Mickel: Okay, first question, how's the tour going? Brian: The show has been great so far, packed houses every night, great audiences, first time for us to play in some countries, we're getting along pretty well with the other bands as well, we've had some random shit, but thats a part of touring, but besides of that, we're having a great time. Mickel: We're having an interview with Children of Bodom tonight, anything cool to tell about them? Brian: Haha, they're the biggest drinkers, like no band we've seen in our life, its unbelievable Mickel: You guys have a new album out, The Art of Balance, first record with Jason (Bittner) on drums, hows life for him being the only one without long hair? Brian: Haha! Jason: Haha, I had it years ago, Im not missing it, to tell you the truth! Brian: You can see it on some old photos though.. Mickel: Okay, how does a regular day look like for you guys? Brian: Well, you wake up at the venue, eat some food, try to recover, soundcheck, play show, start drinking, pass out, repeat�..and going like that for, 9 months or so. Jason: Well, now we're not driving ourselves. Brian: Yeah, that was before.. Jason: Now we have a bus to get on to Mickel: Isnt it scary to go asleep and trust the driver? Brian: Yeah.. Jason: Especially when he is mad at you Brian: You just hope all will be fine Mickel: The last record on the disc, is a Pink Floyd cover, "Welcome to the Machine". Who's idea was it to put it on? Brian: Actually, we got approached to do a track for a Pink Floyd tribute album, with some other bands. So we listened to some tracks with our producer Zeus, and picked that one, because its a real stripped down song, we could actually do our own thing with it, you know, basically, mellow guitars, kept the vocals pretty close to the original. The tribute album never happened, but we were so excited with how it came out, we put it on the end of the record. Mickel: One of the first songs you recorded as a band, Fleshold, appeared on practically every record, besides on the on the new one..how come? Paul: We were gonna fade out the new record with that� Brian: Yeah, Just to do it, like "it has a piece of it on it" it definitly had a long life, for years we had it on the setlist, but this is the first tour we dont play it every night. Jason: We did play it on the first night Brian: Yeah, its a song that never dies, haha Mickel: Recently, Jason Newsted said Shadows Fall was one of "the better bands around", thats a cool comment to get. If you had to pick one famous person who would have to say something good about your band, who would it be? Jason: Ozzie! Brian: That would be great�but having anyone in Metallica giving you props�they're one of the originators, and Jason was also in Flotsam &Jetsam, pretty influential thrash band, so that comment alone was cool. Also Zakk Wylde, giving props to John in magazines like Guitarworld, thats amazing. Its just that getting a comment from the people you look up to is really cool. Mickel: You guys played on Beastfest in Japan, with Slayer and Pantera�are all those rumours true about Phil Anselmo? Brian: He's a Rock and Roll machine, he's a legend, out of control man. Mickel: For a band, like yours, what would be the ultimate goal to achieve? Brian: Well, being able to live of it would be nice, that would come in first, haha Jason: Basically being able to make a living, doing what we want to do.. Brian: Yeah, we're getting closer, but its still definitly a tough road. As far as bands to tour with, and playing countries, we already seated all kind of goals already. But it would be nice to be able to pay the rent, haha Mickel: How did you find Jason? Brian: Ah, some musician, founded somewhere in the gutter, passed out and drunk..no, we've known him for a while, when he used to play in the band Stigmata, he did some shows with Crisis. All our old bands used to play with his other bands. We've known him for awhile. When Steve left the band he was one of the first that came to mind, it took a while to convince him though. Jason: Yeah, I woke up, and I had four drunken misses next to me Brian: Yeah, somehow he got trapped.. Mickel: Standard question, whats the weirdest thing that happened on stage? Brian: John got his nosering stuck in a towel once..I lost my pants during a show with Fear Factory�.I got my shoes stolen while I stage dove, in Japan as well.. Jason: I got a broken ankle, with taking out half the drumset� Jonathan: I got a full beer thrown at me the other night.. Mickel: Isnt it annoying when people throw all that stuff like beer on stage? Brian: yeah, but usually we're rocking out like, Wraaaaaa, and go like, "thanks dude!".. Mickel: So no on stage sex other weird stuff? Brian: Nah, that never happened. We had strippers once though�.It happened when we had a gig were we covered alot of old rock n roll stuff, Ozzy and AC/DC stuff. There was a stip club around the corner, and the girls went stripping on stage�.and we went like, "uhh, � Okay, that never happened before". Mushroomhead gets that shit kicking when they're in Cleveland though� Mickel: As a band, who are your main influences? Jason: Thats a long list.. Brian: All of the old thrash bands, you know from the bay area�..Testament and stuff like that, Iron Maiden�.classic metal, classic rock and stuff like that. We listen to a lot of variety stuff..we're all over the place as far as musical incluences go. Mickel: Cool that was the last question, that was about it. Thanks for your time! Brian: No thank you for the interview, we appreciate it. Interview by Carn