Interviews
Interview with Kyle Sanders Of HellYeah
HellYeah is now on tour with their Celebration of the Life of Vinnie Paul. While they stopped into Maryland, Empire Extreme got to sit down with bassist Kyle Sanders and talk about the tour.
EE: You excited about the tour, I know this is like day 2 or 3?
Kyle: Yeah just getting back I got the groove. So far so good, we started off In Atlanta my hometown.
EE: Hows the fan response been for the tour with it being a tribute to Vinnie?
Kyle: The fans are the ones who talked us into doing it, we weren’t sure if we wanted to or could do it with the record being done and vinnie’s stuff recorded we had to support the album. It’s a 4 week tour.
EE: Since you joined the band a little after it was created, how was it like meeting Vinnie for the first time?
Kyle: It was Exactly like I hoped, sometimes you don’t want to meet your idols for fear of them not being very nice, he was amazing. It was a very natural process.
EE: How was it like making the album?
Kyle: We had all the nuts and bolts done when it went down. We took a break from the studio, Chad had to do some vocals still, when Vinnie passed. We took a little time off, and went back into the studio again, and it was hard especially for Chad since he writes all the lyrics. The record took a turn from that.
EE: Hows it been touring with NonPoint for this run?
Kyle: we have played before, they are great live and have such amazing energy and works as a solid bill.
EE: If you could have a Dream tour, who would it be with?
Kyle: I grew up with Metallica, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, if I could do a tour like that with those guys.
EE: So I usually ask what dead musician would you want to bring back, without it being the obvious of Vinnie and Dimebag?
Kyle: Cliff Burton is the reason I started playing bass. If I could sit down and have a beer with him and talk shop with him that would be awesome.
EE: Do you have any projects you’re working other then the HellYeah Stuff?
Kyle: I opened up a Rock School out in Gainesville Georgia called Let There Be Rock School. When we lost Vinnie and didn’t know what we were going to do, I always wanted to open a school up. This was the time to do it and do something positive. We opened it up this year in March on St Patrick’s Day. We already got a good handful of students and good instructors.
HellYeah put on a hell of a show that ranged from pure chaotic energy to a very emotional dedication video to Vinnie Paul. The crowd and Chad were on full rage that night, Chad jumping right into the face of the crowd a few times. The set was perfect with a blend of new songs and old. I’ve been a huge fan of HellYeah but never got to see them Live, and this was amazing to see and Roy Mayorga had some big shoes to fill playing drums but I know that Vinnie was looking down and just loving how bad ass they all were. NonPoint also killed it once again, I probably have seen Nonpoint like 30 times since the first album dropped and every time they just keep bringing it and bringing it again, this was such a good bill, and openers Sleep Signals started the energy up from the start and it didn’t finished until HellYeah left the stage.
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Interviews
INTERVIEW WITH MERCURY OF PRIEST
Empire Extreme got to sit down and talk to Mercury of Priest when the band came into PA at LoveDrafts.
The show was amazing all the bands that we seen put on a great show for the fans. Vampires Everywhere killed it once again. Last time we seen Priest we only got to see them open for Powerman5000 and got like 6 songs, this time Priest was headlining and we got to see much more which I was excited to see.
Priest played a good mix of old and new and even a few songs off the album “Dark Pulse” which is out in May. We got to see 13 songs played and even Mercury come out into the crowd a few times and when they played “Obey” even blessed some of the crowd. It was great hearing songs like “BlackListed”, “Signal in the Noise”, “History in Black” and “Vaudeville”. It was such a great night of music and a great conversation with Mercury. If you get a chance to see this band play in ur town, it’s a must
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Interviews
INTERVIEW WITH OF VIRTUE
Where does the band name come from? Wanting to be the best version of yourself at all times. The name is a reminder to hold ourselves accountable.
How is the music scene in Michigan? The Michigan music scene has always been vibrant and in my opinion, important. Do we get the credit we deserve? Absolutely not. But for the state that brought you Motown, Eminem, Lizzo, The White Stripes, I Prevail and so many other incredible artists – it’s kind of hard to believe that Michigan remains a hidden gem.
