Take a look at this interview that SOM did with the bass guitar player Dan Briggs from Between the Buried and Me, when the band played on the Summer Slaughter Fest 2012 at the House of Blues in West Hollywood.
You guys are starting the Summer Slaughter tour tonight. Are you excited?Yes! The lineup is weird because half of the bands on it, we’ve toured with before or [they] are friends with us already so, we keep kind of joking that it is like summer camp, you know? We are just going to see our friends, hang out, play some music, maybe play some sports, and just get silly… I don’t know. It is going to be a lot of fun.
Which is your favorite band on this bill?
Musically probably: The Faceless. They are buds of ours; we’ve toured together a few years ago. They are just an interesting band, musically, to me. Their guitarist, Mike [Keene] has been talking up their new stuff a lot so, I am kind of curious to hear what it is all about… see if he is good on his word, you know? I’m excited to watch them, it will be fun.
You will be doing this entire tour and after that going to Europe for another tour. Any other plans after that?
After that we are going back to Japan and Australia. Before we go there we are playing Fun, Fun, Fun Fest in Austin. So, we go right from London to Austin and then to Japan, and then Australia (laughs). But that will be great!
That will take until December, then I will be on vacation in Australia for a little bit. Come home…and then we will be back out here. Our record comes out in October so, once the New Year hits, we will be able to do a full US tour on it. It will be a lot of fun; we will play the whole thing! It is a big concept records so… I’m pretty excited.
You guys released an EP more than a year ago (Parallax: Hypersleep dialogues). This was a “themed” EP. Now in 2012, you will be releasing an album that will continue that theme. Is this album going to be a continuation of the EP musically also?
Musically, no. Before we even sat down to write one note or anything, I had this idea in my head how I wanted to write like, a progressive metal rock opera; something like the Who’s “Tommy”. Something like that, that was more modern (obviously it was us) but really played off the characters that were in the story and there is a lot of drama within the story.
It is kind of sci-fi but the heart of it it’s really, you know, these basic human emotions of being lonely, of being torn and how you deal with these emotions. And you see the two characters and the different ways in which you kind of deal with that. It makes for a kind of a devastating story. There are a lot of sci-fi elements in it that kind of makes it interesting: the time travel, alternate realities, weird stuff that we concocted.
Those are my favorite kind of records, the ones that lyrically, musically, thematically, is all tied together and it’s all a bigger thing. So, to be able to do a record like that is very exciting.
So, you said that musically it will not be similar to your past records?
No, I really don’t think so [that the new album is similar to past records]. I feel like throughout our discography we had a couple of albums that propelled us into something new and when we wrote “Colors” in 2007, it really put us in a new direction and gave us a new confidence, you know?
I guess 5 years later, after writing “Colors”, I feel like this album [The Parallax II: Future Sequence] is propelling us
to the next level, something different. There are still elements that are similar to what we have done before it but, on the whole it is much more musical. I just love it. Everything is really there for a purpose. We spent a long time on the song writing and basically, just the flow of the new album, as we knew, it was going to be one big thing instead of a bunch of small things. There is great attention to the flow… I’m very in love with it. I’m not tired to listen to it at all, yet and I haven’t talked about it at all so, this is exciting.
So, what are the major differences between the Parallax I and II? Can the EP give the fans an idea of what the album will be?
Well, you know, the EP basically plays out the beginning of this story. We didn’t have a lot of time to write. We had come off about 9 months of straight touring and it was like: we got a couple of months to write and we already had studio time booked. We knew we were going to write an EP so it was a little less stressful. So, that just captured us right on September 2010. Getting to do this full length, I had from December 2010 until a couple of months ago, to write music. That’s a long time to reflect on stuff and grow as a musician.
I started another band last summer called Trioscapes, it is like a jazz fusion thing. And that was before we even sat down to write Between the Buried and Me stuff, as a group. So that [having a new band] opened me up to a lot of new stuff. So, by the time we were actually in the same room together, there was just an explosion of creative energy, new ideas and in some cases, full songs were brought to the table right from the beginning. That had never happened before so that’s kind of cool. Everyone was on the same page so it made it very easy to work.
