If you’re a fan of aggressive music, there’s no doubt that you’re familiar with Killswitch Engage—but do you know who they really are these days? Last year the band released their second self-titled album, which not only debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts but was also the first time the band used an outside co-producer (Brendan O’Brien) and aptly featured a single called “Starting Over.” The band are currently in the midst of a whirlwind world tour to exotic locations like Ecuador and Chile, but before they took off we got the opportunity to chat with the band’s bassist Mike D’Antonio about their latest disc, the sometimes unforgiving metal scene and why the band’s sense of humor is so integral to their identity.
Was it difficult to bring in an outside producer for Killswitch Engage since you guys are such a tight-knit group?
Yeah, before this every record has been produced by [guitarist] Adam [Dutkiewicz], but this was our fifth record and if there was a time we could try something different and shake things up this is the one. We really didn’t want to repeat the last album, so we thought we would throw caution to the wind and see how it goes with a notable producer like Brendan O’Brien. It probably would have been one of those things where if we passed it up we would have looked back on that and regretted it a little bit, so I think it was a good opportunity to try something different and get an outsider’s opinion.
You easily could have made a record that sounded like 2006’s When Daylight Dies, what made you want to shake things up?
Like I said, this the fifth record so we felt like if there was any time to try something new it would be this one. There were a lot of similarities between our last record and the [2004’s] The End Of Heartache; we didn’t intend to have that happen but when you’re comfortable in the studio sometimes things like that can occur—and then when you look back at it you’re like “Oh, whoa, okay,” but I think this album was definitely a departure.
How much of that direction is conscious and how much just happens?
There’s a lot of “let’s just go with it and see what happens.” We felt really good about the music this time around; all the riffs were written and all the structures were done and then from there Brendan suggested a few things. The cool thing about Brendan is that he was like an outsider looking in, so there were a few parts where he was like, “if you put the chorus first maybe that song will work better. If it sounded cool we would sit there and jam it out and when he was wrong usually someone would come up with something that worked a little bit better.
There are a lot of really melodic moments on this album. Do you ever worry about metal purists thinking it’s not heavy enough?
I feel like enough kids have already said they don’t like us, especially with our stage show [Laughs]. We think that the metal world takes itself way too seriously; there’s no smiling going on onstage for three-quarters of the metal world and I think that’s unfortunate. We enjoy ourselves and we want to have fun and the same goes for the crowd. We don’t want them to bring their problems to the show, we want them to release them and participate—and whether that means writing riffs that are a bit less or more heavy, I think the average Killswitch Fan isn’t going to notice too much of a lighter or darker side with this record. It’s right in that Killswitch pocket.
As you said, you guys are also known for your goofy onstage antics. What do specifically you think is the problem with metal acts who take themselves way too seriously?
I think when you take yourself seriously that’s when ego starts to kick in. I know a lot of people that have that sort of ego and that’s nothing like I ever want to be. I think that coming from the underground for so many years has ingrained in my the mantra that you’re just a person, so get over yourself. That’s what we’ve always believed, anyway.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SGSq1JGXjU