Last Savior of God

The Last Savior of God is a melodic death metal band from Colorado Springs, CO. They have only been together for a year and a half and they are already beginning to dominate the local metal scene. I sat down with the band in Sunshine Studios right before their show and talked to them about the band, their performances and their plans for the future.

Do you guys want to give us a little bit of band history?

Dylan: Well, the band started back in February of 2010, and I had just left this band Breathe the Abyss and our drummer at the time, Dominique Fresquez, had just left Mourn the Martyr, which we had actually quit, like the same night. We had a show together and we both quit, like, that same night. We had talked about getting something together, and finally we got something together and started getting members. Then we had a bit of a falling back a little while later and then we got our new members. we got Sean and we got Chad. We had D.J. for a while and he was part of our lineup of original members and we’ve been playing shows and all that kind of sh*t.

DJ: Yeah, we came out in early August, and thats when we played our first show, and really we’ve just been trying to climb the ladder and just trying to push forward.

What are your biggest inspirations?

Dylan: Um... White Chapel, Steve Vai, Children of Bodom, uh... f*ck, there’s so many of them, it’s rediculous.

DJ: I’d have to go Lamb of God, Impending Doom, and probably White Chapel. That’s one of my favorite’s too.

Sean: I’m more of a prog rock guy. My biggest influence is Dream Theater, Symphony X, and then the heavier stuff like White Chapel, Winds of Plague...

Dylan: Oh yeah, I forgot that one!

Sean: Chimaera was a big one for me.

Dylan: F*ck, you guys are making my answers look inadequate

Chad: I’m more old school, like Pantera, like f*cking, Sepultura, But I listen to f*cking all the new sh*t too, I love f*cking Winds of Plague and all that sh*t too.

Dylan: And definitely a big influence for our music was pornos. [Everyone bursts out laughing but Dylan manages to keep a straight face] And I write all of our music, so what I’ll do is I’ll jack off right before I write something.

DJ: Actually both of our guitar players do write, so Chad writes a lot of material too.

Dylan: But chad just doesn’t watch a lot of porn anymore, man, he’s old.

DJ: It’s definitely worked out that we all have our different influences and stuff, but put the four of us up on stage and give us instruments, and there really seems to be something special there. Very good chemistry.

What made you guys decide to get a dedicated vocalist?

Dylan: [Laughing] Well, we had one, but then he quit.

Yeah, I met him at a show just a couple of nights ago.

Dylan: Oh, you’re talking about that vocalist!

DJ: Well, we won’t go into much detail.

Dylan: Yeah, long story short, he and my manager are two different people, and they’re both arrogant and hot-headed as f*ck, and it just went downhill from there.

[To Dylan] So, you’re back to doing vocals then?

Dylan: Yeah, I’m back to doing vocals.

DJ: So we’ll say at least for tonight it’s the four originals, and we’ll go up there and do our thing like we have been for a year and a half.

As far as melodic death metal goes, there really aren’t that many melodeath bands in the area, so how do you guys feel the fan base is for that?

Dylan: Well, the fact is, that it is slowly coming to us. Like, other bands, like Try Redemption and Alabaster Morgue and stuff like that, they’ve been doing this for years and that’s why they can pull so many people, and you know, like high school bands, they’re still in high school, they can bring a lot of friends. But we’ve been out of high school, I mean at least I have for at least a year, and Chad’s been out of high school since we were playing with Tonka toys.

DJ: What we’re saying is that we’ve been successful so far, and we’re still climbing that ladder to where it’s not just inviting our friends, it’s that we’re meeting people and selling tickets to people that we’ve never met before and they’re coming to shows, and we’re learning their names, and we’re building a fan base that’s not with people we went to school with or we work with or anything like that, it’s building a fan base with someone we’ve never met, but they’re gonna come and support us and watch our shows.

Dylan: And it’s definitely promote, promote, promote. You always want to bring that new person, like ‘Oh, my friend told me about you guys so I might as well check you out and sh*t.’ You’ve gotta work hard to build a fan base and that’s what we do. We are one of the hardest working bands you will find around here.

DJ: True dat!

