LIVE ‘N LOUD MEETS UNEARTH
As we covered the Heavy MTL festival this summer, we met up with a few bands to know more about them and what was coming up for them.
Here is our interview with: Trevor Phipps (lead vocals) from Unearth
(Interview by Karine Juteau & Nour Haik / Photos by Nour Haik)
LNL: Are you going to see any shows today?
Trevor Phipps: Most of the bands are bands we’ve been on tour with all summer so far but I‘m sure I’ll walk around and check them out of course. I’ve never seen Billy Talent so I’d like to check them out!
LNL: A lot of people think that they shouldn’t be here today…
Trevor Phipps: Because they’re not metal right?
LNL: Exactly! But they give pretty intense performance. I think they are really good live but I guess I can understand the people that do not want them here a little bit…
Trevor Phipps: I don’t know much about them and so that’s why I would like to check a couple of songs at least. They are headliner so they’re doing something right I guess!
LNL: …And from the bands that you’ve already seen, which ones would you suggest?
Trevor Phipps: All Shall Perish kills it every day, unfortunately Kingdom of Sorrow also kills it every day, but we’re playing on the same time as them so I won’t get the chance to see them but they’re a great band to check out. Red Fang is good like dirty rock band they are really awesome.
LNL: A lot of people told me about them, that I absolutely have to this show.
Trevor Phipps: They’re chill, drink a lot of beer, you know they’re up there play some hard rock dirty rock music, it’s a cool vibe a lot different of from the metal that’s on Mayhem Fest. It kind of breaks it up but still heavy at the same time so it’s cool.
LNL: You released your latest album this summer, for those who didn’t hear it, what can they expect from it?
Trevor Phipps: If they know our sounds they can expect that sound, like Unearth for sure. We try to progress our sounds with each record. We wanted to take the strongest elements from the first four records. We try to recapture those at that time and also try to move the sound forward by adding more guitar solos and more harmonies, trying a bit more vocally. We also have Ken, our guitar player; he does a couple of songs at clean vocal which is something we haven’t done in seven years. We brought that style back in three songs because there’s a song on the 2004 record The Oncoming Storm, it’s a song call Endless, that we play pretty much every set, it’s like a fan favorite, so we figured out “yeah let’s try that again”. We don’t do the choruses like other bands do, like heavy and you have the chorus and then heavy and then it’s going slow, it’s more like place in the songs, in weird spots. It just adds texture to the songs.
LNL: So it’s like a recap of your past albums?
Trevor Phipps: Yeah, exactly!
LNL: Which one of your albums is your favorite?
Trevor Phipps: Right now it’s this last one but I feel I say that every time we do a new record!
LNL: Well it’s your new baby so it’s normal!
Trevor Phipps: Exactly! So you’re like invested in it emotionally. The good thing is that a lot of our fans are saying that’s our best one and much of the press are saying that too which is cool and hopefully it means something! Before this one came out, if I had to choose one favorite album, it would probably be The Oncoming Storm! That’s the most dynamic for us. We tried to recapture that dynamic element on this new record too.
LNL: Let’s play a little game. Name the first thing that comes to your mind if I say:
“Photography”
Trevor Phipps: I’m terrible at these! Hmmm, Times Magazine!
“Live”
Trevor Phipps: Shows! Concerts!
“Loud”
Trevor Phipps: Manowar!
“Montreal”
Trevor Phipps: Awesome!
“Internet”
Trevor Phipps: The future!
LNL: What can we expect from the band for the rest of this year?
Trevor Phipps: We finish up the Mayhem festival then we have 10 days off. We go to Europe to the Hell On Earth Tour. We go directly from there to Australia to be part of the Soundwave Revolution Festival, that’s a very different festival, there’s metal band, rock band, pop band, Van Halen is headlining. We’re excited to be part of that! And then we go from there to Taiwan, China (for the first time!) and then Japan. And then we have a month off and we come back, after that we’re talking about doing a headlining tour at the end of the year in the States and Canada.
LNL: So you will be back here in Montreal?
Trevor Phipps: Definitely! Pretty soon… like 2012 we’ll start up a little tour or something! The album just came out so for the next 20 months or so we will be touring so will be back in Canada 2-3 times.
LNL: Thank you very much for your time!
Trevor Phipps: Thank you very much!
CLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT LIVE PHOTOS OF UNEARTH AT HEAVY MTL!
Category: Interviews