7 - Tell us about the cover concept of "PREY FOR US" And how was the creation process?
I touched on the cover art concept earlier, but I’ll add that our label UMP got us hooked up with Remy at Headsplit Design to do the artwork. All we gave him was descriptions of the song topics and he turned around and nailed it. I couldn’t be happier with what he came up with for us, it’s really good and eye-catching, creepy and scary without being gory.
8- How does the United States, and its future as a world power?
Not sure where to begin or end on this question, I feel like I could talk about this forever. Let me talk a little about a few of the songs on the new album that tie into this question. Currently, it feels to me like the conservative movement that is now in power in this country doesn’t view regular people like you and I as “people,” but either ASSETS or LIABILITIES. I write about that in “Capitalist Martyr,”which is about corporate overlords shaming the common employee into working endless hours for less pay. This conservative movement is backed by more money than you would believe.
We have the people with the money controlling the message to regular people, dividing us regular people against one another when we really should all be united against the extremely wealthy and their abuse of power, which is what I write about in “The Outrage Machine.” Finally, we the people of the USA somehow chose to elect President Trump. I feel that Trump came to power by exploiting the fear and hatred that so many cling to in this country...not just the fear and hatred of his opponent in the election Clinton but also by exploiting the fear and hatred that many have of poor people and minority groups. It’s a bizarre thing to try to explain, but I attempt to in “Cryptofascist,” which is about the rise of Trump and his loyal following…”Masses on a mission, to take back what they think they’ve lost.” These people honestly believe that they are missing out on something if a poor or minority group person receives government assistance in any way. To sum up, I love my country and am thankful to live where I can freely express my views without much fear, but I’m not very impressed with the hateful minded people who have rose to power.
9 Tell us about the concerts, festivals and tours? And tell us about an anecdote?
So far, we haven’t yet gone on a proper tour, but hopefully that will change. We have been fortunate to get involved with some solid gigs...our first show ever in 2013,
we got to meet Gorod from France, which was awesome. We got to do direct support for Nile when they came around. We just had a quite successful CD release show in our area with our friends Dehumanized (NYDM legends). The past two years, we have been involved in the “HothFest,” which has had us playing alongside bands such as Defeated Sanity and others.
I don’t have any really funny anecdotes, but it has been very enjoyable getting to meet and talk to some of these bands that are making waves and some of my influences over the past three+ years.