Show & Tell Online - interview with Mike D of Killswitch Engage

MIKE D of KILLSWITCH ENGAGE

Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ
02.26.05

Despite guitarist/producer Adam D’s penchant for wearing Daisy Dukes, Killswitch Engage has firmly entrenched itself in metal's upper echelon.

They’ve been touring their well-received (by both fans and critics) third album, The End of Heartache, for just over a year now and they show no signs of slowing down. In fact, with a non-rotating slot on Ozzfest 2005’s 2nd stage just around the corner, they seem to be picking up speed rather than letting up.

We grabbed some sitdown time with band founder, bassist and resident graphic designer Mike D’Antonio at this year’s Taste of Chaos tour.

S&T: You’ve been pushing this album for just about a year now…

Mike: Yeah, we’ve been on tour straight since about last April.

S&T: Tell me a little bit about the timeline for an album; making it, marketing it, touring before it comes out, touring as it comes out and then how you know when you’re supposed to come off the road and start working on the next one…

Mike: It’s usually when the label says, “Alright, there’s no more tour budget for you. Come home now!” (laughter) Let’s see, you start off with a couple of weeks off from the last tour, you start to write an album and then you don’t get it done in time and then you’ve got to cancel a whole bunch of other tours so you can get an album finished in the amount of time that they want you to get it done in. And then you go and record and that takes a month too long but it’s cool because you get to be home for a month longer. And then usually around the time they start to wrap up the packaging – which is my end of the deal, I do all the graphic design, stuff like that – right about the time we’re finishing up the packaging, we start planning out all the tours for the album cycle. And yeah, usually we go out and we start our tours about a month before the album comes out to right up through the day the album comes out and, nine times out of ten, we’re either out of the country, or we have the day off. It always seems to happen that way; the one day our album comes out we’re not playing.

This tour in particular, we’ve been on the road since April, and it’s almost April now. There’s only a couple of months left before it’s been a whole year on the road. We got two weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s. I would say throughout the whole year we’ve been on the road, we probably had a whole month off? Maybe a month off? Like just spread out. And that can wear on you a lot and it can wear on our girlfriends a lot. I guess the fortunate part is that we’re actually able to pay rent rather than kinda starve and come home to foreclosures and what not. But yeah, we’re sorta wrapping it up right now, at almost a year mark, then we’re gonna take off a couple months and go back on the road and I’m not supposed to announce Ozzfest but we’re gonna be doing that [Ed.'s note: No worries, Mike, your secret was safe with us]. And then at the end we are hopefully wrapping up the year by doing our own headlining tour one last time. So I would say we would be done by November and then maybe start to think about our new album?

S&T: When you’re on the road, do you get to play around with new music at all?

Mike: It’s either or. It’s either you’re home writing or you’re on the bus and not writing because the last thing you really want to do while you’re on the bus is pick up a guitar. Because you gotta do it all day long anyways. A lot of bands can record on the road and stuff, that’s kinda overkill for us. We just don’t wanna go that crazy. It’s tough; it’s two different things.

S&T: You self-produce and you’re pretty DIY. What’s the process in terms of turning music in? Is it a situation where you just go, “Okay, here’s our album.”

Mike: Sort of, yeah. We had a lot of trouble at first with the label and I know its like (they’re) your employer and you sort of have to apply for certain positions. Like I had to go down to their main office and show my portfolio to prove to them that I could do graphic design and Adam had to produce a record and let them hear it so that they knew he could actually pull it off so they’re not just spending money frivolously.

S&T: But he gets paid twice. And then so do you.

Mike: Yeh. Shhhh. (laughter) It’s almost like proving yourself. So the first record we had to prove ourselves, but you know we had so (many) A&R conversations, “You should sound like this, you should sound like that,” that we were finally like, “Forget you guys, we are doing our album by ourselves. You’re not even allowed in, we’re lockin’ the doors. Don’t even say you want to come down ‘cause we’re not gonna let you. You’ll just sit outside.” Did the first album, handed it in with no changes and they were blown away by it and loved it. So ever since that it’s kind of, it’s sort of been an easy thing to do for us. It’s like this album we did the same thing. Lock the doors, don’t let anybody in.

