Page 47 - Issue12
P. 47
You mentioned about re-establishing the relationship with your producer Rob Graves. What
was it that made you decide to go back and work with him on this new album?
We ventured out on the fourth record and worked with Howard Benson, who is a great producer,
because we were trying to go with more of a radio rock kind of feel with that album. It’s been one
of our goals that we haven’t totally been able to accomplish yet. On the past couple of albums,
we’ve had decent singles on rock radio, but we had never gone top five or number one. We
were really trying on the last album to break that threshold and get to number one. Howard’s
kind of that radio rock single kind of guy and for whatever reason, radio just wasn’t hitting
for us and it just didn’t work out. I’m kind of happy that we did take that risk because
it really brought us to where we are now and what we’re really passionate about as a
band. I think our fans are thirsty for the kind of music that we’re putting out on this
The first couple of times that I listened record and I’m very pleased with how the record has turned out. This record is a
to this new album in its entirety, I felt rollercoaster of emotions; it’s a journey, just like you said.
as if I had just been taken on some type of Is there a story behind the album title?
adventure. Did you guys approach the creation
of this album any differently that what you had The album title came before some of the lyrics and, especially with
done in the past? Innocence and Instinct and Until We Have Faces, when those titles
come up it can help drive some of the lyrics. I know we say “of
Michael Barnes: I believe so; I think we put so much beauty and rage” plenty of times on this album and I think
more time and energy into this record. We kind of went
back to thinking about what we were passionate about and it helps drive a lot of the lyrical inspiration. The idea Of
what was the reason that we went into music; what made us this Beauty and Rage, when you think of it, they’re polar
passionate about music in general? That was one of the steps that opposites; it’s a dichotomy of good things in your
life and bad things in your life and things that
we took and one of the other steps that we took that was quite different people suffer through. I think suffering is
than any of the other records was when we first started talking about
getting back together with Rob Graves who did the first three albums. We a good thing in this life and it doesn’t
flew up to Maine in January of this past year and hung out with Rob. There always make sense at the time we
was a huge snow storm and the four of us were stuck in this room watching go through it, but when we
ultimately go through
horror movies and talking about the record and rekindling that relationship with those valleys and
our producer. At that moment, we only had about three or four demos, but nothing
that was totally set in stone. We started talking about a lot of the visuals for the records out of that pit,
and we started talking about this crimson forest that we were reminded of when we were in we look
Europe. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the short video clips that we’ve been posting. There
are all these black trees with red leaves and then there was the idea of this creature or monster
chasing you through the forest. We developed the storyline from there and some of the music that
we started writing was from that idea. I wouldn’t say it’s a concept record, but it I something that
helped inspire us and pushed us along as we went throughout the year.
I saw that you guys even had a graphic novel to go along with the storyline. Was that just a part of your
Pledgemusic campaign or will fans eventually be able to get it from you?
Yeah, the graphic novel was part of one of the Pledgemusic packages, but it will be available to the
fans at some point. It’s still in the works and we’re about half way through it right now and it
looks great.
You guys really jumped into that campaign with some really interesting packages for
the fans.
We thought it would be a lot of fun to reach out to our fans with these different
types of VIP packages. I think it was back in 2009 that we started doing this acoustic
experience where fans could pay for a ticket to get on the bus with us, we’d play them
an acoustic song, they’d get a signed picture and a VIP type of laminate. It would last
about 30 to 40 minutes and they could ask us questions and it was a cool, intimate
way to connect to our fans. We thought it would be great to do Pledgemusic and offer
more in-depth treatments for the fans. We did some Skype sessions and go golfing
with the band and other things. I was a bit disappointed that nobody picked up on
some of those packages because there was one where a fan could run a 5K or 10K with
me or play video games with me because I’m a big gamer, but nobody bought those.
was it that made you decide to go back and work with him on this new album?
We ventured out on the fourth record and worked with Howard Benson, who is a great producer,
because we were trying to go with more of a radio rock kind of feel with that album. It’s been one
of our goals that we haven’t totally been able to accomplish yet. On the past couple of albums,
we’ve had decent singles on rock radio, but we had never gone top five or number one. We
were really trying on the last album to break that threshold and get to number one. Howard’s
kind of that radio rock single kind of guy and for whatever reason, radio just wasn’t hitting
for us and it just didn’t work out. I’m kind of happy that we did take that risk because
it really brought us to where we are now and what we’re really passionate about as a
band. I think our fans are thirsty for the kind of music that we’re putting out on this
The first couple of times that I listened record and I’m very pleased with how the record has turned out. This record is a
to this new album in its entirety, I felt rollercoaster of emotions; it’s a journey, just like you said.
as if I had just been taken on some type of Is there a story behind the album title?
adventure. Did you guys approach the creation
of this album any differently that what you had The album title came before some of the lyrics and, especially with
done in the past? Innocence and Instinct and Until We Have Faces, when those titles
come up it can help drive some of the lyrics. I know we say “of
Michael Barnes: I believe so; I think we put so much beauty and rage” plenty of times on this album and I think
more time and energy into this record. We kind of went
back to thinking about what we were passionate about and it helps drive a lot of the lyrical inspiration. The idea Of
what was the reason that we went into music; what made us this Beauty and Rage, when you think of it, they’re polar
passionate about music in general? That was one of the steps that opposites; it’s a dichotomy of good things in your
life and bad things in your life and things that
we took and one of the other steps that we took that was quite different people suffer through. I think suffering is
than any of the other records was when we first started talking about
getting back together with Rob Graves who did the first three albums. We a good thing in this life and it doesn’t
flew up to Maine in January of this past year and hung out with Rob. There always make sense at the time we
was a huge snow storm and the four of us were stuck in this room watching go through it, but when we
ultimately go through
horror movies and talking about the record and rekindling that relationship with those valleys and
our producer. At that moment, we only had about three or four demos, but nothing
that was totally set in stone. We started talking about a lot of the visuals for the records out of that pit,
and we started talking about this crimson forest that we were reminded of when we were in we look
Europe. I don’t know if you’ve seen any of the short video clips that we’ve been posting. There
are all these black trees with red leaves and then there was the idea of this creature or monster
chasing you through the forest. We developed the storyline from there and some of the music that
we started writing was from that idea. I wouldn’t say it’s a concept record, but it I something that
helped inspire us and pushed us along as we went throughout the year.
I saw that you guys even had a graphic novel to go along with the storyline. Was that just a part of your
Pledgemusic campaign or will fans eventually be able to get it from you?
Yeah, the graphic novel was part of one of the Pledgemusic packages, but it will be available to the
fans at some point. It’s still in the works and we’re about half way through it right now and it
looks great.
You guys really jumped into that campaign with some really interesting packages for
the fans.
We thought it would be a lot of fun to reach out to our fans with these different
types of VIP packages. I think it was back in 2009 that we started doing this acoustic
experience where fans could pay for a ticket to get on the bus with us, we’d play them
an acoustic song, they’d get a signed picture and a VIP type of laminate. It would last
about 30 to 40 minutes and they could ask us questions and it was a cool, intimate
way to connect to our fans. We thought it would be great to do Pledgemusic and offer
more in-depth treatments for the fans. We did some Skype sessions and go golfing
with the band and other things. I was a bit disappointed that nobody picked up on
some of those packages because there was one where a fan could run a 5K or 10K with
me or play video games with me because I’m a big gamer, but nobody bought those.
