As I Lay Dying

Steve sits with founding member and the lead vocalist, Tim LambesisCONFRONT: I’m SteveK with CONFRONT Magazine, and I’m here with:

TIM: Tim, from As I Lay Dying.

CONFRONT: For the benefit of our readers who might not know about As I Lay Dying, tell us a little bit about the background of the band, how long you’ve been in the business, and how you got started.

TIM: Well, the band’s been around a little longer than seven years now. We started pretty much with just songs that I’d worked on and I’d written and I found Jordan, who’s our drummer; we’re the two original members. Eventually we sort of filled out and became a live, touring five piece. We were together for two years before we signed with Metal Blade and we put out three records with Metal Blade, plus a re-release of stuff from before we signed. So, I think we’ve progressed through the years and became more and more metaled, we learned our instruments. We were a very young band when we started; the more we excelled at our instruments the more technicality we added which naturally makes the music sound more metal now than when we first started.

CONFRONT: So your sound has evolved, and when you were starting out you weren’t necessarily Metal?

TIM: I think that, yes; it is the overall genre that we were a part of.

CONFRONT: But you’ve just gone more towards the harder Metal than more mainstream stuff?

TIM: Yeah, I think we’ve gone for a lot more melody in the guitars.

CONFRONT: So, more like the symphonics; the symphonic aspect of Metal music?

TIM: Yeah.

CONFRONT: It wasn’t that long ago that the industry and even the fans were basically abandoning Metal; the genre basically went underground. Now we’re starting to see a major resurgence… there’s a lot of big Metal shows going on; it’s becoming more and more popular and it’s really coming back into the mainstream consciousness. Why do you think it went away, and why do you think it’s coming back?

TIM: I think it went away maybe just due to the lyrical content in part because it was just such a hard genre for people to relate to; and then I think the genre got more introspective, and the lyrics became more meaningful, and the bands weren’t just talking about… you know, wizards and dragons.

CONFRONT: And we survived the 80s Hair Bands Era.

TIM: I wouldn’t even necessarily term most of those guys Metal; that was some sort of Glam. You know, from the lyrical side of things though, a lot of younger fans started to relate to the music and then instrumentally there was just more. And the Internet just pushed everybody that much further because there were so many bands out there that everybody felt challenged to just put out music that was that much better.

CONFRONT: And speaking of the Internet, how important do you feel the Internet has been to your success as an artist?

TIM: I think it’s very important for underground music because it used to be that people only heard about a handful of bands through the radio and if they didn’t hear about a band through the radio then they had to take a gamble and go spend $20 on a CD and hopefully it was good. Now people can really find out if the music’s good and I think that it helps underground bands because they don’t have big marketing money and when we first started, we definitely didn’t have a huge push, you know… the labels are limited, money-wise, so we got that underground, die-hard fan base from the Internet.

CONFRONT: That’s actually an interesting point about radio, especially here in Montreal; we’re literally a Top 40 town. We’ve got one rock station that only plays oldies, and everything else is all Top 40. If we do hear about anything it’s usually from the Internet, from the underground scene. Why do you feel the underground is so potent? Why is it so obviously being picked up on by the fans and being ignored by mainstream radio, and corporate music in general?

TIM: That’s a good question; I think that if I knew the exact answer I’d be able to help solve the problem.

CONFRONT: Well, what’s your theory?

TIM: My theory is that the underground fans, they want to buy an entire album, you know? But the traditional corporate and mainstream thinking is to buy a single or to buy a record because you like one or two songs. And that older way of thinking will continue to control the radio for, I’m sure, a number of more years. But eventually, younger generations will demand entire albums of good material, and not just a pop single.

CONFRONT: That’d be nice.

TIM: Yeah.

CONFRONT: Right now there are so many genres and sub-genres in the blanket category of Metal; stuff like Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Extreme Metal, Groove Metal, Deathcore. Why do you think there’s so much compartmentalization of the music, of the bands, even to the point of animosity between the fans of the different genres?

TIM: Well, I think the fans create that, not necessarily the bands. There are some bands that will come up with this crazy title, like, “Yeah, we’re Grooved-out-Deathcore” you know, “Blah, blah, blah.” Whatever. For the most part, I think that within a band, the members have diverse tastes. I mean, there’s five of us, and all five of us will tell you we have different tastes and so I think that if I tried to give our band a title, I think the other guys would probably disagree with me. But I think the fans want to feel like they’ve also created something, so I think that sometimes the creation of a subgenre is like, “Oh, this is the genre that I’ve been a part of and it’s not Metal as a whole, it’s Deathcore,” or whatever it might be called.

CONFRONT: What is it that first attracted you to Metal music when you first started playing in a band? Why did you go towards Metal instead of another genre?

TIM: I’ve always been drawn towards aggressive forms of music. I grew up with two older brothers and a younger brother, so it’s a family with a lot of testosterone and aggression, so it’s a great outlet. But of all the aggressive styles of music I was first drawn more towards Punk for its raw type of aggression. When I learned to play guitar and just started writing music, it helped out quite a bit on the guitar side of things writing for As I Lay Dying. I think I was just challenged more by Metal and it had that aggression to it and it’s just a little more technical-and fun-from the musician’s standpoint.

CONFRONT: Since going back underground, do you feel that Metal has become more artistic and more technical?

TIM: Yeah, I mean, there’s some bands that I think are still over people’s heads now that would have blown people’s minds ten years ago. On the really chaotic side, you have bands like Dillinger Escape Plan who are very, very talented; and on the more melodic side, you have bands like Children of Bodom, or some of the European bands that are very technical but still melodic.

CONFRONT: And if we look at, for example, Emo, that whole genre of music started with a couple of bands who had an original sound, an original look, an original concept, and then it caught on and the genre became cookie-cutter acts, basically. Are you afraid of that happening to the Metal genre again?

TIM: I think that it’s happening again to some degree already. But, I think all it means is that the older bands have to rise to the challenge and be more obvious and set themselves apart.

CONFRONT: Speaking of older bands, who are the bands that influenced you?

TIM: That’s a tough question. I guess that the original energy of Punk really inspired us and I think that’s why our music is generally fast. But then on the technical side of it, especially rhythmically, from bands like Meshugah or Living Sacrific; bands like that, rhythmically really challenged me a lot. And then, of course, the European bands with their melodies going back to At the Gates who had this really angry Iron Maiden-type melodies, you know?

CONFRONT: Well, there is a symphonic element to Metal music that a lot of more pompous people-myself included-like to talk about, but there is very strong parallels between Metal and Classical music.

TIM: Yeah! I agree!

CONFRONT: Especially with Metal, you get a lot of kids who turn to music for solace and for comfort, for a sense of understanding of their world and themselves; I know when I was 14 that’s why I got into Metal: to find that sense of communion. How do you feel about the impact that music and especially Metal has on young kids?

TIM: I think that it’s really comforting to know that Metal has sort of changed its lyrical themes in the last 10 years. I’d say in the past, you know, people have said music saved their lives in some way but just as many people can say that they became a very frustrated and angry person as a result of listening to some of the older Metal bands, so I think it’s good to bring hope into a genre of music that’s stereotyped as being very dark. I think that’s definitely what we’re trying to do-and not because I’m trying to force it or anything-but naturally, I think I just write about what’s most important to me and I just personally don’t want to live a life where I’m just filled with anger all the time. Although I think aggression and passion are great outlets but it’s a different kind of aggression and passion.

CONFRONT: Thanks a lot; it’s been a great interview!

TIM: Oh yeah, thanks!

http://www.asilaydying.com/

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