Dylan: All I do all day is play guitar, be on facebook, jack off, promote, and play guitar some more. I’m a big advocate of masturbation.

DJ: [Laughing] That’s our Dylan.

When you guys are playing shows what would you guys say your favorite kind of venue is? Bigger ones, smaller ones, this kind of thing at Sunshine, or what?

DJ: I would say that I like the bigger venues and stuff like that. For some reason, like Union Station, take that one for instance, it’s a smaller stage and it just feels like there’s more interaction with the crowd because you’re a little bit closer to them and I don’t think you can get that at a bigger stage. But really it just depends on the night and the energy in the room.

Dylan: Well, the big thing is... Well, I like playing here [Sunshine Studios] because there’s more room to crawl rather than just standing still, but I also like playing stages with bigger sounds too, like for instance, The Black Sheep, that place has a killer sound, but there’s just no place to walk or do anything. But here, I have all the room I want to, you know, like walk around, punch people in the face, you know, all that sh*t.

Sean: Like, Union Station. That always feels like it has a real good vibe to it.

DJ: Yeah, every venue has a different energy in it.

Dylan: I’ve got to say, Union Station was our favorite one.

DJ: We definitely like playing here too though. And it’s not always about the energy that’s there, it’s about the energy that you’re going to bring too.

So what are you guys doing right now as far as writing new material? Are you trying to find another dedicated vocalist for that or are you just planning on continuing to write like this or what?

Dylan: Well, right now we’re in a bit of a mixup between vocalists and stuff. We have no idea what the f*ck we’re doing with that. New stuff, we are playing Foothills Gutfest in July, so we plan on bringing all that brutal stuff because we’re going to be, like, the lightest band there.

DJ: There’s gonna be a bunch of grindcore stuff and death metal bands, where we’ve got that more melodic side. At the end of the night you can go home and go to bed telling yourself that what it all comes down to is metal, but with that more melodic side, we’re going to have to bring out more of the death metal side in our writing and stuff like that.

Chad: As far as new material, what we’ve really got to do is just start putting it out there.

Dylan: Yeah, I have like 15 songs in the works right now.

DJ: Yeah, so we’ve got a bunch of new material right now that we’ve just got to get fixed up.

What are your plans for the future? Are you going to try to get a record deal, try to tour, or what?

Dylan: My dream is to go all the way.

DJ: I think we all want to do that.

Dylan: I actually got into music by playing video games one day and I heard a Korn song in a f*cking video game and sh*t. The next day I stopped playing video games, grew out my hair, started singing, sucked at singing, and started playing guitar and sh*t and ever since then, it’s all been about this dream of me playing at Mayhem and everybody watching me instead of me having to watch some other f*ckface band. Not that they’re bad or anything but it’s just one of those things where it’s like ‘Well, they’re there and I’m here, and I wish I was there.’ So it’s more of envy. I said f*ckface but you know, I hope I can say f*ck. [laughing] Can I say f*ck?

Yeah, haha we have to censor it but it doesn’t really matter.

Dylan: Oh okay, f*ck f*ck f*ck f*ck. [Everyone laughs]

DJ: I think our biggest thing is that we’ve grown pretty well I think, especially in the Colorado Springs area and the Pueblo area, but one thing we haven’t done is expanded up to Denver, so we definitely want to go up there and take that by storm. You know, to conquer the world, you have to conquer your city first. So yeah, that’s our ultimate goal but there’s a lot of steps we’re going to have to take to get there. We will definitely take them as we can.

Dylan: We’ve conquered Pueblo, which was a kick-a** scene by the way.

Do you guys have any advice for metal bands just starting out, or just any musicians in general?

DJ: Well, I got some. In the recent scene, everyone, they’re together for a couple of months, then they break up, they die. I’ll tell you what. If you really want to be serious about it, like our manager told us, be together for at least six months, Don’t go out there until you have a solid 45 minutes of material, and I mean solid. It needs to be tight, it needs to be planned, there’s no reason to rush out there with 15 minutes of material and you just learned it last week and you’ve been together for 2 months. That’s just set to fail. That would be my advice.

