Have you guys caughtAsking Alexandria at Soundwave or a Sidewave yet? If not, these guys are definitely worth checking out. Artist Direct caught up with the band’s guitarist Ben Bruce and talked about their latest album From Death To Destiny,what works for them live and what he’s been listening to lately! You can also check out the band’s cover of Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Closer’ which is er, very Asking Alexandria (have a look and you’ll know what I mean).
AD: The risks you take onFrom Death To Destinyreally pay off…
BB: We weren’t nervous when we were writing it because we knew it was what we wanted to do. However, I know our label and management were a bit nervous. They were like, “We see what you guys are trying to do, but we don’t know if your fans are going to like it”. It’s risky with songs like “Moving On”. We promised it was going to be more radio-friendly, but not fucking bitch musicit’s still going to be heavy. I think a lot of people were skeptical, but I’m really happy with how it came out.
AD: From Death To Destinyis what you were always moving towards. Asking Alexandria was meant to be an arena band.
BB:I feel conceited saying it, but I do agree. It’s always been our goal to one-up every album we’ve released previously. We do want to move into arenas. Last year, we did a few arena tours. It went really well. We’re still hoping to climb onwards and upwards. We’ll continue to push in that direction with future releases as well. ForFrom Death To Destiny, I think we did exactly what we set out to do and we accomplished it. Like you said, it’s taken some time for some people to get used to it, but it really seems to have stuck with most people. It’s doing really well at radio. Our old fan base loves it. We’ve gained a lot more new fans. We’re doing some huge tours this year to coincide with the release of the album and keep pushing it further. We’ll see what happens.
AD: What song from the album speaks to you the most?
BB:I’ve gotten so attached to all of them because they all tell a very specific story over time in this band. At the moment, I’ll probably go with “Moving On”. We’ve been on the road for so long now that it really holds true to its words. It’s tough being out on the road, and we do miss home. At the same time, we love it. It’s two completely different ideologies. We love being out on the road, but we hate it at the same time. It’s a love-hate relationship. That song speaks for itself.
AD: “Don’t Pray For Me” makes for the perfect opener when you play.
BB:We specifically wrote that for live. We wrote this album as a live record. We didn’t want to be one of those bands kids go see live and say, “Oh, they didn’t pull it off. It’s not as good live as it is on the record”. We sat down and wrote a live record. We wanted it to be even bigger live if possible. In our minds, “Don’t Pray For Me” is the perfect way to open an album and therefore a show.
AD: What have you been listening to lately?
BB:I’ve been listening to a lot of music at the moment from rap and country to pop, metal, and rock. It’s hard for me to say what I’ve been listening to because it’s really varied. I’ve been listening to a lot of oldSlipknotagain. I never stopped loving them, but I fell in love with them again recently. They were my favorite band growing up, and I stumbled on their debut album not too long ago again. I was like, “Shit, I forgot how good this was!” There’s been a lot of Slipknot in my music diet at the moment. They’re one of the strongest metal bands around, and they have been since day one. They’re a huge influence to us not just musically either, but their attitude. They came out and they were like, “Fuck you. All heads point in our direction. Everybody’s looking at us”. We wanted to have the same impact. I heard they just started writing for the next record, and I’m really excited to hear what they come up with! Apparently, it’s heavy as fuck.
People forget they fucking came out in the nineties! That’s insane to me because that’s when grunge came and ruined everything. It got rid of rock 'n’ roll. The factGuns N’ Rosesput out theUse Your Illusionrecords in the nineties is fucking badass because it went to show how strong they were as a group. While everyone else was getting fucked over byKurt Cobain, these guys came out with middle fingers blazing and still wrote some kickass jams.
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