All That Remains Interview

Interview
Phil LaBonte
All That Remains

LINEUP:
Phillip LaBonte – Vocals
Oli Herbert – Guitar
Mike Martin – Guitar
Jeanne Sagan – Bass
Shannon Lucas - Drums

OzzFest 2006: XI
Alpine Valley (East Troy, WI)
7/22/06
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale

Transcription: Sharita Lira
Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

Phil LaBonte of All That Remains (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

"...In the climate and the stuff that we play, we can manage to really cover the stuff that we like. It’s really very cool to be able to do that. I hope we pull it off cause that’s really what we’re trying to do".

By now you should know that the very talented vocalist for All That Remains, Phil LaBonte, has one hell of a sense of humor and before this interview, Mr. LaBonte seemingly lost his t-shirt and was clamoring around the bus looking for it…as you can gather, he never found it! The high-jinx do not end there, in between an all of a sudden freakish down pour of rain, a lot of Phil’s tour mates climbed aboard their bus making this interview even more entertaining. Sit back as Phil chronicles the life and times of ATR discussing the new album, The Fall of Ideals, his stance on the Bush Administration, and MUCH more…

Karma: Aww, we love you too! Here we are another year, at another summer festival, how is it going?

Phil: Yep, It’s just cool. We got a new record out [The Fall of Ideals], we did a lot of work with the last record, put a lot of time out on the road, and it’s paying off. Our banner goes up and the kids go “ahhh”! [Phil mimics crowd noise] Not a day goes by that I get onstage early and watch one of the other bands and cheer on the other side of the stage. It’s really cool you know, I can’t complain at all.

Karma: That rocks, so having said all of that, how important do you think it is for a band to do a summer…

Phil: [Phil’s face scrunches up something fierce] …I just brushed my teeth; I forgot that so I’m having a beer now. [Shakes head in disgust]

Karma: Well that can’t be a good thing! [Laughs] How important do you think it is for a band to do a summer tour in order to keep their name fresh in the hearts and minds of the American audiences?

Phil: Well for us personally, for this band it’s extremely important to do Ozzfest at least… [Pauses] I think that it’s kind of one the deals where it’s like if you can’t beat them, join them because most bands going out as a headliner in the summer time, you’re competing with Ozzfest, Warped Tour, you’re competing with a lot of different bands…. [Stares out of the window momentarily derailing from his thought] Wow, the Monster Energy drink truck pulled up next to our bus. [Everyone laughs] Yeah, there’s just so much competition is just foolish to not, you know. You go out and try to compete for people it just seems like such a big, it doesn’t make any sense to me. If we tried to go out and do a headliner people would be like, whatever. [Chuckles] I’m going to Ozzfest, I’m going to Sounds, screw you guys! So, it’s important just to, it just doesn’t make any sense.

Karma: Of course, I have to ask, if you are still a staunch supporter of the Bush Administration after all this time or if your position or opinion had swayed at all?

Phil: I wouldn’t say that I’m a staunch supporter anymore. Me and my friend Ken talk about this kind of stuff a lot. We’re both very conservative; neither of us really likes Bush because he’s really not all that conservative anymore. He doesn’t represent the conservative policy. Really, I’m real bummed out with the US government in general recently. Just in general, between immigration issues, between foreign policy issues, there’s just a lot of stuff where it’s just like, you aren’t even listening to what the American people want anymore, specifically on the issue of immigration. Over seventy percent of the American people say they want some kind of restrictions and they don’t want like a blank check to all the people that are currently here as illegals. Most of Congress and most of Senate is pushing forward Bills to basically tell the American people that “we don’t care what you want”, because we’re worried about the vote of people that are here illegally. It’s ridiculous! I hope that in November it shows, I really hope that there’s a lot of changes.

Karma: Well said, I hear you!! Okay back to music. [Laughs] What is the greatest challenge after seven years and three albums later in that you have been able to overcome in order to get you where you are at this point in your career?

Phil: We’re here and the fact that we’re even still a band. We’ve gone through two serious band meltdown explosions. We’ve gone through two drummers, six bass players, we lost a bass player at the beginning of Sounds last year. Oh, no we lost two bass players at the beginning of Sounds last year and we lost Matt when he joined CKY a couple of weeks before and the we lost Josh the day of, you know.