Dylan: My advice, well, I’ve got a couple of things to say. First and foremost is don’t do drugs. If you’re going to be the person to do drugs, don’t let it consolidate your career, like do it a little bit on the side, be able to control it, and all that sh*t. Second, know how to play your instrument before you go out there. You don’t want to look like a jack*ss. If you’re in high school you’re definitely in the plus, but once you’re out of high school, just realize that your fan base is going to go away quick, because you’re not going to talk to all those people you were in high school with. And the scene is, how would you say it, like, critiquative. They will hear, like, two seconds of your music and will be like ‘Ah, that band sucks.’ So you’ve got to put on a really good show for people to think, like, ‘Oh, that band’s kick-a**. Like DJ said, we went out there with a 45 minute set and we were pumped so we went f*cking crazy on stage. We’re like the new Try Redemption in Colorado Springs, all we do is jump around and act stupid on stage, but people tend to enjoy it, so that’s what we do.

Sean: Just a lot of perseverance. That would be my advice. Just keep at it, go, get frustrated. I mean, there’s gonna be frustration no matter what, but you cannot let it get to you. Like it took a f*cking year and a half for us to finally, like--

DJ: [Laughing] Have a blowout! It never got physical...

Sean: But yeah, it was a pretty heated thing, but now we’re ready to just f*cking kick a** in there.

DJ: Yeah, but we’re a good band. It took us like five minutes and we’re back in there slappin’ each other in the a** saying ‘good game’ and all that.

Sean: Exactly. Just perseverance. You just can’t let things get to you and you’ve just got to keep going.

Chad: For me, good advice, you just have to know what direction, like there’s so many different genres of music, you’ve just got to know what kind of music you want to play and all that. I mean, there’s always some experimenting and mixing certain genres but usually you want to pick something and go with that. You’ve got to know what you want to play and play what you want to play pretty much.

Dylan: Another thing I’ve got to say is don’t go out there thinking somebody is going to pick you while you’re playing a show. You can’t be like that, you’ve got to work hard. That’s the biggest think right there, is work. And it is f*cking rough work.

DJ: It is. It’s tiring.

Dylan: It’s tiring, it’s stressful, and it takes up your day. You get home from work any you’re like ‘Oh, I’m just going to relax.’ No. You have to work at it then too. That’s all of the advice I can think of off the top of my head. After I masturbate I can probably think of more. [Everyone laughs]

Well that’s all of the questions I’ve got. Do you guys have any closing thoughts or messages for fans or anything?

Dylan: Steve Vai rules and Last Savior of God’s going to kick your a**, and you guys get ready for it because we’re coming out with a storm and it’s gonna shoot some lightening down at you.

DJ: What he said. We’re locked, cocked and ready to rock. We have been and we’re going to keep going. You’re going to see the name around for a long time. I’ll guarantee that.

Chad: Yeah, keep an eye out for Last Savior, man. We ain’t goin’ nowhere.

DJ: Ain’t going nowhere but up!

Dylan: Next time you guys see us, well, we’ll either be playing a local show [the rest of the band starts laughing] or, if you hang out for a while, and you’re like, ‘Well, I’m going to see these bands or whatever’ then we’ll probably be, like, Metallica status by then, you know, like, b*tching out Lars Ulrich for being a f*ckface and a d*uchebag for making downloads illegal.

DJ: [When everybody’s done laughing] our main point is that LSoG’s here to stay!

Sean: To all the fans, thanks for all the support.

Dylan: Yeah! Keep ‘em coming!

Chad: Tell all your friends how cool we are.

Dylan: [Flexing his biceps] Tell them to come see the gun show!

You can keep up-to-date on The Last Savior of God’s upcoming shows, get in touch with the band and listen to music on their Facebook page. If you ever get the opportunity, make sure you check these guys out, because this is one band that is definitely going somewhere in the near future.

