Not one to ever sit still, Sacramento entrepreneur and music business guru Eric Rushing (of Artery Foundation Artist Management, Artery Recordings, Ace of Spades, The Boardwalk, Goldfield and other entities) recently announced he opened a full-fledged recording studio in Sacramento called Gold Standard Sounds. “After 20 years in the music industry I’m extremely excited to open a state-of-the-art recording studio in my hometown,” Rushing stated in a press release sent to Submerge. “Not only did I open this studio so that that bands could record music but I created a really cool environment for writing sessions, video sessions and listening parties.”
Between his management company and record label, Rushing and his team represent some of the best bands in rock and metal, including national acts like Alesana, Chelsea Grin, Attila, Vanna and Anvil, as well as top-notch signed local and regional bands like Will Haven, Hoods, Hail the Sun, Horseneck, Graveshadow and many others. Between all of the bands his companies represent as well as all of the touring artists coming through town and playing the venues he owns, it’s easy to imagine why Rushing would get into the recording studio game.
“This will be a great addition for the label and management company that we have built on a local and national level,” he stated. “GSS showcases the only SSL Console in town and with a big L.A. studio vibe.” Learn more about the studio at Goldstandardsounds.com

Holding the Keys to Success

Numerous bands have nearly the same blueprint for how they began. Typically, a group of friends either scrape up enough money or have parents nice enough to purchase them their first music equipment. Countless hours are then spent learning instruments and honing a craft and style.

Conquer Divide, comprised of six young women, have a different and unique story about their formation. Founding members Sarah (bass) and Kristen (guitar) hail from Detroit, Michigan. They were friends from a previous project, but admit that it wasn’t easy rounding out the rest of the members. Many ads were placed on several online platforms hoping to find like-minded females that would mesh with their sound. It was estimated that a couple hundred women from around the world auditioned for three spots in the band: second guitarist, drummer and vocalist.

It was Sarah and Kristen’s goal to find new members that were not only talented, but also dedicated. Their wish was granted with the addition of Janel (screaming vocals), Kiarely (vocals), Tamara (drums) and Izzy (guitar). However, one glaring obstacle for the group is trying to make logistics work with members residing in Michigan, Texas, California and the United Kingdom. It is quite apparent that drive, determination and desire allow for Conquer Divide to be one unit.

Their convergence results in an intriguing blend of metalcore and pop rock. Upon listening, one cannot ignore the fierce guitar riffs and solid rhythm section. The dual vocal tandem of Kiarely and Janel showcases aggressive and melodic affinity. These elements caught the attention of Sacramento’s own Artery Recordings, who are responsible for releasing the group’s forthcoming self-titled debut.

Prior to embarking on The All Stars Tour 2015 for a solid month, bassist Sarah discussed life on the road, significance of keys, legalization of same-sex marriage and much more.

Your bio suggests it was tough finding females that fit the mold. Can you elaborate on that and how Conquer Divide came to be?
Kristen and I met nearly 10 years ago through the Detroit music scene and played in a previous band together. She hit me up a few years ago and pitched the idea of getting a new band together. She sent me some ideas and I was immediately interested, but we knew we needed other members. Some people assume we were a group manufactured from a record label, but that’s not the case. We looked for potential band mates locally in Detroit, but had a rough time finding females that were dedicated and interested in playing our style of music. For example, we had auditioned some great singers that weren’t into screaming during our aggressive breakdown parts. We put out several ads on Reverbnation, Craigslist and Facebook trying to find the right fits. Some people contacted us and didn’t show enough initiative, but others, even Izzy [from the United Kingdom] thought we were a flat out scam … We eventually gained people’s trust and proved we were real through Skype and recruited Tamara and Izzy through YouTube. We found Janel in Austin, Texas. Her vocal range as a screamer and presence as a frontwoman has taken us over the top. We got so lucky to find her the way we did and just a week before we went in the studio to record our debut album!

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a band thus far?
The physical distance between band members is tough. Izzy is allowed to work for us on an entertainment visa from the U.K., Janel lives in Austin and Tamara resides in Sacramento. Since we all live in different states, we have to consistently practice on our own to stay fresh.
We’re afraid we’ll be judged based on our look or the fact that we’re all females, but we want to prove people wrong and challenge people to come to our shows to see for themselves. Everyone buys into the notion of being famous and making money, but we want to inspire younger generations just as we were.

