6 Questions; With Arif, From Protest The Hero


Tyler: First off, I'd like to thank you for letting me interview you. I'm a huge fan of your band, and you're the first artist to be added to the zine.

Arif: It's a pleasure to be part of something new.


T(Q1): Okay, first off, Your debut album, Kezia has built you a solid fan base, and I believe it is a solid album. Is there anything about it you would change if you could?


Arif: It would be a treason to progress suggesting there are no elements of Kezia we'd like to change. In fact, there are a great number of things about the album that we would write, record and perform differently if we had the chance to do so. The point is to let Kezia stand as a stake in our history and look towards the future, writing songs that improve upon the mistakes of our last record.


T(Q2): As of right now, You band is currently working on your new album. WIll it follow in the same tradition as Kezia, and be a concept album, and if so, could you elaborate a tiny bit?


Arif: It's not a concept album as such, but certainly a related series of songs dealing with the intersection of history and culture in which the traditional goddess was sacrificed and re-gendered as god, and the millenia of consequences that followed.


T(Q3): I've yet to see your band live, so this may be a premature question, but I've read people saying that Protest The Hero is sometimes sloppy live. Do you think your life show suffers from the complexity of your music?


Arif: We wrote Kezia without stage performance in mind. We've taken certain measures with the new music to ensure effective delivery live. I guess we'll wait and see.


T(Q4): I've also read, that Protest refuses to play songs recorded before Kezia live anymore, and that you added more complex changes to an older song. Is this true, and could you elaborate on your reasons for doing so?


Arif: That's not entirely true. We added a pause at the end of I am Dmitri Karamazov & the World is my Father that changes neither the time or meter, but people went ahead and called it 'tech' anyway. The whole thing was a spontaneous improvisation one day because Moe lost his drum stick at that part and the rest of us somehow managed to intuitively pause with him. It seemed like one of those cosmic fluke accidents that sounded better than it should've.


T(Q5): The guys in PTH were relatively young when you fellas recorded Kezia, yet the musicianship on the record is extremely complex. I've read that you guys wrote the music before you could play it. Could you elaborate on this technique a bit?


Arif: This also isn't entirely true. We wrote music that we found challenging, and the practice sessions that produced Kezia were definetly taxing on our ability to play our instruments, but it kept us motivated to become better players. In terms of musicality, the new material is a great deal more difficult to play as we adopted a similar writing style this time around, too.


T(Q6): Okay man, this is the last question. First off, yet again, I'd like to thank you for aggreeing to let me interview you via myspace. You have no clue how much it's appreciated...

As for the question...


What are your favorite brand of jeans. I'm a Levi's guy, but everyone has there on opinion on slacks...


Arif: My girlfriend bought me a pair of Rock & Republic jeans that I wear almost every day. In fact, it's something of a challenge to find a picture where I'm not sporting them. Always trust a girlfriend's taste in jeans, they know what looks good on and off your body.

Expectations



These illusions of repetitive motions can only be satiated by the acquisition of change.
Do you think your unsure of which direction to take or which furniture to rearrange?

Well If you do, well then this is for you
Because if your like me your setting has a need for something new.

New Faces
New Motions
New Names

A New Direction
New Motives
New Place

 Now I know i'm not you
 And I don't kno what you should do
 but I can let you in on a few things That would help me get through....

I Need ...
Someone with the intentions of preventing me from setting this planet on fire. Anything to help me break free, from this predetermined fate i've so inadequately aquired.

 I Need!
...A reason not to stay at home and sleep
When I could Indeed
complete
Something that would allow my aggressions to be released.
An escape from the mundane, that sadly, has yet to be scene.

 I NEED! ...
To see Why the ones who accidentally created me,
In their own irresponsibility,
Have the supposed god-given right to oversee.
Is it because my decisions and actions inadvertently reflect you,
so if i fuck up,  Is it your fault that I can't succed?

Who's to say what is to be done in a situation such as this?
Its as if they've seen it all before
but in their wise years, they've collected more authority than wits.

But I question!
 In this search for validity!
That apparently, despite your opinions, there is nothing wrong with me.
This Investment, in my own humility
That repectively, I denounce dominion, and carry on at MY chosen speed.

Because I will Carry On.
 Regardless of the standards of practices of THEE!
What's mine is mine
and I don't give a fuck what you think i have the "potential" to be
Because What's Done is done
And i've learned from what i've scene
And in the end, all I can ask myself to be,

Is Me.