Chad Bowar: Since your last studio album you’ve had some lineup changes. What led to the departure of the former members, and where did you find Alex and William?
Rob Milley: What led to the formers members leaving was a combination of personal differences and musical differences. With Steven Henry (former guitarist), his playing abilities were not up to our standard and he was losing interest in touring and practicing. We both knew it was best for him to leave. With Ian Campbell (former vocalist), it was a matter of him having different priorities for being in the band and also his health was not stable, so it started to affect our touring, practicing and recording. We are still on good terms with those guys so everything worked out for the best.
When it came time to find their replacements, we only wanted to get live session players because we didn’t want to decide on a replacement too quickly. With William, we already knew him from his past work with Quo Vadis, so when he applied for the audition I already had a good feeling about him. I knew he was a good guitar player and most importantly he had an easy-going personality. We did a US tour with him and after that we decided to bring him in permanently.
Same thing with Alex. We had known him from his past work in Atheretic and Versus Chaos. We had a European tour coming up and needed a vocalist so we asked Alex if he would be interested. The tour went really well with him so we asked him to join permanently after that.
Give us a preview of The Thin Line Between.
Rob: The overall vibe of the album is much darker. You can feel more of an atmosphere with certain songs. We worked a lot on making each song its own unique vibe. So as a whole, the album feels more focused. Of course you can expect it to be brutal, technical and progressive but the emphasis was put on writing good songs.
Has Alex and William’s addition changed the band’s sound at all?
Rob: I think that the sound has remained a natural progression, but you will definitely notice the difference with Alex as our new vocalist. He has added a more pronounced and powerful approach to the vocals. William contributed to the writing and he was able to bring in his own unique way of writing that complimented my style of songwriting. We both worked more on guitar solos and I’m really happy with his guitar work on the new album.
How did the collaboration with Luc from Gorguts come about?
Rob: I’ve known Luc for some time now, since Neuraxis had the chance to play a few shows with Gorguts back in 2001. Everyone in Neuraxis is a fan of Luc’s work with Gorguts, it just so happens that Luc practices in the same building as us with his new band Negativa. Sometimes we bump into each other and catch up on things. Last year he asked me if he could try out my Vader cabinet because he was considering getting one… so of course I let him play it. So at the same time, I took the chance to ask if he would be interested to do some guest vocals on our new album. Luc agreed immediately. Also, when we did our album release show for our live album, Live Progression, in Montreal, we had Luc sing a song with us. I think he really had a good time because he no longer sings in his new band, so he kind of missed doing those brutal vocals.
What are your expectations for The Thin Line Between?
Alex Leblanc: I hope people are going to like it. I’m personally very proud of what we accomplished with this album and I think it’s going to bring the band to the next level. We just want to tour as much as we can, basically, and bring our music to the four corners of the planet.
How did you come up with the album title?
Alex: Well, it started when I wrote the lyrics for the song of the same name. The theme of the album is about duality and paradox. I wanted something disturbing. I was thinking about a genius who makes a discovery, realizing he is going insane in the process. Where is that frontier? Where is that line between the two? So I exploited this and came out with that song (“The Thin Line Between”) and it inspired me to write the other ones.
What led to your label switch to Prosthetic?
Rob: When our contract was finished with our previous label, Willowtip Records, we wanted to test the waters and see if we could get the interest of a bigger label that could push us more and get us to a higher level. Last year we recorded a demo and sent it out to some major metal labels, and a lot of them were really interested in possibly working together. After discussing with the labels for a few months, it came down to Prosthetic showing the most interest and belief in us. What attracted us to them was that they have the means for promotion, distribution and touring opportunities and they don’t have hundreds of huge bands already to take care of, so we felt Neuraxis would be treated as a priority and so far that’s exactly what they have done. Already we have good promotion for the new album, and touring opportunities are coming in, so it’s working out pretty well.