How are you preparing for upcoming the 2015 All Stars Tour?
Once everyone arrives to Detroit, we’ll literally be rehearsing every day to make sure we’re airtight. We’ve been learning from our experiences of the recent full U.S. Confessions tour with Alesana and are currently entering a summer tour with far more bands on each bill without a tour manager, so we have to cut our set length and be extremely punctual about every aspect. We now rehearse as if we’re on stage; we set up, play and then breakdown with allotted set times in mind. This tour will be a good test because we get experience under our belts and help prepare us for what comes next by hardening our skin. We’ve learned to better anticipate the unforeseen issues that can happen on the road like having vehicle mechanical issues or getting ripped off.

Who would be on your “dream” tour?
As far as bands similar to our genre, I’d have to say Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive.
We appreciate a lot of different styles and people probably assume we just listen to metalcore, but Kiarely would probably say Miley Cyrus because she seems like a fun person to tour with and is such a great performer.

How did your relationship with Artery Recordings come about?
Eric Rushing [label CEO] reached out to us initially. We had a few labels that were interested, but Artery is an incredible, fun and hardworking team. We were nervous meeting them at SXSW, but they proved to be all super chill cool guys. We ask a lot of questions and they’re always super helpful, cordial and communicate very well. They don’t back us in a corner or push us into things. We don’t want to be known as just the six-piece, all-female metalcore band and felt like other labels might try to narrowly market us that way.

What can listeners expect from your forthcoming debut album?
Fans can expect diversity from song to song. The album is metal-based, but a few songs are very melodic and have no screaming at all. We were so excited to have Joey Sturgis [Of Mice and Men, Asking Alexandria] produce our record. Joey worked really hard and pushed us to be better along the way. His structures, dynamics and the way he can put electronics in a song is amazing to us. The hope is that the listening experience will be fun for people and that everyone can relate to our music. My ultimate goal is to be driving by someone who is listening to our album in his or her car.

Your album pre-order comes with a skeleton key. Is there any significance to that?
I love keys. I have a collection of keys and have a tattoo of a key. When I was younger I watched and read The Secret Garden and always wanted to find a key to a secret place. There is a key in all of us to unlock our potential as musicians.

Today, the Supreme Court ruled to legalize same-sex marriage? Where do you stand on the issue?
I think it’s a sigh of relief. Life should be about love. I have relatives and friends that are homosexuals. It should have been legal a long time ago. I feel marijuana should be legalized as well. I don’t smoke marijuana, but there are so many benefits involved, like CBD’s eliminating cancer cells for instance. People don’t take the time to get educated on certain topics; they only choose to blindly criticize things. I just hope that this ruling makes people happy because this country needs a boost in morale.

See Conquer Divide on July 22, 2015, at Ace of Spades as part of the All Stars Tour, which features Upon a Burning Body, Dance Gavin Dance, A Skylit Drive and many others. Tickets are $20 for this all-ages, all-day show that gets underway at 2 p.m. For more info, go to Aceofspadessac.com.

Though It May Seem the World of Hardcore is Getting Nicer, Hoods is Just as Scary as Ever

I remember being at a Hoods show back in the ’90s, watching some unfortunate kid getting the shit kicked out of him. For some reason, I stood against the wall, laughing. The poor guy was really getting it bad—Doc Martens to the face and everything—and there I was, giggling like an idiot. That is, until a fist flew out of nowhere into my nose, snapping it clean in two. It must have been some sort of punk rock, karmic retribution. There was blood. Lots of blood. My white T-shirt turned crimson. Nobody came to my rescue. The show went on. I woke up the next morning, proudly sporting one of the most prolific black eyes I’d ever worn. I couldn’t breathe through my nose that had swelled up overnight three times its original size.

Those were the days. Hardcore isn’t like that anymore. Sure, there are some scary bands, but the live shows don’t seem to have as much rage. Maybe people aren’t as angry as they were 20 years ago. Back then, all we had was Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and dial-up Internet connections. We were pissed. The point is that Hoods is still a scary band, maybe even scarier now that singer/guitarist Mikey Hood started drinking and smoking a bunch of weed. In fact, the new album, Gato Negro (Spanish, I think, for “We’re old, but we’re still going to fuck you up”), is just as brutal as their debut Once Again and even heavier than the celebrated Victory Records release Pit Beast. Gato Negro teeters on the edge of metal and hardcore, but ends up somewhere along the lines of street punk. Songs like “Middle Class Wash Out” have just enough melody mixed with brutality to show listeners that these are musicians who know exactly how to make fucked up music that jumps out of nowhere, punches you in the face and breaks your nose when you least expect it. It’s the best kind of nostalgia.

