Interview

Chiodos is an odd band for the way they approach genre. They see it as something constraining, so instead of conforming to one, they look at all genre conventions, play by their rules to create a new genre: something as of yet undefined. As Chiodos set blazed on, I sat down to talk with Matt Mentley, bassist for the veteran hardcore/metal band Throwdown. Throwdown has a very different philosophy to genre, put simply: Fuck it.

The band, distinguished on the tour by not only their age as a band, but by how hard they rock, have learned to cast genre aside as they have spent time on everything from small stints on Warped to Ozzfest. The irony not lost on me as Matt and I talked to length about the meaninglessness of genre and it’s ramifications as Chiodos raged on in the background, here’s what was said:

The Cast
EP – Myself, Matt McGraw
MM – Matt Mentley, Bassist of Throwdown

EP: The first question I have is, why the Vans Warped Tour?

MM: I think the reason why we were excited about doing the Vans Warped Tour this year is because it’s something different for us. Normally, we’ve been seen on Ozzfest or Sounds of the Underground, tours like that, and obviously more metal and more hardcore tours that are kind of, definitely more of ours, where we kind of fit in better. I think we like the challenge of doing this tour and kind of standing out a little bit. But, we’ve done dates on it before, little stints on the west coast, in our home area. We want to branch out and it has been great so far. Every day we’ve been surprised by the turnouts at our stage, it’s been really cool. We’ve been making friends with some new bands, just hanging out and having a good time.

EP: You guys have been pretty vehement about saying that you’re more geared towards hardcore than metal, right?

MM: I don’t really know. I don’t think we really care too much about labels at this point in our lives, and at this point in our bands career. We’ve been a band for ten years and with our new record that is coming out in a few weeks, all we did was just write what we felt was natural, and people can say it’s more metal, people can say it’s more hardcore, I don’t even know and I really don’t care. We weren’t really concerned with what kind of genre it was and just wrote what we felt that we would all enjoy and what we hoped our fans would enjoy too.

EP: Do you think that metal and hardcore are kind of merging into one genre? I know now that they have the term metalcore, but it seems like the lines between hardcore and metal aren’t really there anymore and there is just this gray area. Do you think that there’s a bright line still there?

MM: For me personally, I think hardcore is more about your lifestyle and the lyrics that you’re presenting as a band. The sad thing nowadays is that hardcore has become and image, just like a lot of other crappy trends in the world, and it’s too band because that’s not what it’s about. You know, I think people worry too much about what’s punk and what’s hardcore and what’s metal. People are so caught up in labeling things and worrying about how something is too much this or too much that, or not enough, instead of just chilling out and liking something if you like it, not worrying how it is or how the people look on stage. If it’s a metal band but they don’t look like they’re metal heads, who cares? It’s like what does it really matter if you like a band, just like them, don’t really worry about all the labels and things. We all listen to so many different types of music, like bands that I’ve been watching on this tour everyday are Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, and Tiger Army. Those are all bands that I listen to. They obviously sound nothing like us and it doesn’t really matter. That’s the way I look at it.

EP: Is that why you thought it was pretty humorous that “Revolver” said you guys were the “Future of Metal?”

MM: [laughs] You know, it’s funny because that’s, it’s whatever, there are always going to be different things said about you. There are plenty of interviews or reviews that say we’re tough guy hardcore. All those things, they don’t matter to us at the end of the day. The “Revolver” thing is an honor and it’s cool to be considered that and it’s flattering. But at the end of the day, we just do what we do and we try not to think about those things and we try to be ourselves. And that’s all we can really do I guess.

EP: I understand that the band no longer has an original member anymore. Do you think that the original spirit of the band is still there? Like, is the original Throwdown still there or do you think Throwdown has become a new band with the same name?

MM: It’s evolved and the thing about not having an original member is that it’s kind of gone, it’s not like we decided that all the original members should be gone—

[We’re interrupted for a minute while someone asks Matt a question]

MM: Most bands of our peers that our older, it’s just the way it works. You start a band in high school, people want to move on with their lives, do different things, whatever. We never felt that it was time to hang it up. We felt that the band needed to continue and I think the spirit of the band is stronger than ever. We’re a full time band now. We’ve got four dudes in the band who are all committed to one goal. Before it was a lot of guys doing different things and projects, still in school, whatever it may be. And now, we’re focused and I think this is the strongest the band’s ever been really.

