Hi
guys,
thanks for taking part in this interview! For the benefit of the
readers who
may not have heard of you yet, please can you introduce the band? ....
A:
Kliph – Vox, ....
Bryan (me) – Drums, ....
Jessie – Guitars, ....
Ryan – Guitars, ....
Deaton – Bass.....
....
Can
you
describe your sound in 3 words? ....
A: Mixed Metal Arts....
....
Which
bands
have influenced you the most? ....
A:
Deftones, Machine Head, Sevendust, Diablo, Volbeat, NOFX,
Killswitch
Engage, Nothingface, Brand New, HED PE, etc.
....
....
How
long
has the band been together? ....
A:
Permanent Midknight originally started in 2002, We played
countless
shows for 3 straight years selling out venues in ..North
Carolina.. and ....South
Carolina..... We were
very young back then and made a ton of mistakes. Our
official CD release party drew over 500
people in our hometown. That show was
our last show with that line-up. That
was in 2005. Kliph went on to play in a
band called ....Straight Drive..... I went on to play in Burn My Eyes, Spoken
Through Shadows, Semreh. After those
bands had run it’s course we both spoke about bringing Permanent
Midknight back
together. In late 2008/early 2009 we
made the decision to bring this band back.
We have re-launched this band with all new members and have had
an
amazing time thus far. ....
....
Where
does
the name Permanent Midknight come from?....
A:
I am a huge Gordon Shumway fan.
To all you earthlings his name is ALF (yes, from the tv show). I watched this movie about the trials and
tribulations of the creator of that character.
The name of that movie was called Permanent Midnight. The movie depicted the creator of ALF who
created a character that took the world by storm. While
he achieved world wide fame he fell
into a whole of addiction to drugs, sex, and all things bad. We related to that so much that we made the
decision to call ourselves Permanent Midknight.
We added the K b/c we didn’t want to have any copyright issues. ....
....
Do
you have
any albums or EPs available? ....
A:
We have released one LP, one EP, and a couple of singles in the
past
which have been out of print for some time now.
Our new record, we hope to have ready by early 2010.....
....
Are
you
working on any recordings at the moment?
....
A:
We are currently putting the finishing touches on 4 new tracks
which we
hope to record by the end of the year. ....
....
What’s
the
writing process for PMK like? Do you all jam together, or does one
person come
in with an idea? Or a combination of the two?....
A:
Usually every member has their input in all of our songs. We all jam out our ideas and try to structure
them together. It’s like a puzzle which
is always interesting. Kliph writes most of the lyrics and gets input
from our
guitar player Jessie to assist him as he does the back ups/clean vocals. ....
....
I’m
learning to play guitar at the moment, so I’m after all the help I can
get! Do
you have any tips for guitarists? Or any tips for beginners of any
instrument?
In fact, vocal tips would be damn good too! I don’t ask for much, do I?
....
A: Practice, Practice,
Practice. When you get frustrated, you
work through it and if you can do that, you will be a much better
person. ....
....
Guitarwise,
I’ve got a lovely little Dean V – What equipment do you guys use?....
A:
Ryan uses a Line 6 Spyder III head and a Ibanez 6 string, Jessie uses a Crate head and an Ibanez
6-string. As for Drums, I
use a Tama Starclassic Maple 6 piece with
Zildjan, Sabian, and ....Wuhan....
cymbals. Deaton uses a Peavy Head unit
and Peavy Speakers. ....
....
What
was
the first album you ever bought? ....
A:
Korn – Korn (1994)....
....
Do
you have
any embarrassing albums in your music collections?....
A:
I have so much music on my ipod and pc there is a ton of
embarrassing albums
I have. ....
....
Which
bands/tracks/albums have you been hooked on recently?....
A:
At the moment I’ve been listening to a lot of local bands The Ascendicate (www.myspace.com/theascendicate),
Zero System (www.myspace.com/zerosystemmusic),
and From Tomorrow (www.myspace.com/fromtomorrowband),
and The Demonstration (www.myspace.com/thedemonstration)
all fantastic bands that are all different.