I got a chance to talk with Hoods vocalist/guitarist Mikey Hood about his old venue Westcoast Worldwide, cutting hair, fighting, tours, and, of course, weed. Lots of weed.

Hey.
Sorry it took so long to call you back, but we got home and got stoned and I was like, “Shit, I know I’m supposed to do something very important.”

Ah, the fucking weed. So do you miss Westcoast Worldwide?
Yeah, of course. We’re looking at opening a new one probably next year some time. It’s going to follow suit with rehearsal studios and stuff like that. I definitely want to do a live venue, but I want to do it with four or five people as a collective. Doing it all alone drains you. It’s like having an extra job on top of what you already have to do in life to make it.

What have you been up to the last few years?
We’ve been touring still. It’s just we haven’t been touring in the States. To play locally, people in your hometown don’t appreciate you as much as they do in other spots because they have the opportunity to see you. So we stopped playing all the time and then it started creating normal draws again. We did Europe for almost a month and we flew to [Philadelphia] and did Tsunami Fest and that was pretty cool. We played with Cro-Mags, Sick of it All, Obituary, All Out War.

Was it pretty crazy?
I missed it. I had an allergy attack, but everybody else loved it. I could hear it from the van. I made our set and then nearly collapsed.

Are kids different now at shows?
Yeah. Somewhat. The older dudes are still kind of nutters, but the younger kids … it’s more like a popular thing to be into hardcore now, as opposed to something you have a passion for. It’s cool to act tough when you don’t have to even be tough. You can just be a nice dude.

I used to be scared going to hardcore shows.
Now it’s kind of like a bunch of clowns doing karate moves. It doesn’t seem like they really feel it anymore. It’s kind of good it’s not as violent, but at the same time it took a lot of the realness out of it, I guess.

How was Europe?
Really good. We did 22 shows pretty much in 22 days. We played Finland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Austria and we did a bunch of shows in France. The shows were really good, but the country’s a little bit suspect.

Really?
They’re fucking assholes. Fuck it.

Why do you say that?
I don’t know, man. The kids at the show are cool, but when you have to deal with somebody in public they’re fucking assholes. As you go southwest, like to Bordeaux, the people are really cool, but some of the people in Paris and Marseille, they’re just really arrogant, man. If you ask them something in French, they’ll just look at you like you’re fucking stupid. It’s like, “I’m going to slap your fucking face with a baguette. You’re lucky I’m an American because if we didn’t help you in World War II, you’d be speaking German.”

So have you chilled out on your fighting ways?
Man, I didn’t know I really did get in a lot of fights.

Really?!
I don’t know. I guess … I don’t know. Did I?

Maybe it’s just a Sacramento legend. Those legends don’t even have to be true.
Dude. The thing is I haven’t been in a fight since—shit, no, actually can’t say that, but I haven’t tried to get in any fights in years. I don’t think we really ever started fights. I guess I was a little aggressive, but when I needed to be.

When did you start smoking weed?
Check it out, when I was 35, I was going to go back to college and try to finish up my A.A. degree. My friend’s like, “You gotta get this Adderall shit.” And I tried that shit and took it for three days. That shit kept me up for a fucking week. I got a lot done. I cleaned the house at least five or six times a day. I changed the oil in my car and sent all my old postage out. So it wasn’t a total loss I guess.

Then you started smoking weed?
Oh, yeah. I smoked weed for about five years. It’s funny, because everybody who knows is like, “You fucking hate hippies.” But actually I’m kind of a hippie. The only difference is I take showers and go to work and shit.

Do you ever smoke weed and trip out on your straight edge tattoos?
Oh, dude, no way, man. Straight edge shit’s cool, man. That shit kept me out of jail. Actually, if I was smoking weed, I probably wouldn’t have gotten in as much trouble, but it wouldn’t have been as fun. Yeah, so fuck it.

How’s your barber shop going?
That shit is fun as fuck. I like going to work. It’s a good job, too. You don’t get bored, man. You get like at least five to 10 dudes a day coming through all with different stories. Your day changes drastically from haircut-to-haircut. Most people hate their jobs. I actually like mine.

Let’s talk about your new album.
You already got a copy?

Yeah.
I honestly haven’t even heard the final product yet. I’m hella excited.