EP: With the new album, was there anything in particular you wanted to accomplish, like trying something new with the band or trying something new with the style, like tweaking it a little bit?

MM: Like I was saying earlier, all we really are trying to do is throw the book out the window of what people expect from us and what from our past and history or whatever, and really let our influences seep into what we did. And granted, there was some stuff that was a little too out there for us and because naturally whatever you’re listening to at the time is going to influence what you’re writing or whatever that may be. But, yeah, we really decided let’s just write what comes out and let it see where it goes and that’s what we did. We had six months to work on this record and write it, so we really had a lot of exploration and that was really cool. I’m really excited with the finished project.

EP: You guys are on Trustkill Records, which has a pretty diverse line-up. Is it an easy environment to work with the record company and your producers and the label?

MM: Uh, ewww, I can’t answer that. [laughs]

EP: Yeah, that’s okay. I understand. What in particular about “Venom and Tears” are you most proud of?

MM: I think I’m really proud of the diversity on the album. I think it’s definitely the most eclectic Throwdown album. It was the most combined effort between all members we’ve ever had. It’s really a personal record to me. It’s something that I’m really proud of, all of us are. We’re just really excited. We set out to make the best record we could and I think we did, for the time. Hopefully we’ll be able to out do ourselves as best we can on the next one.

EP: In your bio it talks a lot about being influenced a lot by Pantera, and you’re compared a lot to them. Pantera, of course, experienced a great tragedy a couple years ago when Dimebag Darrell was killed. Do you think this had any effect on the metal or hardcore world?

MM: I mean, yeah, something like that changes music. Just like when I was in junior high and Kurt Cobain killed himself, that was a big deal to me because Nirvana was one of my favorite bands of all-time, and the same with Pantera. It sucks. I don’t really know, I mean, it definitely has an effect and everyone has kind of come together and been honoring Dimebag in the past few years. It’s cool, we sometimes throw out a cover, a Pantera cover here and there, and do some tribute to him and stuff. It definitely has an effect on everybody that plays music. It’s a scary thing, the venue that he was shot at, a few months before we were there with Lamb of God. When he was shot, we were in the UK still with Lamb of God. It was weird that night going on stage, knowing just the night before a dude like that, a fellow musician and whatever, an idol, had been shot on stage while playing, it’s weird. It was a creepy feeling going on stage thinking, not that I was going to happen to us, but that it could. It’s a weird feeling for sure.

EP: You guys have toured with Ozzfest before, what do you think about it turning into a free tour this year?

MM: I don’t really know. It’s cool, I guess, if [laughs] I don’t really know. The whole thing seems a little weird to me, but I don’t know how it’s working or how they’re going about doing tickets and all that stuff. But, yeah, I don’t know. I personally don’t think that the line-up is as strong as it’s been in previous years. That’s just my opinion obviously which ultimately doesn’t matter. I think it’s cool for fans because they’re going to be stoked to go to a free fest. It’s really rad you know.

EP: I guess going back to the genre thing, you said it was nice to be challenged on the tour by all these different genres, and how you thought a genre that incorporates almost like a uniform, where people have to walk a certain way and talk a certain way. Do you think it helps the music by attracting attention and getting it more mainstream, or do you think that ultimately this is kind of a detriment to it?

MM: Are you saying like warped tour?

EP: No, I mean like how things have become genre-ized.

MM: I guess I think that all that stuff is a waste of time and I don’t think it matters. I think if you like bands, you like bands. At the same time, there are a ton of bands that set out and try to fit into certain trends because they think that it will help them become bigger or more popular, and that’s just ridiculous to me, even more than people labeling a band. When bands try to do those things, just to fit into something like that, it’s sad and just a waste of time. Obviously when things get mainstream and corporations and outside things, whenever those things come into play in music, or in anything, it can end up ruining it. But I think when the mainstream and major labels, and things like that, don’t care about the punk, metal, and hardcore, they’ll still survive just like they did in years before. So, ultimately I think it’s cool exposure and it’s helped a lot of bands to make a living on tour, but at the same time I think things will survive on their own regardless.