Interview & photo by Rachel Jablonski
It’s interesting to note the atmosphere when doing an in person interview on the opening day of a tour. Meeting with guitarist Matt DeVries on the Chimaira tour bus, I could feel freshness and excitement radiating rather than the aura of burnout that some bands give off as a tour has trudged on. Matt was very friendly, very down to earth, and his enthusiasm was contagious as he had a lot to say about the upcoming Chimaira endeavors.
Rachel: Ok, so today is the first day…
Matt: Yep, day one.
Rachel: Day one of the Music as a Weapon Tour, which seems to be a fairly long tour.
Matt: Yeah, it’s a pretty hectic one. It actually goes to the middle of May. We’ve tried to book as many shows as possible. We’re doing some off dates too – some headlining shows, some with Killswitch.
Rachel: Cool. First of all, how did Iowa, smack dab in the middle of the country, end up being the first show date? And second, what do you anticipate for this tour?
Matt: I anticipate good things. Good ticket sales, great bands, great line up. It’s cool for us because we’re friends with Killswitch, we’re friends with Lacuna, and we know the Disturbed guys and they are real cool so far. And Iowa… I think originally it was supposed to be Wisconsin and then for some reason, I don’t even know why, they switched that show to later on in the tour, so ya know, booking and routing you never know where you’re going to play first or last.
Rachel: Have you toured with Killswitch or Lacuna before?
Matt: We have toured with Killswitch a bunch of times and they’re great guys, we’re really close friends. We’ve played festivals with Lacuna, we’ve never done a full tour, but we’ve done a bunch of festivals over in Europe.
Rachel: In regard to ticket sales, do you anticipate with the current state of the U.S. economy that ticket and merch sales will be affected? Or will touring be affected insofar as how much money the labels and overall music industry will contribute to touring?
Matt: Yeah, I think it’s going to affect ticket sales, but I’m not positive. It’s one of those things where we’re kind of going into it and just expecting the best. We’ll see what happens. But from what I hear the music industry in general is not really being hit, except for downloading, but that is inevitable. So I think a lot of people are still going to save their money and come out. It’s a decent ticket price for what it is and just let out their anger for whatever is pissing them off… like the economy or whatever. It’s a good outlet.
Rachel: [laugh] The second stage that’s been going on this afternoon prior to the main event that starts tonight with you guys has been free all day. Do you know if this will be the same on the entire tour?
Matt: Um, I didn’t even know until our tour manager told us that today was free. So I don’t think so, but it could be which is cool.
Rachel: You’re touring in support of your upcoming album, The Infection, set to be released April 21st. Will your set contain older material or will you be playing mostly new songs that the majority of people probably will not have heard before?
Matt: We’re actually going to promote the new album a little bit, play two songs off of it and then the rest is an array of songs. Until the record comes out we’ll play two new songs, the single, “Secrets of the Dead”, and a song called "Destroy And Dominate", which has leaked a little bit, which is cool that kids will know both of them hopefully. And then as the record comes out, we’ll play some more and add some more to the set. Maybe one more for this tour and then on the off dates a few more.
Rachel: The track “Secrets of the Dead” is your first new single. It’s been said that the song went through many structural changes throughout the writing process. What did this entail and how did it finally shape up to be single worthy and representative of the album?
Matt: It was one of those songs that we kind of built in the rehearsal space as opposed to writing before we got together, which is what we usually do. It was just bits and pieces thrown together that we thought we were happy with but by the time that preproduction came close we switched it around, switched choruses to verses, and what came out was a lot better. At first we were hesitant but it came out real good so it was one of those trial and error songs.
Rachel: So the rest of the songs you had prior to going into the studio?
Matt: Most of the songs we had before, at least the riffs.
Rachel: You have filmed a video for the track "Destroy And Dominate".
Matt: Yes.
Rachel: Why did you choose to shoot for this song? What’s the video like and when and where can fans expect to see it?
