DDR: Your latest album “Rise of the Lion”, where did that
title come from and what was the thinking behind it?
Ryan: Everything thing we did with this record was kind of
fan based. It started out that the lyrics where topics from
fans, then we wrote the lyrics that way. The record cover
had a fan tie in it with a tattoo of the lion. The band was
really taking off, so it just felt like the right tie in at the end.
and we where like “That's Crazy!” That's a big one for me
because it will be my first time seeing Slipknot and that's just
insane. We have played some sweet fests this year and I
have been checking bad ass bands of my list that I have
seen (laughs).
DDR: For someone that has not heard your band, what
would you want them to know about you guys?
DDR: What have you enjoyed most about Mayhem Fest this Ryan: We have always played what we like to play and we
year?
like to have fun. Even in the tough guy metal world, its imRyan: You know when you are on a great tour and usually portant to have fun and be positive, so that’s what we like to
you can think about and remember the bad shows and you do.
can remember the great shows. On this one its hard, I just
have a blur of all of them. Every show has been a great
show, even if it's in the middle of nowhere you are still playing for these giant metal crowds. Metal heads in the middle
of the day losing their minds, so I think at the end of the day
the thing we will remember the most is how much fun we
had, playing for a bunch of new people and a bunch of old
fans. On top of that, you are doing it with legendary bands
like KORN and Avenged on the same bill, so you get to
watch those bands every night.
DDR: The name of the band Miss May I , where did that
come from?
Ryan: (laughs) We don’t have a good story, it was named
Miss May I before I was in the band. They had that name
when they where like 15 years old. We don’t have a cool
story for it, wish we had a cool story, but instead we just
have a weird name.
DDR: Is there an underlying theme that influences your music?
Ryan: Each record and song is different. The last record was
a lot more personal and dealt with a lot more personal issues, things that Levi or myself were going through, so this
one we just changed it up. We never did the fans perspective thing until this record. I don’t think we will do it on the
next record because we like to do things different each record, That's why each record sounds different. Each time we
go into the studio we want to do something different. With
the whole band it's what we are into at the time.
DDR: After Mayhem Fest, what are the plans for the band?
Ryan: We have some more stuff coming, it's not announced
yet though. The main thing now that has been announced is
we are a part of KNOTFEST. I mean that's insane to say, just
like when we found out we are going to be part of this tour