Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Every Time I Die

With his band Every Time I Die, guitarist Andrew Williams has toured with legendary acts Black Sabbath, Slayer and Judas Priest. He’s also seen a sixth toe, been interviewed by a gay zombie and allegedly beaten up Peter Coors’son. Before Every Time I Die’s recent show with Bleeding Through, Between the Buried and Me, and Haste the Day at the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, Williams took time out to talk with Greg Maki and Jeff Maki of Live-Metal.net about these and other topics.

Live-Metal: How’s the tour going so far?

Andrew Williams: It’s been awesome. A lot of people, the powers that be, wanted us to do a more crossover tour, and when they offered this, it was like, “Fuck that.” They wanted us to go out with like Hawthorne Heights or Silverstein. But we did this instead. I think it was a better choice.

I’ve read some of your blog on MySpace. You write a lot and get really honest and let people in. Do you ever worry about revealing too much?

No, not at all, man. I think that’s one thing that a lot of bands miss, the human quality. We don’t want to be personified as rock stars or anything like that. We just want to be the common man that was given a gift, you know what I mean? This is an opportunity. We’re not gonna be like we’re god’s gift to fuckin’ guitar. You’re wearing a BLS shirt. Zakk Wylde is a god. I’m definitely not even close to him. I think the more you let people in on stuff like that, the better you’ll be treated in the long run by them. It’s one of those things where you can go to the bar next door and always have a beer with someone. Something like that.

In the most recent blog, you write about the Story of the Year tour. It sounds like you guys had some rough times on that, personally and physically.

It was just a rough tour, man. After we got in that accident – we flipped the van in Wyoming – I don’t think any of us slept. Story of the Year had two buses and a semi. From First to Last had a bus. And then us and whoever was opening, we were in vans. Those bands don’t care because if they gotta drive 16 hours, they’re in luxury the whole time. We’re in a fuckin’ van. Any time you hit a bump dudes would like jump up. We didn’t sleep the whole tour. Everyone was getting on everyone’s nerves. It was an awesome tour for us to do. It was great, but when it was over with it was like, “Alright, we need this. We need to take time off and get away from each other.” I think that saved a lot relationship-wise.

Are you feeling better now?

Yeah, way better. We bucked up and got a bus for this tour. We might not have as much money at the end of the tour, but at least we’re alive.

You’ve played pretty much all of the festival tours out there, Ozzfest, Sounds of the Underground, Warped Tour.

We’re just waiting for the right one.

How do they all compare?

Ozzfest was a tough one for us. Playing the second stage of Ozzfest is like going to a football game and doing the parking lot thing. You’re gonna go see the Eagles play, you’re gonna show up at least three hours before, get nice and trashed, and then go watch the football game. That was basically how the second stage was. It was just warming up for the main stage. No one cared. The more caveman your band was, the bigger response you had. For us, our time changes are all fucked up. It would just go over everyone’s heads. We’d get a good reaction every day and sell a good amount of merch, but it was a hard tour. Sounds of the Underground was an easier tour because there were so many more bands like us on it. We were still kind of like the odd man out on it, but at least there were bands like Poison the Well that were kind of close to us. Or Norma Jean. Norma Jean was on it, and that’s really close. So the kids knew how to react. There was just more like that. And it’s not as long. You’re not there at nine in the morning. Now, this year we’re doing Warped Tour. I think this is a tour that we’ve been waiting for because the kids are so appreciative at Warped Tour. They’re there for the music. They’re not there to get wasted – well, they can’t get wasted – and they’re there for the music for once.

Are you comfortable with the band’s position sort of straddling different genres, punk, hardcore and metal?

Yeah, that was kind of the point when we started the band. We wanted to make sure we could play to anyone. We’re not as all over the place as a band like System of a Down or something like that. They have like fuckin’ reggae parts and shit like that. But, yeah, I think it’s a very fortunate thing. It wasn’t really a conscious thing. It wasn’t really like we were like, “Oh, let’s make sure we can play anywhere.” But all of us, our influences are just all over the board.

What are some of them?

For me, Jeff Buckley, which is weird. You look at me and you’re like, “Wow, Jeff Buckley.” Jeff Buckley, Massive Attack, Portishead are three of my favorite bands. But also Slayer and Meshuggah are some of my favorite bands too. It’s so weird, like Ratboy [drummer Michael Novak] is obsessed with Foo Fighters. But he’s also obsessed with Slayer. It’s weird like that. And [vocalist] Keith [Buckley]’s favorite person is, like, Bjork. On the other hand, he listens to fuckin’ Cannibal Corpse or something like that. It’s weird.

Do you have a dream tour?

Dude, I toured with Black Sabbath. That’s the one thing with this band that I’ve been fortunate enough to do. Any goal that we’ve set we’ve literally done. It’s fuckin’ ridiculous. Not so many bands can do that. I never thought one of our records would ever sell 50,000 records, which now by today’s standards is not a lot at all. But we sold 50,000 records, and I was like, “Oh my god.” I thought that 10,000 would be my peak in any band that I ever was in. That was cool. We toured with Black Sabbath. We toured with Slayer on the same tour. Even though we didn’t really tour with them, we did. Judas Priest was on it. We played Japan. We played Europe. Anything that I could think of in my head has been accomplished. Not that I set my goals high. It wasn’t like I was like, “I’m gonna tour with Black Sabbath someday.” These are some of my favorite bands. I toured with them. That’s awesome. That’s great. It’s just weird. And now we’re like, “Alright, let’s just try to blow everyone away.” It’s day by day now. We don’t have a big goal. We’re fortunate, I guess.

