have been asked to play there a few times, and we are pretty stoked.

Punk76: Cool, if you plan to go to Alaska, you can go outside right now here and practise a little for the temperature there, its freezing!
Mike: (laughs) For sure! I heard its very beautiful! 23 hours of daylight a day in summer and 23 hours of darkness in winter. Pretty amazing!

Punk76: You have played and seen a lot of different countries and continents, can you mention differences between the scenes, the shows or the people?
Mike: Australia could be the loudest crowd ever created. They are just so thankful that bands can come, because for non Australian bands its very expensive. Japan is kind of the same way, but they take it a step further and are very respectful. They clap, clap, clap after a song and then it’s silent immediately, because they want to hear what you have to say, even though they do not understand it at all (smiles). I also experienced that it is very hard for me as a vegetarian to order meals there. I always carried this around (he pulls out a key tag with two rows of Japanese signs on it), it explains that I am vegetarian and I eat cheese (laughs).

Punk76: Wow, can you read this or even pronounce ?
Mike: Uuum ...haha, no. (laughs). They actually just read it and laugh… (imitates a Japanese accent) “haha vegetarian”. But to your question: UK kids are definitely on power with Australian kids, they really appreciate us playing over here. And in Germany there is a lot of moshing and dancing going on and brutality …it’s fun (grins)! It is also very hard to eat vegetarian meals. It’s actually just bread and cheese and … tomatoes.

Punk76: When you are on tour and have free time, lets say sitting in the bus, do you use this time and the experience of this tour to write new songs or lyrics (Howard)?
Mike: I know that Howard (singer) definitely uses the experience, I know “Rose Of Sharyn” has something to do with touring and being away from home. On the flight here, Howard took my drawing bad and wrote some new lyrics on that. For him it might be a good outlet, because touring can be depressive being away from your friends and .. cats.

Punk76: Do you have cats at home?
Mike: Yes, I have two cats and I miss them terribly! Toast and Rama. (After explaining that “Rama” is a brand of margarine here, he started laughing) Oh Rama and Toast, that fits well! But as far as guitars and stuff like that go, we actually never write anything on tour, because that would be too much. We love to do our jobs on stage, but besides that we rather try to forget about being on the bus, on tour and away from our friends and families by doing other things.

Punk76: Like what?
Mike: (immediately:) Drink! (laughs) Seriously, touring after 1 ½ years can become very depressing. It’s four days left now, and we are counting the seconds!

Punk76: But all the time you spent by touring and being in this band, would you say you grew more over these years in mentally or character-based ways?
Mike: Absolutely! Plus, I would never have seen all these beautiful places all over the world, like Japan or even Europe! I have been in other bands and struggled for so long, and I never thought I would come over here. But now this happens and it is pretty overwhelming!

Punk76: Your new DVD “(Set This) World Ablaze" will be released November 18, 2005. What does it contain?
Mike: We recorded it in our hometown during Ozzfest, and we were able to sell out the venue! And with 2500 sold tickets in 3 days it is pretty satisfying to see it being sold out so quickly! And we had just one week to promote the show, because of some weird guidelines in Ozzfest where you cant have shows which are too close to where you are playing at. So we played a show really close and then had one week to promote it. So it is this show on the DVD and this documentary about everything the band went through. Also we have a lot of funny bonus stuff, cool stories from out of the bus for example. We had material for 3 hours , but obviously we couldn’t fit all that on the DVD, so we thought “cut everything out which is not funny!”. (smiles).

Punk76: You are a very talented artist, creating all these KE designs and stuff for a lot of other bands. Did you do this DVD as well?
Mike: I did. I love to do this, especially on tour. It gets me out of thinking of being on tour, doing interviews and having all this work to do. It just takes you totally to a different place! And this makes it easier for me coming up with new ideas than at home. Since I see so a lot new places, I get influenced by things I see around me! Right now I am doing the layout for the new Caliban record on Roadrunner Records and finished some shirt designs for Calmera and Soilwork.

Punk76: Lets talk about the future. In future projects, do you think the music of KE will stay the same for the next years, keeping the “good old stuff” you are so successful with right now, or are you maybe up for something new to try, going into some other directions?
Mike: There is for sure a certain style that we want to uphold, that we will probably never stray from. I personally write this music since 1991, and I don’t think I can write something else. So the time when the band does stray from that, I don’t think I will be a part of that. I also know, that the band will never come together saying ‘make the next record just radio hits’! I think nobody of KE would like this idea, so what we do writing on a new record is, locking our record company out, and then come up with the result. If they don’t like our stuff, then they should rather drop us than we would change our style. We don’t care. Its totally our personal stuff, because Adam (guitar) produces the music, he engineers and I do all the artwork. And we don’t let any outside influence get into our heads at all!

Punk76: So all we hear is pure 100% Killswitch Engage!
Mike: That’s what we try! The next album is going to be heavier, that’s all I can say!

After the interview I left the bus with the feeling of just having talked to one of my friends. The whole atmosphere Mike and Killswitch Engage provide, got mirrored in a phantastic and powerful show, which was probably the best of the whole Taste Of Chaos line up. Killswitch Engage had unfortunately to play without Adam (guitar) who had to stay at home due to health reasons. But having rocked like they did that night under these circumstances, gives them most respect and shows their musical and personal power!

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