CHIMAIRA VOCALIST MARK HUNTER: THE METALSUCKS INTERVIEW

Few bands in modern metal are as exciting as Chimaira. That’s because few bands constantly undergo such a dramatic and undeniable evolutions from album to album – and do so with a bare minimum of line-up changes. From their 2000 self-released debut, This Present Darkness, right up to 2007’s Resurrection, Chimaira have never made the same album twice. Elements of thrash, death, groove, black, and even prog metal and punk abound, and, ultimately, the only thing you ever know for sure about a new Chimaira album is this: it’s gonna be heavy as a motherfucker, and just as catchy.

As the band – which includes guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick, and keyboardist/sampler Chris Spicuzza – anticipates the April 21 release of their sixth album, The Infection, we were lucky enough to snag an exclusive e-mail interview with vocalist Mark Hunter. After the jump, read Mark’s thoughts on the group’s latest offering, the ongoing metamorphosis of their sound, reuniting with longtime producer Ben Schigel, the internet as a marketing tool, the state of his pure hatred, and more.

Your new album is called The Infection. Who or what is infected?

The title has a couple of meanings. Globally, we feel the album is very catchy and “infectious.” Personally, it reflects a period in my life where I felt I was “infected” with way too much negativity. Yes, even I have my limits. Lastly, it’s a great name to do fun marketing things with. We can have fun with our fans anticipating the release. We are just as excited as they are, that’s for sure.

Whereas with some bands you could take pretty much any ten songs from their discography and shuffle them around, each Chimaira album seems distinct from the last; while it always sounds like Chimaira, there’s a very tangible evolution in sound from record to record, so that, say, a song from the self-titled album would seem completely out of place on The Impossibility of Reason. Do you feel like this evolution has continued on The Infection? And, if so, how?

Without question this album is a departure from Resurrection. Certain bands have a way of putting out albums that are very familiar sounding to their previous. It’s like hip-hop, you know what you are going to get. That’s fine, and there is nothing wrong with that. We are not one of those bands. We like to raise the bar and challenge ourselves to think outside of the box all the time. We’ve never been limited as to where we draw influence from. We are six guys who have way different musical tastes and Chimaira’s sound is a derivative of that.

I guess noticeable differences on this album would be the tempo. Without giving too much away, we have slowed down a bit. There are moments on this album that are speedy blast beat fun, but there are also moments where it’s so slow you feel like you are drowning in quicksand and LaMarca is sitting on top of you. Now THAT’s heavy.

Has this musical evolution over the years been deliberate? Do you guys approach each album with a distinct vision – e.g., “This time we wanna make really long songs,” “This time we want the music to be a little more melodic,” whatever?

Besides the obvious of trying to top our previous efforts, we don’t really approach our albums with any specific goal. I can’t imagine being in a band where dudes walk in and go “hey man, let’s make our heaviest, yet most melodic album to date.” That mentality is about as stale as the artists that say it. We don’t know what is going to come out until it’s done. Plain and simple.

After working with Jason Suecof on Resurrection, why did the band decide to reunite with producer Ben Schigel for this album?

It started with me watching our DVD, The Dehumanizing Process. I got nostalgic and wanted to work with him again. I brought up the idea of working with him again and no one disagreed. He knows the band so well and has been recording us in various bands for half of our lives. It was good to break away and gain new experience working with Jason Suecof, but, home is where the heart is I guess.

Can you tell us a little about spread-the-infection.com – how it works, how the idea came about, etc. I know you’re a big Nine Inch Nails fan; did Trent Reznor’s viral campaign for Year Zero inspire you at all?

We’ve never had an official Chimaira street team, and a lot of our fans are always curious about how they can help promote the band. We thought of reinventing the idea of the street team and those that are interested in helping us are rewarded. Meaning, in the past, if you were on a street team, you were happy with just promoting the band. We are actually giving little sound and video clips to those who participate. Sure these things will get online, which is part of the point, but our “team” hear and see them first. Plus we can actually see what fans are doing by posting photos they send us. It’s really awesome how we can look at our map and see people from all corners of the earth hanging up fliers for our band.

Yes, I am a huge NIN fan, so of course some of his ideas influence us. Any smart band out there will watch and learn from Trent. Like Trent and other artists, I am one of those that believes CDs won’t exist within the next couple of years. We all have to adapt to the internet and what it has to offer. Luckily, we’ve been very active with internet marketing since 1998. Many people might not know, but when the Napster war was happening, we realized we could use Napster as a tool for people to hear our music all over the world. With the help of our guerilla internet marketing, we got signed. Things really haven’t changed much, we just keep looking for the next cool idea and we embrace technology.

