Mercedes Lander: We are taking out a couple of our labelmates: Straight Line Stitch and Arkaea, and the main support will be Soil. They are putting out a new album around the same time we are, and we’ve known those guys for years.
Is it true that you’ve headlined every show for the past ten years and haven’t opened for anyone?
Yes, but that’s not by choice. We’ve had to turn down a lot of tours, because we’ve never had tour support. We’ve never had a label that would help us. We had to turn down supporting Cradle Of Filth in Europe twice. We’ve had to turn down Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, and even Creed once.
If you’re a support band you can’t survive on 200 dollars a show. If you’re playing with a bigger band they are only doing four shows a week, maybe. That’s 800 dollars for all those drives. It’s worth it for me personally and for everybody in the band, but it’s impossible to do. You can’t pay for gas, you can’t pay the people that are working for you. But now we have a label that’s going to help us out a lot, and they have promised to help us with tour support. So when we get those big tours offered to us, we don’t have to turn them down anymore.
You’ll be able to get in front of new fans that might not be familiar with your music.
We’ve never been able to do that, and everybody thinks that we are that band they heard ten years ago. That’s not who we are, that’s not what I want to be known for. It’s fine that you liked that album, but we’re so much more than that now. That was ten years ago. We’ve been through a lot of labels and a lot of fighting to get what we deserve. It’s nice finally that we’ve gotten an opportunity to be helped out by our new label.
With more and more material under your belts, does it get harder to put together setlists for tours?
Our goal is to not have to play old songs anymore, eventually. I’m sure we will on the next tour, but it’s going to be 8 old songs and 8 new songs. We’re out there promoting the new record. We’re not promoting any other records, because I haven’t made any money off those old records in a long time. We’re out there to get the new record to people’s ears. I don’t want to give my old record label money (laughs). I don’t want them to make money off us anymore.
Are there any cities you particularly enjoy playing live?
We love Texas. We love the Carolinas and Virginia. There are so many wonderful places that we like to play, and it’s hard to pick where you play. Hopefully we’ll be going back to Europe shortly. We’re also looking at going back to South America, which is my favorite place in the whole universe. It’s insane. Going down there and playing for them makes me so much more excited about being a musician. In America people have everything at their fingertips, but not as many bands go to South America to play. The people appreciate it so much more because they don’t get it as often. It’s really nice.
Do you guys ever prank fellow bands or each other on the road?
That’s usually me that does all that stuff. We’ve done some pretty (screwed) up things. One time Poison The Well was touring with us and we hired two male strippers to take their clothes off during their set. I really wish I had a video of that, because it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
One time when Shadows Fall was opening for us, we had fashioned a coozy like you put on a beer bottle in the shape of a dick, and put it on the microphone. Brian Fair had to sing into a dick for the whole set. It was in L.A., and all the record company people were there. I kind of felt bad for him afterwards, because he had to sing into a dick in front of the president of his label.
What are some strange things you’ve been asked to autograph?
I have signed babies, prosthetic limbs. I’ve had a lot of guys ask me to sign their penises, but I’m obviously never going to do that. It’s gross. I’ve signed lots of asses and boobs. Some guy tried to get us to sign his fake eye. I wouldn’t do it. The baby thing I thought was really weird. Why would you want me to write on your baby?
Is it difficult to maintain friendships and relationships when you’re on the road touring so much, or has technology made it easier?
We have a cell phone monopoly here in Canada, and have to pay 60 cents per text message when we’re in the United States. So we can’t text message. I just got a Blackberry, and I pay almost 300 dollars a month. I’ll get back to your question, I just like to talk about how crappy our cell phone situation is. Our merch guy pays 20 bucks a month for his (U.S.) cell phone, and I pay 300.
It is really hard to keep in contact, but with stuff like Facebook, MySpace and cell phones it’s a lot easier. I would hate to have been Bon Jovi in the eighties, having to find a pay phone. You just have to work at it.
What’s the most effective social media for you to stay in touch with your fans?
We use everything. We are a Twitter/Facebook/MySpace/YouTube band. I started our own YouTube channel where we make update videos. When we were in Europe we made videos of where we were and what we were doing and stuff like that. I’m sure we’ll be doing it on this tour as well. MySpace still does a lot for bands. And it’s always us that are writing back. I would never let anybody else run our MySpace page. I think that’s cheating, and I feel bad for bands that hire people to do that because they are too good for it.
Who are the top three Canadian metal bands of all time?
Anvil, Kataklysm and Kittie.
Anything else you’d like to mention?
The new album comes out September 15th, and thank you to everyone that’s supported us through the years. We’re nothing without you.
