Shadows Fall

Thrash riffs, Grammy nominations and dreadlocks aren’t terms you’d usually find in the same sentence, but doing their own thing is something Shadows Fall have become particularly good at.

In the midst of their second Australian tour, SF front man Brian Fair was good enough to fit us in for an interview…

Interview w/ Brian Fair (Vocals)

of Shadows Fall (USA)

Don't miss a beat with our FREE daily newsletter

By Cameron Chambers

Hey man,

it’s Cam from Killyourstereo.

Hey man! How are you?

Really good mate, how was the

show in Canberra last night?

Oh, it was great! It was a really

good time and it was the first time we’ve played in that area so kids

were going nuts from the beginning to the end. It was nuts!

And the rest of the tour’s

been going well?

It’s been killer man. The two Soundwave shows were huge and then both of the sideshows with Killswitch Engage… Sydney was great and last night was sold out.

The bill was all bands that we’ve known for ten years as well… From Autumn To Ashes, Killswitch Engage and Divine Heresy,

so it was like a big family reunion.

Shadows are one of the few

metal bands on the Soundwave line up, what have the crowds been like?

They’ve been killer. It’s

a pretty heavy stage that we’re on, with Bleeding Through,

ourselves and As I Lay Dying, and even though they are in the

more hardcore vein it’s still all heavy, aggressive music.

If we were stuck on a stage with

the Plain White Tee’s it may have been a bit more noticeable,

ha ha, but on our stage it all fits together.

Any tour hi-jinks that you’d

like to share with us?

It’s all been pretty mellow

so far but we’ve had some good drinking nights with the From Autumn

To Ashes boys. Tonight we plan on hitting the town so hopefully

something goes down, ha ha.

Now that you’ve had almost

12 months to digest “Threads Of Life” how do you think it compares

to previous Shadows records?

From a production and song writing

standpoint it’s our best effort. We just try and push everything forward

on every album, you know? We’re always learning more as musicians

so we just wanted to write a cohesive album, and it feels like we did

that.

Seeing the live response is the

final testing ground really, and we’ve been tour for a year now so

we can see that the songs are really hitting it. The other great thing

is seeing the songs evolve after a year… you know? You throw

in some cool new guitar tricks and stuff like that, ha ha.

Commercially the album’s

been a great success, what’s the feedback from your fans been like?

Oh man it’s been great. It’s

great just to see kids singing along and knocking each other down during

the new songs, ha ha. We’ve still been playing a lot of older songs

as well because we’ve been together for over ten years, so we have

a lot of material to choose from.

A lot of bands feel obligated

to undergo some massive stylistic change between records, whereas Shadows

Fall has maintained a consistent sound while still improving the song

writing from album to album. Do you guys sit down and discuss what kind

of record you’re going to write or do you just let it flow?

We just let it happen man. We

know what we do well and we go for it. We have such a wide variety of

influences but once you put us all in a room together we are a metal

band. We’ve always played thrash influenced metal so it’s not like

we’re going to throw in calypso parts, ha ha. Still, we don’t want

to write part two of every album either… we want there to be some

progression.

We know what we do best when we

form together. I always compare us to Voltran… we are 5 parts

that form one machine! Ha ha

Awesome comparison, ha ha.

Upon the album’s release you stated that it was simply time to write

some metal and not worry about what other people are doing. Do you feel

there are too many bands out there jumping from sub genre to sub genre

to keep people happy?

It can definitely happen man.

For bands like us, Killswitch Engage and Lamb Of God,

when we first got together there was no agenda for success. If you were

playing metal at that time that was basically a decision to not be successful,

ha ha.

Too many bands see the potential

to sell records and get on tours and that can motivate bands differently

to try things that they maybe aren’t doing for the right reasons.

If you’ve got a business plan before you’ve even written a record

then you’re arse backwards!

We went through the hardships

of releasing our own records and booking our own tours and now that

things have got to the point where we are making a living off our music

and that gives us so much appreciation for every little bit of success

that we have.

