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Album Reviews
Misery Signals
Previous Nextauthor PP date 13/04/07
Finally it happened. It was the interview we had been hunting for since the release of their latest album "Mirrors" in August, with an attempt failing due to mobile phone signal problems and another one just lost in the email. I'm of course talking about Misery Signals, and since they were coming back on yet another amazing tour, this time with All That Remains, I had a third go of trying to get hold of the band for interview. This time no problems, and Ferret Records sat us in a dressing room with a couple of guys from the band, where their guitarist Ryan was just working on some new riffs for their next album with his small recorder. We got straight to the point, and a lengthy and detailed interview was the result of half an hour with the band. Read on to see what Ryan, Kyle and Stu had to say about a variety of aspects about the album, touring and about bands who get a 'freeride' to fame.
Ryan: I'm Ryan, I play the guitar.
RF.net: They've received you well then?
Kyle: Yep
RF.net: Even though you're quite different from them? The same reaction for you guys as for All That Remains?
Kyle: It's weird yeah, their fans seem to be open to more than your average fan.
Ryan: It's awesome too because we're just coming off a tour in the States with them as well so we've done quite a bit of different places with them. Some Canadian shows and all of US, and now we've been staying over here.
RF.net: Are the crowds any different here in Europe than in the States?
Ryan: Always [laughs]
RF.net: How?
Ryan: Sometimes here it's hard for me to tell, maybe i'm just not used to the crowds here, but it's hard for me to tell if kids are into it, if you know what I mean? They'll be just perfectly still and watch attentively, you know, and at the end of the song go crazy.. clap and make a ton of noise we weren't expecting and want another song. It's like "where were you when we were actually playing?" [laughs]
Ryan: Sometimes we found out that bands request or wanna take us on tour just because they like the music, they like the band. It always helps. It's awesome to feel like you're on a tour because someone likes you rather than just, you know, politics.
RF.net: The media tends to label you guys as either metalcore or hardcore or a hybrid of both - do you think that's fair?
Kyle: Sure.
Ryan: I mean everyone wants to put bands into categories and those are definitely the scenes we've been associated with, the scenes that we came up in. That's where we started, so, we're definitely related to that very strongly. I don't know if necessarily what you think of. I definitely don't wanna be what you think of for any of those classifications, but we definitely are related to that and associated to it, sure.
Stuart Ross, the band's other guitarist, walks in and looks slightly confused over what's going on in their dressing room and why he isn't involved in it as of yet
Ryan: He plays guitar for Misery Signals
RF.net: Hi how're you doing
Stu: Good
Ryan: It's weird too because it seems like when you go to the internet, there's a hundred of every type of band, in every little niche, one band will start to get big and 50 bands will appear that sounds like it. Maybe it's always been that way, it's just easier to find that than before, I guess. Myspace and the internet really push everything, so it's strange that way
RF.net: So what made you choose especially Karl's submission then?
Ryan: His just kind of fit the profile of what we were looking for. Before we went and did a public search for singers, we had a few people come and try out, friends of ours, people that we knew from our area, people that were singers of bands around there. It's good to start on a level where you know someone already, you get an idea about them, it's less of a gamble that way. But none of those people really were rhyming exactly how we wanted them to, so we broadened the search and went public. And of the people Karl's was the audition that stood out the most. We got a couple of hundred of them, literally. His was just far best, there were one or two that were close, but his was just the best. We started talking to the guy and he's young and ambitious, energetic and we had him down and it just worked. A lot of times you can just tell, like, a lot of people we tried out we thought were gonna work. You know, with all the voices like this, and it's great, and they're this type of person, and then they come to jam and it wouldn't be good. With Karl, we didn't know that much about him, he came to jam, and that's when we knew it was allright.
