By Kelley Simms
RIGHT ON POINT
Nonpoint
R
ecent
transplants
from
Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida, alt-groove
metal band Nonpoint now call
Chicago their second home. Vocalist Elias
Soriano, drummer Robb Rivera, guitarists
Rasheed Thomas and B.C. Kochmit, and
bassist Adam Woloszyn make a quick
return to Chi-Town on their latest tour,
playing The Forge in Joliet on Nov. 28.
On the band's 10th studio album - aptly
titled X (think Roman numeral, not the let-
ter) – Nonpoint hits the mark with ten con-
densed tracks at a perfect 37-minute run-
time. Miraculously, the band recorded the
album in only 22 days with experienced
knob-twirler Fred Archambault (Avenged
Sevenfold, Atreyu). Elias Soriano gave IE
the latest update on the band's new album
and current tour.
Mosh: You took a nearly year-long hiatus
after touring for your previous album The
Poison Red. Did the band need a bit of a
break?
Elias Soriano: We needed some time to our-
selves for a few months just to kind of
decompress and step away from the project
a little bit. Refresh and come back with a lit-
tle bit more of a clean slate in your head,
where you don’t have a lot of stresses or
past situations jumbled in your mind. We
gave ourselves a little bit of time, and when
it was time to get back together, we all
knew it, and we started [again].
Mosh: You recorded X in only 22 days. How
did it go so quickly and what did producer
Fred Archambault get out of you in the stu-
dio?
34 illinoisentertainer.com december 2018
E.S: We were prepared. We did a lot of pre-
production, and the tones and everything
were pretty much set. We had the ability to
use two studios. A lot of times there were
two things going on at once. People laid
down scratch guitars, doubles and solos in
the other room while vocals, drums, and
bass were sometimes going on in the main
room. We were organized. [With it] being
our tenth record, it gets a little bit easier
every time because we’re used to the
process. And having Fred at the helm, it
went relatively quickly.
Mosh: No song overstays its welcome, and
the record has a massive replay factor. Did
you consider that when you were compiling
the tracks?
E.S.: Yeah, we wanted to put together a
"body" of work as we always like to do.
There’s going to be standouts on every
[album], but once we started nailing songs
down and deciding what makes the record
and what doesn’t, we wanted the bulk - if
not all of the record - to be just like you said,
to have a replay value that could stand the
test of time. We chose wisely.
Mosh: Opening track “Empty Batteries” is
an explosive start to the album. Was it the
clearcut opener for the record?
E.S.: Yes, it was already set to be the open-
er during the writing process. Once all the
tracks are done, you start putting them
together, seeing which ones seem to flow
the best from the others. Lots of times it’s
what story is going from one to the next
and keeping things that are relatively close
together so that way you continue that sen-
timent from the song before it. It’s *definite-
ly* a process, and we’re as methodical as
we can be without overthinking it.
Mosh: What was your lyrical inspiration
for the album?
E.S.: Outside of just the basic product of
songwriting and writing lyrics being thera-
py, it’s just basically what’s in my heart and
my head that I want to get out. If it’s not
honest about how I feel about something,
then it’s not going to fare well when I play
on stage. If it tends to lean in that direction,
it’s because those are the kind of feelings
and subjects that drives my creativity, deep-
er, stronger, more recognizable subjects.
Emotions are normally what translates to
people, and that’s the whole goal - to trans-
late to the listener.
Mosh: How was shooting the video for
“Chaos and Earthquakes”?
E.S.: I gave (director Eric Richter) a gener-
al direction of what the lyrics were all
about, gave him some image ideas and he
really grabbed it and took it to the next
level. We had a great place where we shot,
and we had a good actress, a good crew
and two cameras. It came together really
nice. It was fun. We got to play with fire,
red tape everywhere, we got to build an
office and play FBI. It was pretty cool.
Mosh: You and Robb are the only original
Nonpoint members. After 20-plus years
together, what do you attribute to the
band’s longevity?
E.S.: I think not putting an end-cap or put-
ting a “well if this happens then it’s done”
thing [on it]. We’re not about putting limi-
tations or boundaries on our project
because it’s fueled with creativity. If you
start setting too many rules or start giving
yourself too many ways out, you’re going
to find a way out. We’re committed to the
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