Sanctity travels the ‘Road to Bloodshed’

March 28, 2007

Megadeth, Lamb of God, Arch Enemy, DragonForce, Children of Bodom, Trivium, Black Label Society. That’s a formidable list of bands. Sanctity, sprung from a vibrant music scene in Asheville, N.C., has toured with all of them without even releasing an album. Their Roadrunner Records debut, Road to Bloodshed (set to hit stores April 24), has much to live up to, and it does so in classic thrash metal style. At recent stop at Jaxx in Springfield, Va., where the band was opening for guitar god Zakk Wylde and his mighty Black Label Society, singer/guitarist Jared MacEachern sat down with Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki to talk about how Trivium helped the band get its record deal, the band’s stint on last summer’s Gigantour, the impending release of Road to Bloodshed and more.

Live-Metal.net: First of all, I got the album the other day, and I like it a lot.

Jared MacEachern: Alright, cool. Thanks, man.

I like how you can hear an old-school-type influence, but it doesn’t sound dated. How did you get into heavy music originally?

Um … How did I get into heavy music originally? Well, the first heavy metal song I ever heard, if you can call it that, was “Unforgiven” [by Metallica], actually. That was the first song I heard. I was, like, 12 years old around when that album came out. And then, what happened next was my buddy then passed me a copy of Kill ’Em All, and then it was over. I just went from there, and that pretty much started the whole thing for me. I’d been a musician, I’d been singing for a long time, since I was, like, 5. I was in a church choir when I was young. I’d been playing instruments, too, so I was already kind of a musician, and I was like, “Alright, this is it. This is what I’m gonna do.”

So what came first for you, singing or instruments?

Singing came first. I sang from age 5 to 13. I’ve played violin, cello, concert bass, bass guitar—I started doing that around fifth or sixth grade. But the singing came first.

Were you in other bands before Sanctity?

Yes, I was in other bands before Sanctity. I had a band in high school called Parallax, and then after I graduated, I was in another band called Mausoleum for a short little while. Then I started going to school in North Carolina and saw Sanctity play at a show with some of their older members, and I was just blown away right off the bat. I started chatting it up with them, and they said they needed a singer, a full-time singer. So I was like, “Well, I can sing,” and just went and tried out, and then just kind of eventually fell into the guitar, as well.

What’s the music scene like back in Asheville, North Carolina?

There’s a lot of music. There’s a lot of different types of music. It’s kind of an artsy kind of city. It’s kind of small, like 40,000 or 50,000, something like that. It’s not real big. It’s an artsy kind of city, but the music scene is actually pretty close knit. Like I said, there’s many different types of bands. There’s funk bands, punk bands, rock bands, metal bands. But we all know each other, and it’s the type of scene where all these bands, we can come together and play a show and everybody knows each other, everybody shows up. The metal kids might come to see us, but they like the other bands, as well, and like I said, we played with all those different bands. We would do huge Asheville shows and it was, like, five or six bands of all different calibers and types and stuff. It’s a good scene. It was a close knit scene. Everybody was really cool and really supportive.

I read how in the year before you were signed you did close to 200 shows. Where did you play? Did you do national tours?

No, not really national tours. It was mostly in North Carolina , Tennessee and South Carolina . We just found enough places to play. We were playing three or four times a week. One part of that that helped was there was a little sushi bar, actually, in Asheville that would do free all-ages shows every weekend, and so we would play there one or two times a month. That really helped us out a lot.

Was it hard to do all those shows as an unsigned band?

No, not really, no. We all had jobs and stuff. None of us were really in school or whatever. We loved doing it, and like I said, the fans from our hometown were always real supportive and really kind to us. So we just kept doing it.

Do you think you would be the band you are today if you hadn’t played that much?

