No Half Speed with Miles Dimitri Baker of Rings of Saturn

Interview By: George Archibald:

Technical Death Metal Band Rings of Saturn are currently on tour with Thy Art Is Murder, Fit For An Autopsy, and Dark Sermon on the Coffin Dragger Tour. The band has been rebuilding their reputation ever since the allegations of not being able to play their CD material live at full speed. As of December 26, 2015 the band fired back in an answer of hiring guitar player Miles Dimitri Baker. A very talented virtuoso who at the time was working with the band Aenimus, and also Interloper which included ROS’s founder and guitar player Lucas Mann. I had a chance to talk to Miles at the Erie tour date about several topics. This is that interview.

GA: I have Miles Dimitri Baker of Rings of Saturn here. If its ok I’m going to try to go through a bit of your history. In the beginning, what got you interested in being a musician? What were your influences?

MDB: A buddy of mine had a guitar when were younger, it was when I was 10 years old. I would noodle on it from time to time, till the time I wanted to get one of my own. That happened, I got more into music and I did lessons here and there up until I was 15 or 16. Then I started doing lessons all the time. I would attend them during school and even privately, like 7 days a week. I started getting really into Children of Bodom, that was the turning point to where I realized that’s what I want to do. Bodom started opening a lot of interests for me.

GA: Very cool, I know one of the bands that got me started playing was Cannibal Corpse back in the day. OK Aenimus, how did you hook up with those guys and start off with them.

MDB: A lot of the things I’ve done musically is right after Aaron (Stechauner) got into it. He did a little run with them in my senior year of high school. He did a short tour with the band but didn’t end up joining them, he decided to move to Florida to join Ambiotic. Aenimus’s guitar player Brian James left then joined Fallujah, I ended up joining after that. I did a little audition for them, then after I graduated from school I joined them on tour a month later.

GA: The guitar work on that album (Aenimus – Transcend Reality) is amazing!

MDB: Actually that album was written before me. That was Brian (James) and Sean (Swafford) that wrote that.

GA: That’s a cool tidbit. Ok Rings of Saturn, Interloper, which came first with you? Were You working on Interloper first before Rings of Saturn? Or was Rings kind of an option while you were working on Interloper?

MDB: I started Interloper with Aaron (Stechauner) before it was known as Interloper when we were like 17. Red Letter Day I wrote when I was 17, and I then I wrote Absolution around the same time with a few other tunes. I was doing that before ROS, it was a little project that Aaron and I started after another project named Mirrored together with another guy named Dylan Furr. If you have heard of him he is really good at guitar and is a buddy of ours. Interloper has been in the works for a long time, but it became Interloper before I joined Rings. I was doing it for a few months, I think I released Red Letter Day in like October and I joined into Rings right before Christmas. So it was before and has been in the works a lot longer than everyone thinks.

GA: So is that how you ended up hooking up with Lucas Mann?

MDB: Lucas wanted to end up doing Interloper with me, I knew Lucas from a previous time. He came and stayed at my dad’s apartment for the Mitch Lucker memorial show. I just stayed in touch with him after. He liked my guitar playing, and when Joel (Omans) quit Rings, it was between Dylan (Furr) and I. We both auditioned, and I ended up getting the spot.

GA: That’s really cool that they brought in. You are a very talented guy. So I’ve  got to ask the Clock video for Godless Times, that thing was awesome by the way, was that kind of a in your face we play this material at speed there is no half speed here type thing?

MDB: Yea, Lucas went and bought 10 clocks, and brought them down to my house. We set them all up in my room, taping them to the walls and started recording.

GA: I respect bands that have balls like that (both of us laughing)

MDB: Yea..Yea.. I mean there’s been such a big thing about playing half speed and this or that. Regardless what happens in the studio we play it live, we pull it off live. I’ve done a ton of videos to show otherwise, direct audio and raw audio. So yea the clock video was just to poking fun. It’s become a hype thing with Rings.

GA: What are your thoughts on touring? Do You enjoy touring? Any bands you enjoy on this tour or even on past tours you have played with?

MDB: We did the Faceless tour with After the Burial, and The Faceless is a band I listen to. Thy Art is really cool, a bunch of really cool dudes. Dark Sermon is really cool as well. I’m enjoying the tour all the bands are really cool all the dudes are really sick. I like it but it’s tough being away from home, especially this tour because we have this tour, then we have our headliner tour one day after this tour ends. Then we have another tour afterward being direct support for Winds of Plague. So being gone 10 and a half weeks is tough. I would like to be touring in a band wagon or something like that. It would make it a little easier especially for the longer tours, because we drive ourselves. We are on day 25 now.

GA: Did Aaron(Stechauner) ever fully recoup from his ear monitors and laptop being stolen?

MDB: There was actually a lot more stuff that was stolen from his bag. A lot of friends and fans donated to help and were very supporting. It was close to what he lost which was really cool. A friend of ours Mike Levine from Exotype set up the Gofundme page which was really cool he set that up.

GA: Do you have any stops on this tour?

