Austin Dickinson of Rise To Remain – Best newcomers at the Kerrang Awards & at the Metal Hammer Awards 2010, a band very much on the rise and headed downunder in 2011!
Paul: Hi Austin, on behalf of the Rockpit and myself, we would like to thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to us, are you all well?
AD: yeah very good thank you, very good.
Paul: Just a little bit of information first of all, could you tell us a little about yourselves and how the band formed?
AD: Yeah, we are Rise to Remain, we play metal, we jump around a lot and we are really excited about being part of the 2011 Soundwave Festival.
Paul: I see you played Sonisphere and Download this year, I bet that was a great experience for you all?
AD: Yeah it was unbelievable, it was the biggest live crowd we had ever played to and Donington is such an historical place as well, so it was an all round banger!
Paul: That’s right, its one of those places that is iconic isn’t it! You’re in the studio at the moment recording a new album, is it going well?
AD: Its going absolutely amazing, we are into our fourth month now, working really, really hard, our producers Colin and Carl have been absolutely working their arses off, as have we. It’ evolving into such an album that I can’t begin to describe it, its just metal with everything we love about music and we are really, really excited to show it to everyone.
Paul: You have been on tour with Korn; I bet that was an experience playing with a band like that!
AD: Yeah it was the week before last we were on tour with them, and playing with Korn was unreal. We got to play some of the biggest indoor venues we have played in the UK, so it was fantastic and Korn are just unbelievable live. It was great just to have that experience and that opportunity to watch them.
Paul: Yeah I suppose you can learn quite a lot from a band like Korn that have been around for such a long time
AD: Definitely!
aul: So what’s up next for you then? Have you got any more live dates coming up in the UK?
AD: Yeah, well we finish the album in the next week or two then we go straight out with Funeral for a Friend, then we have a tour with As I lay Dying, Suicide Silence and Heaven shall Burn. Then we have got time off for Christmas and then we get straight into practice and come out to see you guys in Australia.
Paul: Well we are all looking forward to seeing you out here, it’s a big event for us and we are looking forward to seeing a lot of bands that are coming over and obviously yourselves. Do you have any news on the songs from the new album that you can share with us?
AD: Yeah, we are playing two new songs live, ‘Power Through Fear’ and ‘The Serpent’ and they go down great, and I think at Soundwave you can expect a couple more new songs thrown your way, its just getting the vibe going for the album and getting people really hyped up.
Paul: That’s superb!
What sort of bands have inspired you since you have been together? What are your influences? Or maybe I should ask, what is on your ipod at this moment in time?
AD: At the moment I’m listening to a lot of Deftones, a lot of Killswitch who are my favourite band. Together as a band we don’t really have a collective influence, we’ve all got so many different influences, you could probably name a hundred bands that would influence us in one way or another, but for me personally, I mean vocally, I’d say it’s Mike Patton that has the biggest influence on me. People like Jesse Leach and Chino from Deftones as well -just for his delivery, erm yeah…there’s plenty of influences.
Paul; Yeah I can hear that in your music, you really go for it!! I’ve seen a few snippets on you tube of you playing live and you really get the crowd going, which is what its all about and obviously you really enjoy playing live which is obviously a big factor for the band, do all the guys like really get up for it for when you go on stage? Is it a really big part of the group playing live?
AD: Yeah playing live its where our hearts are, you know, and the video is everything when we perform live and when we are performing it there’s a real buzz when we are on stage and we will just rock out collectively and its really, really a great feeling and we love seeing kids and people having a great time, its definitely where our hearts are.
Paul Confesses:
Paul: I will try not to keep you guys too long because I know you guys are busy, and to be truthful, this is my first interview for the Rockpit, I’m a little edgy and nervous but I’m getting there.
AD: Oh is this your first interview? [laughs] I’m happy that we are the one’s to ‘pop’ your interview cherry!
Paul: [laughs] Yes! Thank you very much!..
I see you got best new band at Metal Hammer, I bet that must have been a great achievement for you and also winning the award for Kerrang the Best British newcomer, that’s a big achievement for a young band.
AD: It was unreal, I mean I got told that no other bands won both awards and I’m like, ok, it’s a massive honour to receive from both of those magazines and both its enterprises, and this album will just raise the stakes for it, so this album is absolutely gonna solidify our title.
Paul: That’s right and you are getting quite a lot of air play on rotation on Scuzz TV and also on Kerrang TV so it’s great to see you putting yourselves out there to the masses. It’s also great to see a young band get that kind of recognition!
AD: Yeah, being played on TV, it’s very, very surreal, I watch Scuzz all the time and I’ve always got it on when I’m not working and then all of a sudden when my mic pops in to view its like ‘Oh my god’ and ‘we can’t believe this is happening!’. Its great and it gets tons and tons of views every day, it’s a great platform for us and every new band.
Paul: I do miss Scuzz TV because now I’m in Australia and been here 2 years…
AD: I was gonna say are you from Birmingham? [laughs] you sound exactly like our manager actually!
Paul: I thought you might find it strange a guy speaking to you from Australia with a Birmingham accent, [laughs] There are quite a lot of rock expats over here and rock has got quite a big following down here in Australia. I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised when you come over.
AD: Yes we are unbelievably excited! It’s our first venture outside of the UK and to kinda cool to go to such an extreme as Australia, when all our friends, bands or band buddies have always gone to the States or Europe.
Paul: If there was any album or song in the world that you could have contributed to, what would it have been?
AD: I’d say for me, just because the song holds a lot of sentimental value to me and it’s a song that I think has got one of the best vocal lines in history is ‘The End of Heartache’ by Killswitch Engage, that’s probably one of my favourites but I’m gonna be a real dick and say any song off Led Zeppelin 2.
Paul: I can agree with you on that yes! If some one had asked me I would have recorded ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’ by Slade because the royalty rights alone would have made me rich beyond my wildest dreams! I mean how many times is it played at Xmas? Its just one of those songs isn’t it?
AD: [Laughs] exactly!
Paul: To finish off with because I know you need to get on, what’s your theory on the meaning of life?
AD: Number 42 and to live fast, try not to die young, play metal, drink beer, stay true to girlfriends, The End.
Paul: you couldn’t have put it any better, that’s what life is all about, having a good time basically, anyway thanks for your interview and thanks for making this my first interview and actually putting me quite at ease. Say hello to the rest of the guys in the band, and we will catch you over here in Australia next year
AD: Excellent man, we’ll have a beer! Bye!