Cancer Bats

Judith sits down with Liam from Cancer Bats–

On March 24^th, I had the privilege of hanging out with Liam from Cancer Bats. Here is our lovely cool and casual conversation on a very sunny day in Montreal!

CONFRONT: Hi Liam

LIAM: Hi Judith

CONFRONT: thanks for giving us some time in your very busy touring schedule and allowing us to have an interview

LIAM: no problems, it’s our pleasure

CONFRONT: let me start with some fun questions we ask all of our interviewees, we call them the CONFRONT questions!

LIAM: cool, cool

CONFRONT: What would be the first and the last CD you remember buying?

LIAM: First CD?

CONFRONT: well can be a cassette

LIAM: ok, cause the first CD I bought was like 1995, but the 2 first cassettes I bought at the same time was Beastie Boys’ “Check You Head” and Led Zepplin’s “III”

CONFFRONT: very nice

LIAM: and I think it’s because this is the only Led Zeppelin cassette they had at the store…but I needed to get Beastie Boys’ “Check Your Head” Because I was coming back home from summer camp, and I was like… this is the two cassettes that I need to buy!

CONFRONT: Cool, and what would be the most recent ones?? Can be something from iTunes even…?

LIAM: I’ve been buying a lot of vinyl…that’s like my main collection right now

CONFRONT: very cool…

LIAM: I recently bought the album of a band from Sweden called Regulations which is dope and online I bought the Black Breath LP which is like some brutal hard core from the US

CONFRONT: nice we’ll make sure to check it out! What would be the first and the last concert you attended but as a fan?

LIAM: the last one that comes to mind… maybe I’ve seen other shows in between but I remember going to see a band called Rise and Fall on one of our days off from the Billy Talent tour in Berlin. And the first one… well it’s the most memorable first show I remember and I’ve said this before so I’m sorry for the ones that have read interview with me before but I got to see Rancid and Rocket From The Crypt when I was 15 years old. I was living in the states and this was like…life altering you know…

CONFRONT: oh yeah for sure! Do you have any guilty pleasures musically? Like some stuff you’re not too proud of liking but, listen to it anyhow?

LIAM: see I’m proud of liking everything you know… I just love it and I have no guilt I’m just proud you know…

CONFRONT: I totally understand J

LIAM: ok now let me think!…I like a lot of party jams, it represent us very well, because we love to party. MGMT, big MGMT fan, that gets the party started… with some Lil’ Wayne and old school Jay Z and some Beyoncé and the party is on!!! We just own it you know!!

CONFRONT: oh for sure! Tell me about your musical influences…

LIAM: For us , just like even in general, I think just growing up with like the hard and  punk rock scene or community in southern Ontario, that’s what made us want to be in a band, and that’s what made us want to tour. Seeing band from Toronto and London and Detroit and even seeing friends band, it made us believe we could do something and we could do this. We would meet the band and hang out with them when they played in small places and it was like… this is fun! We still love playing in small places and even if we are playing in big places  like the Bell Centre we try to make ourselves as accessible as possible you know…

CONFRONT: for sure!! You guys really are! You guys have been described as hard core, metal core, southern metal thrash, how would you describe your band.. what is Cancer Bats to Liam??

LIAM: I find that with us… even if the band keeps changing, actually I just did an interview right before this one with a dude from Spain  and he was like “you guys aren’t an hard core band anymore, like your new album is so metal” and it’s like I still consider ourselves a hard core band just because of how we conduct ourselves. It’s more like, to me hard core is having the actually hard core mentality, the way you tour, the way the way you do your business…

CONFRONT: the way you interact with people

LIAM: exactly. And to me metal bands are on another plan, they sell their shirts for 35$ and the kids never meet them… and we don’t want that, I’m just a dude playing music, I wear the same t-shirt on and off stage you know…

CONFRONT: you’re just enjoying the fact that you’re doing music for a living

LIAM: exactly you know and I think however how hard or soft you play, you have that punk rock hard core attitude like inside and it’s more like more how you come across. Just like I feel like Billy Talent are like very punk rock because of the way they treat the people they work with. Maybe they are playing a big venue but… they are still very present!

CONFRONT: of course! The third studio album is coming out on April 12^th 2010 do you guys have a specific process when it comes to writing the songs?? Do you come up with all the lyrics?

LIAM: I definitely come up with all the lyrics but I do, do it after the fact, we start with the music, because the mood of the song really come with the music so I do the lyrics after. But it’s definitely the four of us in a room, working together…

CONFRONT: no specific role and individuality?

LIAM: oh non, I know some bands are like that but not us…we work as a team. It makes sure that all four of us are happy about all the songs, we don’t want to force anything on anybody.

CONFRONT: nobody is a rock star

LIAM: exactly because then the band will break up

CONFRONT: exactly and we don’t want that happening

LIAM: c’est ca! (Liam is practicing is French with me here, he said that’s it)

CONFRONT:  ok well we don’t have a lot of time left… L

LIAM: oh non

CONFRONT: yeah sadly so one last question…what would you want you legacy to be? Cancer bats 10, 20 years from now?

LIAM: nicest dude, I think we have a pretty good reputation to be remembered as the nicest dudes…

CONFRONT: here you go…

LIAM: I’d like to keep that going…

CONFRONT: and musically?

LIAM: maybe that we had some pretty good riffs! But to have people say… Cancer Bats these were some pretty nice dudes, yeah I think I would be it

CONFRONT: well you guys really are and I’m sure you’ll keep being nice and true to yourselves!

LIAM: thanks CONFRONT

CONFRONT: well you’re welcome Liam!!

If you’d like to learn more about the band, you can visit them at:

www.myspace.com/cancerbats