Oh and the new Tech N9ne will blow your mind away.
....
....
There
seems
to be a wealth of talent in the ....North Carolina.... area at the moment…
is there something in
the water?....
A:
There are a ton of amazing bands in the ..Charlotte..,
..Raleigh.., and ....Greensboro.... area. I
don’t think that there is something in the
water, but there are a lot of unique individuals that possess the
ability to
play something special. ....
....
Seriously
though,
thanks to the Internet, I’ve been lucky enough to discover quite a few
bands
from the area (Black Ritual and A Road Eternal are a couple that spring
to
mind). Do you feel that there’s a good metal scene in the area at the
moment? ....
A:
Gotta love Erock! There is a
scene, but this scene is divided into sectors.
Hopefully one day we will bridge the gap and all work together. ....
....
What
do you
think of the metal scene/community in general at the moment? Do you
think it’s
in a pretty strong position, or could it be improved upon? If so, how? ....
A:
There is a wealth of talent in this area, We all need unify. If
we can
all unify and bring all bands and all genre’s together, we all can
prosper. Myspace used to be a fantastic
tool to promote your band and gain new fans.
But now, it’s been exploited with bots and other stuff to make
your band
look bigger than it really is. You have
to get out there and get those face to face touches to expand your base. I go to shows all the time not just to show
support, but to get our name out there be it a flyer for an upcoming
show or a
free 2 song cd to get people to check us out.
That is the only way in my eyes to grow this community/scene. ....
....
I
read on
your MySpace blog about a song called “Bag of Ashes”, which was a
tribute to a
good friend of yours. Was this a difficult song to write and do you
ever
perform it live? ....
A:
Flounder was an amazing person and his spirit in some ways lives
through
Kliph’s words. The first show we
performed that song there were a lot of personal friends of Flounder in
the
crowd and you look in the crowd you can see those people in tears. So to answer your question, No, it’s not hard
to play, we celebrate his life, and hope that people can relate to this
song on
a personal level. ....
....
Which
PMK
song are you most proud of and why? ....
A:
We’re really proud of all of our material, each
song has a specific meaning to us that
we relate to. ....
....
How
would
you describe a PMK show? ....
A:
Intense and unpredictable. I have
played in numerous bands and no front man I have ever worked with gets
a crowd
going like Kliph does. He tends to push
the right buttons to get people stoked about every song we play. Sometimes we throw in some cooky covers like
Johnny Poo Poo Pants by Group X or even a parody of Hit’s From The Bong
we call
“The Man With The ..Sandwich..”. Music is fun and we make sure to keep it that
way in our gigs. ....
....
Which
PMK
song really gets the crowd going? ....
A:
Who’s The Big Bossman usually get’s things going full steam....
....
Ever
had
any embarrassing moments onstage?....
A: Oh shit!
That’s what I said when I was puking my guts out 5 mins before
we go on
stage. I never puke, and I was hurling
so violently that I literally shit my pants.
At these venues the bathrooms aren’t the nicest things in the
world. I quickly had to strip down,
throw my boxers in the garbage and whip my ass with paper towels. I probably shouldn’t be saying this as now I
know I’ll never live that down.....
....
Do
you have
any merchandise available? I’m sure that once people check you out they
will be
keen to have the name Permanent Midknight emblazoned across their
chests! On a
t-shirt of course…....
A:
We have shirts available at shows as well as stickers. ....
....
What’s
next
for PMK? Where do you see yourselves in a few years time?....
A: We are in the process
of
recording an 8 song record. 4 tracks are
done and we hope to have the other 4 done by the end of the year. Our sound is a tough one that can be hard for
certain labels to swallow as it is a throwback of sorts to the music we
all
loved. We have a couple cool things that
we are working on in our future but cannot speak about as of present
time. Be sure to check out our web site/myspace
at www.pmk1.com for all your PMK
info. We will be announcing something amazing
very
soon!....
....
Thanks
for
answering my questions!