Killswitch Engage: From the Beginning
May 28th, 2008 - Written by Angel
The setting for our Killswitch Engage interview with guitarist Joel Stroetzel, was an interesting one to say the least. Who knew that the Metropolis’ underbelly was more reminiscent of a psychopath’s torture chamber than a storage room. Usually, interviews at this venue take place in the basement lounge, but wanting to provide us with a quieter, more private area to chat in, the location’s production manager escorted us through a narrow passageway that lead into what reminded of old world catacombs, closing a heavy, squeaky door behind him, as he left us to our own devices.
Awkwardness set in for a moment as we assessed the surroundings: old stone and mortar walls, grimy with the years; a low unfinished ceiling that grazed our heads and forced us to duck; a roughly built, wooden table littered with various old cables and devices that could have been used to torture someone by electrocution… or more accurately an amp that was being uncooperative.
“This is…” he began, looking around.
“Interesting? Frightening? Worthy of a bad horror movie?” I finished for him.
“Yeah” he said laughing. “So, I start from the beginning?” he asked, once we had gotten over the ‘Jack the Ripper’ feel of the place and settled into our folding chairs, ready to start the interview.
“I haven’t done much research for this article” I had confessed earlier, wanting to approach this from the perspective of someone hearing about this band for the time and Joel made sure to give us an accurate, if abridged, timeline.
“I guess Killswitch officially started when Adam and Mike started jamming together. (…) Overcast, Mike’s band, and Aftershock, Adam’s band, were both breaking up; this was probably around 1998. So Mike and Adam started playing together and then they had wrote 2 or 3 songs and invited me to jam with them. It was the 3 of us for a while, trying out different guitar players and singers, and we couldn’t really find anyone for about 6-8 months; and then our original singer, Jesse, came along. So that’s how the original 4 piece band started.”
“We went through some changes over the years. Since then I’ve obviously moved from drums to guitar; we got a new drummer, then another new drummer, a new singer. But I guess no one’s new at this point, it’s been like that for about 6 years and Justin over 4 years; so it’s been pretty consistent since we’ve found this group. We have 2 albums with this current lineup and getting ready to do the 3rd.”
“I think everybody’s heads were in different places before. Some people didn’t wanna deal with touring; some people didn’t like writing as much… things like that. When we got together, we had a hard time finishing ['The End of Heartache'] and then Justin came in the band; and he’s a really good musician and drummer. He was a huge help with the arranging and writing and made everything easier and it’s been pretty sweet since then. Writing the last record was a breeze, you know, compared to the ones before. We used to take a year to write, this time we came off of tour, had a break for a few months, then got back together and 2 months later the record was done. It was recorded so fast. I’m not sure that’ll ever happen again; I guess we just got lucky. So I guess that’s the nutshell of our brief history.”
Many bands have shared similar stories: band members leaving and being replaced, disagreements with regards to touring and writing, lineup and instrument changes within the original members… all things that fans might find difficult to adapt to along with the artists themselves.
“I think Adam loved it ‘cause he didn’t have to carry drums around anymore.” Joel said of former drummer, Adam Dutkiewicz, who now joins Joel on guitar. “We played guitar together in Aftershock so it was very natural for us to play together anyway; so it was a very easy change and people knew Adam from playing guitar in Aftershock, so it wasn’t really a surprise to anyone. It was cool, a very smooth change.”
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