IT DIES TODAY:
"We're gonna rock your balls into a
thunderstorm of dust and skeletons"
March 7, 2007
Trustkill Records' It Dies Today have had a fairly successful run, emerging in the last few years among a slew of metalcore bands. With a stint on Ozzfest 2005 and their new album, Sirens (released in October 2006), everything seemed to be on track for the band. Then they decided to ditch one of their founding members, vocalist Nick Brooks, and nab their new man, Jason Wood, who was playing bass for Still Remains. Now, with Jason on board, the Buffalo-based band is touring heavily in support of Sirens, this time on a high-profile tour with nu-metal Californian rockers Papa Roach and Chicago's Kill Hannah. Live-Metal.net's Jeff Maki and Jason Price hung out with Wood, bassist Steve Lemke, drummer Nick Mirusso and guitarist Mike Hatalak prior to their show at Sonar in Baltimore, Md., on March 2, 2007.
Live-Metal.net: The show tonight is sold out. How's the tour been going so far?
Jason Wood: It's been going awesome. None of us really expected the response we've been getting, especially being a Papa Roach crowd and especially the response on our MySpace and other things of all people saying, “I can't believe you guys on on tour with Papa Roach.” But the thing is that they are amazing guys. The crew is awesome, and their set is unbelievable. They put on a fantastic show. And it's been a blessing especially to be on tour for seven weeks with a band this accommodating.
How did you first get hooked up with Papa Roach?
Jason: Our booking agent.
Steve Lemke: We submitted for the tour, and we were lucky enough to get it.
Jason: And those guys checked us out and everything, and they wanted us to be on it. So it worked out.
And Kill Hannah was already on the tour?
Jason: They jumped on in Fargo, about two and a half weeks in. So we had a couple of Canadian bands, [mainly] Sick City. They actually just got signed to Trustkill. They're on for most of the Canadian dates. Then some other bands for a couple of dates.
Steve: And Kill Hannah rockin' it every night, especially their guitarist Johnny [Jonathan Radtke]. [Johnny is doodling on his laptop at the far end of the couch.]
Jonathan Radtke: Yeah man, yeah
Yeah, we actually saw you guys open for HIM in Philly a while back.
Jonathan Radtke: At the TLA.
Yeah, yeah. You guys were good man.
So you're the new guy in the band Jason, the singer. I guess I should ask the other guys this. Your old singer, Nick Brooks—what were the circumstances of him leaving, exactly?
Steve: We just weren't satisfied with his performance. We just wanted something new, a change. Somebody a little bit better and more handsome, like Jason. People will like us better if we got a more attractive singer.
Was it a bad situation? Are you still on good terms?
Nick Mirusso: It needed to happen.
Steve: We wanted to take it to the next level. Nick couldn't take us up there. We feel like Jason has already kicked us up a notch. And he's handsome.
How did Jason get into the band?
Jason: My band back home—The Orphan—we opened up for It Dies Today a year and a half ago probably.
Steve: And I saw the show and was very impressed with Jason's performance and thought to myself, “I want that guy in my band.”
Jason: And, oddly enough, after that I was out with this band, Still Remains, on Roadrunner Records. And they're all from my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They needed someone to fill in for a bass player, so I filled in on a tour in the U.K. for two weeks. And these guys, oddly enough, were in the U.K. with Every Time I die a day ahead of us, so on their day off they got to hang out with us.
Then, after that, I was out with Still Remains on the Strhess tour playing bass. And these guys [It Dies Today] were on the last three weeks of the Strhess tour, so we hung out more and became really good friends. It was just really crazy how everything worked out leading up to it. Basically, I ran into them like three times randomly.
Nick: It was destiny.
Jason: That's what I say: destiny. So when things went down with Nick and everything, they gave me a call and asked me to come out and try out. Drove out to Buffalo and had ourselves a good time.
Nick: Got drunk the first night, had a little party to break the seal, ya know.
