Interview with Mike and Kent

The 12th of April, in a part of Belgium where we're used to have some well-known festivals, a small festival took place, although there were nothing but big names on the venue. Somehow Hollow was one of them…

Q>> You guys are from Canada, isn't it? Because many people are still confused about you being from Canada or from the States. The posters for this festival announced you as Americans, and I thought 'huh?'…
A>> Mike: U.SA, Germany, we get names from all sorts of countries… whatever. In a way it bothers us because we are trying to represent Canada. It sucks that people are getting confused just because we're on an American label.

Q>> How's the relationship between Canadians and Americans in general?
A>> Mike: Great. Right now I don't think it's very great, but it usually is. It's just because of the war now.
Kent: See, Canada sent troops to Afghanistan when the United Sates asked for it, and I think we sent 19.000 troops or maybe 20.000, I think that's the number, meant to fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, and when the war against Iraq broke out, Canada said they didn't have any more troops to send, right? So Canada said they would help, but they can't, so it's kind of weird, which is good, but it doesn't change a lot, because it is still in North America, it's still huge.

Q>> And with the band, how do you see this?
A>> Kent: No, no way, we're not American by any means. Things in Canada are totally different than in America.
Mike: We're as Canadian as we are.
Kent: Yeah, we're good Canadian hockey playing boys. From small towns.

Q>> Is there a difference whether you tour in Canada or in the States? Do they react in the same way?
A>> Mike: Canada and the Sates are pretty much the same from that point of view.
Kent: We just came back from a big tour with Taking Back Sunday, and we played in front of like 3000 people every night.

Q>> Yeah, you sold out a lot of shows: Montreal, Toronto…
A>> Kent: We sold out a lot of venues. Toronto is our home town, so it's normal we sold that out. Then we did Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, … and they were all huge.

Q>> Home sweet home?
A>> Kent: Well yeah, but I mean … we have a new record, and at home we had an earlier release date, things came out a little bit earlier, so people had a better chance to get it.
Mike: Just being from Canada and having a fan base there made things easier to reach out to our people because they already knew about us. They got the album right when it came out. More people knew us.
Kent: Canadian kids are fast. American kids are great too, but Canadian kids are better.

Q>> When I look to the art design of the new album, I certainly didn't expect that kind of music, it looks more like a Heavy Metal album. Why did you choose this 'darker' layout? It's totally different from your music…
A>> Mike: We're a Melodic Pop Punk band.
Kent: We're like Britney Spears getting fucked by Metallica.
Mike: The original design was the angel being hit by a car, and we were all in the car. But none of the pictures were good, so we were fucked, and they needed a layout in a couple of days, so we took the digicam, went to my house and did some pictures of Cheynelle against my wall and that's how the album came out. The original idea was supposed to be way better but … yeah, it's still kind of dark. On the back cover, you see us stepping on the wing of the angel, so.
Kent: We killed her. The original idea was better, but I think this one worked out fine as well.

Q>> Your lyrics are kind of dark as well, isn't it? Is that meant in a sort of therapeutic way?
A>> Mike: I just write my lyrics based on my experiences and some reality, and some fiction I guess. But yeah, I don't like to write very happy stuff. We make very good songs at times, but I've always enjoyed writing more moody songs, darker songs, because I like to play them better on stage. I can't write a happy song, because I'm just not in the mood to. It would come across as the gayest song in the world.

Q>> So you basically just write songs when you're in a bad mood, when you're feeling down?
A>> Mike: Yeah, exactly! That's my way of dealing with a bad day.
Kent: Song number 3 on our record is called "Darkest Day".

Q>> What are your musical influences?
A>> Mike: Mine are mainly Southern Californian Punk Rock, fat records,… I grew up listening to all those bands: NOFX, Lag wagon, Strung out, MXPX… Lately I've been more into Rock. I like a bit of Country too. It's various, I like a bit of Metal too.
Kent: Pantera!

Q>> Did some of those bands influence your music?
A>> Mike: Definitely! The guitars on the album are definitely Metal influenced. The main parts of the songs are more melodic, more based on what we grew up on, and Brad, our main guitar writer on the album is really into Metal, like Iron Maiden and so… We don't necessarily mean to write songs like that, it just happens.

Q>> What about your own music style? If we had to put a label on it, what would it be? Melodic Pop Punk? Is this how you really see your music?
A>> Mike: There's really no way to describe music these days because there's so many bands, and people put so many labels. And then there's this Emo, so what is Punk music these days? Punk, Emo, it's all the same these days! I couldn't put a label on our music. I tried, it's all different kinds, but it's how people label us, and then it is Poppunk, Emo, Rock' n' Roll, whatever… You can decide for yourself. I think Emo is emotion. And if you feel an emotion from listening to our music, then I guess we are Emo.

Q>> What do you think of "putting labels" on bands anyway? Is it a necessity?
A>> Mike: Yeah, definitely, if you try to put an album out, it's necessary. The label that's putting out your album has got to put a label on you. You can't just go and put an album out and let people decide for themselves because lots of people don't like different kinds of music. The label directs it to a certain sort of fan base. That's the way it is.

Q>> I see you don't really agree with Mike?
A>> Kent: No, I just think that so many bands are fucked on their labels. So many good bands will start like for example Grunge music, a couple of bands will start a scene of music, and other people will just pollute it. And then it turns into something that isn't Grunge anymore. It isn't what it started as and it's not that label anymore. They'll think they're an original band…
Mike: I know exactly what you mean: some people think it is original, because they think they are, but people won't say it's original because everybody just thinks they know everything, but they don't. There's so many people in this world that think differently.
Kent: and still you've got to categorize it. How would you define it? … I think it's Punk Rock music!

