Chad Bowar: Give us a brief history of Crown The Lost.
David E. Gehlke: We formed in April of 2005, which means we are now a four year-old band. Where does the time go? Anyway, I always had the itch to do a band that was extreme, yet melodic, but had clean, actual singing. As luck would have it, my cousin gave me a demo CD of Renaldi’s old band and I was blown away. I went into hot pursuit for him right away and luckily, he agreed. We put together roughly 12 versions of the band before we settled on the lineup for the Reverence Dies Within album in 2006.
Members have come and gone over the last few years, but we’ve always stuck to our plan of slowly, but surely building the band, making contacts, making fans, etc. I think (key word: think) we’re on the right path. We spent the bulk of 2007 writing Blind Faith Loyalty, a vast portion of 2008 recording the album, then sitting on it since we were negotiating our deal and shuffling band members and now here we are in 2009, with a solid lineup and an album to promote. I hope we don’t squander it.
How would you describe the sound of Blind Faith Loyalty?
I always use the “melodic thrash” tag when describing us and I think it fits here, although we’re not as traditional as most people would think we would be since we have a clean singer. If you think about it, Renaldi should be signing for a straightforward, gallop-oriented power metal band, rather than a bunch of thrash hacks like us, so that’s part of the challenge, I suppose. Melody is always at the root of what we do and there simply cannot be a Crown the Lost song without it. That being said, the album is heavy without being too heavy, melodic without it going overboard and there are actual songs. I hope that helped.
What inspired the album title?
Lyrically, we discuss organized religion quite a bit and it’s no secret we loathe what it has done and continues to do people, so the title was a natural fit. No real inspiration behind it; I just tossed the name out to the guys and they liked it, so it was our only choice. And it’s three words like our first album, which means the next album will have to be a three-word one as well.
How did you come to sign with Cruz Del Sur?
Enrico [Leccesse, label honcho] has been in touch with us since mid-2007 and I’ve always considered Cruz del Sur to be one of the more unique and reputable metal labels in the underground, so it was a natural choice for us. We did have a few other larger labels looking at us, but Enrico seemed to be the most interested and he gave us the deal we were looking for. Plus, I talked with a host of other bands on the label and they all had good things to say, so the deal was struck.
What are your expectations for the album?
I don’t have any huge ones, to be honest. There’s such a logjam of bands in the underground, so it’s not like we’re going to the sole focus of people this year. I do hope people pick up on what we’re trying to do so they’re aware of us for future albums. If we can pick up some new fans along the way and play some cool shows, I’ll be happy. The goal is to make a dent with this album, get better, make another good impression with the third album, then keep on doing the same thing until we break up.
How was your show with Exodus earlier this month?
It was killer, and I’m not BS-ing you. It was a Saturday in Pittsburgh, so there was sizable crowd and much to our surprise, a lot of people didn’t know we are a Pittsburgh band, which is funny considering we play in the city, like all the time. We were fortunate enough to receive a good response, we played well, there were no visible screw-ups and we sold some merch. And Renaldi and Joe got plastered after the show and we all had a good laugh about that.
What are your upcoming live plans?
Our live plans for the remainder of the year center on the purchase of a van, as we have multiple standing show offers in Cleveland, Philly, Buffalo, so we’d like to get out of Pittsburgh and play those areas. Cleveland in particular has always been kind to us, for whatever reason. Maybe they know I’m a Browns fan or something…
As a writer, is it strange to be on the other end of an interview?
Gehlke: It is, actually. I’ve done so many interviews that when doing something like this, I find myself stopping in mid-sentence to re-think what I’m typing just to make sure I don’t come across as an idiot. Then again, I do on a regular basis, so I’m a lost cause, I guess. I’ve conducted just about every type of interview possible and I always remember the ones where honest, sincere, yet slightly humorous answers were given, not your usual drab, predictable ones. I don’t necessarily enjoy listening or reading my own words in regards to my band, but since I’m easily the most verbose and talkative member of Crown the Lost, the duty falls on me.
Has having your CDs reviewed impacted how you review other artists’ releases?
Not at all, and I never take Crown the Lost into consideration when writing. That would be unprofessional, I guess. I don’t hold it against people if they decide to slag us as long as they give good reasons why (i.e. the rhythm guitar player looks like Billy Corgan; your singer is Keith Caputo wannabe, etc.) and it’s honest. There’s a lot of stuff that I don’t like (metalcore/deathcore being at the top of my list), so I purposely don’t review that stuff just because I know I can’t give it a good review.
