All That Remains

This was a phone interview with Phil from All That Remains, and I'm not a fan of phone interviews. I had done one before with Dave Smalley of Dag Nasty (DYS, Down by Law, All) and I was unable to decipher what he said. That was almost three years ago when I was just starting to do stuff for this site before I had taken it over and changed the name. I had avoided doing phone interviews ever since.

This phone interview came to life because there was a mix up during Metal Fest, which prevented an in-person interview. Jensen from Adrenaline PR set up a time when I could do a phone interview, as I abstained from mentioning my previous disdain for phone interviews.

This interview went a lot better than I thought. I made sure to have the microphone of my recorder near the ear of the phone. Unfortunately, this interview is still gonna be a bitch to compose, as I can barely make out Phil's words. I'm typed out what I could hear; some words and sentences were lost in the static. Luckily, the interview was less than five minutes.

PL: State your name and what you do for the band.
ATR: My name is Phil and I sing for All That Remains.

PL: How did you discover that you had a screaming voice?
ATR: To be honest with you, it wasn't even something that I had planned on. I was playing guitar in a band and one day they asked if I could do back ups.

PL: Do you ever fear that you're going to blow out your voice?
ATR: Sometimes. Its not something that I lose a lot of sleep over.

PL: Some bands have certain niches to them, and yours seems to be that you've played in Shadows Fall. How do you feel about that?
ATR: I don't mind it at all. Shadows Fall is a really big band in our genre. I'll ride their coattails for as much as I can.

PL: Do you ever hope to break away from that?
ATR: I think that, as a band, we stand on our own. We don't sound just like Shadows Fall. We have a similar style. There's really no use worrying about it.

PL: Whats worse, a canker sore or a pulled back muscle?
ATR: A pulled back muscle.

PL: Whats the most dangerous or stupidest thing you've ever done?
ATR: Probably driven far drunker than I should have.

PL: Are you going to vote in this upcoming election?
ATR: Yes.

PL: If you wanted to get somebody into metal, what CD (s) would you give them to ween them into it?
ATR: The new Killswitch or something like Carcass. (He gave reasons for each of these bands, but I couldn't make out what they were-I'm sorry-at least I got the names of the bands).

PL: I have your first album, but I don't have your new one because I feel that I don't need another All That Remains album. Convince me otherwise.
ATR: We have two new members and I recommend picking up the new one because it offers a lot more variety with melodic singing and stuff like that. If you're into breakdowns, we have more of that. If you're into solos and stuff like that, there's plenty of that. I'd definitely recommend checking out the new This Blackened Heart as opposed to the old one.

PL: Do you have any final comments?
ATR: Anyone who has picked up the disc, thank you very much. If not, check it out and if you don't like it, give it to a friend.

Interview by: RF
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