Kyle: I feel okay about it. [laughter] I feel that we took a step in the right direction with writing it, but at the same time, now that we have an established vocalist, who has been with us for a while, we're excited to get back in the studio and put out another record. I don't feel like we've made a ton of progress with this record as far as gaining fanbase versus the last record, because there's such a gap in between the two records, and getting the new vocalist kind of threw us off course for a few months, but I still feel good about it. I still like playing the songs.
Ryan: Yeah in a way that record was like starting over for us, and this time when we go back, it'll be like an extension of what we got now we won't really have to reset. And that's something we're all excited about. There's a lot of stuff about "Mirrors" that we think is great. There's definitely some songs that we're gonna be playing for a long time and are super happy with so.
RF.net: So have you given any thought to the next album yet, how it's gonna sound like?
Ryan: Ummm... not too much, i mean privately we've all been sort of coming up with ideas and right now I was just over there [points to the corner of the room], that's my little recorder right there, working on riffs, trying to put ideas together. But it's all very open. If you think too hard in advance what it's gonna sound like, you get too specific early on, and you sometimes limit what you're able to do creatively. I think it'll be good for us to just get into a room together and start making songs, and be like "this is what the next album will sound like as a concept"
RF.net: So are we talking about something perhaps like the new Poison The Well record, sort of really really experimental or are we talking about straight in your face hardcore?
Ryan: I doubt that we'll do as much of a change as they have. They've been sort of all over the place in their career but, I think we ought to have a more of a foundation to our style, that will stick with us no matter what we try and do. Even if we choose to experiment more, or even experiment less and go more to basics, I think there's still gonna be that Misery Signals sort of overtone to it, and I don't think with Poison The Well, or certain bands that choose change like that, you can't even recognize them necessarily. That's not something we wanna do, pull the rug out from under the people who've been with us.
Ryan: It's interesting being in a band like us, because we do get really good critical acclaim down in our circle at least, but that doesn't necessarily always transfer to record sales or more kids coming to the shows. We still feel good about growing and having people to get it, get what we're trying to do. But it's a different kind of satisfaction I guess.
RF.net: Both. [followed by a lengthy pause with silence and subtle laugther] How about you [looking at Stu], you haven't said much yet?
Stu: Um.. I don't know. I'll explain musically in a few words, and you [points at Ryan] explain it conceptually in a few words. I would say it's heavy, and aggressive but at the same time it's very melodic and ambient at times,
Ryan: Little bit creamy?
Stu: Little bit creamy and smooth [laughter]
Kyle: That was like 6 words
Ryan: As far as conceptually, a lot of it is about the way we betray ourselves versus the way we actually are, and sort of the difference between living a life just without never giving a shit about anything, or constantly questioning whether or not you're a good person or whether or not your deeds affect yourself or people around you.
RF.net: Playing it tonight?
Ryan: Most likely
RF.net: You haven't decided yet?
Ryan: [laughter] No, depends on the time.
Stu: We got 45!
Ryan: On this tour our time schedule is varying so.
RF.net: Everything's printable, we're don't censor!
Ryan: Everything's printable?? [shock mixed with laughter]
RF.net: Yeah everything, give me the craziest!
Ryan: A lot of it is embarassing, so!
RF.net: It's always nice to get something new that you haven't told other magazines or webzines or whatever!
Kyle: Tell him about yesterday...
Ryan: Oh yeah, yesterday is actually a good example. We had a show booked, our first UK show. Something happened with the club where the pipes broke, and it was flooding the entire club. We weren't there yet, fortunately, and the city had to turn the water off from the club. With no running water they had to cancel the show, because you can't open the club with no running water, so.
Kyle: Or that's what they told us, because it was Easter sunday
Stu: There's a kid who worked at the club today
Kyle: Oh really?
Ryan: Yeah it was a legitimate story. Yeah so shows canceled, we had a show today in London and just drove here early and we ended up hanging out. There's like one place in the entire city where you can park a tour bus, and it's under this Tesco store. It's easter sunday, so Tesco's closed, everything around there is closed, we're just kind of sitting around with the whole day off. Under this parking garage that we were in, there's all these dumpsters and leftover shit from the store. And we ended up pulling out these seats from the garbage, and setting up this kind of room basically, some tables, had some drinks and play cards. We set up this garbage realm, where we partied, it was awesome.