-Duncan Mandeville

Theconcertscene.com

Doubtful Sound Interview

Doubtful Sound is the solo project of Michael Thigpen. He plays acoustic folk rock/pop and he kicked off his UK tour with a show at a small local venue called The Speedtrap. The place was packed with family, friends, and even some people just passing by who happened to like the music. With just his voice and his mandolin, or ‘Mandy Lynn’ as he called her, Michael captivated the entire audience with his energetic performance. At one point he even unplugged and went to sit on a table right in the middle of the audience. I was given the opportunity to interview him about his music, performances and his upcoming tour of the UK.

How did you first get into playing music?

Oh my goodness, I don’t even remember. I think I was eleven or twelve years old and my dad wanted to play guitar. He was like ‘I wanna play guitar’ so we got him one for fathers day. We got him like a $100 pawn shop one and we had this computer program, and he and I both just kind of picked it up at the same time and about six months later he quit and I just kept going with it. I still have that guitar, the nice red pawn shop guitar and I was playing that at shows for the longest time but then people were like ‘Dude, get something better’ so I did and it just kept evolving from there. I started playing in churches and things like that because that was an opportunity where I could just go play in front of people, which is really what you need to do. I played with little worship and church bands and things like that. It’s not initially what I wanted, but it was just a way to work in. I started working on electric guitar and taking guitar lessons and getting really into the metal stuff. It just kind of grew and evolved. I wanted more than anything to have a band and be able to do that. It just never happened and I was just getting so frustrated waiting, so I started writing music based more on the style that I could either do entirely by myself, and it’s a little limited to how much you can do, you can go the electronica route which I found out I wasn’t very good at, or you can go backwards, back in time and look in the folk direction, like where people come from. There’s that standard acoustic style that everyone thinks, like Ben Lee or whatever and I’m just not into that at all so I was just really looking for something I was into. When I started this, it was basically an Idea to try to find out what folk music is, because I really had no idea, and I still don’t really. I know a little bit where it comes from. But the more I look at it, I think it’s even more broad of a genre than pop or rock and roll because it had all the different stuff from all over the world. There’s a lot of history behind it too. You can always take something from somewhere and that’s the fun part about it.

So, you started on guitar, but what made you start playing on all of these other instruments?

Boredom. [laughs] I have a really short attention span, I always have, but I think that’s really helped me to do all of these different things. Kinda like ADD or whatever, my old boss when I was working at a bike shop was like ‘Dude, your mind’s not here, you’re going on all these different tangents.’ But I was just curious on how these different things work and how you approach things from different angles and things like that. I just kept playing guitar on just a normal acoustic. Eventually I got the resonator guitar, which has that steel body, just because I wanted something a little bit of a different. I was getting more and more bored and uninspired and I was just looking for a different direction to take. When you just pick up these instruments and just try and figure out how they play, you find so much more inspiration and you can have songs just come out because it’s a new and fresh approach. Really it’s like going to another country and starting over

What artists would you say have inspired you the most?

When I first got started playing music at like fourteen, it was all of the Christian rock and metal bands and things like that. P.O.D. was my favorite band all the way through middle school and high school. But when I started going more in this direction, I was really into Death Cab for Cutie and Coldplay and Explosions in the Sky at the time. I was watching an interview of Ben Gibbard where people were asking him what he listens to and he said ‘I’ve been listening to this Scottish band called Frightened Rabbit’ and I thought if this guy is listening to it, I mean it’s freakin’ Ben Gibbard, these guys must be good, so I checked them out and sure enough they completely blew my mind. My mind was completely changed at that point. They had that perfect meshing of that Scottish folk and pop sound at the same time that they were an indie rock band in every essence but they have so much Scottish background. Not quite like Flogging Molly, like you might think of that, but it’s just this really intense Scottish voice with this thick, heavy accent. It’s just a beautiful thing and from there I just discovered so many bands because of it like Bon Iver, and Mumford and Sons of course, Johnny Flame, Paleo, and it’s just been a blast. That’s part of the fun and what inspires me, just discovering new music, finding new influences. Things that you can take in that will at some point or another come out in your songs.

With all of the different elements of your music pulled from so many genres, how would you categorize your music?