Well, it’s good.
I like that song “Gato Negro.” It’s the one we’re going to do a video for.

It’s got a cool melody.
It’s more like street punk-ish.

You know when you hear a new hardcore record and you’re worried that it’s going to be all soft and boring?
Oh yeah, this one had a while to bake in the oven. I’ve been writing some of these songs since Pit Beast came out. I’ve had about six of these songs for two years, at least, and then I kind of just rewrote them. I wrote a couple songs on the spot. I wrote the “Gato Negro” song on a “verse/chorus/verse/chorus/done” and we did it the next day in the studio and it’s like my favorite song off it. Sorry, I’m stoned. I’m getting off track. I think people are going to like it. And if they don’t I don’t care because my cats will like it.

What’s your most fucked up show story?
The tour was called Street Brutality Tour. It was Hoods, Shattered Realm and Donnybrook. It’s kind of like if you picked out the more thuggish kids in hardcore and put them on tour, this would be it. It was L.A., Sacramento, New Jersey, New York—so we covered pretty much every region. It was fucked up. There was a lot of tension that tour. To say the least, some kid got killed when we played at Skrappy’s in Tucson, Arizona. That was the same period when Dimebag Darrell had gotten shot on stage. I lost some friends that year. That made me not want to play music any more because when motherfuckers are coming to shows with AK-47s, that tough guy shit’s out the window. That’s when it gets really real. I don’t know about you, but I got shit to lose and I’m not trying to fuck around with being on some crew shit. It was stupid then, and it’s even stupider now.

Tell me about your walks that you take.
You’ve seen The Evil Dead, right?

Yeah.
You know when he’s walking out of the forest at the end and the thing comes and kills him?

Yeah.
The death walk is like that, but in the motherfucking pitch darkness. We get hella stoned. We get zombie, Cheech and Chong stoned and then we go on the death walks. You got to walk through. It’s maybe a third of a mile. It’s like a trail. There’s raspberry bushes and all this overgrowth shit. You can hear noises. There are some transients that live in there. So we call it the death walk. It’s pretty cool.

That sounds horrible.
Oh no. It’s healthy. You burn calories when you’re scared.

Hoods’ Gato Negro will be released Nov. 25, 2014, via Artery Recordings. Five days later (Nov. 30, 2014), you can celebrate its release at Blue Lamp. The show gets underway at 7 p.m. Check out Bluelampsacramento.com for more info. Mikey’s shop, True Blue Barber and Shave Parlour, is located at 1422 28th Street in Sacramento. Stop by and say hello!

Slaves, a new Sacramento-based band formed by vocalist Jonny Craig (ex-Dance Gavin Dance and Emarosa) and Alex Lyman of Hearts and Hands, is releasing their debut album, Through Art We Are All Equals, via Artery Recordings on June 24, 2014. The album, produced by Kris Crummett, is 11 tracks total and features guest vocals from Vic Fuentes of Pierce the Veil, Kyle Lucas, Tyler Carter of the band Issues and Jonny’s sister, Natalie Craig. Lyman wrote the record and recorded all the instruments, but he and Craig have put together a heavy-hitting, well-seasoned full band featuring drummer Tai Wright of Four Letter Lie and Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, bassist Jason Mays from Of Machines, and guitarist Christopher Kim, also of Hearts and Hands. We here at Submerge have been keyed in on Slaves for a couple months now, getting early previews of the full album and updates from their management, and we’re stoked for the public to finally hear the epic rock album we’ve come to love. Slaves will play their hometown album release show on Friday, June 20 at Assembly with openers Kyle Lucas, Cemetery Sun, Wrings, Altessa, Overwatch and Imagine This. To hear some tracks off the new album and to learn more about this new group, visit Facebook.com/officialslaves, follow @slavesofficial on Twitter or hit up Arteryrecordings.com. To snag advance tickets ($13) to their Sacramento release show, visit Assemblymusichall.com.

Sacramento’s Incredible Me Take It To the Next Level

Being that it’s still only 2013, calling your debut record Est. 2012 could be construed as hubris, especially from a band with a name like Incredible Me; especially if you’re a band named Incredible Me who signed a record deal before even playing your first show. But after a few listens to the equal parts hard-hitting and soulfully melodic tracks that make up the Sacramento sextet’s first full-length release, and after chatting with charismatic drummer/programmer Jaime Templeton, it becomes clear that Incredible Me don’t have a boastful bone in their bodies. Rather, the band are genuinely aw-shucks happy that their peculiar amalgam of happy, heartfelt and occasionally pretty damn heavy music—set to be unleashed worldwide with the release of Est. 2012 Sept. 17, 2013 through Razor and Tie/Artery Recordings and a pair of nation-crossing tours to go along with it—is allowing them to live the dream of being a full-time, touring rock band.

