Rockezine.com interview with The Setup on Feb 11, 2007

with Andries on Feb 11, 2007


		Please introduce your self, the band and the members. Hi, my name is Andries. I play guitar for The Setup. Furthermore there is Raf on guitar, Dries on vocals, Christophe on bass and Serch on drums. We all live in Antwerp except for Dries who lives in Leuven and we’ve been around since 2003. We all played in bands before The Setup. Me and Raf used to play in Thumbs Down. Dries used to sing for Circle and Serch played drums for Clouded and Minus 45degrees.
		A few weeks ago GSR Music released the album Minister Of Death, are you satisfied with the way this records turned out? Yes, we are. Compared to our debut album, there’s a logical evolution. We’ve spent a whole month in the studio, experimenting with a lot of sounds and layers and we’re very happy it turned out like this. It’s heavier and the songs are more mature. It’s definitely a slower record, which gave us the chance to try out new things because the last thing we wanted to do was to make an exact copy of The Pretense Of Normality.
		Are you satisfied the way the label promotes the album? I don’t think we have any reasons to complain. Prior to the release, they offered us to release a two-song sampler we could give for free to everybody who visited us on the Death Before Dishonor – Ramallah - The Setup tour. On top of that, there’s an extra DVD included in the first pressing of the new record. All those things prove they truly believe in us.
		How would you characterize your music and with what you would resemble it? I would say, it’s dark, heavy and very aggressive. On the other hand, we incorporate a lot of melodic layers in the riffs and we always want to get some groove in the songs. We also play a kind of metalcore, which is different from what you usually hear. It’s more a metallic kind of hardcore with an influence from the new school hardcore that was popular in the mid nineties. If you could think of a humble mix of Hatebreed with The Hope Conspiracy and some Quicksand/Helmet riffs, you should get an idea of what we do.
		What are you expecting from the upcoming tour with Born From Pain? I expect some good times and some good turnouts. We’re very honoured to share a bill with Born From Pain and First Blood. Of course we already played a lot of shows with Born From Pain in the past, but to be a part of their European Tour is something we don’t take for granted.
		What is the weirdest thing that has happened to the band on the road? I can’t remember some really weird stuff, but I do know we played in Hull one day and that place was so depressing it gave all of us a very weird feeling. If you ever feel bad, don’t go there because it won’t exactly cheer you up.
		How do you manage to get the noses of the members of the band into the same direction? Everybody who has ever played in a band for a longer time than four weeks will agree with me when I say that playing in a band is the same as living together or going on a journey for a long time. It’s just not easy. Fortunately, we’re all friends and we all love playing all over Europe and making the music we all love, so to answer your question, at the end of day, there’s just not something else we’d rather do than this.
		Did you ever visit www.rockezine.com? What’s the best and what’s the worst part about this site. Best part: it’s clean and contains newsworthy information. Worst part: I haven’t seen our review yet, so I’ll wait until then to answer that question
		Do you have some famous last words for me? Never buy a Beagle-Dog!
(Jeroen Habets)