Nowadays, Metal Blade signs many metalcore groups. As far as I am concerned, I'm nearly sick of it. But to be objective, Into the moat, in this pile of hysteric clones, gets out of this thicklish situation. At moment, the group is intensely touring with Psyopus through the Usa, so it had been difficult for me to realize this interview as was planned. After several weeks of waiting, here is this interview with the drummer and founder member Matthew Gossman in April 2005.

Hi guys, it would be cool to begin this interview with a history of your band. The perfect way to introduce Into The Moat to our readers.
I started the band almost four years ago by writing and recording all the instruments for a couple demo songs. I then showed those songs to friends who played instruments to see if anyone was interested in joining. Looking back, the songs were really primitive, but every band has got to start somewhere.

Florida\'s famous for giving us a legendary death-metal scene in the beginning of the 90\'s & more recently a strong harcore movement. Instead you chose to play a hybrid of these 2 different styles by adding a large touch of jazz. It\'s a pretty uncommon result. Which are the bands you think that have influenced your sound ?
Obviously Dillinger was a huge influence to this band, especially when we first started. We also listen to a lot of death-metal bands such as Origin and Hate Eternal, as well as some jazz like the Pat Metheny group and Oscar Peterson.

What was your reaction when Metal Blade offered you to sign a contract ? What do you expect from this collaboration ? Don\'t you think the label signs too many metalcore bands nowadays ?
I remember first reading the email from Brian Slagel when he said they wanted to work with us. That was one of the best moments of my life, I was so excited. They are doing so much for us already, I think it is a perfect collaboration. Although the metalcore sound isn\'t necessarily my preference, Metal Blade has been around for ov

er 20 years so they obviously know what they\'re doing. I love the label and there\'s no where else I\'d rather be.

Let\'s talk about your new album \"The Design\". What are the main differences with your previous EP on Lovelost ? In which way did you try to improve ?
Obviously I think our new record is leagues better, but I am still quite confident in the EP. There are a couple songs that I am just so sick of playing and probably never will again, but the couple songs on there I like we still enjoy playing live. The new record is just much more complex and mature. I believe it is our perfect natural progression.

Where did you record this new album ? Was is a real pleasure to work in studio ? Do you appreciate this kind of challenge where creation & stress collide ?
We recorded this album about 4 hours northwest of our hometown in Tampa, FL in the USA. The recording process was a great experience. It was recorded and produced by the almighty Erik Rutan. He was great to work with and did not let anything but our best performances slide in the studio.

Musically speaking, you play a very technical metalcore with a lot of jazzy breaks & rhythmic changes. How do you compose inside the band ? Is it a hard & long way to bring each new song to its perfect maturity ?
Typically Kit will create most of the riffs and the basic structure of a song. Next he will bring it to me and I will write my drum parts. Many times I will have a direction in my head of where I want the song to go so I will either add or move parts around. Finally everyone else will add their input and a song is created.

Do you have plans for touring these next months ? Any funny story to tell about your past live activities ?
We are going to be touring pretty much non stop for the next year. Hopefully we will be able to make it to Europe for some shows as well. I don\'t really have any funny stories about live shows, but some may find it interesting that at least one of us gets injured almost

every night on tour. Whether it is getting hit in the head with a guitar, or jumping off a wall and falling off the stage, we try to have fun.

Let\'s talk about your lyrics now. What are the subjects you write about ?
\"The Design\" is a concept album regarding the strategy and preparation for war so many of the lyrics are about that, and more specifically the courage required by a soldier. Many of our lyrics are actually written by our ex-bassist Johanned Naranjo whom is now a US marine and is overseas. I believe that fact gives our lyrics a bit more insight on battle than some other bands that may have similar subject matter.

GW Bush is now in Europe for a big communication masquerade. I heard in the news that US public opinion is slowly changing towards europeans & especially frenchies. But in France, people always feel angry against americans, confounding Bush\'s administration with real America. What would you say about Bush\'s reelection & war on Irak ?
Personally, I do not agree with Bush\'s politics. Although much of our imagery is war related, I do not agree with war, and especially the one that is going on now. I hate that we would go to war for an energy source that is slowly killing us all anyway. I hate the fact that Americans are so wasteful and care about nothing other than making money. Everyone is afraid to make sacrifices for any worthy reason because no one cares about the big picture, just instant gratification. I think the world is basically naturally exterminating people because we are destroying it. Florida\'s last hurricane season was one of the worst ever, then that Tsunami that killed so many people, and more recently the second largest earthquake in world history all within a year. I am so disgusted that I don\'t even want to have children and subject them to this world. Sorry for that rant but it\'s been on my mind lately haha.

Thanx for your time, last words are yours.
Thanks a lot for the interview. Check out www.intothemoat.com. Later!