The Acacia Strain Interview

Interview
Vincent Bennett
The Acacia Strain

Lineup:
Vincent Bennett - Vocals
Seth Coleman - Bass
Daniel Daponde - Guitar
Daniel Laskeiwicz - Guitar
Kevin Boutot – Drums

The Acacia Strain Promo

8/31/05
Email Interview
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

"This band is an ever-changing project. Members may change, but the motive always will remain the same"

Massachusetts' The Acacia Strain may have seem like a revolving door in regards to their members however their goal has remained the same to produce the heaviest music known to man by fusing hardcore, noise and death metal, melody, and by tuning their guitars to dropped G#. The band will be in the studio in December recording their follow-up to 3750 and are currently touring like mad men. They are currently out with Scars of Tomorrow, Still Remains, and As Cities Burn. In this interview vocalist Vincent Bennett discusses the band's newest addition, drummer Kevin Boutot, the future plans of the band...

A: The acacia strain is a disease associated with the acacia tree in west Africa and the various insects that breed there.

A: This tour has been nothing less than amazing. The people in the bands are amazing. The kids we play to are amazing. The promoters are amazing. This is probably one of the best tours we have ever had the chance to be a part of.

Q: What has been the single most interesting thing that has happened thus far?

A: Narrowing it down to a single experience is nearly impossible, but playing with some of our favorite bands in front of some of the biggest crowds we have ever played to is a dream come true.

Q: Sorry I have to go here and ask the ridiculous standard questions, but please give the fans some backlog on the history of The Acacia Strain.

A: This band is an ever-changing project. I cant say that we have had the same line up for all except the last couple of tours we have done. We have had 3 bass players before Seth and two drummers before Kevin, we also used to have three guitar players. I suppose we have just been making changes to best suit what we really want to do. Members may change, but the motive always will remain the same.

Q: I understand after several changes in personnel and after the acquisition of the other guitar player, Daniel Daponde. I hear that you named the band after the African acacia tree. What sparked you to see the “ugliness in beauty” metaphor stemming from the beetles which grown in the tree?

A: Actually, the bugs that breed in the tree include multiple families of disease-bearing locusts. This is where the ugliness comes into play. If you look at the tree from a distance - it is beautiful, peaceful, and serene. But the closer you get the more you realize the stark ugliness of the whole thing: bugs swarming and breeding future disease. In a way it is a metaphor for some humans, beautiful on the outside…

Q: Daponde came to the band because of Daniel Laskeiwicz’s shoulder injury and him returning soon after. How did Dan hurt his shoulder that was never explained in any interview I have read to date.

A: Laskeiwicz was only 15 or 16 at the time of the accident, he was still on his high-school’s football team and was at a game when the shoulder injury occurred. Dan Daponde was only supposed to be a fill in, but we couldn’t let him go.

Q: Speaking of lineup changes, etc. How is new drummer, Kevin Boutot, working out? How did he come to join the band?

A: Kevin is amazing. He gave up his whole life for this band, almost at the drop of a hat. Our original drummer – Ben Abert – left the band after some “creativity issues” (he left on good terms, no hard feelings) so we needed a new drummer. We had a tour with our good friends A Thousand Falling Skies in October and a tour with Bury Your Dead and Scars of Tomorrow right after that so Mark Castillo of Bury Your Dead told us he would fill in until we found a permanent drummer pull double duty with BYD. On the ATFS tour the band decided to call it quits and recommended trying out their drummer Kevin after the tour with BYD. The rest is pretty self-explanatory.

Q: I hear Kevin just got a tattoo on his stomach that reads, “Like father like son”. Please explain the story for the readers.

A: The tattoo also includes a picture of a drum. His father has been playing drums since before Kevin was born and Kevin has been playing since before he can remember. Kevin is so proud that he shares this trait with his father that he decided to get the tattoo.

A: As of right now, we no longer have three guitarists. We are going to stick to the standard two-guitar setup. As far as the previous writing is concerned, the two current guitarists had most of the say as to what did or didn’t make it on to the record.

Q: Speaking of songwriting in your own words, how would you say you have grown between And Life Is Very Long to 3750?

A: I say we have grown tremendously as a band and as people. And life is very long was a trial album, one we really don’t like to speak about. 3750 is us finding our sound as a band. I'm pretty sure every band has at least one album where they don’t really know what they want to do as a band. For us, that album is “and life is very long”… we just wanted to be in a band and play music that sounded like bands that we liked at the time. Whereas in 3750 we really decided where we wanted to be as a band.

Q: I read that you tune your guitars to “drop A# which is C standard with the bottom string dropped a whole step to A#”. What made you drop to A#? Are you still experimenting on other sick sounds and how will this affect the next release? Will it be more technical than 3750?

A: Currently we tune to dropped G# and use a very thick gauge of string. The new album is in progress and I can tell you that it will definitely be HEAVIER than 3750. There are different levels of technicality – we don’t want to be a tech-metal band so we don’t write techy parts. Most people don’t understand that we just want to be a heavy band. I can say, however that the next album will be more diverse.

Q: How did Adam Dutkiewicz come to produce the album? I hear you have enlisted his help for the next album as well.

