Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Haste the Day

March 28, 2006

Haste the Day bassist Mike Murphy recently checked in from the road to talk to Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net about the band’s recent lineup change, their latest release, When Everything Falls, the next album and his desire to cover a Journey song. Haste the Day currently is on tour with Bleeding Through, Every Time I Die and Between the Buried and Me.

Live-Metal: Where are you calling from?

Mike Murphy: Right now I’m in, let’s see … We had a day off yesterday and we went to Daytona Beach just to chill on the beach, get some sun. So right now we’re driving from Daytona Beach to Orlando. We play at the Hard Rock Live tonight in Orlando.

So how’s the tour going?

Awesome. We’re playing for a lot of new kids, obviously. We’re the opening small band, so we get to be exposed to Bleeding Through, Every Time I Die and BT-BAM’s fanbase. All the shows have been pretty much sold out. Huge crowds and I think really good reactions from the crowds.

Yeah, I was at the show in Philadelphia and the reaction seemed really good.

It was really fun. That was a good show.

I guess the big thing for Haste the Day right now is the new singer. Can you tell me why Jimmy Ryan left the band?

Yeah, well, he’d been with us for a long time and he just felt it was time for him to move on to something else. He’s 26, 27, getting older and things with his girlfriend got a little more serious and they became engaged. He wanted his commitment to be to his soon-to-be wife.

Personal reasons then.

Yeah. We all went to his wedding. We’re all great friends. We talk to him a couple times a week. So it’s definitely a good situation. He just needed to move on and I think it’s been good for Haste the Day also. It’s something that we needed to rejuvenate us and it’s been a very positive thing.

How did you find Stephen Keech?

We played with his band once in Denver. He was in a local band there. We saw Stephen and how he interacted with the crowd. We heard his diverse screaming range. We talked to him after the show and we just clicked with him. So it was really cool.

Did you audition anybody else?

He was pretty much our only audition. We had a couple other ideas, but none of them really materialized.

What was it like walking out on stage for the first time with a different singer?

Crazy. Because we all had such a chemistry together that we had gotten used to for three and a half years. But it was something new. It kind of rejuvenated us. It put a new energy and new vibe into everything.

Did you know right away that he was going to be the guy permanently?

Yeah. I remember the first time we practiced with him in my basement. I heard his voice and I was pretty much blown away. I knew he was going to be the one. So we took him to Europe. The first tour with us he did amazing. We wanted to bring him over to the States and just check him out for a couple weeks over here and we told him that he would be official. We told him actually in Denver at his house to kind of make it special for him.

How have the fans reacted to a new singer?

They love him. They think he’s so good. I always ask my close friends in the particular city that we’re in to give me their honest opinions and they say they love him. They say it’s the best we’ve ever sounded and we agree.

Has there been any initiation or hazing of the new guy?

Yeah, we prank him pretty much every day in the shower with ice cold water. We try to give him a hard time, but we’re really easy on him actually. He’s got it easy.

What are the band’s plans after this tour?

After this tour, we’re going to take a little bit of time off to write a new record. Come June, we’re going to be on the It Dies Today tour. We’re direct support on that. In August, we’re doing a headlining tour.

Do you write on the road at all?

Our guitar player, Jason [Barnes], has written a couple riffs. We’re going to take April and May off to write. Most of our time is spent at home, writing.

Is it too early to say if there’s a particular direction the new material will be heading in?

No. Our interest has kind of grown to something a little bit darker than what When Everything Falls was, not lyrically darker necessarily, but just the tone of the music and the tone of the melodies would be just a little bit more epic, a little more drawn out, not as poppy. That’s kind of the direction we want to move in, kind of more in an In Flames musically and maybe Thrice vocally.

There are a couple things I wanted to ask about the last album, When Everything Falls. The title track I think is a really powerful song, almost like an anthem type of song. Was that your intent with that song?

Absolutely. That’s probably the most important song on the record. I think it’s pretty self-explanatory for people and simple lyrically to understand, to stand for something when everything else you counted on fell away, when things that you thought would go right go wrong you still stand for what you hold to be true in your heart. I think that’s the fans’ favorite song. It has the biggest reaction. We always play that song last.

Yeah, it’s not too often that the first band on a four band tour has a lot of people singing along to one of their songs.

Yeah, that’s surprising.

The other question I have about that album is of all the bands out there how did you choose to cover the Goo Goo Dolls [“Long Way Down”]?

That’s a band that we’ve always liked. We love the melodies. We love the vibe of that band. We think they’re really talented and growing up, we all listened to them. We never covered a song. It just kind of made sense. That song kind of works with the rest of our record. It’s poppy, it’s got an edge to it. If we had covered a Guns N’ Roses song it might not have worked as well. So I think thematically the Goo Goo Dolls song just worked.

Do you think you might do any more covers in the future?

I don’t know. We kind of want to do a covers CD. It’s nothing we’re thinking about too seriously, but it would be fun just to cover a bunch of weird songs, make them have a Haste the Day flair to them.

Any songs in particular you really want to tackle?

Something with just crazy harmonies, like a Journey song. Something insanely challenging, so we have to figure out those harmonies and try to hit the notes.

Is there an ultimate goal for Haste the Day or do you just kind of take it as it goes?

A lot of our goals we’ve already met. When we were younger, a lot of goals have been met that we set. We can’t believe that. We thank God for that. We are a Christian band, so our ultimate goal as people is to be a light for Him and to convey some sort of hope, and that carries over into the band. That’s what we want to do as a group. At shows, on and off stage, we want to be some sort of a light to people, to kids in the hardcore scene. In kind of a darker, negative situation that the hardcore scene can be sometimes, we want to be some sort of light.

Do you feel like the fans have reacted to that positively?

Yes, absolutely.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Check out When Everything Falls. We’re super proud of it. We wouldn’t change a thing about that CD. We love it. If you like heavy music as well as strong melodies and poppy choruses, check it out.