With a rapidly increasing profile in the US and Europe, Still Remains are here to show Australian audiences what the fuss is all about. In between Soundwave appearances, vocalist TJ Miller answered the following questions for us…
With a rapidly increasing profile in the US and Europe, Still Remains are here to show Australian audiences what the fuss is all about.
In between Soundwave appearances, vocalist TJ Miller answered the following questions for us…
Interview w/ TJ Miller (Vocals)
of Still Remains (USA)
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By Cameron Chambers
Hey TJ, how are you today?
Yeah, I’m alright man, yourself?
I’m good mate.
How’s your first visit down under treating you?
Very well thank you!
As well as Soundwave you’ve
also been included on the As I Lay Dying sideshows. How did you guys
go last night in Melbourne?
They’ve been great… last night
was off the hook.
How do the Australian
crowds compare to audiences back home?
They’ve definitely been a bit
different, especially for the club shows. The club shows haven’t been
sold out though so that could be why. We haven’t actually played any
of the Soundwave dates yet.
What caused that?
A lot of stupid airline bullshit!
We were help up in Chicago and one of our flights landed late and it
screwed everything up. Some of our luggage was lost and actually destroyed
and then we all got food poisoning.
We’ve been through hell to get
here and we’ve missed those two shows but we’re just stoked to be
here now.
Are there any
bands on the festival that you’ve been excited to watch as a fan?
We’re really good friends with Envy On The Coast and I’m a legitimate big fan of their music,
so I’m looking forward to seeing them. Saosin are another one…
they are my number one band to see!
A lot of bands start out with
modest goals. When you guys first got together did you ever think a
world tour was a possibility?
No way dude, ha ha. Not when you’re
sitting in our guitarist’s, parent’s basement writing songs. You’re
just goofing around in your home town. You always dream and hope for
something like that but it’s not a reality.
The band’s sound has become
more melodic over the last couple of years, have you been able to retain
your original fan base?
I honestly couldn’t tell you…
I really don’t know. We’ve had some great success internationally
with the new album, which is heavier in places but more melodic as well.
We still play a lot of shows and there are more kids than ever coming
out and singing along.
Steve Evetts oversaw the recording
of “The Serpent”. What made you want to work with him?
Steve Evetts brings out a band’s natural sound and he’s able to capture that
on record. He’s done a lot… he’s done all of The Dillinger
Escape Plan’s stuff, he did the Satisfaction… record
for Hatebreed and the latest Story Of The Year album as well, so he works all over the musical spectrum.
He really captures an almost live
sound and I really wanted to do a record where it actually sounded like
us. I think The Serpent really sounds similar to us live.
As you said,Steve has
a great track record of bringing out the best in bands. Do you think
“The Serpent” would have turned out the way it did if you’d worked
with someone else?
I’m not sure. I hadn’t really
thought about that. It definitely would’ve been different and I’m
sure more effects would have been used, more studio tricks and things
like that. A lot of things with Steve… he doesn’t use auto
tune so he challenges you to play really solidly and sing right on.
He’s like a coach and that’s what this band needed.
Following the release of
“The Serpent” (sophomore album) Still Remains took part in the 2007
Vans Warped Tour. Were you surprised that the crowds were so receptive
to a heavier sounding band?
Yeah definitely! One thing that
did help was having bands like Killswitch Engage and As I
Lay Dying playing as well, so we lucked out.
Has the changes to your sound
been influenced by the large number of members the band has been through,
or is this something you’ve always been working towards?
You know what? Every band goes
through members. We’ve gone through members and there are bands that
are way more successful than we are who’ve gone through even more
members than we have.
The core still exists and is on
fire, so the same people that wrote the songs when we started are still
here and still writing songs. It hasn’t played a huge difference.
Even if it was still the original line up the band definitely would
have evolved.
Bands such as yourselves and
Aiden have had a lot of success in the UK. Why do you
think kids over there respond so well to this style of music?
Kids over there like music in
general. They’re more legitimately excited and more appreciative than
the fans in the States, and I’m not trying to offend the kids in the
States, but there are so many bands in the US! So when a band gets a
chance to go abroad and play to fans that aren’t as used to seeing
so many bands, they just respect it a lot more.
Once you finish up in Australia,
what have you guys got planned?
We go home for about a week and
then we go to Central America for four days with Haste The Day.
Then we go home for a week before embarking on our headlining tour for The Serpent in the US.
Who else is going to be involved
with that?
Gwen Stacy will be the
main support and then there’s Secret And
Whisper who are a new Tooth And Nail band and then you’ll
have Catherine who are on Rise Records opening up.
What’s been your most memorable
Still Remains show to date?
Probably in Japan at the Loud
Park festival… that was a good one. We played for twenty two and
a half thousand people and it was just incredible! Being in Japan is
a surreal experience in itself… its other worldly.
What were your top 3 records
of 2007?
This is normally easy for me and
I’ve got my manager sitting here mocking me coz he knows what I’m
going to say, ha ha.
The last Queens Of The Stone
Age record was my favourite from last year but I’m trying to think
of others. The HIM record was absolutely incredible… it was
such a different spin for the band! Lastly, Nine Inch Nails with The Year Zero.
If Still Remains could take
any 3 bands on tour, who would it be and why?
Iron Maiden because they’d
be a great support band for us… just kidding. Any three bands on tour?
Let’s see… I’m not good at these, ha ha.
We’d take Trivium out…
just kidding. Like I said earlier, I’m really stoked on Envy OnThe Coast. They have an incredible amount of talent and we were
actually thinking of having them on our headlining tour but it didn’t
work… but having them would be incredible.
It’d be cool to tour with The Acacia Strain. They are my favourite hardcore band. I’m not
really into a lot of really heavy music but I think they’re really
great. Who else? We’d like to go on tour with Comeback Kid
because they put on a great show every night! They’ve got so much
energy!
That wraps it up TJ, any shout
outs or plugs you want to get out there?
Nope, ha ha
Awesome, thanks for your time.
For more info check out www.stillremains.com or www.myspace.com/stillremains