Twelve Tribes - A chit chat with Andrew Corpus
After I wrote the review for Twelve Tribes’ new album I got the opportunity to ask ‘em some questions through mail. Here’s what guitarist Andrew Corpus had to say.
You just released your new album ‘Midwest Pandemic’, how are the reactions so far?
“The reactions have been really good so far. The reviews have been excellent for the most part. There are always a couple weird ones, not even bad reviews . . but reviews where after we read it we’re like “oh . . . that’s what they chose to talk about?”. Other than that, we get plenty of feedback on our MySpace which is all positive.”
How did you come up with the title for the album?
“It’s pretty much just our take on the area of the country that we live in. The Midwest of the United States is a very rural, poor, boring part of the country. Lots of obese people, lots of ibile belt type shit, lots of ignorance in general. Its just our reaction to this type of living/thinking.”
Personally I think Twelve Tribes has made a big step forward between this album and the previous one, how do you feel about that?
“I would agree. A lot of that progression has to do with the people who are playing on this record. It’s a completely different line up than on the Eulogy releases. We had a common goal in terms of the way we wanted to write, and everyone understood that goal and worked towards it and it worked for us. This record is a progression from the last one.”
The vocals are more varied and the drums are used in more different ways than on ‘The Rebirth Of Tragedy’, do you think that’s something that grew into your music as a result of the experiences you guys had the last couple of years? Why (not)?
“I think that could be attributed to our touring experience, Adam and Shane picking up things from other vocalists/drummers. It could also just be from growing on a personal level you know?”
The last track on the album is a concept-track, divided in three parts. How did you come up with the idea for such a song?
“The music is actually a few old riffs from the last CD that didn’t make it. We loved the riffs, but didn’t quite know how to place them. We just wrote a couple connecting parts and threw it together. We knew we wanted to make the last song on the record super long and epic. But it just worked out really good.”
Last time I interviewed you (Shane) he couldn’t tell me exactly what the lyrics were particularly based on, any differences regarding the lyrics this time? Why (not)?
“You’re going to be equally disappointed because I (Andrew) have about as much input to the lyrics as Shane does.”
So, you finally stop touring after a long time and you decide it’s time for a new record. Then what? I mean, how did the band move forward from that moment on?
“Well we all took some time off from each other. Adam has an engineering job he can go back to on time off. Shane and I worked as techs for bands like Bullet For My Valentine, Every Time I Die and High On Fire. Then after a few months we started getting back together and practicing and writing. It all came together rather quickly from that point on.”
You picked someone else for the producing part this time, why?
“No one really produced us ever. Andreas was an awesome engineer, but we’re not really into the idea of someone changing our songs around. We know what sound we want, what type of music we love to play. All Andreas did was make sure that things came across sonically.”
I assume you’ll be on tour a lot the coming months. Shane told me you guys were looking forward to tour other places than Europe and the US as well. Any plans set for those ‘other places’? If so, how do you feel about that?
“We’re on tour in Europe with Hatebreed and Unearth right now. The tour is going amazing. Both bands are full of awesome guys and the shows have been off the hook. We couldn’t be happier. After this, we don’t have immediate tour plans, but we’re going to be out a lot, I can say that confidently.”
“We’re all too focused on Twelve Tribes at this point. We also have jobs, relationships, all sorts of shit that takes up our time presently. No time for side projects.”
Briefly, what can we expect from Twelve Tribes in the future?
“You can expect us to be on the road for a long time supporting this next CD. After that . . . we’ll see. We’ll see how this next year goes before we get too far ahead of ourselves.”
Anything left to say to our readers? Now’s your chance!
“Well, by this time I’m sure we’ll have been through Europe already. So to all those people, thank you for checking us out and showing us a great time. See you this spring. Thanks for the interview.
Thanks for your time and hope to see you soon!
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