Rockezine.com interview with Unearth on Nov 13, 2006

with Trevor on Nov 13, 2006

Unearth is on tour with Hatebreed and Rockezine.com had the chance to talk to Trevor, the singer of Unearth.
		What do you think of touring Europe? Europe has always been great to us. The shows have been amazing so far and we couldn`t wish for a better tour right now. We did have some weird food yesterday. It was meat out of some sort of toothpaste container. We`ve never seen that before. But beside that it`s been awesome.
		Is there a favourite country you guys like to play? We get great reactions wherever we go. So when it comes to playing shows the crowd reactions are fairly equal. But when it comes down to things beside the crowds and the shows I`d have to say Australia. I love the nature and the wildlife over there. It really feels like you`re on the other side of the world.
		You got a tour coming up with Slayer in the States. How is it to be going on tour with such a legendary band? It`s amazing and a big honour to be asked by Slayer to join them on their tour. I`ve been a long time fan of their music and this is like a dream come true. It`s something to write down on your carrier checklist I guess.
		Unearth is touring so much, has the band become more of a job than a hobby? Well actually it is our job, but it`s unlike any other job. We all had shitty jobs in the past and doing the thing you love for a living is incredible. During the daytime it does become sort of a routine and it can be boring from time to time. But being on stage every night makes it all worth it.
		What do you guys do in the tour bus all day? For the most part we sleep. But besides that we watch movies, drink beer and talk. After shows we like to check out the city we`d just played and find a good bar, when there`s time for that.
		And what do you do when your back home not touring, rehearsing or recording? I play poker, watch TV and catch up with some friend. It`s the normal live back home. I also run a label called Ironclad recordings which takes a lot of my spare time as well.
		Where do you find the time to sign bands for your record label? All the bands on the Ironclad roster I met on the road. They all played shows with Unearth and that`s how I got to know them and had the opportunity to see them live.
		For your latest record you choose to work with Terry Date, why? Terry Date worked with so many great band in the past and recently did the Dretch album which we all loved. For this new album we tried to capture the live energy of the band and we thought that Terry Date was the right man for the job.
		Does capturing the live energy also have to do with not using clicktracks during the recordings? Yes, we feel we`re at our best when we play live and recording the drums mostly in one take without clicktrack makes this more of a live feeling.
		What do you see as the big difference between The Oncoming Storm and In The Eyes Of Fire? The Oncoming Storm was produced by Adam from Killswitch Engage. Adam likes everything to be really perfected and polished. We didn`t want to go for the `Killswitch sound` this time because we thought giving it a more human- and live touch would fit Unearth better.
		Your stage performance is really energetic. Does this have to do with a hardcore background? We listen to all kinds of music. Not just metal, also hardcore, pop, hip-hop and so on. Hardcore is known for it`s energy, but when you look at older metal bands like Pantera or Anthrax they also had energetic live shows. So I don`t really feel that this purely has to do with listening to hardcore. For us it`s a way to have fun on stage. We rather make a few mistakes and being active than just standing there and perfecting every note. The crowd is there to have fun and we`re there to have fun with them. A lot of bands have their style prepared and know exactly what they`re going to do on stage. We haven`t got anything prepared before going on stage, we don`t know what`s going to happen. I don`t know what I`m going to laugh at tonight, and that`s what keeps it fresh and fun for us.
		Don`t you get bored by playing the same songs every night? We toured for three years on the last album. We try to rotate new songs from the new album to keep it fresh for ourselves. During the last headlining tour in the States we almost had a different set every night. This is also a great way to see which songs work really well live and which don`t.
		What do you think of the whole metalcore scene? In the States the term metalcore has a bad stigma right now. I know people connect us to this scene. We write and always have written metal songs, so I see Unearth as a metal band. We started this band to write and play the music that we love, never to fit in any scene. But it`s true that we played lots of hardcore shows, maybe because of our live energy hardcore kids pick us up. I hate trends because they just come and go. We`ve seen a lot of bands around us blown up and be the biggest thing one day and disappearing the next. We have always had a steady increase of popularity and we`re still around. I think that`s because we make music that we love ourselves and don`t use any elements because there hot right now. We try to stay true to ourselves and our audience,
		Are there any achievements left, does Unearth still have goals and dreams We already achieved what we`d hoped to accomplish once. For me a goal is to keep doing what we`re doing right now. Taking things up to a lager scale like Slayer or Pantera would be the ultimate dream. But, we want to keep doing what we`re doing right now and write the music that we love, stay true to ourselves and the audience. If we wanted to be millionaires we`d write pop music.
(Sander Oldersma)