We’ve got a pretty strong team right now, you know. I mean, nobody is making a ton of money, but everyone here believes that really good things are coming. So, everyone is really excited.

Karma: Well that’s awesome! Throughout all of this time, what has been the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself?

Phil: [Pauses] I don’t know. Most important thing, these are all fuckin’ like real questions, huh. [Everyone laughs]

Phil: See, I’m used to like, [Changes voice] “So what’s it like working with Adam?” Same thing it was last time,

Phil: I guess it’s pretty cool that I stuck it out. I think it’s pretty cool that we all stuck it out. Mike and fuckin’ Oli you know, there’s a lot of sticking it out to do. We still gotta a lot of work to stick around Ozzfest, we’re not there, it’s like we have arrived, you know. Its just the best thing that we kind of stuck it out you know; that we have such intestinal fortitude. [Chuckles]

Karma: [Laughs] Yeah. So I can tell that this lineup is very tight, so how did Jeanne come to pass? Enlighten us on her story and it is she became a permanent part of the ATR family.

Phil: Jeanne, we’ve known Jeanne for years and years. She used to play in The Acacia Strain; she was on Prosthetic. She also played in Ligeia for a short stint; she was on Ferret Records. We’ve known her for a long, long time. She just so happened to be living in Arizona, she moved out there with our guitar tech Brian, who goes to school out there. She met a dude that worked at our label, they started hanging out a lot, she got hooked up with our label and started selling merch for our label on Sounds. So, we needed a bass player got Ken in there to do it and then afterwards we were like what are we going to do and Jeanne was like, “I’ll do it.” I was like, awesome. Then, initially she was just like a fill in because as I initially said I didn’t want to be that band with a girl bass player. But then after like two weeks of playing with her, we were just like...we have to be like fuckin idiots not to [hire] her because she brings it on stage, she’s fucking awesome to be around, she’s super cool. So we were like, “Wanna job?” [Chuckles] “Yep!” “Cool!” “Awesome!”

Karma: That’s an awesome story! Congrats, on The Fall of Ideals see that press has been VERY favorable. Interesting preview of “This Calling” during the Doomsday Tour last year now being able to hear it’s full potential on the CD! WOW!!

Phil: Yeah we were pretty pumped to hear it too. [Everyone Laughs] Once we were done were like, man!

Karma: Well, this is coming from “Cobra Commander” on the Metal Maniacs forums.

Phil: I haven’t been on Metal Maniacs forum in like years, literally. I was on Metal Maniacs forum before I was on Lambgoat and I haven’t been on Lambgoat in years, so. I don’t know who he is, or maybe I do. I think I remember the name, but I haven’t been on there in years so I haven’t spoken to anybody.

Karma: So this comes from him: I've been a fan of ATR since Behind Silence and Solitude came out & the new album, The Fall of Ideals has done very well so far and I know Prosthetic put a lot of work into this album. My question is why did you guys decide to work with Adam D. once again? I thought his production was the only weak point of This Darkened Heart and that's proven true once again on Ideals. Peter Wichers did a phenomenal job on the guitar sound and I'm just curious as to why you didn't let him produce the whole thing, instead of staying with Adam D. and his sterile sound?

Phil: Comfort, you know it was definitely comfort and trust. You know I had never met Peter Wichers. Even though he did a great job engineering, I’ve known Adam for so long, I mean everyone has known Adam. First of all, we were really into the sound together, first and foremost. We wanted to have that very metal, kind of mechanical drum really precise kind of metal sound and Adam knows how to get that sound. To be honest with you I think that kind of sound it was the right choice specifically because of our drummer, because of Shannon. The way that he played, the stuff that he writes, had we gone with kind of more earthy, more live… I don’t think it would’ve done him justice and I think it would’ve been terrible for us to try and play that way. The mechanical sound is absolutely what this band needed. Also, if there’s something or some part that we dunno what we want to do with or we dunno if it works then… [Belches unexpectedly] Sorry! [Laughter ensues] It’s the gas from the beer!! Yeah it was more like we just trusted Adam with what he knows and that’s the kind of sound we were looking for. I think that’s really the basis of it that Adam’s the dude and he was the dude on the last record. We know him, we love him to death and we trusted him.

Karma: Well, speaking of Wichers, did Oli have himself once he knew Peter was aboard? I know he is a huge fan of NWOSDM.

