As I Lay Dying
When Metal Blade Records founder Brian Slagel first envisioned the label, he was just like you or me -- a music hungry kid from the ‘burbs, his afternoons consumed in record stores and in the pages of music glossies, frustrated that his beloved, local metal scene got continuously shut out by major labels. Endless hard work and dedication paid off and in 1982 Slagel assembled the bands that would define the label's first release – volume one of the groundbreaking Metal Massacre compilation series. The compilation featured the who’s who of the burgeoning Los Angeles metal scene including a young, then unknown Metallica.
That was 26 years ago. Today, the metal scene is just as hungry and rife with talented and tattooed aggressors… perhaps even more so.
Southern California-based band As I Lay Dying is the metal of today, and though they shared a soundstage with Metallica when shooting their latest music video, As I Lay Dying has quickly surpassed any and all of their peers to become Metal Blade’s biggest sellers. The Metal Massacre compilations played a large part in the early history of heavy metal and now, with bands like As I Lay Dying, they’re also forging a future.
As I Lay Dying released its newest album An Ocean Between Us in August 2007 and saw it peak both at number one on the top rock charts and in the top 10 Billboard 200. What’s more, the band earned a nomination for Best Metal Performance at the upcoming Grammy Awards for the song "Nothing Left.”
SuicideGirls caught up with As I Lay Dying founder and vocalist Tim Lambesis and found he was more than just another brutal headbanging metal frontman; his brutality comes with vision and compassion…
Erin Broadley: So how are you?
Tim Lambesis: I’m doing great. We’re all a little sick, which is normal from being on tour. But other than that, we’re doing good.
EB:
Well, for starters, congrats on your Grammy nomination for the song “Nothing Left.”
TL:
Oh, thanks a lot.
EB:
How does it feel, at this point in your career, to be nominated alongside metal legends like Slayer that you grew up listening to?
TL:
It’s definitely a huge honor. It’s more than just an honor for us musicians in the band; it’s an honor for the label and for everyone that has worked really hard behind the scenes. I think what’s important is the notoriety given to those people behind the scenes.
EB:
Your fans and the people you work with everyday, those are the people you get the real feedback from anyway, when it comes to the impact your music is having.
TL:
Yeah, absolutely.
EB:
So, An Ocean Between Us was released in August and I assume with the Grammy nomination and touring, you’ve had your hands full ever since. This album is being called one of your best, if not your best, release to date. How has the whirlwind been?
TL:
It’s been great. Our whole plan was [always been] the same, whether or not we started getting awards or started selling an incredible amount of records. We pretty much just wanted to release an album we’re passionate about and get out on tour and play for as many fans as we can. Our whole plan was set in motion even before the album’s release date. It is definitely an added bonus that this album has been selling very, very well. If it stays on track it should be our highest selling album yet. We just love what we do.
EB:
I want to talk about working with Brian Thompson who directed your music videos for “Nothing Left” and “The Sound of Truth”. You guys came up with the concept for both, which are very sci-fi and take place in a decaying futuristic society in the vein of 1984 and Blade Runner, even. Where does your interest lie in this kind of subject matter?
TL:
Conceptually, the whole interest came when we were starting to do the video for “Nothing Left.” Nick our guitar player came up with this really elaborate concept and he brought it to me and said, “How can we make this fit in with the lyrics?” Him and I kind of went back and forth and then when I ended up talking to Brian the director like, “Hey, I really like this idea but I don’t think we should try and do this all in one video.” He absolutely agreed with me. If you try and cram such a large concept into one video, it’s just crazy editing where you have all these images flying by you.
EB:
So halfway through the process you realized you had an idea you could really expand upon, you had more to say?
TL:
Yeah, that’s totally how it worked. Originally it was just the concept for “Nothing Left” and it just worked out so perfectly lyrically because the song “Sound of Truth”… the whole concept of the lyrics, the image concept, the hypocrisy that’s going on, people want to believe a truth that sounds right to them, that feels right and not necessarily listen for what the real truth is.
EB:
Like selective hearing.
