Killswitch Engage pulled off a summer long trek on a tour that would have normally not have been their playground.  The Warped Tour may have been a different arena but they did not paly to the crowd which I am sure won them legions of new fans. There aggressive bassist and founder, Mike D’ Antonio,  took the time to enlighten me about that tour and the re-release of their stunning and genre breaking disc, As Daylight Dies.  

Jeffrey Easton interviewing Mike D’ Antonio 

Jeff: To start  off, you just got through doing the Warped tour.  Why would you hit the road on a tour most known for emo and punk? 

Mike: We have been asked by Kevin Lyman 4 years in a row to do it but we have always opted to do OZZFest or other metal tours but it was awesome that he took the time out to make the offer.  He actually came out to a few shows and talked to us about the family atmosphere of the Warped tour and made it seem really interesting.  Since we took last summer off to record As Daylight Dies we decided that this would be the summer to give it a try.  We have played OZZFest twice and other Summer festivals and it seemed like we were playing to the same people over and over again so we decided to give it a try.  We tried to be the really heavy band on a non heavy tour and see how it worked because it has worked for us in the past and looking back I think it worked well in our favor, very successful.  We accomplished what we went out to do which was to kick emo kids asses.  

Jeff:  It was a good time shooting you for a few shows and turning around to see the fans flipping out seeing you. 

Mike:  It was fun to watch the crowd as Adam berated them and seeing them point to their friends thinking Adam was talking about someone else and not them  when he was making fun of them.  That was possibly my favorite time of the tour.   

Jeff:  Considering you guys were so different was there any animosity  during the tour? 

Mike:  Since It was such a hot summer we barely left the bus.  I know in Arizona it was 119 degrees.  I never sensed any animosity amongst the other acts.   I cannot think of anything bad happening during the tour  besides Adam hurting his back again and him having to leave again.  Adam was just being extra cautious  because it would have been his third surgery because the third surgery puts you in a wheel chair.   

Jeff:  Do you think you guys took  the Warped tour over? 

Mike:  Kids were not there to see us per se.  You had Paramore launching into superstardom, Bad Religion were there, Pennywise is always a great draw, I think we just rounded out  the bill a little bit better than in the past.   

Jeff: To bring that around, do you think you won over a lot of new fans? 

Mike:  Yes we did.  I think that was our success, winning over a lot of new fans.  A Lot of people came to the table during signings that were not what we expected telling us how good we were.  Now that I think of it, there was one negative thing.  We were in Montreal and the people there are really into their country and voicing there opinions and Adam went on his usual emo tirade.  After that some kid came up to our merch booth and started mouthing off to our merch booth who is a 400 pound  black man.  He used to be a fighter and the reason why he stopped was because he was hurting people to badly, not because he wanted to stop.  The kid kept mouthing off about us to him and he retorted that you can think what you want, I do not blame you but I do not have anything to do with the band, I just run their merch booth.   The kid walked away and then came back and uttered a racial slur to him and then he proceeded to head butt him in the face making the kids nose explode.  Then he pounded him into the ground before the security whisked him away bleeding.  He was a big guy but he was the nicest guy you will ever meet. 

Jeff:  Right at the end of the tour Roadrunner re-released As Daylight Dies.  Why did they do that? 

Mike:  Roadrunner like to do the re-releases with extra tracks but they are limited edition.  They only press a certain amount and they are for the fanatic fans who have to have everything.  We did not want to just rehash the album with just a few extra tracks so we did it a little different.  We also included a DVD with the videos and the making of the videos from the record and in addition we included two compilation songs plus two extra tracks that never made the album.  The two comp songs you could not get unless you went out and got the comps which was a Kerrang disc and one for the WWE.  I really wanted to dissect the artwork and repackage it into something completely different but with the same themes going on.   So I went back into the photos that we did for the album like the shattered glass and rehashing some stuff that I liked but did not have enough room for on the original album.  I was really happy with the way the artwork came out and I hope the kids think it is different enough and that it’s a buying point.   

Jeff:  Looking at the artwork on the back cover, it looks really Indy.  Is that your frame of mind? 

Mike:  It is weird how I do things.  When I finished the art for the original release I created about 30 shirt designs that revolved around the cover and shelved them.  For this release I went back through them and used what made sense for this release. 

Jeff:  The track that stands out here is the Dio cover, Holy Diver.  Why did you do this? 

Mike:  Kerrang were putting out 2 cover albums, one was a Metallica covers disc and the other was just a random Monsters Of Metal kind of CD.  When they asked us to do it I went through the songs by Dio so I hit the guys up about it so we ended up doing Holy Diver for Kerrang.   

Jeff:  When did you do the video for the track? 

Mike:  We did that two weeks before the Warped tour at the only Castle in San Francisco that the director could find on short notice.   

Jeff:  I liked it, shows that you guys have a sense of humor. 

Mike:  That was the directors idea, to cover the video as close as possible and of course I was the Dio character because I am the shortest one.  

Jeff:  You made the comment about the other songs not being  good enough for the original release but yet they are.  Do you think they should have been on there anyway? 

Mike:  We look at albums and we listen to them endlessly.  When we started recording this album we had it in our heads to make it sort and sweet, 11 songs at the most.  We did not want to bore people to death with a long album.  We want people to listen to this album and want more.  It is the Slayer Rain In Blood theory of just pummeling someone and getting out. 

Jeff:  Do you think that people have a short attention span? 

Mike:  Oh of course, I do.  We all do but then it just might be the band thinking this way.  There are also outros and intros that we took off the record but yet used them during our live show so even though we did not use them to fluff up the record we did use them in a different way.   

Jeff:  Maybe it is just me but I can do some work and put the album on and it is over before I know it.  For me it could have been longer. 

Mike:  See, we did our work, we left you wanting more. 

Jeff:  Adam produced it, is it good to have the members of the band doing the record?  Can you hear any problems that you might have with the sound that a different set of ears could hear? 

Mike:  I think we all have a clear head on what we need to do and what has to be done.  We second guess ourselves so much leading up to the recording  that when we get into the studio the plan is laid out in everybody’s head as what is going to happen.   There is a lot of improvising but that is to be expected but the overall layout is what we had already planned.   

Jeff:  When you listened to the album again while compiling the reissue what were your thoughts a year later? 

Mike:  Honestly I still not like the new songs very much.  If you ask me personally I still do not like them and they should not be on the record.   I also think its to much, to many songs. 

Jeff:  Who are you endorsed by at the moment? 

Mike:  I am using Mesa Boogie amps and cabinets.  I switched over from Ampeg which I was using for about 15 years.  I really believe in the Mesa stuff so I am stoked to be involved with them.  I use Ibanez basses.  They treat me so incredibly well over there and I am in constant contact with them.  I cannot say enough about what a great company they are, they are my favorite sponsorship.  They recently released a signature series bass for me and I also do graphics for them as well.   

Jeff:  You started this band.  Is the vision of this band the same as when you started it? 

Mike:  Not really but you cannot expect vision to be the same 7 or 8 years down the road.  There are so many twists and turns that you may not like but there are things that are not my decisions but yet band decisions.  It is cooler to pool from many sources than to just have one person making decisions. 

Jeff:  To finish this out, you just got through with the Warped tour, what is next? 

Mike:  We are leaving for a Scandinavian tour in three weeks along with going to Russia for the first time.  After that I am not sure but they tell us we will be on the road till next April.   

Killswitch Engage arose out of the so called Hardcore scene but yet have transcended so far past the genre that spawned them that the sound is unrecognizable.  They play out more like a traditional metal abd and that will spell longevity for these metal superstars.