Phil: Yeah! Oli was kinda pumped! I mean everyone respects Soilwork tons and tons. I mean we were all Soilwork fans a long time ago. I mean I’ve been a Soilwork fan since like 1997, about ten years ago. So I was really pumped to meet him like, “They’re really going to bring him up here?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “Fuckin awesome man, I really can’t wait to meet him, that’s so cool.”

Phil: Well part of the reason was because of the tight schedules. Adam had the Underøath record, then us, then Overcast, and he knew there was going to have to be a new Killswitch record before Christmas, is now what they’re advertising. So it was just a matter us he brought Peter in to engineer. Peter went in to engineer and Adam, I went into the studio and worked on vocals, and that’s the way we did it. Mike, Peter, and Oli, went and laid down most of the guitars right after drums; drums were like a week or something like that and then we split off. Adam and I went, then Mike, Oli, and Peter went in. Then Peter had go home and Adam did a ton of stuff on guitars too but Peter only got a good portion of the bass left.

Roadie: [Bursts onto the bus to escape the torrential downpour then loudly proclaims] I just literally saw the grossest’s girls’ butthole! [Uproarious laughter ensues]

Phil: [Eyes widen throwing his fists into the air] OH YES!!!!!!!!!!! [Turns to Karma and Erika] How’s that for an Ozzfest moment?

Phil: Oh dude!! So anyways! He just busts into an interview, "I just saw the grossest’s girls’ butthole"! How Ozzfest is that? [Conversation with the roadie continues with others on the bus]

Karma: [Clears throat while composing herself] How laborious was it for you to create the lyrics?

Karma: They seems a lot more personal than the past two releases and generally more cohesive without sticking to a theme other than humanity & an outpouring of emotions: reaching out, despair, anger…

Phil: This record was written really fast. Aside from “This Calling” it was very, very, very, fast. So…

Phil: No. It was done that way because we didn’t have a choice; we had to get it done. [Laughs] We had two months to write so I kinda tried to reflect on a lot of stuff I saw in the past two years. You know touring, but not being, I don’t want to be one of those fuckin weird dudes, you know what I mean. I’m just not that bummed out.

Karma: Well, if you had to do The Fall of Ideals all over again, would you change a thing?

Phil: I don’t know. I like “This Calling”, I like “Air That I Breathe”, I like “It Dwells In Me”, I like ‘Weak Willed”…I mean I like the record. I mean I’m really, really, really, happy with what we’ve done. So, it’s hard to pick one. I mean I could pick half that I like better than the other half, but I dunno if I could pick one.

Karma: Well I love “Whispers” I think it’s amazing. I love “Empty Inside” too...Oh my God!!

Phil: Really? That song is not called “Empty Inside” that song is called “Danny’s Barbeque” we just could not put it on the back of the record. [Laughs]

Phil: First, I wrote it and Oli said that it reminded him of “Danny’s Barbeque”. Danny was our first bass player. It reminds me of the stuff that we were writing when Danny would have barbeques every Saturday and before we were signed, we started hanging out. I just laughed when he called it “Danny’s barbeque”. I think when we play it live were just going to announce it as “Danny’s barbeque” and this is actually the first time that I’ve officially letting the cat out of the bag that it it’s not titled “Empty Inside” that it’s titled “Danny’s Barbeque.”

Karma: Woohoo!! I really like “Weak Willed”, I love the range of your voice from the deep growls to clean vocals as it displays your amazing range. Melissa rocks!!

Phil: Well it better be this, I’ve sure given up a lot of crap for it. [Laughs] Being on stage I like playing, I like seeing the reaction that we get when kids are pumped. I like the music we play, I like everything about it. We’ve been on this tour for about a month now and I just don’t miss home! I love playing. I’m just ready to go; the tour buses are extremely comfortable.

Phil: Yeah exactly, the dudes from Unearth are here. We’re homies, we just did a tour with them in Europe we shared a bus with those guys.

Phil: It was Europe. [Everybody laughs] The UK was awesome; it’s always awesome. The reason it was Europe because there was a lot of places we hadn’t played before. So we were like playing to a lot of new people that had never heard us so it was work. That’s what I describe complaining about work. I have to try really hard to get people in sometimes I’m not getting them even when I’m busting ass just because they never heard you, they don’t know your stuff.