As one might surmise from the title of their record, Incredible Me was indeed officially formed in 2012. The band members’ collective ties, however, go back through years of friendship and experience in their own various and ill-fated earlier bands. By way of a spotty cell phone connection, Templeton traces Incredible Me’s origins to a casual text message between him and Incredible Me heavy vocalist David Jones. “We’d all been in different bands; my band had moved to Orange County and David, his band had just broken up a few months before. I had never really been in a hardcore band, and I texted David and asked him what he was doing for music,” says Templeton. “I asked him if he wanted to start a band, we thought of a name and started writing lyrics.”

Looking to avoid the pitfalls of their past groups, the members of the nascent Incredible Me were selective about filling out the rest of their lineup. “We wanted to be really serious about it, so we tried to find really good friends that we could have in the band but people who were also really trustworthy people,” says Templeton. After replacing an original guitar player with guitarist Lexie Olsen, the current lineup of Incredible Me—including bassist/vocalist Alex Strobaugh, keyvboardist/vocalist Dillon Jones and guitarist Christian Shroyer—was set, and the band wasted no time writing and demoing more songs. Right away, says Templeton, it was obvious that there was something special about Incredible Me.

“From the beginning, writing our first song and putting it out, it just felt crazy; it was exactly what I wanted. From the moment I started the band with David, things just felt right. It just felt like something would happen, you know?” And something did indeed happen. After demoing with producer Colby Wedgeworth (who also handled the production on Est. 2012), the band attracted the attention of several management companies, on the strength of just two songs, all without having played a live show. After one deal fell through, the band was swooped up by Sacramento-based The Artery Foundation.

“Artery picked us up as management, and we recorded the rest of the album. And then right when the album was done, we got picked up by the record label. And then we thought we’d be waiting for a while, but then we got booked on these two tours. It feels like every month something huge has happened.”

The aforementioned tours, the band’s first forays outside their home state, include a three-week trek in September with a Canadian band, We Butter the Bread with Butter, that stretches from the East Coast back to California, and joining up for the tail end of The Rise Up Tour in October with fellow Artery Foundation bands A Skylit Drive and For All Those Sleeping. “We’re definitely excited to leave. None of us have ever toured,” says Templeton. The tour schedule coincides with the release of Est. 2012 on Sept. 17, 2013 which according to Templeton was originally just supposed to be an EP. But fitting with the band’s accelerated pace, after recording several more songs with producer Wedgeworth for an EP, the band was greenlighted to keep pushing ahead and record a full-fledged album, a process that, in keeping with the band’s equally impressive positive outlook, Templeton describes as “super fun.”

This overwhelmingly upbeat attitude is somewhat belied by the brutal moments that appear on Est. 2012, which features no shortage of screamed vocals, metallic riffs and heavy moments peppered in between melodic passages that recall Panic! at the Disco and other melismatic, vocally driven emo pop bands. But where, exactly, this combination places Incredible Me on the genre spectrum is sort of a stumper, even for the band members themselves. “That’s a hard one for us,” laughs Templeton when asked to classify his band’s music. “If you had to put it together, the whole album, we say post-hardcore, but super pop-y. We do scream, and there’s a few breakdowns on the album, but we try to be pop-y. None of our music is really sad or depressing; we’re not a band who’s dark or eerie. We’re trying to be different, but really we’re just trying to be who we are. We’re bright, happy, fun people.

“We’re all a bunch of clowns,” he continues. “If you were to hang out with my band for a couple of days you would think you’re in the show Jackass. We’re probably the happiest kids around. We try to express that in our music and be super outgoing. We don’t want to be like most bands, where you’re down; all the bands who are like hardcore…” says Templeton in a way that makes it clear that both he, and his bandmates have heard their fair share of criticism for venturing down what is a somewhat well-worn path in the current music landscape. “…Any band who sings and screams is gonna get that. You’ll get haters on YouTube ‘Oh just another generic band.’” But he’s eager for those who may doubt the band’s sincerity—and there are definitely a few—to hear Est. 2012, and see for themselves the band’s sincerity live on one of their upcoming tours.