I’m sure you see all kinds of things out on tour. What’s one of the craziest things?

There’s a few. I’m really weird with deformities. It’s one of my big fears. You know that movie The Elephant Man? I can’t watch it because it literally freaks me out that much. When we doing one of those signings, a kid came up with a sixth toe, and he wanted [guitarist] Jordan [Buckley] to sign it. And then some kid next to him licked it, the sixth toe. That was definitely weird … Ok, this is up there probably with seeing a unicorn. I was walking down the street and there was just a bum pissing at the street. I look over, I see his dick and everything, and he didn’t even care. He just sat there and pissed, and then he waved. And he let me just watch him. It was the weirdest thing ever, and then after he zipped up, he went his way, I went my way. You see shit like that all the time. It’s the fuckin’ weirdest thing ever. So, yeah, I’ve seen some weird shit on tour. I don’t know why those two stand out more than anything else.

I know the last album is still pretty new and fresh, but do you guys write on the road?

Yeah, I have a few ideas written for the next record. I’m pretty stoked at them. It’s different tuning and stuff we haven’t done before. Actually, I’m tuning to Zakk Wylde. He drops the top string to a B and keeps everything straight. It’s pretty crazy. Yeah, I’m stoked about it. I can’t wait to get in and start writing again. I think after Warped Tour, there’s a few talks on tour. Maybe we’ll do a headlining tour or there’s a big support tour that’s being talked about. After that, we’re gonna sit and write a record, as usual.

Anything else you want to add?

I’ve been plugging this band called The Sword. They sound like the Melvins and early Metallica. They’re on tour right now, actually. I don’t know the dudes. I’m just a huge fan.

After we wrapped the interview, Williams thought of another entertaining story from the road.

So I’m on the bus and I’m laying down in my bunk, and our fuckin’ sound guy comes in and he’s like, “Dude, this guy wants to do an interview with someone in the band, and no one will do the fuckin’ interview.” I’m like, “Well, who is he?” “Well, his name is Maris the Great.” I’m like, “What the fuck?” “He’s a homosexual zombie.” I’m like, “What?’ “Dude, you gotta check this guy out.” He’s a professional movie makeup guy, and what he does in Denver, he paints himself up like a zombie. He’s got a big purple mohawk. He’s got maggots – not real maggots – but he’s got fake maggots crawling on him, and he looks like a dead zombie. And he’s in a band called Maris the Great and the Faggots of Death. That’s the name of his band. Sure enough, he walks in and I see this tall, huge, gay zombie. I’m not expecting this dude to know shit about us. He walks up to me and says, “So, do you want to talk about the van crash?” I’m expecting him to, like, hit on me or something. So I answer the question, and then he’s asking me really in depth questions like only a true Every Time I Die person would know. He’s asking me about blogs and stuff like that. I’m like, “Fuck, man, who is this dude?” Sure enough, the last question he asks me is, “Do you have a hairy stomach?” And I’m like, “I guess it can be. I shave it.” He goes, “Why do you shave your carcass?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I don’t like the way it feels.” And he says, “Do you have a hairy bum?” And I say, “Yeah.” And he’s like, “Can I see it?” And I’m like, “Nooo.” So maristhegreat.com, that’s where you need to go. And he kills bands. It’s kind of awesome. I don’t know if the dude’s gay or not, or if it’s part of his schtick or whatever. His whole thing is he wants to kill every band so his band is the best band on Earth, and he has a crush on one person in every band. That’s his whole gimmick. On his web site, you can go there and there’s a section where bands get killed. And he gets them up makeup-wise and makes it look like he’s eating them and shit like that. It looks real and believable. It’s fuckin’ crazy. You should check it out. It’s www.MarisTheGreat.com.

So then later that night, we’re all hanging out, the show’s over with, a few friends came and they wanted to go see Sigur Ros play. Sigur Ros played across town. And they wanted to go hang after. So they stopped and got me some food. It was like five bucks or something, but I needed change. So I went in and our merch guy’s standing there, and this guy’s fuckin’ screaming at him. I’m like, “What is his deal?” He says, “I don’t know. He keeps calling me a motherfucker, saying I stole money from him.” I grabbed him, and I’m like, “Dude, get the fuck out of here.” So I push him out the door, and then the dude starts talking shit. So the dude pushes a kid in front of me and then comes at me, and I beat him up. So later that night, the fuckin’ cops come. He says that I stabbed him. It was like the best thing ever because I hit him maybe 12 times. That was it, no stabbing was involved. So fuckin’ like five cop cars come ripping down the street. Everyone’s like, “Dude, go in the bus and hide, hide, hide.” I’m hiding in my bunk, and I’m like, “What the fuck, man? What kind of shit did I get myself into?” Everyone’s giving me updates. “Dude, the kid said you stabbed him. Don’t worry, the cops laughed in his face.” They go outside, come back in. “Dude, it’s Peter Coors’ kid.” “The dude that owns Coors Light?” “Yeah. It’s his kid.” “I beat up the owner of Coors Light’s kid up?” “Yeah, that’s what he said.” What the fuck? Like, Coors Light owns Denver. There’s gonna be the mob or the mafia. I’m gonna get fuckin’ killed for beating this kid up. What ended up happening, I go outside and the cops fuckin’ shook my hand. They were like, “What the fuck, man? We love stabbings. We were coming down here thinking we were gonna get a stabbing and there’s no stabbing. Fuck, man. We’ll get that kid next time.”

That was the whole day. I did an interview with a gay zombie and I beat up Peter Coors’ kid, I guess. A very awesome day.