I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Sometimes it’s hard for me to imagine what would be if certain things wouldn’t have happened, ’cause sometimes I don’t have that kind of imagination. It’s hard for me to visualize that. But it definitely helped us be who we are today in terms of our work ethic. We hate canceling shows. We love to play. If we’ve got somewhere to play, we’re gonna be there early. We’re the kind of band that shows up, like, three hours before the show to make sure that we’re ready and on time and all that stuff. But, yeah, absolutely I think it helped us be who we are today.

I heard that Trivium was instrumental in getting you hooked up with Roadrunner. How did that happen?

Well, actually, during that year where we played almost 200 shows, one of the regular venues we played at was in South Carolina , and there was a Road Rage tour that year with Fear Factory, and Trivium was on there, as well. We’d been fans of those guys since their first album, Ember to Inferno, and I kind of spread the word to my guys and stuff. First, we found out they were playing the show and we were like, “Oh, cool, we’ll go watch,” and then we talked to the guy at the club, “Well, hey, can we get on this show?” And he was like, “Oh, yeah, sure,” ’cause he knew us and we’d played there a number of times. So he set us up with the show. We watched Trivium play. It was set up to have a big stage upstairs and a small one downstairs, so that they would alternate bands. Trivium actually played first, but we met them and we were just like, “We love you guys. You guys are awesome. Can you come downstairs and watch our show?” So they came down, and we asked them to give us some critiques and stuff, and Matt [Heafy] just really liked it immediately. He was like, “Alright, you guys are awesome. I love your stuff.” So we just kind of gave him all the recorded material we had at the time, and he just basically gave it directly to Monte Conner at Roadrunner. It just went from there.

Did they also hook you up with [producer] Jason Suecof?

Yes. Yes, they did. We wanted to get a really good, high-quality demo done, and our drummer, Jeremy [ London ], just called Matt and was like, “We need to have a good recording.” Matt was like, “Well, here, let me hook you up with Jason.” It was the same thing. We just kind of called Jason and immediately fell into a good relationship with Jason, ’cause he’s around the same age, we’re peers and we just really got along really well. It was a good experience working with him.

How did you get onto Gigantour?

You’ll have to ask Dave Mustaine, ’cause he basically came to our show and said, “I want you to be on Gigantour.” ’Cause that’s what he does. He handpicks the bands for that tour, ’cause it’s his tour. We were obviously blown away, completely honored and couldn’t even really believe it at first. But, yeah, he asked us himself, basically. It was real exciting. It was a great tour. We had a real good time.

Was it intimidating?

Yes. Yes, it was. It was ’cause, fuck, he’s Dave Mustaine, man. He’s done so much in the world of metal, and he’s just one of those iconic figures. But he’s just a regular guy. Anybody that plays in these bands are just regular guys. We were a little intimidated at first. I kept calling him “Mr. Mustaine,” “Mr. Mustaine, sir.” He’s like, “Just call me Dave.” I was like, “OK, Dave.” [laughs] It was cool.

Was your album done at that point?

No. We did two demo rounds. We did one demo round with three songs, and then Roadrunner said they wanted to hear a little more, so we did another demo round with, like, four additional songs. I think at that point that was all we had done so far. Our album was not done. It wasn’t even really near done, and that was one of the concerns between us and Dave. We were like, “Well, we don’t have an album.” Dave’s like, “Yeah, that might be kind of a problem. We’ll see what we can do.” But he still wanted us to play, and we still obviously wanted to do it. So we just agreed that we would do it anyway. That was over the summer, and then we went in and finished the second half of the album, I believe, in November. So it wasn’t really done until then.

You mentioned Metallica earlier. Who are some of the other big influences?

The obvious ones, Metallica, Megadeth, Pantera, maybe some lesser known ones. In terms of for me, frontmen, I love Sepultura. Sepultura’s one of my favorites. We like Testament. Our lead guitar player is into a lot of the crazy shredders, like Marty Friedman is a big one, Paul Gilbert, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, a lot of those guys. But we’ve got a good range. Some of the other guys were into some of the more hair-metalish bands of the day, but it’s alright, they did well in their time. So we have kind of a broad range of influences, but I wouldn’t say there’s anything too crazy. We just like good, strong metal.