Also set to coincide with the release of Est. 2012, the band is currently at work on their first music video, the plotline of which Templeton was apparently not at liberty to discuss. “I can say the video is going to be amazing, and crazy,” was all he was willing to disclose. “It’s going to be basically my band in a nutshell. We’re all really crazy people, and we want to express it as much as we can. The video is gonna show us going all out, doing what we do.”

Doing what they do has already gained a loyal following in and around their hometown of Sacramento, but Templeton and the rest of the Incredible Me crew are looking forward to playing for some new faces on tour, road testing a live show that Templeton describes as “energetic. We want to interact with the crowd.” Templeton in particular is known for his own trademark brand of “interaction” with crowds at Incredible Me shows. “I play every show in my underwear,” he admits. “We just try to be ourselves.” And when you’re incredible, being yourself is really all it takes.

Whitechapel is a metal band on the rise

It was an unseasonably warm February evening in the Northeast as Knoxville, Tenn. deathcore goliath Whitechapel prepared for its show at The Starland Ballroom in New Jersey. For his part, Whitechapel guitarist Alex Wade was preparing to slay the Garden State’s metal faithful in his usual manner. No, not bathing in the blood of virgins or devouring souls of the innocent–though considering Whitechapel’s aural assault, you wouldn’t be completely off base for thinking so–instead, Wade was taking a page out of the Zombieland survival handbook and limbering up.

“I definitely like to stretch,” Wade says. “I’m not that old. I’m 24, but not only is it a good habit to get into, but it definitely saves my body for when I get older. I like to stretch, warm up, get the blood pumping, because you can’t just go up on stage and just start going crazy and head banging and running all over the place. It puts a hard toll on your body.”

For Wade, the type of music he plays necessitates his desire to keep in sound physical condition.

“If you’re a band like Muse or something like that, you can stand up there and chill while the lights move around and stuff like that,” he explains. “When you play loud and aggressive music, you have to put on a stage performance that portrays the music as well, so you’ve got to be moving around and jumping all over the place and fucking cussing and spitting and all that crazy shit.”

It’s clear that Wade has a good head on his shoulders; he certainly needs it, considering Whitechapel’s fast rise through the metal ranks. Having just formed in 2006, the band already has three albums under its belt, each one more successful than its predecessor. A couple years after its inception, Whitechapel was already drawing a bidding war from interested labels and soon landed with venerable Metal Blade Records, which has been home to Slayer, King Diamond and Cannibal Corpse (and, strangely enough, Goo Goo Dolls).

Whitechapel’s most recent album, A New Era of Corruption, was released in June 2010 and has propelled the band to its greatest heights to date. As a result, the band finds itself headlining a juggernaut-sized tour (The Welcome to Hell Tour) that includes some of the modern American metal scene’s most intriguing and brutal bands, such as The Acacia Strain, Veil of Maya, Chelsea Grin and I Declare War. Wade says Whitechapel is excited to front a group of such heavy hitting bands, singling out The Acacia Strain as a group that really gets him and his band mates amped up to play.

“There’s something about that band that people just turn into animals and rip each other apart,” Wade says. “It definitely makes us want to up the ante and make our show that much better, because they’re putting on amazing shows as well.”

Wade took the time to speak with Submerge just about an hour before doors opened at the Starland. In the following interview, we discussed the stratification of metal genres and the band’s Sacramento ties as well as staying on top of the business of being a band on the rise.

Your most recent album, which came out last year, charted pretty high…
Yeah, we broke into the top 50 of the Billboard 200.

That’s high for a pop band, let alone a metal band.
Yeah, exactly. It’s crazy that you see bands like us breaking into the Top 50 in Billboard. Probably five years ago, bands that heavy weren’t getting into those slots unless you were like Slipknot or something, but obviously they’re on a whole other level.

Why do you think that is? Do you see a shift in fans in general or just the climate toward heavy music?
I don’t know man. The music business, and what’s cool and what’s not, all kinds of genres are fading in and out. This whole deathcore thing or whatever you want to call it has been getting big for the past three years or so, and just recently this dubstep thing has been getting really big. People have been going crazy over it, but to me, isn’t that just techno? That’s been around forever. Why is it just now getting big? I guess a lot of people feel the same way about metal. Metal has been around forever. Why is it just now getting big? I can’t really answer that question, but we’re glad it is, because our shows and CD sales are obviously reflecting it.