I’ve been trying to figure that out for the longest time. And I’ve known that from the beginning, like I said, I’ve been trying to figure out what folk music is and things even if that doesn’t necessarily mean doing folk music myself. I mean, I describe it as folk pop just because that’s probably as broad and vague as you can get. You can play pretty much anything and it could still maybe sort of fit in there. I ask so many other bands that. Like, I saw Mimicking Birds at the Black Sheep and asked them ‘Well, what genre are you guys?’ and they were stoned out of their mind or something they were just like ‘I don’t know. Just whateverrrr...’ [laughs] It’s about writing whatever the heck you want to write, you know what I mean?

So, you mentioned that you were only taking your mandolin on your next tour for traveling purposes. How did you go about simplifying all of your songs down to the point that it was just you and your mandolin?

Well, a lot of it was just having to think about it this past semester, because I started just playing this and toying with the idea of trying to book shows in England and around January, I was just like ‘Well, what if I only brought my mandolin? That would be so much easier to carry around.’ And, you know, you’ve been to Europe and things like that, you always wish you had brought less and packed less. I was already planning around January so I just really started to strip down my sets and work on them from a total basic level. I play solo and I have for a while. I’ve played with other musicians and bands and things like that, but I’d always tend to bring more, and I’ve actually just started getting lazy, like, before I would have this big mix station, and two other guitars in addition to my resonator and my mandolin, and my big Marshall amp and everything like that and occasionally you just get lazy, like ‘I don’t want to bring all that.’ So I wanted to do something a little basic so I started doing all my sets from January until now, I do about one show a month is what I usually do, just trying to strip them down and think from a ground level, which has been very liberating actually. It’s a lot less of a hassle to get all the instruments to gigs and things like that. It was just forcing me to think what can I do, what should I do with just these very basic two instruments right here. Now it’s even more basic than that. I normally had a guitar with me too and what you heard last night was even more basic than that. It just really forced me to get to know an instrument, like a particular person, you know, like one girl instead of a bunch of different girls more shallow. Once I get back from the UK though I plan on bringing all of the other stuff back. I think it will be a little more fresh because I decided to work for a base for a while.

After hearing your song Somebody Else about wishing you were born in another country I bet you’re pretty excited about this tour you’re going on.

Oh my gosh, I’m so excited about it. This was my last semester of college, I just graduated from UCCS, which I’m glad to be done with. The entire time I was like ‘I don’t want to be doing bio-chem right now, I want to be in England!’ It was good motivation too though like ‘Dude, it’s almost over, just one more semester, study really hard, and you’re about to leave the country. It’s all gonna work out.’ That song, It was actually written from sarcasm more than anything else but it was sort of taken from the idea, I don’t know if you’re familiar with C.S. Lewis, but he was saying that ‘If I can’t find a place for myself in this world, It’s because I was meant for another world.’ And that’s basically where the idea of wanting to be born in another country came from, but it’s about wanting to get out and travel really, because I do tend to feel like that sometimes, like ‘Why couldn’t I have been born here, it’s so much cooler than us’

So, I take it you have done a lot of traveling then?

I have.

Do you think all of the diversity of the music and cultures affected your sound or the way you write music?

I’d like to think so. It’s an eye opener all in all, no matter how you look at it. My parents took my brother and I to Italy when I was eight years old and that was really the first time we did an out of country thing. It was much more expensive than the way we go about it now, but ever since then we, I don’t know, I guess we’ve just gotten really hooked on it. I definitely think I try to get in the habit of writing songs when I’m in other countries because it’s just a totally different environment, so it will have a totally different personality to it. The very first song on the set [the night before], I wrote that on a little bit of down time in Costa Rica. It just kinda came out. I try to make it happen. I would love to model a little bit after Beirut and his style because that’s exactly what he did. He moved I think to France, but he just got all of his influence and it just came to him and his music sounds so worldly but so indie at the same time. So, I’d say I like to think so. That’s what I try for. Maybe it’s just that inspiration you get from traveling, just that feel of being away from home and everything like that. It’s an experience you never want to forget, so you can at least try to write about it, you know what I mean? I definitely think it’s been a big inspiration.

Now that you’ve graduated from college, do you think that you are going to try to do a lot more of this kind of a thing?

