You guys are playing a “special” concert tonight. Your concert will be filmed to be shown at the Carson Daly Show. Are you planning something special for the concert?
No, we are just doing our show… (laughs). Do what we always do.

Did you guys have to do any special preparation for the concert?
We took an extra long sound check, to make sure we are sounding good. We also did a little practice yesterday to make sure we are “tight”.

You guys will be touring the US West Coast. How different will this one be from the tour you did in the beginning of the year in the East Coast? And also, what are your expectations for this tour?
Better weather. The East Coast tour in the winter was really rough. We got trapped in a blizzard and that kind of stuff. The weather here is amazing right now so, it is almost like a vacation.

We love the West Coast, I mean… all the cities we are heading up, we are big fans of, and there are great scenes [music wise]. So, we are hoping to have a really good time.

Any other tour plans until the end of the year?
No, these are the last shows for the year. And, we are going to start writing a new album.

Any idea of when it will be released?
We haven’t decided any of that yet. We are just getting started on it, so…

It has been almost a year since you guys have released Spiral Shadow. Looking back now, can you say you are satisfied with the results of this album?
Yeah. We are definitely satisfied. It was a really tough album to make. We really busted our asses on it so, I’m glad it did pretty well, it got pretty good response. It has been a fun year, it’s been a good year doing the tour. Yeah… definitely happy.

You guys have signed with “Season of Mist”. Did anything change in your routine, or in the way you recorded/ wrote the album?
Not really. It’s pretty similar to how we were already doing things. They didn’t come in and try to change how we do things too much. They were really cool ab

out that. They’ve been really supportive, they are a great label, great people to work with…

You guys started in 2001. So, this year is your “10th Anniversary”. Looking back, how different is the band now than it was back then?
I think we are better musicians now (laughs). I think we have got a little better, we’ve got tighter, and definitely more focused.

We know each other a lot better now. Most everyone in the band now has been in the band for a long time: 10 years for Laura [Pleasants] and I, close to 9 for Corey [Barhorst], Carl [McGinley] about 6 years and Tyler [Newberry] has been on and off with us for the last 5 [years]. So, there is a “comfort zone” with everybody now. We get up on stage and we kind of know what everybody is going to do, without even talking about it too much or rehearsing too much. We just know everybody’s playing style very well.

What do you think was your biggest achievement until now?
There have been a lot of achievements. When we first started, the first time we made over to Europe was a huge achievement. We always wanted to go. It took us a few years to get over there. At this point now, we have been over there 5 years straight, and that’s just mind blowing to me now, you know? To be able to do stuff like that…

We didn’t really start the band with some huge “rock star” idea. It was just to enjoy what we were doing and hopefully see the world, and we have… I think that was the biggest achievement.

So, are you guys planning to do something specific in 2012?
We will probably go back over to Europe in the winter time, take a break from writing. And, the band is going to try to get together maybe a live album with the older stuff that is out of print right now. We will have a bunch of stuff going on…

You have stated in the past that you do “experimentation” with your music. Considering that: how do you guys find yourselves in the metal scene? Is this something that plays in your favor? Or is it something difficult to present to the metal world because some people may not be “prepared” for it?
You know… we kind of

dealt with that since the beginning. Have people maybe not been used to what we are doing. But now, there are a lot more people doing it and there is definitely more of an audience.

Sometimes that’s the price you pay, you know? There is going to always be some people that don’t get it. And that’s alright… I mean, it’s not for everybody. But, there’s people that do “dig it”.

I don’t think we will ever stop to push our own boundaries, at least, and finding new ways to keep ourselves entertained and enjoying it. So, when we are playing, we are stoke to be there, it is not a routine for us. It is fun to think of new things.

Without labeling yourselves, how would your describe your music to SOM readers who haven’t heard your music yet?
It’s heavy, some parts are pretty “trippy”. It is a mixture of a lot of different genres of music but, the main thing: it is heavy! We might mellow out a little bit here and there but we generally stay in the confines of heavy music. We like all kinds of music, but for me at least, the heavier stuff is my favorite.



About your fans: how are they distributed around the world?
Right now it seems like Europe is taking to us the most. I think Europeans are a little bit more “open minded” and I think it makes a little more sense to a lot of the Europeans. I really don’t know why… this is my guess.

Our band has continuously grown. We’ve been lucky. We are not a huge band but we managed keep seeing more people at shows each year. So, it has been a slow steady pace of growth. Our fans are spread out all over. We are really lucky.



What do you guys have in mind for Kylesa’s future? How do you see the bands in the next few years?
That’s a good question and a hard question (laughs).

There is no goal. We haven’t sat around and talked about it. We are more short- term oriented. Right now our goal is just to get our stuff out, try to get a new record written. These are our goals right now. When we get those done we will see what comes up next.

Any messages to SOM readers?
Yeah. Cheers!