Q>> How's the tour so far with Waterdown? How are they?
A>> Mike: They're awesome. Really good guys, I mean, they took us out on this tour, I've met them once before and they're so kind. They're a good band and I'm happy to be on this tour.

Q>> At this point, how's the relationship between Grade and Somehow Hollow?
A>> Mike: It's great! I play road hockey with all the ex-members of Grade every Saturday: Matt, Shawn, …I don't really talk to Pal anymore. I talked to him the other day, but that's about it. He was pretty pissed of when that happened (split), which I can understand. He started Grade and we were members of that group. But he's still pissed off at us, which I don't understand, because we helped him for two years to continue doing his band. He should be mad at his original members for leaving him, but you know, whatever, shit happens… People should hold on to things when they should. He has got a new band, and apparently it's doing very well right now. Everything happens for a reason, I can't understand why he's still so mad. He shouldn't because things are still going good.
Kent: He was backstage on our show in Toronto…

Q>> How did you get to sign for Victory? Did you just send them a demo and it all started with that, or was there more behind it?
A>> Mike: We didn't originally intend to go on Victory. Toni knew us, everybody on Victory knew us, we are good friends with everybody and we sent them a demo because Toni asked us to. He knew we had a band before Grade, and now there's Somehow Hollow, and he asked us to send him a demo. We thought it was cool, didn't expect much of it, but two days later he asked if we wanted to sign. He came to one of our shows in Toronto and he wanted to do this. We didn't have to look for a label, it just happened that way.

Q>> Were there any other options at that time?
A>> Mike: Yeah, we were talking with Kung Fu, Nitro had our CD … but we decided to sign for Victory.

Q>> Do you feel there's a difference with Victory?
A>> Mike: Not necessarily. They are a label that puts albums out and gives money to do stuff. That's all you can really ask for. If you're asking for anything else, for example lots of money, go to a major label. Then they'll screw you in the ass, but that's another story. Victory is a good label; you can do what you want. They've never said no to us.

Q>> Your country has been touched by the SARS virus, aren't you guys a little scared?
A>> Kent: We're not in Canada right now.
Mike: My girlfriend is there… There's only 129 cases out of 5 … how many people live there?
Kent: For these cases, all the things they don't talk about, is that these are people with respiratory problems, old people… And most of the time, people are coming over from Hong Kong. And you've got to have direct contact to get the disease, somebody has got to cough on you, or kiss someone. If you're going to be worried to get something like that, you can't even leave your house. It's like catching a common cold. But we're not even there. We're 23 year old guys, healthy, on the road, away from home.

Q>> Do you really enjoy being on the road?
A>> Kent: Yeah! We love traveling, we have the opportunity to see the world and get our music to people. Yeah! We love Europe; we want to come back here. And we'll get to go to Spain. In that van!

Q>> Yeah, what about that van? You guys arrived and I saw people getting out of it: 1,2,3,…5…20!!! Shit man…
A>> Kent: The thing is: Waterdown's base player, Christian, he's a good friend of ours, he let us stay at his house…
Mike: It's actually a pretty big van. It's a nine-passenger van with a huge back in it.
Kent: We have a CD player, a DVD player, T.V., a hot tub…haha No, it's big, it's as big as it looks.
Mike: We have a merch guy.
Kent: Our tour manager… She's our tour manager, for right now. We usually have another tour manager. That one is riding in the other van. Christian was driving today. He drove 5 straight hours, and then passed out on the floor… We sleep on the floor. You get used to falling asleep anywhere. Like he falls asleep in the dirt, or with a shoe behind his head. Pass out for ten hours, which is what we'll have to do.

Q>> What do you think of Belgian beer?
A>> Mike: It's great! Is this Belgian beer?
Kent: I had a good coffee!
Mike: They give you lots of beer in Europe, which is cool.
Kent: Europe is very good at this.
Mike: That's a different thing in the States. In Europe they give you breakfast, dinner, … all the time. And it's really good food. I'd rather have this home cooked food than Mc Donald's every day.
Kent: We're all pretty easy guys, none of ours is vegetarian or vegan, or something. We're very easy; we eat what we get! Never bite the hand that feeds you, we sleep anywhere, smoke… yeah, you'll sleep in all kinds of positions, in the van, the plane.
Mike: I fell asleep on the seat in the airplane, fell out off it, and kept on sleeping on the floor. And a bunch of people thought that was pretty weird.

Q>> It looks like you guys always have funny stories to tell when you get back home?
A>> Kent: O yeah, like the other night: We were in Hamburg and I went to this strip club and the stripper came to me and asked me if I wanted to buy her a drink. And I though "all right!". And I bought her champagne. And that cost me like 30 dollars, and I thought that was cool. So the next night I was in Hamburg, I went to another strip club, I had some beers, and the stripper wanted me to buy her a drink. And I said ok, but then they brought me the bill, and it was like 170 dollars, and I thought "shit!". They wanted to call the cops, fight me, and everything. And I thought "What the fuck?" So I gave them 50 bucks and got kicked out! Nice!
Mike: I think he learned his lesson!
Kent: Yeah, I said to that girl: "Do I look dumb or something?"

Q>> What's actually the craziest thing you have been through as a band?
A>> Kent: The other day in the van… yeah… we just…errr… that story stays in the van! I'm new in the band, about a month and a half, so I guess we don't have those crazy stories yet!

Q>> Is there anything in particular you would like to say to our readers?
A>> Mike: (Fart!)

Me: No thanks, I, already have that on tape!
Kent: Thank you, from Canada to Belgium!
Me: Have a kick ass show!

<<< previous page