Absolutely. I was always planning on doing this until I died, you know what I mean? I figure I will always have time for it. Now that I’m done with college and everything I’m just trying to figure out what’s gonna happen next. Right now I’m filling out thousands it feels like of applications for jobs and for grad schools and things like that. I’m planning on going on professionally but I’ve never had trouble doing music and, like, school at the same time. I’m good at multi-tasking like that so nothing got stopped. But I plan on traveling and making music both until I die so I don’t see how that’s ever going to stop or ever going to change. Probably because I’m doing it right now and if I was to get out, like some people I know keep saying ‘Yeah, I’m gonna start booking more shows. I’ll get to it.’ and they keep saying they’ll get to it but they never do it. If you’re actually doing it, it gives you that idea that you’re going to do it more, and if you don’t drop the ball you will just keep momentum going and keep doing it. Once you have a little momentum it gets easier. I plan on doing many more tours after this. I really want to do Europe next because they are a lot easier on letting touring bands in without a work visa or anything.

At your show last night, you seemed to have a lot of fun in that really small venue with a bunch of family and friends around. Do you prefer that to a larger venue?

Absolutely. I don’t have much experience playing larger shows. The largest I’ve played at was the Black Sheep, and I played a decently packed show there, but something about it just feels more fun and intimate. I feel like since they know me a little better I can get away with a little more and just try to have fun. Which I try do do even when I don’t know anyone else, but at least with them I know I can get away with it instead of just guessing. I do still try to have as much fun even if I don’t know anyone else. But a venue like that is just the perfect size. Just the kind of people they bring in, being among friends who love you and care about you. It’s an interesting time of life so it’s good to have them there. Of course, my grad party was yesterday right before that so a lot of them just went over to The Speedtrap. It was just a great time. That is my favorite kind of show right there.

Is that the type of venue you are doing in the UK?

I’ll find out when I get there. I know the names of these places and I’ve seen pictures but that’s really all I know. Mainly just a lot of bars and things like that. A lot of these bars will have music club nights, like jam nights or whatever. One night I’m a featured guest at an open mic called Take the Stage at this place called The Basement in York which is kind of like a theatre but it’s a specific open mic. But they have me as a guest at a thing like that, and some other places that just have music like seven nights a week you don’t have to worry about drawing a crowd because there’s crowds there and things like that. I think The Basement’s going to be a little bit bigger and I think some will be about the same size. I honestly have no idea and that’s also what I’m excited about. That’s half the fun right there of not knowing what to expect when you go in like ‘Oh, well that was fun.’ Even if it goes totally, totally crappy, you can still brag about it.

Well that’s about everything. Do you have any closing comments you want to make? Like messages for fans or advice from your experience for aspiring musicians?

I’ll tell you the advice I’ve been told by musicians that I keep talking to because I try to ask that at every single show. In one way or another they’re just like ‘Dude, just keep pushing and practicing.” and all of that persistence will pay off eventually. This good friend of mine, his name’s Joe Ziegler, he plays in a band called Leftmore, and it’s exactly like this, just totally acoustic. He’s basically a wandering minstrel or nomad. That’s what he does for a career which is the coolest thing ever. He will be here for like a week or two and he’ll just be like ‘Hey, man, we should catch up.’ so I’ll go to his show at The Black Sheep or whatever and ask him where he’s going and it’s just ‘Oh, I’m going on tour again.’ That’s his full time job which I think is so cool. The thing he told me though was to rock out to the max at every single show because you never know who’s going to be in the audience and I just think that’s an incredible attitude to have. You don’t even have to rock out or go crazy or whatever, just every single show you have should be the most important show of your life. And just take it completely seriously. A couple of years ago I saw this band Paper Route, and they’ve done tours with Paramore since, so they’re doing pretty well, but at the time at The Black Sheep, there were like twenty people there and a local band opened for them who were just super awkward and shy, and I didn’t enjoy it because they weren’t enjoying themselves and you usually have to do that first. Then Paper Route came out and they played this show for four-hundred people for that twenty person crowd. It was actually incredible. That’s the part I take seriously. Play a four-hundred person show at every single show and make the most out of everything that you do because, like I said, you never know who’s going to be in that crowd. And I’ve talked to guys who are just like ‘Yeah, I don’t let the size of the crowd affect me anymore.’ I know people who have played shows for, like, one person, and you just have to give that one person a really special show, and that’s important to me. Just take it seriously like that and make the most of everything. Try not to get discouraged because people do. My bandmates did at the time. It was just a little too much for them. But this stuff pays off, and it’s all about living life, having fun, and making other people have fun.

