Loudside: How's the road been treating so far with the tour and everything?

BS: So far it's been pretty amazing. You can't beat an AFI tour as far as like exposure and playing in front of kids that actually want to hear new music, versus like touring with maybe other bigger bands that the fans only come there for them and don't want anything to do with the opening bands. I think AFI fans are like their own level; their own breed of kids and it's really fucking awesome so far.

Loudside: Cool, so the reaction from AFI's "new" audience?

BS: Yeah, definitely.

Loudside: Have you been able to hit up any cities you've wanted to play but haven't had a chance to in the past?

BS: Yeah, we've actually played El Paso, Texas. We've never played there before and we've been asked to play there a few times and never quite got there. But we played this time and it was really amazing.

Loudside: So the El Paso kids were into it?

BS: Yeah! A lot of people come up from Mexico to see the show. So it was really cool.

Loudside: Do you have anything lined up after this AFI tour and the Sworn Enemy tour?

BS: After the Sworn Enemy tour we are doing like five weeks with Chimaira, Lacuna Coil and ugh…..I don't know who else is on the tour yet, but that's a good like five weeks, a full U.S. tour.

Loudside: How long do you think you'll be on the road supporting the new album?

BS: Umm..We'll take a break for the holidays and after that just keep on going till a good year or so. Keep on touring and touring.

Loudside: Are there any bands out there that you want to tour with but haven't had a chance to yet?

BS: I would like to do a full U.S. tour with Hatebreed and stuff like that. We've played shows with them before and it's been quite amazing. But to tell you the truth, it's like, kind of like a dream come true to tour with a band like AFI. A band we all look up to and we're all really good friends with and everybody gets along and all that kind of stuff. Hot Water Music is on this tour and they're another band that we all really love and enjoy. I don't know, I'd like to tour with bands like Cradle Of Filth, that would be fucking awesome. But, we'll see.

Loudside: So your deal with Trustkill, how did that come about?

BS: Well we got on Trustkill kind of because I used to be in a band called Eighteen Visions.

Loudside: Yeah

BS: Which was signed by Trustkill and I knew the way that Trustkill treated its bands. The way it was, was like he treats the band like, it's almost like a really good friendship basis along with a business basis of the label. So when I left Eighteen Visions to do Bleeding Through, I was like you know what Bleeding Through is full time and if you like us we'd love to do something on your label because we think that we would really fit. So he was into the idea, listened to the stuff and liked it and saw our live show and liked it, so he kind of just wanted it.

Loudside: Was it hard to leave Indecision for Trustkill?

BS: It definitely was! Cause Indecision Records is one of my favorite record labels. Dave Mandell is one of my favorite people in the world. It's just the thing was that when we first got on Indecision we weren't quite full time. We needed a little bit more to keep us on the road, cause we were on the road at least 8 months in support of that record and we came home with nothing to show for it. Cause a lot of places we went, the CD wasn't distributed there and stuff like that.

Loudside: Now you guys had Ulrich Wild produce the new album, he's known for bands like Static-X and Taproot. How did you guys hook up with him to do the album?

BS: We have a friend that works for Roadrunner Records, his name is Mike Gitter, he's like the head of A&R. He's good friends with Ulrich cause I guess he deals a lot with bands having Ulrich work with them or whatever. He (Gitter) said there's a band from your area called Bleeding Through, you should go check them out because they really need a producer to do their next record. So he came and checked us out at the Troubadour and was really into it and was like "you know what, I really want to be involved in what you guys are doing so think about it and give me a call. I've done some of this stuff, worked with this band.." and were just like "Hell yeah man !".

Loudside: Yeah he has an impressive track record

BS: Yeah definitely

Loudside: How was it working on this album as opposed to your previous two?

BS: This album was different because we've never worked with a producer before. He added a lot of insight and made it really fun for us to actually record. Where before it was more of a stressing out for time issue and all that kind of stuff. But this time we had all the time in the world, you know he just made it really relaxed and fun. It was cool, it was like a really good learning experience to go in there with a producer like Ulrich and come out with whatever we wanted. We really got to create the sound that we wanted.

Loudside. Yeah, do you guys plan to shoot a video for any of the tracks on this album like you did for Portrait Of A Goddess?

BS: I think we're going to. We don't have anything set up yet cause of the touring and stuff like that. But I believe when we have a month off, we might schedule to do a video. I'm not too sure what track we're going to do, but I think the one we want to do is the track "On Wings Of Lead". I think we'll probably shoot that video.

Loudside: Do you guys have a director picked out that you want to work with?

BS: Yeah, we're probably going to work with Time Code Entertainment, which a couple of my really good friends started that. So for they've done the Eighteen Visions video and Sworn Enemy's video and stuff like that. They do a really good job so we definitely want to go with them.

Loudside: What's your opinion on "hardcore" scene that's out there right now? With bands like Eighteen Visions getting MTV play, do you think it's good?

BS: I think it is! Cause you know, people need to be exposed. I mean, Sick Of It All had a video, Agnostic Front had a video, and nobody said crap about that. You know what I mean? But it just seems like these days people are too concerned on keeping hardcore pure and like "get that shit out of my scene" and that kind of crap. The thing is, all it is opening people's eyes to different sorts of music that is out there. A lot of kids out there are impressionable, like where we are right now in Oklahoma City. The only way there are going to figure out about hardcore is from MTV, because they are part of the MTV generation. And through going to places like Hot Topic and seeing hardcore band's shirts and stuff like that it's all to greater the scene. I think it's all to make the scene bigger. There's always going to be people that are getting into it for the wrong reasons. If they're worried about people getting into the scene because of seeing something at Hot Topic, some of them are gonna stay and some of them are gonna leave. The people that talk shit on it are probably going to bail on the scene anyway. So it's like, I think it's all for the good for the exposure. Hardcore bands work hard at what they do, why not have some sort of payoff? Some kind of glory to the hardcore scene.

Loudside: Yeah, it's like the kids love their bands, but as soon as they gain any notoriety it's not their band anymore and they can't take that.

BS: Yeah, it's like the scene these days is getting jaded and really fickle with everything. What's wrong with someone following their passion and following the one thing they truly love to do and having some sort of glory in it?

Loudside: Yeah, every band can't tour and hold a 9-5 job all the time.

BS: Yeah, it sucks! (laughter)

Loudside: Yeah, I've noticed there isn't much unity in the scene anymore. The people are too fickle.

BS: Yeah, definitely. The scene was based on not having any barriers or anything like that surrounding. You know, that's part of thing that's made this thing great is the diversity of the kids and bands. I just don't understand why a lot of people are on this huge high horse, I mean I guess they can cause they can afford to be on one cause they're from a fucking rich family or aren't in a band struggling to make ends meet on the road.

Loudside: Did you guys get any backlash from signing with Trustkill?

BS: Oh definitely! It's so hilarious to me because people are like "Oh they sold out, they went to Trustkill Records!" and I'm like "Well, why? Cause it's backed by a major label? Because he's kicking down a bigger recording budget and better distribution for his bands?" You know what I mean? I don't understand, it's still an independent record label. We have all the rights in the world to do whatever the hell we want. So, it's people bored. They're sitting in there, not doing anything with themselves so they want to sit behind their fucking computers and go on message boards and talk shit. That's basically all they do. So I really don't go to message boards anymore, I really don't care. People say what they want; we're just going to keep doing what we're doing.

Loudside: Well I guess that'll do it, thanks for taking the time out to do this.

BS: Oh no problem! Thank you so much!