The UK was cool, we’ve done the Trivium tour, which was like a sold out tour, we’ve done Killswitch Engage over there in the UK, which was sold out. We’ve got a lot of friends over there already so it was a lot of people that came out to the shows and were glad that we were there. We went through the other parts and that’s when it got hard. Hopefully though, we’re getting a bunch of good reviews on the record so hopefully when we get back people will know who we are. Our label actually has an office over there.

Phil: …nothing! I’m not listening to music. Oh you want to tell what’s in my CD player? Go on ahead. Tell them what’s on my iPod? Tell them my super awesome play list! [Everyone Laughs]

Mike Martin: [Laughs] 50 Cent. [Everyone Laughs] Oh what’s her name, the girl that samples INXS.

Phil: Yeah. Rhianna, Prince. I listen to a lot of metal and stuff but I listen to a LOT of garbage pop. James Blunt

Phil: Actually, I just like that kind of music. I mean I still love metal but that’s the reason why there’s so much singing on the record. It’s the stuff that I listen to, that’s why there’s more extreme death metal stuff, the really deep guttural stuff, blast beat stuff because Shannon is a huge death metal fan. That’s one side of what we like to do but nowdays in the climate and the stuff that we play we can manage to really cover the stuff that we like. Not just touch upon it, we really have something that’s extremely aggressive and at the same time, in the same exact song have something that’s very, very, friendly and very melodic and catchy. It’s really very cool to be able to do that. I hope we get away with it and pull it off cause that’s really what we’re trying to do.

Phil: We like a lot of different stuff and that’s why there’s so much different stuff. That’s why there’s so many solos, so much stuff. There’s stuff in there!

Karma: It’s in there, it’s like Prego. [Laughs] Actually I want to go back to the album cover, how did that come about?

Phil: Travis [Smith] completely created. I’m one of those dudes, like Mike D that did our last cover. I was like I dunno what I want. I don’t have any ideas for what they’re looking for but I can tell you what I don’t want, really easy. So why don’t you come up with some ideas and I’ll pass them around to the other guys and we’ll get some feedback. So it started out as one thing, and then I showed it to the guys and it was like I like that or I don’t like that. This I want, this I definitely don’t want. It kind of got to the point where it was like the feeling I was looking for. I’m real happy with it!

Karma: So, if you could commission a band to do an ATR cover, who would do it and which song would it be?

Phil: Uhh…I have friggin’ no idea. None whatsoever. Cannibal Corpse doing “The Weak Willed” [A bunch of Ooh’s rise from the audience on the bus]

Karma: I like that. So, if your job were to interview bands, which one would you interview and what would be the one thing you'd want to know about them?

Phil: No, no no! Not everybody! I haven’t met Ozzy yet! I’d want to interview Avenged Sevenfold and I’d want to know why do so many people say they do a lot of drugs. Do they?

Phil: I don’t know I hear they’re supposed to be but I haven’t seem them out here raging at all. And this over here, this is where the ragin’ is, this is where the golf carts are getting stolen, this is where the beer bongs are happening. [Everyone Laughs] This is where people are drinking and smoking pot, this is where it’s at. It’s like all of the bands over at the main stage, everybody is in bed by nine o’ clock and they got their wives. Hatebreed comes over here and hangs out, the dudes in DragonForce, those dudes rage; they come over here and hang out. Hatebreed, those dudes can rage…the partiers ain’t hanging over at main stage.

Phil: So if they’re really partying, drinking, and doing blow off hookers asses, how come they’re not over here? [Everyone Laughs]

Phil: I’m just saying what’s up! Hang out with us. You’re too cool to hang out with the dregs of society, if Hatebreed can do it you can too.

Phil: Check out our website. Allthatremainsonline.com, our message board, I’m on there all the time! You can ask any of the dudes that are there… ask Onabur, ask Cain, ask Sinister… I know those dudes; they know me I’m there all the time. Because I have an attention span of about [snaps finger] that long! So I’m constantly looking for something to do. Pull out my phone, “Oh, let’s see what’s going on our message board!” [Laughs] “What’s cracking? Just checking stuff out!” If anyone has any questions that’s the best place to go get them answered.

We'd like to thank our homie Phil again for his candor, to his band, to Josh for the additional questions and to the rest of the ATR camp for making this interview a possibility!

o Here for an oldie but goodie interview with Phil during the 2004 GWAR tour