Bill: Hey. What’s going on man?
Joel: What’s up man?

Bill: What do you like most about being in a band?
Joel: Uh…shit man…a lot of cool things like hanging out with the boys and stuff like that. I think the coolest thing is when you’re playing a show and the kids are singing along. That’s the coolest thing it makes you feel really good. Kids playing air guitar in the crowd and they know all the lyrics to the song. Makes you realize that you’re doing something awesome.

Bill: What bands influenced you growing up?
Joel: Big Metallica fan, old Testament. When I started playing guitar I was playing old thrash metal.

Bill: Any guitarists you look up to?
Joel: Alex Skolnick, Testament early on. James Murphy was one of my biggest influences. James Hetfield, obviously.

Bill: What are some of your favourite bands today?
Joel: I love In Flames, Arch Enemy, a lot of Swedish stuff.

Bill: How did you get signed to Roadrunner, was it an interesting story or anything?
Joel: We just kind of lucked out. We had a record come out on a small independent label. At the time Carl Stevenson at Ferret was working at Roadrunner doing promotional stuff. Since our record came out on his label he kind of handed it over to Roadrunner. Mike, the A&R guy we got to meet him and he started coming to our shows, we became friends and over the course of the next 6 to 8 months we signed to Roadrunner.

Bill: What is the most meaningful song that came out of “The End of Heartache”?
Joel: It’s hard to say, but probably musically I like to play “A Bid Farewell”. Lyrically, I like stuff like Rose of Sharyn, which is a tribute to a friend of Howard’s that passed away. I also like the title track “The End of Heartache” it’s about being far away from someone you love it kind of hits close to home especially on tour and stuff like that.

Bill: Since Howard entered the band how has the writing process changed?
Joel: It really hasn’t changed that much honestly. We usually write a lot of the music ahead of time. We usually write most of the stuff together, but there’s a few songs on the new album that Adam wrote on his own.

Bill: In the studio when you record your guitars, do you have any tricks to get a good sound?
Joel: We usually double track everything. I’ll play guitar on the left side and through another amp on the right side.

Bill: What do you like and dislike about your past albums?
Joel: The first album, we tried to make it with a lot of energy but it’s a little unorganized. I don’t think the songs necessarily flowed as good as they should have. We were kind of rushed, we had to record it really fast. We took our time on the last record and made sure we got the sound we wanted.

Bill: What are your favourite kinds of shows to play?
Joel: I think it’s really cool to play a show with a couple hundred people crammed into a little room, everyone’s jumping around. That’s a lot of fun. A lot of shows on this tour are going to be like that.

Bill: What do you like and dislike about touring?
Joel: I love hanging out with the guys in the band, we’re all good friends. It does get old after awhile not being able to see your friends and family back home.

Bill: Who is your favourite band to tour with?
Joel: We always have a good time with In Flames.

Bill: I heard at the show, that you guys are going to be touring with Slayer?
Joel: We’ve confirmed the tour, but we don’t know the dates and the venues yet. It’s going to start around October 23rd, I think...and it’s going to take us through December 19th. Mastadon is going to join the bill too.

Bill: What is the first thing you do when you come home from touring?
Joel: Take a shower in my own bathroom, wash my clothes and that’s pretty much it. Call all my friends and go out to eat. It’s the little things like that that you miss. You kind of take it for granted when your home.

Bill: Do you get to stop at hotels occasionally?
Joel: Usually not, it gets really expensive when you have a bus and a hotel. A lot of clubs we usually play do have showers, so sometimes we get to use their showers. If they don’t have showers after the show, we ask our bus driver if we can use his shower in his room.

Bill: Is there anything you have to say to local bands out there about breaking into the music industry?
Joel: Play as many shows as you can, go to as many shows as you can and meet as many people as you can. Get your name out there; it really is who you know. The best way to do it is just keep playing.

Bill: Thanks for taking the time out for the interview and have fun on tour. Take it easy man.
Joel: Thanks. Take care.

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