Matt: We decided not to do “Secrets of the Dead” because we wanted to give fans an extra song before the record comes out. We thought that one was heavy, film maker Todd Bell who has done a lot of DVDs and photo shoots with us directed it and he liked that song. He was helping us figure out a song because we like all the songs and weren’t sure which one to choose. We all agreed on it and shot the video. We find out next week when it’s coming out. It should come out online and I guess Headbanger’s Ball is coming back and specialty TV here and there. But we will be pushing it hard online.
Rachel: In association with this new release, Spread The Infection.com has been established for fans www.spread-the-infection.com. Can you tell us a little more about this endeavor, how fans can participate, and what they can expect?
Matt: Yeah, they just go to www.spread-the-infection.com. I think it was Mark and then people from Ferret and Chris came up with the idea and then Chris designed the website. A lot of our fans have been asking if we would have a street team and we just haven’t. So this is our way of doing our version of a street team where kids can go help us promote the album and therefore we give them little snippets of songs and videos, give them codes. So we kind of give back to our fans. We always think of ourselves as hands-on, pretty intimate with our fans so it’s just a cool thing. They’re loving it and we’re stoked that they’re helping us.
Rachel: So there is fliers and stuff…
Matt: Yeah fliers and stencils that we don’t condone, but they can spray pain with. Stuff like that, screensavers, stuff like that.
Rachel: Your album will be released in the U.S. and Canada on Ferret Music and in Europe on Nuclear Blast Records. Why the combination of distributors?
Matt: Ferret we thought was our best home for putting out the last record and this record. They’ve just been nothing but supportive, they are friends of ours they like the music a lot they love the band and we’re kind of a higher tier on the totem pole compared to being on a big label like Roadrunner, our last label. So we were definitely going to sign to them. But then over in Europe we also like Nuclear Blast and they’re more settled and a pretty big label overseas and around the world compared to Ferret. So the combination of the two, we think it’s the two best labels that we could have to put up the records all over. That’s Mark, our singer.
[Enter Mark Hunter (vocals) of Chimaira who sits down beside Matt].
Rachel: Hello.
Matt: [laugh] He’s just going to sit here and hang out apparently.
[Mark stands up and heads toward the door].
Matt: Yeah, I don’t do these.
Rachel: [laugh]
Matt: [laugh] All right man, see ya.
[Exit Mark].
Rachel: A Chimaira Deluxe Fan Edition Box Set is available along with pre-orders of the new album. What is included in this? How many of these are available?
Matt: That’s just one of the releases that we’re going to have. The preorder you get it signed, the first 100 of them. I believe there are 600 total of the big deluxe set. It’s all on the Ferret website what all this includes [Ferret Music Store]. You get a tin, the CD, a DVD, two extra songs, a USB key, picks, a backstage pass that we’re going to start doing meet and greets with fans real soon. It’s just a cool package to have and there are only 600 so I think it’s a real cool thing for someone to buy.
Rachel: What is the album artwork like on this album? Not just the booklet, but the actual CD since you have had a common theme of the same picture with different colors. Are you sticking with that?
Matt: Yeah, yeah I’ll admit we are sticking with that. I won’t admit the colors because I haven’t seen it myself. [laugh]
Rachel: Who chooses that?
Matt: Mark has always chosen the color in the past. The cover is online and the inlay I haven’t seen the final version of yet either. So it’s looking good, it’s looking real good.
Rachel: There are tattoo artists traveling along with this tour. Do you plan on getting any tattoos?
Matt: We’re thinking of getting some tats, we’re thinking of getting a tour tat, not necessarily the tour logo tat, but something insanely stupid that we can all have, the people that do have tattoos in the band. So we’re trying to think of something clever, we have some time.
Rachel: We saw in the Music As A Weapon information booklet they are handing out that there is a tat of a duck farting. You could get that.
Matt: That’s tight.
Rachel: [laugh]
Matt: That would be cool. I don’t know where I’d put it, maybe on the neck, but I don’t know if Dad would like that one. [laugh]
Rachel: That’s all I have. Anything else you would like to talk about?
Matt: Right on, no you covered all the bases I think. Appreciate it. We’re just stoked to start the tour.