Traditionally a band signs

to a major and there’s a cry of sell out from their fans, yet you

guys seemed to avoid that for the most part. Why do you think that is?

I think it’s because we never

listen to those people to begin with, ha ha. On our first demo we had

melodic singing and kids were like “fuck you, you sold out”! It’s

like “what the fuck”!? We just did a demo in our basement, how have

we sold out!? Ha ha.

It never crept into our minds.

We just established ourselves as a band that stuck to our guns and didn’t

compromise.

Kids are too underground for anything

these days. If it’s not on limited colour vinyl and you can buy it

in more than one store in the whole world then it’s not cool enough,

ha ha. If you think about other people’s thoughts then you start to

second guess yourself and hold back… and we’re too selfish and bitter

to do that, ha ha.

Have you started throwing around

any ideas for your next release?

We’ll be finishing this touring

cycle in summer and then we can think about writing again. There may

have been a riff here or there that we recorded really quickly but we’ve

been in full tour mode. Once that finished this summer we can buckle

down and write.

December of last year marked

the second time Shadows Fall has been nominated for a Grammy. I know

Tim from As I Lay Dying had a lot to say about the validity of the awards

and how un-important they were to him, but what are your thoughts on

being nominated?

It was cool to be nominated honestly.

I didn’t put a lot of stock in it but it was cool nonetheless. I’ve

never really watched them before but it’s cool to have the industry

recognizing actual metal. I remember the first year Jethro Tull

beat Metallica! Now to see King Diamond nominated it’s

actual metal… so it’s really cool.

At the end of the day I got a

free trip to LA and got to party with some friends. Machine Head

were all there and As I Lay Dying was there except for Tim.

I was more thinking it was a good party with some hot celebrities and

some free drinks, ha ha… bring it on! I didn’t expect us to win

so I was just like “where’s the buffet”!? ha ha

What touring plans have you

got once you’re finished in Australia?

We have a one off headlining date

in Korea and then we’re hitting Japan with Arch Enemy and then

we’re going to the Philippines for the first time. After that we’re

setting up some shows in the US which is focusing on the cities that

we haven’t been to this year… the smaller towns I guess. They are

usually the most fun anyway because the kids are starved for live music.

It’s usually insane! Canberra

was like that last night! Kids were just going off! So we’re putting

together a bill for that and then we’ll hit Europe for some festivals

and decide whether or not to do another tour or hit the studio.

Any idea of when we’ll be

seeing another headlining run down here so we can hear some longer Shadows

sets?

Hopefully soon but I doubt we’ll

have time to do it on this album. We’ll finish the next record I think

and then do a headlining tour. Festivals are great but you’ve got

to trim it down… ten years of material into thirty five minutes is

hard, although it’s better than the twenty minute sets we get at Ozzfest, ha ha.

Hopefully next year though. This

has been our second time here and it’s been great so we can’t wait

to get back again!

Having spent most of 2007 on

the road are there any new bands that you heard or saw that think people

should be checking out?

This one band, The Showdown

from Tennessee! They are heavy, grooved out metal and they’re really

cool. We also did some shows with Skeleton Witch who are this

blackened, old school thrash band. They are two that stood out this

year.

We toured with a lot of bands

that people probably already know. Divine Heresy is another band

who is getting their name out there now but we took them on their first

tour.

If you could assemble you’re

dream tour, with any bands (dead or alive), who would

you have on it and why?

I’d want to tour with Zeppelin

if Bonham could get behind the kit. We’d stand out but I don’t

care, ha ha.

The only big thrash band that

we’ve never played with is Metallica. We’ve played with Megadeth, Testament, Anthrax, Death Angel but not Metallica! We played a festival with them but we were

three stages away so it doesn’t really count, ha ha. If James

is out there and listening then please make it happen! Ha ha

We’ll spread the word man,

ha ha.

Awesome! Make it happen! Ha ha

That’s all we’ve got time

for Brian, is there anything else you’d to say?

We’re just stoked to be back

here and once the new record is done we’ll be back for a headlining

tour!

Thanks to everyone for their support

and for making this happen and thank you for your time man and for spreading