|
Down the
rabbit hole (again) with In This Moment
July 29, 2009
 |
 |
|
Maria Brink and Jesse Landry
|
Success has come relatively quickly for In This Moment, a band that found itself on the road with Ozzfest, Megadeth and an arena tour with Ozzy and Rob Zombie following the 2007 release of its debut album, Beautiful Tragedy. The sophomore effort, The Dream, followed in 2008, and the band has continued its relentless assault on audiences. With the newly-released “Ultra Violet” edition of the album, featuring bonus tracks (including a cover of the Blondie classic “Call Me”), in stores, In This Moment is spending the summer on the 15th annual Warped Tour. When the tour hit the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., frontwoman Maria Brink and bassist Jesse Landry checked in with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki.
Live-Metal.net: So how is it going so far for you guys on the Warped Tour?
Maria Brink: Great.
Jesse Landry: Awesome. Warped Tour rules.
You did Ozzfest before. How does it compare to other tours like that?
Maria: It’s totally different. It’s a whole new crowd. It’s a whole new, like the way they do everything back here. There’s like a million stages. Ozzfest had two stages. So it’s a whole new ballgame. Right?
Jesse: Yeah.
Maria: But it’s cool.
Jesse: Different kind of bands. The camaraderie’s the same, which is cool. The barbecues at night are cool, so that part of it is kind of the same. Everything else is pretty much different.
Maria: Everything has its advantages. This has a lot of little 13- and 14-year-old girls learning who we are for the first time ever. On Ozzfest, we didn’t quite get that as much. It was kind of 90-percent men, metal T-shirts everywhere, which is awesome and that’s amazing in itself. But this is just a whole other thing.
Who are some of the bands you’ve had a chance to check out?
Maria: I love Alexisonfire. I love Saosin. I love Underoath.
Jesse: Yeah, After Midnight Project’s really cool.
Maria: They’re a newer band. Their new album’s coming out and they’re one of my new favorite bands. There’s just a million. There’s so many.
Jesse: Yeah, there’s a lot. A lot of bands.
I came to the Warped Tour the first time a couple years ago and I couldn’t believe how much there is. I’m amazed that they move this from city to city.
Maria: Yeah, there’s like 70 bands playing today.
You’re here all day long. You play, do a signing and do some interviews. How do you spend the rest of your day?
Jesse: You want the schedule?
[laughter]
Maria: It’s like a camping trip, right? You watch as many bands as you can. It’s cool when bands come to watch you and you go to watch them, creating new relationships.
Jesse: Yeah, that’s really cool. Everybody’s here for each other, it seems like, which is really nice.
Maria: And meeting new friends. There’s like a million buses and everyone sets up tents and all their chairs—we even have a little rug. And everyone just hangs out. It’s like camping. And then at night, they have a party, almost every night—if it’s a short drive—and there’s music playing and bands playing and free barbecue and drinks—you just gotta tip. So it’s like a huge, massive, traveling circus party. Right?
Jesse: Yeah, that sums it up.
You still have a little ways to go on this. Do you know what’s next?
Jesse: We’re gonna take a little time off after this for writing. We’re gonna start writing for the new album. After that, a tour, another tour, a headline tour.
Maria: Our first real headliner, which is exciting.
Jesse: Yeah, it’s gonna be cool.
Maria: It’ll be like middle of November, right?
Jesse: Yeah, November to December 15.
Maria: So we’re excited for that. And it’s gonna be a full package.
Jesse: And then off for the holidays, some more time off for writing and then into the studio early next year.
Maria: February.
|
 |
|
Maria Brink and Jesse Landry
|
So you think maybe next summer for the new album?
Maria: Yeah. We stay busy. We don’t fuck around.
The special edition version of the album came out. Why did you decide to do that? Was it the label saying, “Let’s do it?”
Maria: They had the idea of doing it, but it seemed cool because we had some songs that we really liked that we wanted to get on there. So it has extra songs and extra video footage and all kinds of extra little things. So it’s just something special. That’s all.
Jesse: Yeah, something new to give the fans.
Maria: Something always new and exciting going on can never hurt any band. It’s always something coming up or something new. It’s a good, smart move.
Jesse: Trying to keep it fresh.
How did the cover of “Call Me” come about?
Maria: That was cool. It was actually our manager’s idea, and we didn’t think it would be a single or anything like that. We had covered Pantera, Iron Maiden, Slayer. So it was kind of completely the opposite side of things, which was cool, I think, ‘cause we try to be a diverse band, try to cross cool things. So we just did it and everyone wound up liking it.
And now it’s the single, right?
Maria: Yeah, it’s the single right now, which is so weird to us. But yeah, it is.
You had kind of a little change in the sound from the first album to the second album, more melodic and everything. Do you see more changes in the future or going in that direction more?
Maria: You know, we really just try to follow our hearts when we’re writing and kind of see where we are. I think it might be a little heavier, actually. I think it might be a little bit mixing, colliding of both. That’s what I kind of see. But we don’t know. I feel a little bit more of a darker side for the next album coming out. A little heavier, a little darker. But you really can’t tell until you’re there.
Jesse: We don’t really try to do something, necessarily.
Maria: But I feel darker. I felt really happy going into The Dream. We were all in a really excited place—not that we’re not happy now. I just kind of feel the dark side coming into the next album. That’s what it is: You write how you feel. I don’t scream just to be like, “I’m really tough and I can beat you up.” It’s not like that. It’s kind of this emotion. I don’t know. That’s what I’m feeling, so we’ll see, right?
Jesse: She’s feeling it, I’m feeling it. I like dark stuff just as much as everybody else, so I’m down.
|
 |
|
In This Moment - 'The Dream'
|
Are there any bands influencing you to go that way?
Maria: No, it’s not like that. We are what we are, we write how we write. Obviously, we’re all influenced by all different types of music and sounds. Yeah, I would never be able to pick a sound, like “We’re gonna sound like this band.”
Alright, is there anything else you guys would like to add?
Jesse: Warped Tour’s awesome. We appreciate all the fans and thanks for coming out.
Maria: Come to our headliner. Get the new re-release of The Dream, which is really exciting for us, and, yeah, I like dandelions.
[laughter]
RELATED LINK:
www.myspace.com/inthismoment
©2009 Live-Metal.Net
|
