Darkest Hour Interview

Interview
Kris Norris & Paul Burnette
Darkest Hour

Lineup:
John Henry - Vocals
Mike Schleibaum - Guitar
Kris Norris - Guitar
Paul Burnette - Bass
Ryan Parrish - Drums

Sounds of the Underground Tour 2007
Congress Theatre
7/23/07
Interviewer: Karma E. Omowale
Photos: Erika Kristen Watt

“If your music is more you, if people like it they do and if they don’t they don’t!”

Our last encounter with Washington, DC’s Darkest Hour was during the 2005 StrHESS Tour. This go round we briefly caught up with the “new kids on the block” Kris Norris & Paul Burnette during the third installment of Sounds of the Underground in their “Sanctuary” here in Chicago to primarily discuss the band’s freshly released [July 10^th] album entitled Deliver Us and the tour.

Karma: But you know what, that interview was awesome! I saw your interview that ran on the OnDemand channel, FEARnet the other day…

Kris: …sitting in the little castle thing…yeah, I remember that! I said some stupid stuff!

Kris: Oh, if you go to the side section [on their site] there’s some outtakes that are there in which they decided not to include; there’s a bunch of shit, a bunch of things on it. They left that out! I talk a bunch of shit on a bunch of things…I talk shit on like metalhead fans. I was like, “please, can you just put that somewhere on the side of the website?” So you’ll have to go the hidden outtake section to see that.

Karma: Umm-hmmm…I know I’ll have to check that out now! How did you get involved with that?

Kris: It was just on a tour a guy came up and he just asked if I was a fan of horror movies and you know, I’m not the biggest fan in the world but I do like to catch the occasional horror movie. I guess they were trying to do ‘horror movie week’ or something was going on where they were just trying to do all of the bands there as some type of promotion for it. It’s also a new internet thing so of course I was [willing] to be a part of it.

Paul: I just had a kid early this year/last year so when I’m at home, I’m Mr. Mom so it’s hard for me to get out there to practice sometimes, so I was playing catch up some of the times. But you know, I don’t know which song was the hardest to put together. I know there were songs that gained way more life than others songs in the studio.

Kris: Some songs started off very basic in the studio and then came to life. It was hard for us because with [Paul] home taking care of his son, we would write something, we didn’t know how it going to flow once Paul would come in and put his two cents on the music and everything. We didn’t know if it would change the music so we kind of left things open ended which actually worked out really, really well. Because it gave him a lot of choices and ideas with his bass line and everything before we got to the studio. And then we had to wait for John to put his vocals on it, so that changes so you know… None of them were really, really difficult because all of us work really well together and we had the same idea and vision for the record so there was nothing that made it difficult, it just all really seemed to flow really well.

Kris: There’s so many different elements to each song, that’s what’s so great about this record for me it’s like I love he solo in this song, I love the chorus in this song, I love the intro…

Paul: I really like the last song [“Deliver Us”] it’s the big epic end of the record.

Karma: Since you guys have a pretty extensive back catalogue of songs, how easy was it for you to create the perfect setlist for the Sounds audience?

Kris: It wasn’t easy, the first day we tried squeezing six songs into the set and then we got yelled at by everybody on the tour because we went over. And then the next day we tried five songs.

Kris: Today we were lucky enough to play five. We’re just trying to find all of the songs in the catalogue that best represents the band because the band’s got so many elements. Now there’s the shreddy solo stuff, there’s John with the new vocal approach that he’s doing on the new record, Paul’s doing so much more stuff, Ryan’s doing more stuff… The old stuff’s more thrashy, so there’s so many elements. You have to figure out which songs would be showcase all of the talents of the band.

Kris Norris and Paul Burnette of Darkest Hour (Photo: Erika Kristen Watt)

Kris: …I like “Convalescence” live kinda like a break sort of as it’s in the middle of the set. Some of the other stuff is so intense to play live we’re concentrating on every single note that’s got to be perfect and everything here and there and “Convalescence” is a good rockin’ song where you can sit back and let your mind wander about other stuff and just get into the song itself.