What is the songwriting like? Do you have a couple guys that do most of it?

We all write in the band. We all have stuff to contribute to songs. I may write more of the thrashy, aggressive riffs. [Lead guitarist] Zeff [Childress] may write some of the more catchy, melodic riffs. Our drummer, Jeremy, and our bass player, Derek [ Anderson ], have good opinions on arrangements and sometimes chord progressions and stuff like that. But out of all that, we each have the skills of the other. There are times when Derek will come up with a thrashy riff or Jeremy will come up with a melodic riff. We all do writing, and we all contribute.

Do you write the lyrics?

Yes. I write about 90 percent of the lyrics, I’d say, but sometimes I get stuck and I ask for help. Sometimes the other guys tell me, “Come on, dude, those are bad lyrics.” I’m like, “OK, let me see what I can do.” It’s a real collaborative process.

Just looking at the song titles—I don’t have the lyrics with the advance copy—really makes me wonder what some of the songs are about, like the title track, for one, “Road to Bloodshed.”

“Road to Bloodshed,” there’s actually kind of a difference between the song and, actually, the album title. The song is more about people that can take religion to extremes and actually do damage. But as far as the album title goes with Road to Bloodshed, first of all, the thing that struck me was it just sounds cool. Road to Bloodshed, it’s like, come on, that sounds pretty metal. But I think, also, just the title, it seemed to strike me as kind of a metaphor for what we were doing at the time and the process it takes to do what we do and to get where we are. It seemed to fit pretty well with that, so it just kind of stuck.

“Billy Seals,” is that a person?

Yes, it is a person, actually. It started out as kind of a joke. We had written the song in its first form, and we were just kind of trying to think of a title and our bass player at the time, he was like, “Hahaha, let’s call it ‘Killing Baby Seals.’ Hahaha, that’s funny.” But we actually had a friend called Billy Seals, and we were like, “No, let’s call it ‘Killing Billy Seals.’ Hahaha.” It was kind of a joke, and it kind of stuck. Well then when we actually recorded the final version of the song and presented it to the record company, they were like, “Well, is there another title you can pick? ’Cause I don’t think people are gonna get it.” So I called it “Pain to Pain” for a little bit. But then after the recordings and stuff, we all still called it “Billy Seals,” even Monte at Roadrunner, he’s like, “The title ‘Billy Seals,’ it just sticks in my mind. Go with it.” So, yes, Billy Seals is a real person, but I don’t know if it’s really got anything to do with the song. It just kind of turned out to be a joke that stuck. So it worked out all right.

What about “Zeppo”? Where did that come from?

“Zeppo,” that came from a TV show. I think the title came first. This character says he feels like “a Zeppo” or he feels like “Zeppo,” and I think he was referring to Zeppo Marx, which, I guess, is one of the only Marx Brothers who didn’t really do a whole lot, I guess, or kind of fell off or something like that. It’s kind of an underdog song about, well, being the underdog and just kind of breaking through boundaries and against all obstacles achieving what you really want to achieve and just kind of brushing aside all the bullshit and all the naysayers and stuff like that. So that’s kind of what that’s about.

What was it like making the video for that song?

It was fun, actually. It was our first video, and our director, Ramon Boutviseth, at the time, he may have shot maybe a video for his friend’s band or something, but it was pretty much his first professional music video, as well. It was just kind of a suggestion, like, “Well, it wouldn’t hurt if you guys had a video, something visual that could be presented to the record company so they can see what we’re all about.” So our bass player at the time, he just happened to meet up with this kid, Ramon, and he just said, “Well, hey, we need to shoot a video, and if it works out well it might mean future work for Ramon.” So he was like, “Alright, that sounds fine.” We shot it for super cheap ’cause it was self-financed. We rented the property, which was an old abandoned jail a couple hours from where we lived. An old, rundown jail, truly. There was lead paint hanging off the walls, off the ceilings. We were all seriously sick for, like, two weeks after we shot that video. But it went well. It was kind of an experiment for all of us, and we just kind of tried different stuff. Everybody was real open to try new things. I think it worked out pretty well.

