KILLSWITCH ENGAGE INTERVIEW
October 2002


Ed Martin for Prophecy21.com: Who we're some of your musical influences growing up?
Mike D'Antonio Bassist for Killswitch Engage: I started off listenin to a lot of punk rock, a lot of Misfits and Samhain and uhÉ. Gangrene, SOD, Circle Jerks stuff like that. And progressively moved towards Metallica and heavier metal stuff. And I dunno a lot of New York Hardcore that was more in the metal vein Cro-Mags, Bad Brains stuff like that.

P21: What have you been listening to lately?
MD: I've been listening to a lot more gothic sort of metal, Theatre Tragedy, Hymn, and My Dying Bride stuff like that. I just get into weird moods where I just listen to one certain genre and then late I move onto the next one. The stuff I constantly listen to is like Soilwork and In Flames.

P21: How have fans been reacting to Howard so far on this tour?
MD: They've been loving it. Everyone tells our show has definitely moved up a couple notches. Howard's a great front man he gets in peoples faces and really knows how to turn the crowd on, as well as he can stay in key the whole time and we never have to worry bout anything that goes on so we're really really excited everyone's very very happy.

P21: How was putting out the album for Roadrunner a different experience from putting out the album for Ferret?
MD: Well, you know Ferret was an indie label run by one person and Roadrunner is a corporation. So, I mean there were major differences as far as money, and recording budgets, and the amount of time we could spend recording the records, the amount of time we could spend writing our record, and obviously like distribution and all that other stuff that comes along with a bigger label. With Roadrunner we were able to get in the studio and write what we needed to write and not have any intervention with anybody, which was really cool, we were a little worried about that. We were able to spend as much time in the studio as we needed to get things the right way. We were really able to take our time and get all the sounds out of instruments that we needed to get the right way. When we recorded the Ferret record we went in there with a shoestring budget, and we would record a lot from 11 PM until 7 AM, because that's when the studio executives weren't in the office and we could sneak in and get free time so we were doing a lot of crazy overnight stuff just to kinda save money here and there.

P21: How did you guys come up with the name?
MD: I came up with it. Whenever I watch TV shows or listen to audio or watch movies or anything I always pick up certain words and stuff like that. And I happened to be watching the X-Files and I heard something about a killswitch and I thought Hey that's kind of a cool word and then I just came up with the engage part because I thought just killswitch was a little too generic. But, no one in the band liked the name at all. They hated it they thought it was stupid (laughing). So, I felt really embarrassed after I asked them if they liked the name, but then I showed 'em the logo and they were like ÒOh okay, I get it now.Ó So, everyone was cool with it after they saw the logo.

P21: What bands would you most like to tour with?
MD: Well we really wanna go on tour with In Flames and that's happenin next month. I would love to maybe go on tour with Slayer, Pantera, any of the big metal bands. I feel like we can hold our own.

P21: What have been some of the favorite bands that you've toured with so far?
MD: Soilwork definitely, we got along with them really really well. Just drinkin with them every night and hangin out they became really good friends of ours; we still keep in touch a lot. I'd have to say they're a favorite at this point. Just really cool guys.

P21: What have been some of the more memorable shows for you and where are your favorite places to play?
MD: Memorable shows are really just the ones with a lot of crowd participation. If the kids are really getting into it, if there are five pits that's a fucking good show. Chicago is good; Jersey's always great, our hometown in Massachusetts either Springfield or Worcester have always been extremely cool. We've always had great shows in California. Things are definitely building and that's great we're really excited about that.

P21: If you were gonna play a cover song what would you like it to be?
MD: Hmmm, I wanted to do Heartbreaker by Pat Benatar for this record, but we didn't get around to actually practicing it. Maybe next time.

P21: When do you plan on starting work on the next album?
MD: Well we've got the In Flames tour coming up. Then we have the Roadrunner Road Rage tour in Europe afterwards for a month and a half. So we'll be back in like mid-December and we're thinking January or February we'll start writing and maybe see if we can get a couple songs recorded. Maybe do like an EP or something really fast with maybe, like a DVD portion or videos depending on how many we have at that point. Then take it from there. But, I think its really important we get something out so people can see how good Howard is and understand that we're not going anywhere. We're fucking rock you know.

P21: How do you think that Howard doing writing this time around is gonna change the sound of the band?
MD: I feel like its going to make it better, definitely going to take us up a few notches. I think he is really great he's everything we ever could've hoped for I feel like its really gonna show through on the new stuff. I'm not quite sure how its gonna be cause we haven't done anything new with him yet, but we have very high hopes.

P21: Thanks for taking the time to do this is there anything else you'd like to add?
MD: I guess that if you have any questions about Killswitch or tour schedules or anything everything is on www.killswitchengage.com I update it personally, so usually I update it weekly or monthly. But, everything is there if were not gonna make it to a show or any other problems just go to the site and check it out its all there.

P21: Alright great thank you again.
MD: Thank you too.