Jason: We already hung out for a while on the Strhess tour, so we all just got along. Personally, I think we all just mesh very well. We have the same personality, really laid back, good sense of humor and there hasn't been any fighting at all this whole tour, which is amazing, especially being out for seven weeks. That's awesome.
Do you guys work on the road at all?
Jason: What, writing? We've actually been writing a little bit. Even though Sirens just came out in October, everyone's really excited about writing a new record. But we're still really trying to push Sirens on people because it's a great album. I'm going to be redoing vocals on three of the songs for videos, radio, soundtracks and stuff like that.
For a re-release maybe?
Jason: I don't know if we're gonna re-release it, but maybe put a single online, then we'll send copies to the radio with me on it so they can play it.
So you guys are pleased with the end result of Sirens?
Nick: We still have a while to tour on it, but we think it will reach expectations by the end of the cycle.
What is the meaning behind Sirens and why did you choose that for the album title?
Steve: Nick picked it. Most of the songs deal with temptation and Sirens are the mythological creatures that would lead sailors to their deaths.
How does Sirens compare to previous releases? How do you see yourselves expanding in the near future?
Band: [Silence, confused looks]
[Guitarist Mike Hatalak walks into the room]
Mike: What's that? I think we're going to go a little more extreme on both ends. We're gonna try and do what we did with Sirens but make the music way heavier and make the vocals more beautiful, sexy, melodic and catastrophic at the same time.
Steve: We'll try something a little different. Jason's a different singer than Nick so obviously he will have his own—
Jason: I'll feel it out and see where we're heading, but I definitely think it will be a mixture of The Caitiff Choir and Sirens, but even further on each spectrum of each. Lighter vocally, maybe some sequencing stuff, who knows? We don't really know at this point what we're doing, but everyone is just super-stoked on it.
A lot of labels are thrown out there for rock and metal bands. I've seen you guys as metalcore, emo. How do you feel about these kinds of labels and are they accurate?
Jason: It sucks to pigeonhole yourself or any other band, but people can decide what they feel a certain band's style is, and we've been called emo, hardcore, metalcore—
Nick: We're a metal band son!
Jason: I just want everyone to go back to just being rock bands. We're a rock band. Papa Roach is a rock band. We're like a metalcore-hardcore-electronica-screamo-hip-hop band.
Nick: Where did that [screamo] come from anyway?
[laughter]
You call yourselves a metal band, but who do you think your music most appeals to?
Jason: I think that's the best part about this tour. I think we can branch out to different audiences. I'm excited to find out who we'll be touring with in the future because just how different this tour has been for us. People are getting into this and it's a Papa roach crowd. Probably 90 percent of the people have never heard of It Dies Today, but we've been getting amazing response.
What do you guys think of hardcore dancing? Is there any of that going on at shows?
Steve: It's always encouraged but not to the extreme when kids go out of their way to injure girls, but just want to see a good show. If you want to mosh that's fine, but don't be a dick about it.
Jason: I think hardcore dancing is really interesting.
There's a lot of different moves going on.
Jason: You gotta pick up change, fight the invisible robots, start that lawnmower.
[laughter]
What are your upcoming touring plans?
Steve: We go out with Comeback Kid, This Is Hell and Endwell, and we will be touring across the nation.
Jason: It Dies Today vs Comeback Kid Tour '07. That's the name.
We always ask this at the end. When do you think Chinese Democracy will be released?
Mike: Whatever.
Jason: I already have it. Do you want it? [reaches behind the couch]
Is there anything you wanna say to the fans?
Steve: Eat thunder, drink lightning.
Jason: From the immortal words of Ted Nugent: "We're gonna rock your balls into a thunderstorm of dust and skeletons." That was actually said by Ted Nugent. It's absolutely ridiculous, but it's Ted Nugent and I'm from Michigan, so you know I gotta love it.
www.itdiestoday.com
myspace.com/itdiestoday
Trustkill Records
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