You mentioned the deathcore genre, and I think more than any other kind of music, metal is broken down to such specific subgenres…
Totally. There’s a difference between black metal and blackened death metal. Like, black metal is Emperor and blackened death metal is Behemoth. If you know metal, you know the difference. Obviously, Behemoth has more death metal influence. It’s heavier and not as shrill as true black metal, but it’s really funny how metal has its mini subgenres, and no other kind of music has that.

Your band’s lineup has three guitar players. When you get into the studio, how does it work out with you guys? Do you all trade off a lot of riffs when you get ready to write?
All three of us collaboratively write for the album. I’ll give credit where credit is due: Ben [Savage], our lead guitar player, definitely writes the most. We all have different things going on. I manage bands on the side and work for the company that manages us. I work for them managing smaller bands. I manage I Declare War, who are on the tour with us. Ben puts in the most effort and writes the most stuff, but Zach [Householder] and I do contribute. I would definitely say it’s a collaborative effort, though. It’s not just one or two people.

How did you get into managing bands?
I’ve always been kind of like the brains behind Whitechapel. Everybody says there’s a brains and a brawn to everything, and I would say I’m the brains. I managed Whitechapel up until the time when we decided, like, “Hey, this is getting to a level where I can’t really do much for us anymore. We need to hire somebody who’s going to take us to the next level.” I’ve always had my hand in developing bands and stuff like that. Our manager, Shawn Carrano, who works with Artery Foundation, which is located in Sacramento, I’ve always expressed to him that I like the music business. I like watching bands develop and grow. He was like, “I think you’d be a good manager. You did a good job with Whitechapel before I took over. Would you be interested in taking on some of our smaller bands? I’ll still help you with stuff, but you can handle the bulk of the material.” I knew I Declare War, because we’d met them on tour, and I knew they were looking for a record deal. Artery Recordings had just started, and I showed I Declare War to them and they were like, “Ask them if they want to be signed,” so we got them signed. I kind of took over the band, and it’s been great ever since.

Since you mentioned your Sacramento connection through Artery, I saw that Chino Moreno from Deftones had a guest appearance on A New Era of Corruption. Did you hook up with him through Artery?
Yeah, Shawn had been friends with Deftones and Chino for like 10 years or something like that. Our manager used to manage Chino’s side project Team Sleep. He’s gotten Chino guest appearances on the Norma Jean record and the one on the Dance Gavin Dance record. He’s always helped Chino out with that–getting guest appearances with young, hot bands. It helps out the band to have a big name on the record, and maybe it will help out Chino because it shows him to a younger crowd who hasn’t grown up listening to Deftones like I have. He hit up Chino and said, “My biggest band is heading into the studio to record. They’re all Deftones fans and they have this part on one song that they’d love for you to do.” He checked it out and liked it a lot and decided to do it, and that’s about it.

So you had Chino in mind from the beginning?
Yeah, totally. It was a riff that I had written, and I’m a huge Deftones fan. It definitely has a huge Deftones vibe to it. Stephen Carpenter is one of my main influences playing guitar. I was like, “Dude, if Shawn can hook up Chino as guest on that riff, it would be so sick.” And it actually came together, so I was really stoked on that.

I read a quote from Phil Bozeman [vocals] where he mentioned that you guys were trying to have more of a verse-chorus structure on your latest album. Was that something you’d all gotten together to discuss?
Oh totally, that was the whole point of A New Era… When it’s just riffing the whole time–when it’s just riff, riff, riff, riff, riff–there’s nothing that people can catch on to. There’s no hooks. There’s nothing catchy about it. But when you try to implement verses and choruses–you know, we’re not trying to be radio rock, where we have three parts to one song and just repeat them over and over again–but when you bring parts back that definitely gives the fans something to latch on to.

Before you mentioned you were amazed to be a part of a band that has reached this level of success, and it happened for you pretty fast. Within a couple of years after you formed, you were signed to Metal Blade, which is a really well established metal label. Have you had a chance to take stock of the whole situation?
It’s one of those things that the band has progressed so fast. If you’re outside of the band, it looks fast, but if you’re inside the band, it feels like it’s been forever. The life of a musician is repetitive. People have been like, “Things have changed so much for you in the past four years,” and I’m like, “Really?” Aside from the fact that we get paid more and we do bigger tours, it doesn’t feel all that much different from when we first started touring.