TL:
Yeah, selective hearing would be the perfect description of it. In this futuristic society you have all these people who are following one leader and have chosen to only hear one point of view. Obviously that happens very often in our society as well. When we only hear this one point of view, we condemn things that shouldn’t necessarily be condemned. If you look and take a step back, in this video they’re condemning people who have a certain skin condition… there’s obvious ways we can relate that to real life scenarios. They see this as one of the worst things in their society, in all reality people are just being themselves. There’s a challenge at the end of the video to just be your self and to find other people who want to stand up for what’s right, regardless of the majority point of view.
EB:
Taking all these themes of decay into account, how do you keep from becoming disillusioned or giving up? At times some might say well why bother if history is just going to repeat itself.
TL:
We surround ourselves naturally in this genre of music with a lot of people who spend a lot of time thinking in opposition to a mainstream point of view and really want to have more substance to what their bands are about. The bands we tour with in general are very down to earth and we’ve developed great friendships. It’s gotten to the point where -- and I’m not speaking of any particular genre -- but as an easy example, a good majority of mainstream hip hop everything’s got to be bling-bling, you’ve got to make as much money as you can, it’s from a very materialistic point of view. I think that whole point of view, living in the here and the now and the materialism of it all, as far as the bands we tour with and the five of us supporting each other, what’s important to us is totally different and there are tons of bands in our genre out there trying to make a change and standing up for what they believe in. I feel like even if we don’t see eye to eye on all issues, we’re definitely still fighting for challenging our fans to think deeper about these issues. That’s the most important thing, not telling our fans what to believe but asking them…
EB:
Yeah, like asking questions, not giving answers. That’s where the growth happens. It takes a lot of strength as an artist to stay convicted to your beliefs especially as a singer and a songwriter in the public eye, having your words and lyrics out there exposed and under the critics microscope. How do you find the balance between aggression and full out anger in your music? They can be very different things.
TL:
I totally agree. For me, a majority of the aggression behind the music is more so because of passion and love for what we do. I think the reason I’m able to keep it that way is because I have this outlet every night for the hour we’re on stage. It’s an outlet in a proper area of my life and it’s not bleeding over into [other parts of my life]. I’m not like road raging when I’m driving around or anything [laughs]. This is my one chance to have an outlet and the rest of my life is quite a bit more calm. Everybody needs to have an outlet whether its sports or… unfortunately for some people that don’t any sort of positive outlet, like I said, the stereotype being letting it out in their road rage or something.
EB:
Or they go inward and self medicate, pressing the mute button instead of letting themselves scream.
TL:
Totally. I’m a very calm person and mellow person the whole rest of my day. When fans meet me they’re always kind of surprised like, “Oh, I expected you to be more angry of a person. You’re really kind of soft spoken.” I think it’s about balance.
EB:
It is about balance. I think we’re all trying to fight the slow progression towards complete insanity. The longer we can hold it off with our art, the better.
TL:
[Laughs] Yeah.
EB:
I have a quote here, where you’re talking about the album and the title and you say, “The title is about the separation we need to have between the expectations of the rest of the world and what our goals are.” Can you comment further on that?
TL:
Yeah, it’s one of those topics that I can get into forever but the quickest and best way to explain it would be there’s this way we’ve all been brought up and society really dictates what’s important to people and if we don’t question that then I think we all just grow up with these expectations that society has already placed on us. I just think that people need to chase dreams that they know without a doubt are things that are fulfilling and are truly valuable, instead of just accepting the dreams that society already hands down to them.
EB:
You were awarded “Ultimate Metal God” by MTV2 recently.
TL:
[Laughs]
EB:
[Laughs] When something like that happens I imagine it’s important to keep your sense of humor intact.
TL:
Yeah, with some of these things I cant really talk about that without laughing. I obviously don’t take myself too seriously in that way but I do think it’s an honor in the sense that our fans are the ones that voted for it; It wasn’t a [panel]. Maybe my one complaint about the Grammy’s is it’s a panel of people who might not necessarily really be in touch with what’s going on especially in a genre like metal. Our fans were the ones that voted so that makes it a huge honor. I do take it light hearted but I also want to make sure our fans know how much we appreciate them.
EB:
But you’re not going to be wearing a fake bear or a robe or turning water into wine anytime soon.
TL:
[Laughs] No, no.
EB:
Another thing you’ve talked about before, speaking on the state of metal, is that metal never really goes away, it just has waves of popularity and that right now it seems to be growing. Where do you see it peaking again, if and when it does?
