PAUL: Hi, please can you introduce yourself to our readers!
BRANDON: My name is Brandon, and I play drums. the other members are adam on guitar and vocals, mike on bass, and dave on vocals.
PAUL: Can I please have a brief history of how Fear Before The March of Flames came to be a band?
BRANDON: We were in various local bands in Aurora, Colorado since the beginning of high school and after a while we all had gotten sick of the bands we were in and it kinda just happened. I think this was the 1st band we were in that we all felt like we could do whatever we want with our music. We obviously are influenced by the metal/hardcore genres, but we are TRYING at least to make it interesting for ourselves.
PAUL: Is there an interesting story or meaning behind the band name or is it something you chose simply because it sounds good?
BRANDON: Back when we started the band we couldn’t think of a name for a while. A bunch of us were hanging out with our friends the summer we started playing and one of them was reading a newspaper and found it in there. It was just an artical headline for a story on the wildfires that were supposedly going to make it to Denver and destroy the city. We thought it sounded fitting for what we were trying to do, AND we had booked our first show and they needed to know our name for the flyers.
PAUL: You are from Colorado, what is the scene like out there and are there any local bands that you recommend we check out?
BRANDON: The local scene is pretty typical I’ve found. There are the subgroups and everyone for the most part has been super cool to the local bands. If you want to hear whats going on in Denver, check out Fallen Stars Forgotten, Lenore, yuriko, & Evanstar. All those bands are amazing!
PAUL: I heard that you originally got a deal with Rise Records because Anatomy of a Ghost told them about you? Is that true?
BRANDON: Not really.. Rise signed us because of how we were doing on mp3.com. I think Anatomy just vouched for us. We hadn’t even met them when we had gotten the offer, so I don’t really know how else it could have happened.
PAUL: How did the deal with Equal Vision come about?
BRANDON: We toured with Bear vs. Shark on the east coast in September of 2003 and EVR came out to a few shows to see them. We got to know some of them and they were all really cool to us. Upon finding out we weren’t obligated to do any more records at Rise, they offered themselves to us as our new home. Being HUGE fans of almost everything they have put out and just having what we were looking for in a label we signed in December 2003.
PAUL: Why have you decided to re-release ‘odd how people shake’ rather than record a new record?
BRANDON: We’re doing both! “Odd how people shake” is being re-released with new packaging and video content on April 6, and our new record will hopefully be out in the fall!!!
PAUL: Will there be any changes to the Equal Vision release, such as new songs or changes to the artwork?
BRANDON: It’s pretty much going to be the same except the case its in and it will have a video or two on it.
PAUL: Speaking of the artwork, who designed it? Is it linked in any way to the events of Sep 11?
BRANDON: I designed it while we were recording the record. There is no connection to anything that has happened. I just wanted to show my representation of the idea that you can stress your whole life or you can enjoy it. It’s an extreme representation I guess.
PAUL: How does the songwriting process work? Who writes the lyrics and who comes up with the music itself?
BRANDON: Adam and Dave write the lyrics and Adam and I write the music. we just write parts and then bring them together at practice.. I think our practice habits are pretty common, but we have a lot of fun writing.
PAUL: How long do you think labels, and in particular majors, can continue to push the post-hardcore genre before it implodes, a bit like nu-metal did a few years ago?
BRANDON: I think that this huge craze now with signing “posthardcore” SOUNDING bands that are really just pop bands in disguise will end soon. So many bands now are just cookie cutter copies of one another and eventually kids will start getting tired of it and search for bands that are actually challenging themselves, and the limits of their genre. We sincerely want to be a part of that.
PAUL: There seems to be movie references contained within the record, is this deliberate? Are you all big movie buffs?
BRANDON: Yeah.. I think we tend to stick the refrences in there in hopes that anyone who figures out what we are talking about either has seen the movie before can relate on that level, OR they haven’t seen the movie before and hopefully will check them out.
PAUL: What happened in Vegas to inspire ‘What Happens In Vegas Stays In Vegas’?
BRANDON: I don’t know.. I think a prostitute gave Dave an STD or something. A dirty, horrible, gross STD.
PAUL: Do you have any plans to come and visit us in the UK?
BRANDON: Not immediate plans, but we would love to as soon as possible.
PAUL: What other plans do you have for 2004?
BRANDON: Tour, re-release old record, tour, tour, release new record, sleep, tour.
http://www.marchofflames.com/