A: Adam goes as far back in our career as “and life is very long”. His brother Toby (who used to be in Aftershock with Adam) put the album out on his label Devils Head Records. Although Adam was on tour with Killswitch for most of that year, he was home for a while and helped produce the first couple of days of recording. For 3750 we pre-booked the time with him to make sure we had him for sure. I don’t think we would ever want anyone but Adam to record anything we ever did.

Q: What is the true significance behind the number 3750? I did read that it was a spin on the things you despised in your lives in an effort to rid yourself of those demons. Would you care to expound on this?

A: 3750 – in its literal sense – is northeast street slang for weed rolled with crack and smoked. I took that and used it as a metaphor for the “worst of the worst” of the people in the world, the kind of people who spend their lives in the gutter; or the “bottom of the barrel”

Q: What do you guys have to say against your critics that the album sounds like his other productions? By the way, I can hear the difference especially considering you have a distinctively different sound, which is due to the density created by the three guitarists. Personally, I love the “heavier than fuck” approach!

A: Every producer has their own special touches that they add into their work. Criticizing that our album sounds like every other album he produced is like saying that all of Picasso’s paintings look alike. I think it is a very close-minded way to review anything.

Q: Are you guys satisfied with the way 3750 turned out? If you could change one thing about it, what would that be?

A: I would have written more songs and made it longer, my only real problem with it is that we originally wanted to release it as an EP on Devils Head and didn’t write enough songs for a full-length.

A: That’s a tough one. Before the album was released, “Sun Poison and Skin Cancer” was my favorite, and then when the album was released, “Smoke Ya Later” was up there. But now I think my favorite song is actually “3750”

Q: Who came up with the concept for the album cover? What message do you want the buyer to walk away with?

A: I came up with the idea and Toby was the one who actually brought it to life. Its hard to tell but it is actually 3 different shades of black, which represents the “worst of the worst” I talked about before. The entire thing is black and white because we didn’t want to compromise anything we did as a band with our music, we take a pretty “black and white” approach to our writing: we do what we like, which is pretty bare bones… like we said before, we don’t want to be a tech metal band.

A: The corrosion symbol on the front represents the slow corrosion of the world through its many societies. The slow rot that is human existence.

Q: I’d like to go back to the upcoming release, I understand you will go in the studio in December. Do you have a working title for the album yet? What are you willing to talk about? Any working song titles yet?

A: We are currently working with one album title right now, but I’m not really at liberty to divulge that information right now. But we do play 3 new songs live and have 6 new songs written. We play “4x4”, “WHOA! Shut it down!” and “Seacrest, out” live. And we have 2 other songs written entitled “Burnface” and “The Demolisher” so come out to shows to get a sneak preview.

A: Not really except that its going to be way heavier, and possibly more complex – more “grown up” if you will.

Q: Meshuggah, Neurosis, Coalesce, and Dillinger Escape Plan are some of your influences; whom are you listening to now? Who are some of your favorite bands in and out of the scene?

A: I love Meshuggah and so does the rest of the band and Coalesce is an old favorite, but I don’t ever understand the comparison to Dillinger or Neurosis. I am currently listening to the new Between the Buried and Me, the new Ion Dissonance, and all of the following: Light This City, Into The Moat, The Red Death, Scars of Tomorrow, the new On Broken Wings, Remembering Never, Aborted, Mike Jones, and my favorite band: Cryptopsy.

A: David Lee Roth is one of my heroes. Not in his current state, but in the hey-day of Van Halen, he was the perfect frontman. I also love Avril Lavigne and (I’m drawing a blank concerning his last name right now but) Mike [DiSalvo] from Cryptopsy is one of my favorite vocalists.

A: I see it all getting bigger and more popular. I heard somewhere that since 2003, 150 new metal and hardcore bands have come out of nowhere and sold over 10,000 records. Headbanger’s Ball is back on the air and playing mostly metal and hardcore videos. Hot Topic has gone from selling huge pants to selling camo shorts and Bury Your Dead t-shirts. I think it’s amazing, not just as a member of the movement, but a fan of and friends with a lot of bands that deserve all of the fame and popularity that they get.

Last show you attended as a fan and not as a performer. Terror at Cabot St. Pub in my hometown of Chicopee, MA. We just got of tour with those dudes a week before that, and I love them to death.

What ignites your passions good and bad? What pisses you off and what heats you up? The need to succeed, and dirty fucking whores.

What's the most valuable lesson you've learned in the Industry thus far? Trust everyone about as far as you can throw them.

Nicknames your friends would give you off the cuff? Everyone calls me Bodega.

What would your bandmates do if it were not for The Acacia Strain? Probably work horrible jobs.

If you could commission a band to cover an Acacia Strain song, which song would you chose and who would cover it? That would be a punishment for anyone and I wish it upon no one.

What’s the first thing you notice on the opposite sex? That they aren’t guys.

If the Acacia Strain were a cocktail, which cocktail would you be? Paint thinner.

If you could only fulfill one of your fantasies, what would it be? To be able to murder without repercussion.

If you could interview a band, name one that you would ask these Speed Round Questions of? Slayer.

More role reversals, do you have any questions for me? What’s with the mantra question? Always interesting to know what people believe in and to see how they answer.

A: Check us out on the road, read the thanks list in our next CD and listen to every single band we name. STOP ALL THE DOWNLOADING!!

I'd like to thank Vincent for taking the time out to fill out the interview and to Scott at Crimson for setting it up.