I really like the album cover. I look at that, and that’s just metal. Who is the artist?

Seth—uh, shit, I can’t remember his full name. That actually makes me feel bad. I know his name is Seth. I guess for the album cover, they just sent out a little thing that’s like, “We need an album cover. Send us some designs.” He sent us a number of them. The first one that we wanted was basically an exploding head. Like, seriously, that’s what it was. But then we were like, “Uh, that might be a little much.” So the other one that we picked out, that was my next favorite one and I think because it kind of struck me as it’s almost like this guy, the character, the figure on the front, it’s almost like he’s evolving right before your eyes. That’s what it kind of struck me as. I felt it seemed kind of fitting. We actually toned it down a little bit. There was more blood, more claws and gore, but the record company toned it down, thought it looked a little too death metal. But that’s OK.

How is this tour going for you?

The tour’s good. The guys in BLS are really nice. We haven’t really toured the Southeast much at all. We played Florida a few times on Gigantour, Atlanta once, but it was good to play some of the other places like New Orleans . Hell, we played in North Carolina three times, which is good for us. It was good to see our friends and stuff. The crowd for Black Label is a little bit older, so they don’t mosh and headbang as much, but it doesn’t mean they don’t like us. So hopefully they’re listening and enjoying it anyway. We’ve still got fans coming out to say hey to us and stuff. We’re having a great time anyway.

Have you gotten a chance to hang out with Zakk and the guys?

No, actually. We actually haven’t seen Zakk. I think Zakk has got his wife on the road with him, so he’s spending some time with her. But we hung out with the other guys, J.D. [John DeServio] and Nick [Catanese] and Craig [Nunenmacher], and they’re all really sweet guys, very nice and they’ve been real cool to us, so we’re having a good time.

After this, you’re going to Europe?

Yeah, we’re going straight to Europe with Trivium and Annihilator and Gojira. We’re gonna do the U.K. for a month with all them, and then we’re gonna do Europe for a month with Trivium and Annihilator.

Have you been over there before?

No. Nope. None of us have ever been over there before. Hell, before we went on tour last year with DragonForce, none of us had ever really been out of the country, and then when we went into Canada , we were like, “Oh, wow, we’re in a different country. Oh my gosh.” But, yeah, going over to Europe , I’m super stoked. We’ve had people from over there give us good feedback. They’re excited to see us and we’re excited to see them. It should be a good time. Those guys, Gojira and Trivium, they’re good friends of ours, so we’re looking forward to seeing them, as well.

Are there any places you’re really looking forward to playing or things you want to see?

The U.K. in general ’cause I’ve got some heavy Scotch-Irish-Welsh-English descent. I want to see Scotland , even just England in general. I’ve got my kilt packed up in my suitcase, so I’ll probably be wearing that a bunch over there. I’m just real excited to see all these different new places, experience new cultures and stuff.

So I guess it’s a about a month now until the album comes out. Are you excited that there will be some people who actually have heard you before coming to the shows?

Yeah, I’m super excited. This is what we’ve been waiting for for the longest time. It’s one of those things like it wasn’t really getting signed that did it, it’s like actually getting your first product out to the whole world that makes me real excited. All my friends that I’ve known for a real long time are still kind of in disbelief, like, “I can’t believe you’re doing this.” And then new fans that we’ve gained are like, “I can’t wait for the album.” And it seems to be getting some really good feedback so far, so we’re really excited.

I think that’s all I’ve got for you. Anything else you want to add?

I hope everybody’s ready for the album ’cause we’re ready for it to come out and just show everybody what we’ve got and hopefully have a good time doing it.