Erika: During your time with the band, what have you learned about your bandmates?

Kris: Oh man, we know so much about each other like, I know way more about him than he thinks I do and vice versa.

Erika: So then what did you learn about yourselves during the recording [of the album]?

Paul: I think we all became better musicians, especially according to Devin [Townsend]. He’s very hands on with each person as an individual so it makes you a better player.

Kris: One thing I definitely learned is not to write for other people. Try to write a riff and I’ll go, “Is somebody gonna like this riff?” and if I know on a solo and I'm really, really, really gonna like something, I would say, “Well do you think everybody else is gonna like that?” [Devin] “What does it matter, do YOU like it?” I learned to not be so critical like what everybody else is gonna think, as long as I like it, and it’s what I want to do as a guitar player.

Paul: If your music is more you, if people like it they do and if they don’t they don’t!

Kris: I think between records I learned to give other people in the band room to breathe too. I used to write some stuff and I would show it to Mike [Schleibaum] and Mike would be like, “Man that riff is really, really cool but what’s Paul gonna do during that or what’s Ryan gonna do during that?” So I’ve learned to write riffs to accommodate everybody. I’ve always done all of my solo stuff and I never had to work with anybody. And now that I’m working with other really good musicians, I’ve learned to write for everybody else’s tastes and let them agree to do what they want to do.

Karma: It sounds like working with Devin has been a really good experience that has helped you grow as unit with his “hands on” individual approach as it really shows with this record.

Paul: Since Kris and I have been in the band, he’s the first producer that actually acted like a producer.

Kris: I love what he does as a producer; some of my friends are producers (without naming names) that will say, “Give me the guitar” and write a riff. “This is going to be your chorus,” Devin doesn’t do that. Devin says, “Hey, your chorus is strong but what if we try this approach to it?” or something like that. He doesn’t rewrite or

restructure every single thing you do. He let’s your band be your band but’ll say, “From an outside perspective, why don’t you make a darker tone here, try this harmony there…”

Paul: He’s almost like a psychiatrist, he tries to get you to say the answer yourself. He’ll hint around the corners of it until you’ll finish it yourself and sometimes what you say is not really what he expected; and maybe it maybe better than what he had in mind anyways.

Kris: Yeah, and that’s what’s so great about Devin, you can say, “Oh, you know what, this is kind of cool!” and Devin’ll be like, “You know what, you’re right, that is really, really cool!” Or some producers’ll say, “No, my idea is cool!” Devin is definitely open-minded to everything.

Karma: I know you mentioned earlier your learning to work with others, which is awesome as well as incorporating more elements into your music. Overall, how has it affected your guitar playing?

Kris: I think learning how to work with other people and adapting other people’s styles. My guitar playing has completely changed tenfold because Mike is like the Van Halen of rock guitar player guy who never did any shredding type of stuff and I’ve had to learn his riffs and adapt my musicianship style to be able to play what he can play. He’s done the same thing where he’s never really played the shredding type stuff. He’s always done the feeling “rock guy” and now he’s adapted that. It’s like it’s made us more well rounded to let us focus on different elements, guitar playing, and on being musicians.

Karma: Are there any elements you found you were not able to explore on this album that you’d like to do in the future?

Kris: Hmmm…I don’t know. For me, it’s like the range of music that I do listen to there’s tons of things I’d like to be able to explore as a musician, working with choirs and orchestras and stuff like that…definitely not stuff that’s for this band. I think this band with this record has found its style and its niche in what it’s gonna to be perfect at and just continue with that.

Karma: Since you have found your niche, how much of a challenge would it be to go further to not recreate the same music?

Kris: I think it’s gonna come really natural because they’ve been a band for a long time before me and Paul were in the band and they were developing and discovering themselves. Now in the past couple of years with the steady lineup, I think we finally found as a band what our style was, is. Hopefully we can continue from there; that we can get better.

Thanks to the band for sitting down and chatting with us and to their camp for setting it up!