It Dies Today - Jason Wood And Steve Lemke
Posted on July 09, 2007 at 8:00 am by admin
Way Too Loud: How has It Dies Changed throughout the years to forge the sound you have now?
Steve Lemke: When we first started, we were just trying to be heavy, and stuff a million parts together in a song with no choruses. Now we actually know how to write proper songs, and I think we pull it off a lot better.
Jason Wood: As far as I can tell, since I’m new and everything, everyone seems to be on the same page, and everyone has grown as people as well as musicians. Sometimes there’s change in your musical taste, and you know what you want to write. The way we’re going is evolving as a band.
WTL: How did you (Jason) come to into the fold?
Jason: I joined the band in January. They recorded “Sirens” last year, and put it out in October, then the old singer Nick Brooks left to start his own band Queen City Station. The guys from It Dies Today called me up because I had toured with Still Remains on and off, because they’re from my hometown, Grand Rapids Michigan, as a fill in for vocals, and bass on a couple of occasions. One of those tours was with It Dies Today. The guys in this band asked me to try out, and it worked out.
The singer from Still Remains, TJ, couldn’t make a tour because he had to go to the doctor for his throat. For the bass player, I filled in for him because he couldn’t make it to the U.K. for one tour, and I also filled in for him during the Sthress tour. He ended up quitting because he had a kid.
I also had a band back home, called The Orphan that I sang for, but we would just tour regionally, and didn’t have a record label or anything, so when this popped up, I took the spot.
WTL: The Sthress tour with Suffocation?
Jason: Absolutely! Those guys are amazing! Frank is amazing! He’s full of moves!
WTL: They seem to have a great reputation wherever they go. I know every time someone mentions the Strhess tour with Suffocation, the guys in Suffocation always mention Poison The Well -
Jason: Those guys are super good. I love their new stuff. I’ve heard some people bash some of the newer material, but Poison The Well is always awesome, and of course Suffocation is always good. How much more can you say?
Steve: It’s like Suffocation - question mark, dot dot dot, you know? (Laughs)
WTL: Have you been making any plans for an album in 2008 at all?
Jason: We should be going back to the studio, hopefully around February, or some time at the beginning of the year. We have to finish out the album cycle for “Sirens”, because we’ve got to push that album as much as we can, and get out there and tour so people can check out the songs. We should have a new song on a compilation that’s coming out around November/December on Trustkill. They’re doing a compilation of all their heavy bands of unreleased tracks, which means I get to do a song, which makes me happy. Then we can get some of my stuff out there to land on FYE counters.
WTL: Do you play any of your old stuff live?
Jason: We do one song off “Forever Scorned”, the song “Sentiments Of You”, we do a lot of stuff off “The Caitiff Choir”, since we have all those hot jams to choose from! We Do 3 or 4 songs off “Sirens”, it depends..
Steve: It depends on how long we have. We mostly play songs that kids would want to hear. We’re doing it because of them, otherwise we’d be sitting at home, doing nothing! Sometimes we try and get in the odd hidden treasure.
WTL: There seems to have been a constant flood of similar sounding bands for a period of time now. Can any good come of this?
Jason: It’s always good for a band to get picked up and signed. Some things get hard though, especially in the states, because it’s so jam-packed everywhere, and there’s only so many fans to go around.
Steve: There’s a million tours going on at once, which really kills turnout, because you can’t go to 10 shows a week. It seems lately that there’s 2 or 3 shows per night in the same town, especially the last year or 2. It’s getting insane.
Jason: Those summer tours too. The big summer tours overlap so much, that’s it hard to get a lot of kids out to some shows. There’s the Warped Tour, which we’re going to be on this year. Sounds Of The Underground, Ozzfest. Plus whatever tours that are going on between those tours from other bands. Then there’s the Rise Against Tour. That’s gonna be sick!
Steve: We’re going to be home for that! August 9th!
WTL: Do you think there’s been a lack of creativity lately?
Jason: I haven’t heard of too many metal bands lately. It’s pretty standard.
Steve: I don’t really check out new music unless someone says “Whoa! Check it out! It blew my mind!”. Otherwise, I’m boring. I listen to the same old stuff. Unless someone shows me something incredible, and by incredible, I mean crappy pop-punk! Yeah, that’s right! I’m jamming the new Fallout Boy! I don’t care what anyone says!
Jason: My favourite record now is “Anberline”. Their new record is ridiculous.
WTL: Do you think MySpace can be a doubled edged sword?
Steve: It can be. It can be a slap in the face. We got out there by just touring constantly when we had no money, no fanbase, and making that fanbase. Now it seems, some bands get on MySpace and become huge in a month. We’ve played with bands that sell out shows that I’ve never even heard of. I think can think of plenty of bands that have done it that way now, but I guess if bands can do it that way, more power to ‘em.
WTL: What have you been doing on tour to entertain yourselves?
Jason: Lately, four of us have Nintendo DS.
Steve: I’ve been hitting Zelda pretty hard. I still have to finish Mario… Then we’ve gotta see some movies. Die Hard was awesome!
Jason: I’ve been reading the book by Henry Rollins, “Get In The Van”. Good stuff. It’s good to humble yourself by reading it, because it talks about the most insane conditions when it comes to touring. Getting hot cups off piss thrown at you while you’re playing, or people just spitting on you until you’re just soaked. It’s humbling reading that stuff knowing you will never go through something like that.
WTL: You’ve never had a bad show?
Jason: We had an “awesome” show in Cleveland… but there was no spitting or piss throwing, but almost fisticuffs.
WTL: Has there ever been any confusion with any other bands with “die” or “dying” in the name?
Jason: Absolutely!
Steve: All the time!
Jason: Every Time I Die, As I Lay Dying. “Who’s playing, ETID or IDT? I don’t know…”.
Steve: We both come from Buffalo, so it gets very confusing. Don’t name your new bands “Die”! NO MORE “DIE” BANDS! (Laughs)
The Official It Dies Today Website
It Dies Today at MySpace
It Dies Today at Trustkill
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