Killswitch Engage: From the Beginning

“I was always hesitant to sign a deal with big labels because of the stories you hear, like they’re gonna give you a bunch of money to do a record and if you don’t sell even records they’re gonna drop you on your ass and that’s it, so it’s kind of a gamble. Some are lucky enough, I mean, if you do enough touring and sell enough records to pay them back for what they lent you… nothing really came out of our pockets or anything but… I think a lot of people think if you sign to a label you have royalties and all that stuff but it’s not really the case unless you’re selling millions of records. I don’t think anyone who signs to a label should think that they’re automatically making top money. It’s a popular misconception.”

As we moved on to another subject, I was surprised to find out that Joel was married…and to a Canadian no less. Not because he is unattractive, uninteresting or untalented, in fact quite the contrary – something for which I was very thankfully as it made the ‘basement of terror’ a little more bearable – but being married myself, I often wonder how people can stand to be away from each for such long stretches at a time.

“Well first thing, I had to buy her a dog.” He answered with a laugh. “Her name’s Lieutenant, she’s a girl. But yeah, it’s pretty tough, I try to get her to come out and visit whenever she can get time off work and stuff. It was tough for us especially the first year because she was applying for a green card in the States so she couldn’t come back and visit her family; so that was kind of rough but we made it. So yeah I try to get her to come out if even for just a weekend on tour or something for a couple of days. It kind of sucks sometimes, but you do what you can.”

Another subject of interest to me is that of the dream vs. reality. Often times, the younger bands, those who grew up listening to the rock gods of the 70s, 80s and 90s, come to find out that their day to day reality is far different than that shown in the music videos of their favorite childhood bands.

“I always wanted to play in a band and play shows and have people mosh and jump around.” He said after a few moments of reflection. “You know you’re a little kid, 10 years old with headphones on, jumping on your bed, playing air guitar. I did do that whole thing. It kind of does live up to what I thought it was except I didn’t realize how hard it is to not be able to go home every night. It’s the best job in the world but after 2, 3 or 4 weeks on a shelf in a bus you’re ready to go home at least for a while and then go back on tour. So yeah that’s the worst part about it, not getting to go home at the end of the day.”

“You get different sets of shoulder and back pains from sleeping on one side versus the other so you gotta re-adjust. And usually on tour everyone’s drinking every night so it’s good to go home and give the liver a break; but then again, you get home from tour and all your friends are like ‘I haven’t seen you in so long, lets go out and get a drink!’ so it’s kind of weird. It’s a strange lifestyle but I enjoy it.”

“I’m just psyched to have a bunch of guys who like to play together. No one’s rich or anything; but at least we’re paying the bills and having some fun so if it all ends tomorrow, you can’t have any regrets and we’ll keep doing it for as long as we can.”

Although I was eager to get out of the dark and dank of our interview space and into the sunny warmth of the afternoon, I was reluctant to end our conversation. I had already learned a lot about a band I had been hearing of for many years, but I’m sure there was a lot left to learn.

As we headed out, I asked him what could be expected from Killswitch Engage in the coming year; to which he answered “Um, we’re gonna tour until halfway through August and then take all of September off. Then we’re gonna make a new record; the guys have some ideas and we’re hoping to get in the studio by December so early next year we’re hoping to have a new record out.”

I can’t wait to hear it.

Unfortunately I wasn’t unable to attend the show that night but I’m told it was incredible. Everyone I spoke to said it was one of the best shows of the year so far, on all counts.

To learn more about Killswitch Engage please visit their online home here: www.killswitchengage.com

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