How’s the reception from the fans of the latest album “Omen”? It’s been incredible. From seeing people singing along at shows to us seeing new supporters of all different ages, colors, and creeds joining the journey. Omen has been a pivotal album in our career and we’re proud of it!
If you could tour with 2 bands, which bands would you want to tour with? Spiritbox and Bad Omens. They’re both making waves, changing who the metal audience is, and surely they’d be fun to hang around with.
Where do you draw inspiration for the lyrics? Honestly, the lyrics are our stories. The stories of our struggles, our trials and our tribulations.
What’s been your favorite tour or show? We just got off of a tour with our labelmates, Any Given Day. They treated us to a handful of sold out shows over in Europe, which at this point we call our second home. Those were great shows, but any show we’ve done in Europe is typically one for the books!
If you could bring back a dead musician, who would it be? Prince for sure. An incredible musician I would love an opportunity to chat or make music with!
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Interviews
INTERVIEW WITH TWIN TEMPLE
Being Married and being in a band together. Do you feel that makes it easier or harder?
We love to do the Devil’s work together so for us its a match made in hell.
What’s your favorite horror movie?
That’s hard to narrow down but the first few that come to mind are Rosemary’s Baby, The Devil Rides Out, Wickerman, The Devils Reign featuring Anton Lavey, Mario Bava’s Black Sunday, anything starring Vincent Price. We also got to see an advance screen of “Late Night with the Devil” featuring a very evil performance from our friend Dave Dastmalchian. We’re also looking forward to Bryan Fuller’s “Dust Bunny” and are positive it will be a new favorite. The list goes on…..we are huge horror fans.
Favorite Non Horror Movie?
Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (which is horror/noir adjacent) and The Burbs (also horror adjacent…haha.)
All of Quentin Tarantino’s films- our latest favorite is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, because 1960’s LA…
What misconception of Satanists would you like to educate people on?
We’re not here to proselytize, force our beliefs on people, or educate people on them Selves, Satanism or anything else. If people are interested in exploring Satanism, we encourage them to do their research and question everything.
If you could bring back any dead musician, who would you pick and why?
We would have loved to do a song with Ronnie Spector who recently passed. Also would have been amazing to collaborate with Jack Nitzsche who arranged so many amazing songs.
If you could tour with any 2 bands, who would you want to tour with?
The Ronnettes & The Shangri-Las.
What has been your Favorite Tour so far?
The God is Dead Tour that we’re currently on is definitely the most evil and blasphemous tour yet. We find it very pleasurable to be able to continue expanding the rituals and seeing our nightmares come true on stage.
You were on “Dragula” with the Boulet Brothers, how was that experience?
It was a fiendish delight to collaborate with some of our fav monsters.
What was it like Touring with Danzig?
Another nightmare come true! We’ve both been fans for a long time and we’re obviously inspired by the wicked world Glenn has conjured. So to get to spend time with him and watch him live every night and to now call him a friend is completely surreal. He’s a legend— but was also one of the coolest, kindest, most unholy people we’ve had the carnal pleasure of touring with.
How’s the reception of the last album “God is Dead”?
Personally, we love the record and are very proud of what we’ve accomplished. As far as other peoples’ reactions…. we don’t know and don’t care! We pleasured ourselves and that’s what matters most.
What got you interested in the style of music you play? And how would describe your music?
We’ve always loved classic American music from jazz to blues to country to rock and roll and so on. We also love the pageantry of heavy metal and theatre. So for us it was a very organic culmination of our obsessions. Rock and roll has always been the devils music.
Have you visited the Satanic Temple in Massachusetts?
No we have not but Lucien did attend one of our rituals so we had a chance to share where we get our babies blood and all things Satan.
Have you had any bad encounters at shows because of the misconception of satanism?
No! We purposefully foster a live show environment where all are welcome, all should come being the most important person in the world which is themselves, whatever that may be. Even Christians! We believe music is meant to bring joy, transcendence… We just want to share the things we love; pink, rhinestones, big hair, great rock ’n’ roll, Satanic ritual, you know… but we have had churches assemble outside our shows, screaming through distorted PA speakers that God is not dead & wishing us all a “terrible time”. Why would their God not want us to have fun? This kind of behavior is only makes us more proud to be who we are and do what we love.
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