Saturday 28 January 2012

Dead and Divine - Interview with Chris LeMasters


A couple of weeks ago I posted about the two UK tours that Dead and Divine are about embark on. Here's an interview with Dead and Divine guitarist Chris LeMasters, where I asked him about the tours and the reception they've had so far to their album "Antimacy".


Are you looking forward to coming to the UK to play with Heart in Hand?

Absolutely. We love the UK and we've heard a lot of great things about Heart In Hand. They seem like great guys so this tour should be a blast. We've missed everyone over there!

Once you've finished that tour your going straight into a run of dates with Norma Jean and The Chariot. How did that come about?

We were actually in Hollywood at the infamous Amoeba Records when we heard that we got that tour. Our pals in Stray From The Path were originally on those dates, but they ran into some upside-down-van troubles so they had to drop due to financial reasons. We were next in line, so when Stray left we got a phone call asking if we'd like to replace them. We're really close with the guys in The Chariot and Norma Jean is awesome, so naturally we said yes.

How has the reaction been towards your latest record "Antimacy"?
  
The reaction has been great, actually. We were a bit worried because we definitely wrote a heavier record this time around. On previous albums we've always had a couple mellow songs, but for whatever reason we broke that formula on Antimacy. It's definitely faster and more aggressive, so we were curious to see how our fans would react to it. Luckily they dug it!

Do you have any weird tour stories you can share?

Good lord, there's too many. People pooping their pants, dildos, peeing, throwing up, losing a LOT of money in Vegas, etc. It's endless, really. Things our mothers will never hear about.

What do you think about the state of metal at the moment?

I can't say we're too in touch with the metal scene these days, but Mastodon exists so I think that's a huge plus. 

What are your plans for the rest of 2012?

Well we're playing a few shows at home before we leave for the UK/Europe. We're there until March 24th, and then it's looking like we might be heading back down to the US for a while. After that we'll be back in Canada for summer festivals, and we're planning our next Canadian headline for August. Oh, and we're working on getting to Japan and Australia later in the year, so hopefully that works out. Aside from touring, we'll probably start writing a new record in the fall/winter. 

What bands have you been listening to lately?

We listen to a lot of different music, it's bizarre. Some of the records that have been constantly playing in our van include:

Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
Mastodon - The Hunter
Coldplay - Mylo Xyoloto
Anything by John Mayer
Converge - Axe To Fall
Deftones - Around The Fur and Diamond Eyes
Crosses - EP
Glassjaw - Coloring Book EP and Vinyl Singles
Weezer - Blue Album and Pinkerton 

Are you still in touch with your local scene in Canada? If so, what bands do you recommend we check out?

Not as much as we'd like to be, unfortunately. I haven't been keeping up with new/local bands, but I really should. The only band I can think of is Sights & Sounds, but I wouldn't consider them a local band by any means. They're just awesome. Harlan Pepper is a really cool band out of Hamilton. They're doing lots of cool stuff, so you should definitely check them out.

So there you have it! Remember, you can keep up to date with everything that Dead and Divine are doing and find out more about their forthcoming UK dates on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/deadanddivine.




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