About the album story: how did you guys come up with it?
It is something that our guitarist Paul [Waggoner] initially thought of: a dying planet and a character from that planet leaving to find this new civilization which ends up being Earth and how this character is somehow linked to a person on Earth. On the EP you don’t find out how they are exactly linked, you’ll find out on the full length.
Tommy [Giles Rogers] had the, I think, very daunting job taking this big wild idea and trying to turn it into songs that he could relate to with words and the people could read and understand the story and also kind of be affected by it.
By the time the second half of the story came around: me, Tommy and Paul sat down and shared some general ideas. We knew how it was going to end, what was going to happen. It was just some of the in between stuff here and there, [that needed to be created/ defined]. Tommy just did a great job making it come to life.
About Parallax… is it a trilogy? Are there thoughts about a next Parallax?
No. By the time you get to the end of the record you realize it is very much the end. The first and last songs on the album are called “Goodbye to Everything”. The last song it is “Goodbye to Everything Reprise”. I don’t think you could very more bluntly say “Goodbye to Everything”, that’s it.
So personal question: Besides playing on Between the Buried and Me…. Any hobbies?
Honestly, I have more than one other band. I don’t have a girlfriend or anything, We tour 6 months
out of the year. When I get home after being on the road for that long, I can’t wait to write music. And I’m thankful that I have a lot of different outlets. I’ve always had a very, kind of expensive catalog of music that I’m really interested in, since I was in high school or maybe younger. Getting to explore a lot of different musical avenues is really important to me, it is necessary for me. I’m most happy when I’m creative, when I’m doing something. If I’m not doing that I don’t really feel like I’m contributing to anything. I start saying “Why am I here?”, “What am I doing?”. That is my purpose, it is to create.
What else do I like to do at home? I’ve enjoyed watching baseball for the most of the summer; I’m a big Cleveland Indians fan, I have been my whole life. I run a lot, I love cooking, I am one of the few people who still buy CDs and Vinyl in excessive amounts. That’s my one true vice. That’s about it. I enjoy being home and going on ventures and stuff. But now, I’m really excited to be playing shows all summer after 7 months off (laughs).
You should go to Amoeba! Have you been there? [Amoeba is a huge independent record store in Hollywood, San Francisco and Berkeley. They are super cool, well known, stores]
I’ve spent probably a few thousand dollars over the last over 10 years or so at Amoeba. I love Amoeba. I think that people here don’t realize, or maybe take it for granted. Stores like that aren’t everywhere. Where I live there is no independent record store. You have to drive 1.5 or 2 hours in another direction to get to a store like that. I’m not afraid to make a trip out of it and do it, because I love doing that, but it is not necessary like “I could just roll down to Amoeba every Tuesday and get every new release that comes out or whatever I feel like it”. So, people like us, who travel around and have that passion, it is a big deal to find something like that.
The first Amoeba I went to was in San Francisco and it was like a religious experience. I walked in and I saw the “new” section and I was like “Oh my god!” and then I saw the “used” section and I was like “Oh my god!”. And then I saw the vinyl, the DVDs. I’ve never seen a music DVD selection like that anywhere. Huge plug for Amoeba obviously. Everyone knows about it and has been there. But yeah… it’s the best.
Your characters on Parallax, are trying to fix flaws of humanity. So, if you could fix something about humanity, what would you fix?
I guess for me, I’ve had a vegan diet for like, 13 years and it is something I’ve got into because I’m passionate about animal’s rights and stuff. I would just want to have a general kind of consciousness about life outside of humans, you know? For me, I feel like a deep connection with everything that is living and breathing on Earth. It might be like a hippie sentiment, you know? But, I just feel like that sense of compassion, kind of. I don’t want everyone to be vegan or whatever, it is just like, embracing everything a little bit more you know? That would be nice.
Any messages to the SOM readers?
Thank you for the interview, first and foremost. We’ve got a new weird record coming out in October and it might be one that people either love or hate. I love it and I’m excited about it. Be ready for something new and wild.
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interview réalisée par Deesse_de_la_nuit
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