Doubtful Sound will be writing new material and playing many more shows after the UK tour. Be sure to check out Doubtful Sound’s website at doubtfulsoundtunes.com. You can find tour dates, music, and even follow Michael’s tour in the UK on the ‘Tour Adventure’ page which he will be updating regularly.

~Duncan Mandeville
The Eneny

Theconcertscene.com

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Diamond Rings

Interview with Diamond Rings - June 9, 2011 By Jennifer Knight Who’s That Guy? That guy is 25 year old synth-pop video sensation, Diamond Rings and we're nearing release of his new full-length album called Special Affections. This is why he was kind enough to let us ask a few probing questions. I don’t think he would mind if I compared him at this point to a pleasant mixture of Vanilla Ice and Madonna with a refreshing baby face canvass, perfect for rainbows of creative expression. I don’t think he would mind, but I’ve been wrong before. What Is That Guy Doing? JK: What’s happening in your life these days? What are you up to? DR: Just living in the weeks leading up to the re-release that I’m four weeks into now and I’m doing a remix of a different artist or a different group every week for the six weeks leading up to the record. The cover for each one is a different color of the rainbow which is kind of just like a prominent motif for the album so far. So I’ve been busy with those and you know, when I’m not working, I’m always kind of puttering around, just throwing ideas out and seeing what sticks. What Is That Guy Thinking? JK: Tell me about your writing process. What does it take for you? DR: Some time alone. For me, it’s a matter of coming up with the chord progression or some notes that I find go well together and then writing the lyrics with the melodies over the top of that. I get pretty fastidious when I’m writing lyrics. That’s kind of the fun part for me, fun in a sort of angst-ridden torturous kind of way. JK: I get it. Trust me. DR: When I wrote [Special Affections] I was in the hospital. I was by myself all day, more or less, with not much to do and not much room to move around. So it was kind of just myself and my guitar and I definitely don’t want to go back to that scenario, but at the same time it did offer a really peaceful and reflective kind of opportunity for me, so… JK: How long were you in the hospital? DR: It was most of a summer when the album was written. I had just moved to the city and got diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease and there I was. My parents were really supportive and wanted to make sure I would have something to do so they brought in all my instruments and a poster of Sting and did whatever else we could do to make my room livable. By the end of my time there [the nurses] had kind of caught on to what I was doing and they would come in on their breaks and get me to do little shows for them. It was quite fun. It was then that I started to realize there may be an audience for what I was working on. I was really only doing it to pass the time and give myself something to keep my brain working, but I found myself thinking “Well, if these guys like it...” What Is That Guy Wearing? JK: Tell me about the ‘Stay Fierce’ shirts for sale on your website. What’s the back story on the front of those fantastic and simple shirts? DR: It had been a slogan my makeup artist and I adopted. I think it was when we were shooting the video for ‘Show Me Your Stuff’ and the back-up dancers were wanting to know how they were supposed to look, what their expressions should be and we would always tell them to look fierce which turned into stay fierce until the shoot’s done and then turned into just Stay Fierce. It became like a mantra or something that we adopted and then it became the shirt. I designed them and it just seemed kind of natural to do them in rainbow colors. Is That Guy With Anybody? JK: You became Diamond Rings during a 2008 break from being John O of the D’Urbervilles. Which do you prefer, solo or band performances? DR: Being a performer (no matter what) is what’s important to me. The more I do of one, the more rewarding it is to switch over to the other because they’re both so incredibly different and compliment the other. Is That Guy For Real? JK: Yes, and he’s really something else… Theconcertscene.com