the red chord - 8.17.08

The Red Chord's name origin - it was inspired by a play. (By a composer named Berg, the play was called Wozzeck. It's actually kind of like an opera, but the reference in the play refers to "...what is that red c-o-r-d across your throat" and it's like a reference to a slit throat. I didn't like the way that c-o-r-d looked, so somebody wouldn’t lie, we ended up changing it to c-h-o-r-d, so it truly makes the reference completely arbitrary.) Click here for The Red Chord's website.

Chris' interview with Guy Kozowyk from The Red Chord:

 

Chris – Congrats on being part of mayhem tour!  How did you guys get hooked up with that?
Guy-  I don’t know really.  We were going to Europe with Converge during the same time.  Than we got a call telling us that the same people that do warped tour were doing a metal version and wanted us to be a part of it….and here we are.

Chris-  Your video ‘Dread Prevail’ is on Comcast on demand.  That’s a lot heavier than most anything else on there.
Guy-  The majority of the videos have gone to on demand.  They have been really supportive.  Its pretty neat to say we got a video on demand.  Oh, yeah.  I don’t even have comcast on demand.  I have to like see it at someone elses house.  Our band is definitely the oddball.

Chris-  You would think there would be more radio friendly bands, top 40,
Guy- Yeah, its pretty neat.  I have to do some looking for it to find, but its up there.

Chris-  Besides mayhem, I know your doing a one off with Underoath, and The #12 Looks Good on You for an Underoath cd release party.
Guy- We have been doing all of our off date shows with Underoath.  Looks like it’s the Red Chord, Underoath, #12 Looks Good on You in PA tomorrow.

Chris-  What are your touring plans after this?
Guy- We go to Europe on 23rd of September.  Animosity and a few other bands.  We are primarily writing and another tour at the beginning of next year.

Chris- I watched a few of your videos lately (Antman, Black Santa, Fixation on Plastics). It is very  high energy stuff in your videos.  What do you guys do to prepare yourselves before you go on stage?
Guy-  Nothing real specific.  We go stretch a little bit or something.  Nothing really wacky or anything.  A lot of times we are doing something else and than its like oh its time to go on.

Chris- On the video you are nonstop energy.  How long does making the video normally take?
Guy- It takes like 12 hours or something like that, maybe a little bit less than that, however long it takes the person shooting to edit and stuff.  David Brodskye took a little longer because of all the animation

Chris- How do you guys pick which songs are going to be featured on myspace/promoted?
Guy- You know its kind of funny, your label will think one song and we will think another song.   So, like we either meet somewhere in the middle or we go with whatever we’re feeling.  There’s no real set thin.  We try to figure out what’s the most digestible off the record, the most represent able of what the record is about.

Chris-How does the song writing process go?
Guy-This last record was probably the first time everyone contributed equally.  Usually someone writes a song and everyone else comes to it, picks it apart a little bit and tosses ideas around and that that, but this is the first time we started from scratch .  We kind of took everyone’s ideas.  It was really a collaborative event.

Chris-How do you guys promote your music?  (your music isn’t played on regular radio)
Guy-A lot of touring, some stuff from the internet.  I mean myspace,  or our website.  We’re not the most internet savvy band, mainly grass roots stuff, touring and stuff like that.

Chris-Who is your favorite band you have toured with so far?
Guy-We love the guys from ‘Between the Buried and Me’  We got a few guys we like to hang out with ‘Black Dahlia Murder’.  A lot of the bands on this tour have really grown on us (Underoath dudes)  I hope to do some more stuff with them.  There are so many awesome bands.  We like touring with them equally.

Chris-Those guys normally play a bunch of warped tour dates.  This is a little bit heavier festival than warped.
Guy-This is a very diverse show from start to finish.  As much as Underoath sticks out like a sore thumb, everyone here does.  Underoath fits in a lot better than Airbourne (Tim from Underoath at next table turns around and says hey need help?, Guy says sure, we were just talking about you, Tim says really?, Guy says yeah we were just talking shit about you)

Chris-What’s plan for next song your promoting?
Guy-Not sure, we are kind at the end of the record.  We originally tossed around the idea of doing a video for ‘Bond Needle’, if we can get a budget for it, if not who knows maybe we can come up with a budget for it ourselves, try to roll it that way.We are planning on touring Europe after this (I believe its our 6th time)

Chris-How are the fans different us vs Europe?
Guy-Its different, its less like a us tour, less out of control and more just watching, more taking the music in as opposed to slam dancing, moshing etc. Once you get a big enough crowd, its kind of the same.  Once you get enough people together you have a bunch of people doing stupid things.

Chris-You guys got things going pretty good especially for it being on at 220pm in the afternoon.
Guy-We are from Boston and this being the northeast or along the line, we have a pretty good fanbase here.

Chris-Hey Guy, thanks for taking time out of your busy day here at the festival to hang out and chat with me for a minute.  I appreciate your time.