Speaking of physical CDs: Every Chimaira album since Pass Out of Existence has had the same design on the CD, and then been a different color: Pass was blue, The Impossibility of Reason was red, Chimaira was black, etc. What color will the new CD be? Or are you guys breaking with tradition this time?

Well we don’t want to give too much away, but don’t expect us to break the tradition.I love having them laid all out, it just looks cool. The only problem is we are running out of colors!

You’ve announced that Todd Bell is doing another behind-the-scenes DVD for this album. Who the hell is Todd Bell, and where did you find him? Do you have any regrets about how much you allowed him to show on The Dehumanizing Process DVD? Why isn’t there a law that every band has to hire this dude to do their DVDs?

Todd is an old high school friend. Besides our stuff, he works on a lot of different types of commercials and he makes films for FOX motocross racing. We work with him because he knows the band inside and out. We grew up with this dude, went to the same high school. If anyone is going to make us look real, it’s him.

I have no regrets about what we let our fans see. I would sit and talk about anything considered “taboo” in the industry. I have nothing to hide. Chimaira were represented 100% accurately. We were a young, hungry, naive, and negative band with a ton of hurdles in front of us. We are still that same band, just a little more optimistic.

Of course I expect everyone to check out the new DVD that documents the making of this album. It was shot in HD and looks incredible! Todd will also be following us around the world in 2009, and again, in HD. I’m not sure, but I think we are the first metal band to shoot in this format. I feel there are some band DVD’s that try to be like his/ours, but they will never be as good, until they get Todd.

The inner-band drama that plagued Chimaira throughout the Impossibility and self-titled album cycles has been well documented; on the Resurrection DVD, though, it really does seem like everyone is having a good time and is in a good mood. Do you feel like Chimaira are still in a positive head space? Or do you get to the studio every day thinking “I wonder if Spicuzza is gonna quit today or if Rob and Matt will finally kill Jim” or whatever?

The band morale is at an all time high. During the Resurrection DVD we were happy, but we were also in a rebuilding phase. I think fans will notice we are even happier now. There is no drama. It’s weird. Everything is going well, so that means it should be a matter of days before someone loses their arm or something.

Once you’ve fulfilled every metal band’s dream of touring with Disturbed, is there really anything left for Chimaira to accomplish?

There is so much more left. We still need to share the stage with Metallica. There are still countries and cities we need to play. This is only the second act as far as I’m concerned.

Does Andols still spend hours on every touring wandering parking lots?

No, now he sits by himself in the back lounge reading bodybuilding magazines.

Multiple choice question. We think the song “Six” is a masterpiece. Back when we interviewed Rob, he couldn’t tell us why the song has that particular title. Is it because…

a) There are six members of the band, all of whom contributed to the song.
b) You honestly didn’t think it would be only the fourth song on the album.
c) It is the first in a planned trilogy of songs called “Six,” which, when played back to back, will summon Satan.
d) The “she” the lyrics refer to is actually Jenna von Oÿ’s character from the television show Blossom.

e) All of the above.

Does Jim LaMarca still live with his parents? Can’t you guys at least get him like a tent or something?

He finally moved out and is now engaged. Boy how times have changed. It seems like just yesterday he was nailing some 450-pound pig in the back lounge.

No one seems to have heard from Ricky Evansand since he was let go from Chimaira. Did you dudes, like, kill him and leave him in a ditch by the side of the road or something?

To be honest, I haven’t heard his name mentioned anywhere. We really tried our best to make things work, we were just totally different people. I wish him the best and I still think he is one of the best drummers out there. if I were to ever do a solo record, I’d probably consider him.

Have you ever thought about challenging the group Chimaera to a battle of the bands, and the winner gets to keep the name?

So stupid. It’d be like us starting a band today and calling ourselves “Job for a Brokeback,” I guess you can’t fault them for sticking to their guns. I’m sure all 40 of their fans are stoked about that. I just hate when I hear they play a concert and somebody goes and thinks they are seeing us. Maybe that’s why we aren’t platinum yet.

We know you study martial arts. How quickly are you gonna kill me for asking these smart ass questions?

I don’t train to be a hard ass. I train so I don’t have to fight. Just like Bruce Leroy.

Do you still hate everyone? Even us?

Yes, and yes.

-AR

Chimaira fans: don’t forget to check out our Rob Arnold interview, too!