Chad Bowar: You have a couple of new members since your last CD. What led to the former members departing, and how did Max and Ben come to join the band?
Alex Erian: Max, our bass player, is the only American in the band and he’s been with us for almost 2 years already. We met him through a temporary guitarist we had at the time. He started out with us only has a fill-in and ended up doing every tour until Sebastien quit. Ben has been playing with us since September. I knew him for years because of his previous bands. He’s the only one I contacted when the time came to get a new guitarist because I just knew he was the perfect man for the job.
Our previous guitar and bass players got married, got a house, a real job, had kids and all that good stuff so they had to leave the band to focus on their personal lives. Both Ben and Max are so motivated and talented. It’s great to have them on board. Everything has been working out great with those dudes.
Was your songwriting/recording process any different than usual for Day Of Mourning?
We didn’t have as much time to write it then for our previous records. We were on tour all the time and took advantage of the few weeks we had at home in between tours to rest instead of writing. When you’re always on the road, it feels good to actually do non-band related things at home and enjoy your time off. We wrote at least half of the record during the Never Say Die and Montreal Assault tours. It was our first time writing on the road and we were a bit nervous at first. We didn’t want to sacrifice the quality and write (crappy) songs just to put out a record but every thing ended up working out great. Some of my favorite songs on the record were written on tour. I think we’ve all improved as musicians and songwriters and it shows on the record.
Eric and I always write most of the music. I usually program and link drum beats together on my computer, create the entire song structure and then sit down with Eric and sing riffs. That’s how it’s always been for us. We’re not the type of band that hangs out at the practice space and jams a bunch of riffs until they find the right ones. That’s a cool way to write but we’ve never been able to pull it off. Alex our drummer also co-wrote two songs with Eric, and Ben and Max wrote one song together. The album is really diversified musically. We added more influences, new and old but I think our old school death metal roots especially shine on this record. We have a couple of guitar solos, leads and melodies now. The drum patterns are more technical then ever and the album contains our best vocal performance, by far.
What can fans expect from Day Of Mourning?
A brutal dose of modern death metal. Our best album to date by far. We improved as musicians and song writers and you can really tell on this record. We came up with better song structures and added a few new elements here and there to make things interesting.
You’ve worked with Yannick on all your CDs. What is it about his producing style that you like?
Yannick played guitar with us from 2002 to 2006. He knows how we are supposed to sound and how we work. Despite him moving 8 hours away from us, he’s still a very good friend of the band. I’m actually seeing him tonight for the first time in a couple of months. Yannick is one of the best metal producers in Canada. He’s worked with most the biggest bands from around here. He always gets the best takes out of us in the studio. Sometimes, we’ll record stuff that we think is perfectly fine and he’ll be like “you can do better then that” and have us start all over again. I’ve worked with him with all of my previous bands as well. The studio is always pretty stressful for me and working with Yannick always gives more confidence.
What inspired the album title? What are some of the lyrical topics you tackle on this album?
Steve and I wrote the lyrics and they deal mostly with the all the sacrifices we’ve had to make in our personal lives. Being on tour and away all the time definitely makes things complicated at home. The lyrics explore separation in all its forms. We talk about our failed friendships and relationships and how we’ve coped with it all. The title Day Of Mourning is a strong image that we felt accurately represented that.
Everyone goes through ups and downs, and this record illustrates that well. I was reading our old lyrics the other day and it all felt a bit too negative at times. There was too much complaining going on and although we do explore our fears, inhibitions and regrets on this record, there’s now a message of hope. No matter how hard it gets, I will never give up.
What were some of the highlights of your summer festival season this year?
I love touring in the summer. In the US, we did the Summer Slaughter tour last summer and the Thrash and Burn tour this summer. Both were festival tours and we got to share the stage with so many talented bands. Load-ins were usually mad early so we didn’t get much rest but had plenty of time to hang out with all the bands during the day. This year was our second time playing European summer festivals and some of them were huge. We’d be playing in front of 2,000 to 20,000 people almost every day!
The biggest festivalwe did this year was Hellfest in France with Manowar, Suicidal Tendencies, Dream Theater and much more. We also finally played in Athens, Greece for the first time with Hatebreed and Terror. My personal favorites are always the German festivals. We got to play the Rockfest, Beastfest and Summer Blast Fest with our buddies in Parkway Drive, Architects, August Burns Red and much more. The off dates on that summer festival tour were pretty awesome too. We’d always be playing with Parkway Drive, Whitechapel or The Black Dahlia Murder depending on the night. We’ve toured quite a lot with all those dudes so it’s always fun to run into them like that on the road.
