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Interview with Mitch Swanger of Silent Theory

Ron

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Empire Extreme is always looking for the next big thing in music. I always like to talk to bands before they hit the big leagues to pick at their minds, and see what’s inside. Empire Extreme talked to drummer Mitch Swanger of the Idaho based band Silent Theory.

Empire: Being a band from Idaho. How’s the music scene where you’re from?

Mitch: It’s not stellar, I’ll be honest. At least not in Moscow where we are from. We are fortunate to have a really cool venue in Lewiston which is 28 miles south of us called the 3rd Wheel that we really enjoy playing. Locally, we mostly play in the Spokane, Washington area, and regionally we will play Seattle and Portland quite a bit. We did just play Idaho Falls (which is south of us) for the first time and had an absolute blast.

Empire: Making the “ Watch  Me Burn” Video, how was that experience?

Mitch: It was an interesting experience. We chose to film it at the end of July in a shop that we had cleared out. I think inside while we were shooting it was about 115 degrees, so in between takes, we’d have to go outside where it was 95 degrees to cool off. You can’t really see it in the video but there was sweat everywhere! We had five projectors hanging on each of us, so during the filming of us in all white, the images that are projecting off of us were things like news stories and video of natural disasters.

Empire: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard of you?

Mitch: This one is always a tough question for me to answer, and I’m not sure why. Musically, I’d say we have a lot of influence from bands like Breaking Benjamin and Evan’s Blue, but Dakota’s vocal style is very similar to 10 Years. We try to be eclectic in our writing and I think you see it reflected in Delusions. One unique feature of us though is Dakota’s insane talent to rap. You can somewhat hear it on Lost Forever and Watch Me Burn, but he’s honestly an incredibly fast rapper. We are hoping to really highlight that on our next album because we’ve always enjoyed the hip-hop/rock fusion.

Empire: What about your band or album “delusions” sets you apart from other bands?

Mitch:  One of the cool things is that each one of us wrote on the album. I feel like in this day of age you’ll see one or two band members write the album, or the band will have songwriters from outside of the band. We wrote all of it ourselves and had collaboration of all five members. As I mentioned before, we also try to be eclectic in our writing. We have live strings in Fragile Minds, piano in Fragile Minds and Watch Me Burn, rapping in Lost Forever and Watch Me Burn, an acoustic ballad with Sever, etc. We are kind of all over the place with the album. Some people critiqued that it was too eclectic but I’m okay with that. I don’t want an album with ten versions of Fragile Minds.

Empire: How’s it like being in a band with so many blood brothers? Is that an advantage or disadvantage?

Mitch: I think it’s a big advantage. With Scott, George and I growing up together playing music, we’ve really gotten a feel for what each person is going to do, some writing music for the three of us comes very naturally. The three of us also tend to vote alike on band issues, so I don’t know if that is an advantage of a disadvantage; depends on who you ask. We are also eachother’s biggest critics and will call it out when something sucks, so we certainly have had our blow ups over the years.

Empire: How was it like playing at the “whiskey a go-go?

Mitch: Amazing! Being obsessed with music history, it was completely nostalgic to be in that venue and on that stage, following so many icons. We were privileged to headline and had a blast.

Empire: Do you guys have any shows you would like to plug or anything else you like to add?

Mitch: Our year is winding down right now so we may have one or two more local shows to close out the year. We are however, scheduled to be back in the studio the first week of January and will record our next single, hoping to release February or March. Late spring we will record the album and have a summer release, which will allow us to push new music for touring/festival season. Please check us out on all the social media outlets, tell your friends about us, and check out our videos for Fragile Minds and Watch Me Burn!

Check out Silent Theory’s Website: http://www.silenttheory.com

 

 

 

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INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE

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Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.

How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.

How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!

If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.

Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.

What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!

If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!

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INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE

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Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?

We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell. 

What’s your favorite horror movie?

That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.

Favorite Non Horror Movie?

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…

What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?

We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything. 

If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?

We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs. 

If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?

The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.

What has been your Favorite Tour so far?

The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.  

You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?

It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters. 

What was it like Touring with Danzig?

Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with. 

How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?

Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.

What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?

We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music. 

Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?

No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan. 

Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?

No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know…  but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”.  Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.

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FIRST JASON: LOVEDRAFTS INTERVIEW

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EMPIRE EXTREME GOT TO SIT DOWN AND TALK TO ARI LEHMAN OF FIRST JASON AND TALK ABOUT STARTING THE CULT OF JASON VORHEES FANS

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