CHIMAIRA INTERVIEW
May 17, 2003

Ed Martin for Prophecy21.com: How's the tour with Lamb of God been going so far?
Jim LaMarca bassist for Chimaira: Awesome, fuckin awesome! Lot of cities over a very short time. Every day has been a fuckin great show.

P21: Whats the difference between those shows and playin a festival like this?
JL: Play in front of more people, play earlier. We're not complainin, just we played kinda early, we had just woke up, we weren't really feeling it. So if it had been a little bit later in the day it prolly woulda been a bit of a better show for us.

P21: How have people been reacting to the new material so far?
JL: We've been getting great responses every night. When it was getting closer to the CD being released there were a lot more people singing along like kids were getting to know the words better. And now that the CD is out shows have been crazy like everyone's been singing along. The response has just been fuckin awesome.

P21: What's your favorite track on the new album?
JL: 12, which is the instrumental, which is called Implements of Destruction.

P21: What happened with the Salt Lake City show?
JL: A lot of kids got turned down because of a previous and prior incident that had happened at a show. A bunch of hardcore kids got pissed off or whatever the fuck they do and they got in a fight with some kids and someone got stabbed or somethin like that. So, they passed a law that made it so the show was an 18 and over show only, so, like 150-200 kids got turned away at the doors for that show because of the fact that some assholes had to ruin it for the other kids. I'm not saying anything bad about those kids I'm sure they had their intentions for doing that, I'm sure someone pissed them off, but you know now all those poor kids out there can't get into shows now. I dunno if maybe it was just that club, but it just sucks ya know, espescially for all those poor kids.

P21: How did you guys decide to do Fascination Street for the Heart of Roadrunner album?
JL: First of all that song was actually for another compilation from like a long time ago. Our old guitarist was asked to pick a cover to do for a Cure tribute record and we did that song and then we actually re-recorded it for the record and then I think someone at Roadrunner chose it to be on the Heart of Roadrunner, probably because its previously unreleased you know.

P21: Are there any plans to re-release This Present Darkness?
JL: Yes, there are plans of it being re-released. When? We don't have any clue when. We're pretty much pushing this record hard right now, so maybe that'll come out after our touring cycle is done.

P21: How did you guys choose Down Again as the song to make a video for?
JL: I think it was a mutual thing between Roadrunner and us it's a pretty strong song and its about as radio friendly as Chimaira can get. That was the song that was picked for that.

P21: How'd the shoot go?
JL: Well, lets say this, we had some very interesting bad luck. We were taking a lunch break and the lights that were under the stage were left on and it burnt out. And I dunno if you've seen the video but there was gauze wrapped around the entire stage and there was some hanging down and the light burnt out and blew and I guess like a little hot piece of that light hit the gauze and it caught it all on fire and the whole set burnt down. After that we got to stay in Los Angeles for three extra days and finish shooting the video but we couldn't use that set anymore since it was all burnt down.

P21: Where are some of your favorite places to play?
JL: Theres a lot, pretty much on this whole tour every where we've played has just been awesome. But, my all time favorite places to play are like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland definitely is the best since its home. I dunno there are a lot of places to play that are great in this country that are great to play I could just go on forever and say just about everywhere we've ever played is great.

P21: Who are some of your influences?
JL: I'd have to say im definitely a big Gene Simmons fan and his stage antics. I kinda do his little thing my own way on the stage. Rex Brown from Pantera and Down, he's fuckin awesome. Jason Newsted hes cool. Michael Anthony from Van Halen, he's a very solid bass player. Ya know, there's a ton of em but those are some of my biggest influences.

P21: What bands have you been listening to lately?
JL: Lately I've been listenin to Radiohead. I dunno really I play more video games. I have X-BOX though so I play the games that I can have my own soundtrack on like I play a lot of Project Gotham. I play more video games then I listen to music while I'm out on tour. When I'm at home I listen to a lot more music. Just anything to relax after a day, ya know I'll listen to like Pink Floyd or Led Zeppelin. Anything that's not too harsh espescially when your traveling. Like you know you play metal all day and then you listen to that to calm down. But then when I hear like Slayer or Hatebreed or somethin like that I'm just like, "Ahh oh yeah." I get all psyched up.

P21: Whats it like being called one of the bands that will bring in the New Wave of American Heavy Metal?
JL: I'd have to say, thank you for feeling that way and hopefully we don't disappoint anybody. And we will get out there every fucking night and bust our fucking asses doing what we do best, playing music.

P21: What's your favorite part of being on the road?
JL: Ya know just hanging out. Now that we have a tour bus it's a lot easier to do things on the road. I can stay up as late as I want wake up whenever and just enjoy it.

P21: Thanks for your time, is there anything you want to add?
JL: To all the kids that are out there my underground followers that have my pictures and are havin a good time with my pictures wait til I get back on the internet I'm coming back after you guys.