Interview with Still Remains

Posted on Nov 30, 2007 by DevotedToMusic

Still Remains are a metal band from from Michigan, U.S and are signed to Roadrunner Records.

Recently they have recorded the follow up album to Of Love and Lunacy and have recently filmed the videos for "Stay Captive" and "Dancing with the Enemy."

I Alexandra McLoughlin was able to grab Steve and Ben for a quick chat about the album, how it’s been for them being newbies in the band and more….

How are you both today?

Steve- We’re doing great.

Ben- Excellent!

Just to talk a bit about your latest album. You’ve had some great reviews on it ‘The Serpent’. How do your family and friends rate the album?

Ben- My parents actually listen to it.

Steve- yeah I’ll come home and hear my mom humming a song or singing along and it’s pretty funny, I’m like “What are you doing?” (laughs) and she’s like “I love it!”.

How long did it take you to write?

Steve- Well Ben and I joined the band just over a year ago and the record was pretty much already finished being written and they had started writing it towards the end of the reconcycle Of Love and Lunacy so it’s been a year and a half since to 2 years in the making.

Has it been fun being in the band so far?

Steve- It’s been a lot of fun and really crazy.

Ben- We went to Japan just a month ago and now here.

Steve- Yeah it’s been pretty much non stop.

If you had to change your album in any way how would you change it?

Ben- I wish that the B-side was…

Steve- Yeah there was 2 songs that we recorded that weren’t on the American release. They’re both on the Japanese release.

Ben- 1 of them.

Steve- 1 of them. That’s 1 of the songs Ben and I helped compose a lot of for the record. So we’re kind of biased towards the whole thing (laughs).

You recently released videos for ‘Stay Captive’ and ‘Dancing with The Enemy’. Which of those 2 videos did you have more fun filming?

Ben- Dancing with The Enemy.

Steve- I’d say with me, Dancing with The Enemy was really fun.

Why’s that?

Ben- It’s because it was all us just performing on it instead of a lot of the actors doing their thing.

Steve- We were in this old abandoned jail that had been abandoned since 1968. in LA and it was just really creepy with these old Iron bars and you could see those of confinement rooms. It was just….

Ben- Freaky!

Steve- It was just really creepy.

Was it haunted?

Ben- Yep!

Steve- I’m sure, I’m sure. It was pretty creepy.

Ben- I got the chills.

Just walking in there and you were all scared?

Steve- Yeah.

Ben- We were all scared.

Did you hear any creepy noises like Ghostly ones?

Ben- Not really it was like during the day.

Steve- Like when TJ started singing that…

Ben-..That got a little scary. (Laughs)

I’ve noticed as a band your music’s changed a lot. Why the sudden change?

Ben- Mostly because everyone’s maturing in their styles and I’d like to think partially because of us joining the band and changed the style. We add our flare.

Steve- We all have so many influences in like outside what ‘Of Love and Lunacy’ was and we just wanted to bring that into what this record was. Really express who we are as musicians.

I’ve noticed that you’ve covered a Nine Inch Nails song for a free Kerrang CD. Why did you guys choose to do this particular song?

Ben- That was before we came into the band.

Steve- Yeah TJ…

Ben- TJ’s a huge fan of theirs.

Steve- Yeah.

Do you know if he’s ever met Trent Reznor?

Ben- Yeah he went backstage 2 of their shows and I think he got to meet him. I could be wrong but..

Steve – At least he went to one of their shows.

Ben- Yeah at least he got backstage somewhere. That’s cool right!?

(laughs)

I’ve read that Still Remains have just recorded an acoustic version of a Stone Temple Pilots song, "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M, and "Nutshell" by Alice in Chains. What was this for?

Steve- We’ve been doing a lot of acoustic sets but Jordan, Mike and TJ have been doing a lot of acoustic stuff. Just randomly on tour we’ll get asked to go into like a studio and record acoustic versions but those are some of TJ’s favourite bands and Mike’s favourite bands and Jordan’s favourite bands. We just decided to cover some of their favourite songs.

And finally is it more fun playing acoustically?

Ben- I’ll find out in a couple of days.

Steve- Yeah (laughs).

Thank you for letting me interview you.

Steve and Ben- Thank you.

Interview Information

Taken At:

London Astoria

Taken On:

November 19th, 2007

Interviewees:

Steve- Guitar
Ben- Keyboard

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Still Remains

Interviews

Nov 19, 2007
London Astoria