TL:
That’s tough as far as the next wave, my guess is most likely going to be wrong but I would assume that the bands that are big right now in the metal scene are going to maintain their status and other bands are going to slowly start to drop off because there’s so much. It’s that same thing, all these younger newer bands are kind of repeating what’s already going on within the genre and the popular genres like metalcore. I think the next wave will come in when a new scene is created whether it’s a revival of the thrash metal scene or the revival of -- I don’t really foresee this happening -- but with the revival of power metal or whatever it might be [laughs]. You know what I mean? Just when something, it might not necessarily be new within the whole scene of metal but something at least new for this/the next generation of bands that pops up. Obviously for a band like us, we never intended to start playing a genre of music that was going to blow up. When we first started this band, especially the combination of metal and hardcore, it was something that nobody really cared about; Metal fans didn’t respect it and hardcore fans thought it was too metal.
EB:
Well a lot of bands that were once considered metal or seem to be quieting their screams a bit and toning down the aggression. Do you think there is more or less to be aggressive about now compared to when the band first started?
TL:
Yeah, I think I have more passion, especially lyrically [than when I started]. I’m already looking forward to writing another album just because there are so many important issues, the older I get. Especially as far as a being able to understand poverty in other countries and things that are going on globally, there is plenty for me to be passionate about so I don’t really see myself love ballads or anything like that anytime soon.
EB:
[Laughs] Well, sometimes a really passionate aggressive song is better than a love ballad… it’s like a good screw up against a wall.
TL:
Yeah. I’ve definitely written my fair share of songs about being in love and love in general but my approach has definitely not been the ballad approach.
EB:
Love can be rough.
TL:
[Laughs]
EB:
You’ve said before is that “bands need to be creative to make themselves timeless.” Where do you think bands get themselves into a trap and this becomes unreachable? Or maybe clarify what you meant by timeless.
TL:
There’s certain songwriting that will always be timeless. I think there are a lot of bands that come out and want to be as technical as possible but it’s not necessarily good song structure. It’s just this technical, one riff to the next…
EB:
…Extreme shredding
TL:
Yeah, it’s amazing while you’re experiencing this total shredding that’s going on but not when the song is over and you can’t hang on to anything. That’s not timeless. That’s just a band proving that they’re the greatest shredders and eventually two or three years from then, there are going to be a hundred other kids that are even greater shredders. As far as trying to be the biggest shredder on the block, that’s not a status a band will always be able to maintain. I feel like writing good songs and having good song structure is a timeless thing. But then there’s also trends like the vocals of the pig squeal or the vocals with the really emotional voice crack to it, or this and that. Those things will come and go but just good, solid sounding vocals will always be [timeless].
EB:
I read on the Peta2 website about you being very outspoken about wasting life. Can you elaborate some more on that?
TL:
Yeah, I think that whole issue goes beyond the way we don’t want just one of something, we want it in excess. Whether it’s the way we’ve chosen to eat, the way we don’t want to occasionally have a nice meal, we want to eat $300 dinners all the time. Or when it comes to the clothes we wear. That comment was specifically in the context of the clothing that people wear. It’s like, we don’t want to just be warm and somewhat fashionable, we want to kill animals just for the sake of wearing their fur and things like that, and for me it’s not just that one issue, it just sort of represents the American mentality.
EB:
Yeah, I don’t have a problem with vanity but vanity at somebody else’s expense is a whole other deal, whether or not it’s killing an animal or just putting another human being down.
TL:
Totally. And I think it doesn’t necessarily hurt our culture… it’s not like we’re gonna run out of resources because as soon as we run out of resources, we just go plunder the resources from other third world countries that don’t necessarily have the ability to defend themselves. Or if they do, we’ll work our a deal where we’re paying half of what it’s worth, stealing other countries crops so we can give our cows more grain… just things all along that line. Obviously, I would be a hypocrite to say that I never add to that problem. But I just think that, in general, if we can’t get it for ourselves or for own country without hurting other people, we’ll just go and take it from someone else who can’t defend themselves.
For more information go to www.asilaydying.com and www.myspace.com/asilaydying
For more information go to www.asilaydying.com and www.myspace.com/asilaydying
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