MDB: I like a lot of the cities this tour. Erie is really cool. I got to walk around and it looks super cool, kind of having a Silent Hill vibe. (It was super foggy in Erie this day, I chime in to say, yea we get the lake effect up here and it does crazy things with the weather.) I love going through Texas, I have a lot of friends down there. There’s a ton of places I like. it would take forever for me to list them all from this tour.

GA: What do you like to listen to while you are on tour?

MDB: I listened to a lot of Paris in the beginning of the tour, they are like a newer band. Just did a direct support with Fall Out Boy and are getting huge. I’ve been listening to a lot of Children of Bodom. I listened to 5 of their albums in one day while driving. Nightwish a little bit. I’ve been listening to this band New Years Day, they are really cool, they are definitely a sick band. Umm… Wintersun a bit, let me think what else is on my phone. Bon Jovi a bit, and some other stuff.

GA: Let me ask about Miles the teacher, are you still doing lessons?

MDB: Currently I am not. When I get back from tour I am going to be really busy. We have a new album to write, and we have a few tours coming up. I did lessons when we had a lot of down time. When we returned from Europe I planned on picking up on lessons but I got bronchitis, and I was sick for a month and a half. My ribs are still hurting from it. I think I may of pulled muscles or something and this is three months later. Currently I am not doing lessons, but I will be at some point in the future.

GA: Possibly teaching again then?

MDB: I like seeing people progress like Charlie Charpentier.

GA: I was about to bring him up? The User Lives, that piece of music he put together is amazing!

MDB: Yea.. He and I did lessons between 6 to 8 months. I taught him a ton of stuff. I think a lot of the tapping influences because some of the stuff I taught him, not like I did for him but we talked a lot about those things.

GA: So You kind of honed his game a little then?

MDB: Yea he took a lot of what I taught him and really ran with it. That’s one of the more rewarding things about teaching lessons, is seeing people actually care and do it, focus and really work on it. You get to see the results and its awesome.

GA: Let’s talk on your endorsements. I see you are using the new Schecter guitars, and the new strings this tour.

MDB: Those are Elixers, they are my favorite strings I barely have to change them. I play a lot and I won’t change my strings for about a month, month and a half while at home. They last forever. I don’t get any of the crud on them like when you wipe your hand across the strings after playing for long periods. They stay like brand new which is really cool.

GA: What kind of Schecter guitars are you using?

MDB: Right now I am using a Banshee Elite 8 string with the Hipshot bridge. I fucking love it, its super cool! At home I have another Banshee Elite in the 7 string with a Floyd Rose bridge. The other companies I work with are Semour Duncan. They sent me out some really sick pickups. The Sentient for my neck pickup and the Pegasus for my bridge pickup. Craig Costigan is the artists’ rep and he was so cool to work with he sent me the set of pickups. He got me set up pretty quick was really cool. Same thing with Schecter they are an incredible company to work with. The guitars are just awesome, Anthony and everyone at Schecter have been very accommodating. They are all an awesome group of people to work with, same thing with Elixer and 1964 ears, everyone is just awesome.

GA: That’s very awesome. The album artwork, how do Rings go about commissioning it? You guys have it everywhere, the cds, the merchandise.

MDB: Mark Cooper does all of the art. Embryonic Anomaly was done by someone else, but Dinger and Lugal Ki En were done by Mark. Mark did all of the shirts and most of everything else.

GA: So where do you see the future of Rings of Saturn? Are you guys going to go into writing mode? Or are you still going to keep pushing Lugal Ki En for now?

MDB: Ummm.. I think the Lugal cycle is starting to wind down. We didn’t tour off it for about a year, so that kind of bought us a bit of time. We do have plans to work on a new record once we get home. We also have a new label lined up which we be announced here soon. We are also going keep touring, and grinding.

GA: I appreciate you talking with me. Do you have anything else you want to add?

MDB: Thank you to all the fans for coming out, and treating us awesomely, hosting us at their houses, picking up merchandise, and just being here at shows. It’s just awesome, without all of you we wouldn’t be here. I also just want to shout out to all my family and friends at home, they have been super supportive throughout all of this. Also I want to thank all of my endorsements without you guys as well I wouldn’t be doing this.

You can catch Rings of Saturn and Miles on the Coffin Dragger Tour currently going on now. I want to thank Miles once again for speaking with me and do wish him and the rest of the members of Rings of Saturn a safe journey to wherever they may go in the future.

Coffin Dragger Tour – Thy Art is Murder, Fit For An Autopsy, and Dark Sermon

06 May 2016 Reading, PA, US

07 May 2016 Mr. Small’s Theatre, Millvale, PA, US

09 May 2016 Greene Street Live, Greensboro, NC, US

10 May 2016 Ziggy’s By the Sea, Wilmington, NC, US

11 May 2016 Shakas live, Virginia Beach, VA, US

13 May 2016 Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore, MD, US

14 May 2016 Gamechangerworld, Freehold, NJ, US

15 May 2016 Webster Underground, Hartford, CT, US

16 May 2016 Lost Horizon, Syracuse, NY, US

18 May 2016 Revolution Bar & Music Hall, Amityville, NY, US

19 May 2016 Upstairs at the Palladium, Worcester, MA, US

22 May 2016 Voltage Lounge, Philadelphia, PA, US

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George Archibald

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