Kyle: It'll probably still be there tonight
Ryan: We might go back and take the bus back there tonight I think and hang out! [laughter]
RF.net: They're Danish!
Ryan: Yeah, that's right, they are fucking awesome. Thank you guys!
RF.net: If you had one small band from near where you're from or anywhere from the scene that you would recommend us that we probably wouldn't know, who would it be?
Ryan: You got any of those?
Kyle: All my friends bands are dead, they just keep breaking up
Ryan: Dude we're gone so much it's hard for us to get plugged in. It's hard to keep a social life let alone keep up with the local scene.
RF.net: Lets say on a larger scale then, a band that you know that isn't big yet but should be big?
Ryan: Well.. what do you guys think? I don't know man I'm a bad talent scout, I'll never run a record label
Stu: There's a band.. i don't know them at all, but a band from Vancouver called Daggermouth, kind of like a fast punk rock band.
RF.net: Yeah I know them [laughter]
Stu: I don't really know anything else, that's the only smaller band I can think
Ryan: We live in like a time warp, we don't know anything!
Stu: No I think it helps the bands grow. Personally I download a lot of music, I don't have any problem with it!
Kyle: Misery Signals supports downloading!
Stu: Because of it, me downloading a record I'm gonna go see a band's show. If you get a record and you really like it..
Kyle: ..then you probably end up buying the record anyways
RF.net: There's a band here in the UK called Enter Shikari, I don't know if you heard about them, they mix techno and hardcore together. They didn't release a single album but they sold out a 5,000 person venue here last week, it's quite impressive!
Ryan: The internet is going crazy man.
Kyle: The internet is going nuts
Stu: Internet is crazy.
RF.net: What about the most discouraging then?
Ryan: Just that everything that's big sucks [laughter]
Stu: I find it really hard for someone in our position, who really tour a lot, I mean we probably did close to 11 months on the road in the last year, and this year we're not resting at all, we've already jump started to the same sort of scenario. It's really frustrating for me, or discouraging for me I guess, to work so hard and then to see certain bands.. I mean whatever, it's more of a jealousy thing I guess, but to see a band that doesn't tour and doesn't work very hard and they'll just blow up, and they're big. It's like seeing a pop singer, who gets discovered with one single and gets huge world wide. I think that's discouraging, when you put a lot of energy and emotion into what you're doing, and sometimes people just don't get it, you know?
Ryan: Some people get the freeride
RF.net: Who would you say has had a freeride, as of late?
Ryan: Dude. Lots of bands. [laughter]
Stu: Lots of bands we probably shouldn't talk about!
RF.net: I'm trying to get some scandalous statements out of you here! [laughter]
Stu: I could ask some random question about Ryan's personal life!
Ryan: Like what's up with that thing on your testicles?
Stu: We don't need to know! Let me think... [pause]
Ryan: Do I have time to eat this? laughter
Stu: Yeah, I'm kind of working on something right now.. [pause, followed by slow construction of a question] What do you think... is the most.. important or.. powerful effective moment on "Mirrors", section a song? Of the whole record.
Ryan: So like picking a riff or?
Stu: The climax, that hits the hardest!
RF.net: That's a good question!
Ryan: Umm... man! My first instinct says the outro of the whole record, the double bass climax in "Mirrors". I was thinking about maybe the end of "The Offering", where its like a melodic sort of orgasm, but that's close. But I think the end of "Mirrors" brings it home, that does it for me.
Stu: I agree.
Kyle: I think a lot of our endings kick ass
RF.net Any plans of going to Denmark?
Ryan: I would love to. Hopefully next time. We'll be back before the end of the year in Europe, there's been talk about it. And I'd love to get to a lot of the places that we haven't been. Thanks