S&T: I’m sure there was a greater trust there, the second time.

Mike: Exactly. I feel like the next time will be just as good.

S&T: Regarding your graphic design, there’s stuff that I have seen and I’m sure you’ve done stuff that I haven’t seen. The stuff I’ve seen I’ve liked.

Mike: Oh, thanks. Yeh, I’ve been doing my design business for about eight years now. I started in the interim between my old band Overcast and this band. (I was) kind of bored of music in general, just not really feelin’ it anymore and just immersing myself into graphic design. It’s kind of my two main passions; music and graphic design and when one’s not working, I immerse myself in the other ‘til that gets boring. I jump back and forth, back into the music thing. Right now I have a laptop I take on the road and I take a few projects here and there with me; it’s pretty fun. Right now I’m working on the new Metal Fest. I just finished up their logos for this coming year. I’m doing the DVD design for last year, there’s three compilations that are coming out. I’m doing the covers for those, which is really fun. I am doing some shirts for this German band called Caliban right now. Recently I did some stuff for Unearth, I did Shadows Fall, I did “The Art of Balance” record cover, I did their logo. Logos are really fun; T-shirt designs are really fun. I mostly do t-shirt designs ‘cause they’re easy to do.

S&T: I do multimedia design as well, and so much of what I do is research. Looking at other stuff, reading other stuff, seeing what’s out there. How do you do that when you’re out here?

Mike: Yeh, you kind of can’t. I just try to have as much clipart and artwork to rummage through and kind of just throw things on top of each other and see if they work. I definitely spend a lot of time with nothing to show for it. Just developing stuff which just doesn’t work and by the end of the third hour you’re just like, “Oh, this is just never gonna happen.” (laughs) I’ll just throw it out.

S&T: What’s more difficult for you? A blank canvas or a blank music sheet?

Mike: Music is a bit harder for me. Because I really don’t have a background (in it) where everybody else does in this band. Adam and Joel both went to music school, actually and Justin, all went to music colleges. Howard’s been singing since he was in fourth grade. And I just kind of picked it up. Because it was something to do when I wasn’t skateboarding. I really consider myself a graphic designer at heart. So the bass playing is kind of second thing.

S&T: You have formal training in art?

Mike: Yes. Yeah, I had technical high school so I had graphic arts, which is the printing process, the whole background to graphic design. Then I had four years at a graphic design school and been doing my own business ever since.

S&T: Did you see Brandon from The Used has a new skateboard company?

Mike: No. I didn’t.

S&T: It’s here. It is called…

Mike: Twenty-twenty?

S&T: Yeah.

Mike: I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know he owned that, that’s cool. I’ve realized recently that everything I’ve done up to this point really stems off of skateboarding, which is kind of weird, I don’t really do it as much anymore. I’d probably kill myself now that I’m almost thirty-two at this point but yeah, like everything in my past was like going through magazines, looking at the graphic design or even looking at the T-shirts. Looking at what skateboarders are wearing and thinking, “That could be a really cool band, I should check that out.” Although, I may like the art better than the band (laughs).

S&T: That happens a lot.

Mike: That’s how I discovered music and how I discovered art at the same time.

S&T: How about getting older? I love going to shows but sometimes I’ll go out there and think, “Wow, I can’t relate to this at all, I don’t get it.” Some of it is such crap to me and I wonder if I’m just getter old. Do you have to make a conscious effort to “maintain” hipness?

Mike: I think being in a band you have to maintain it somehow in a weird way. This is definitely the youngest crowd I’ve ever been around and I’m definitely feeling exactly the way you’re feeling with these guys. I mean we mostly play the metal shows, and the burly dudes smelling really bad with long hair and stuff like that. So I automatically feel hip around them (laughter). But (I like) just walking around kinda checking out people shirts and looking at the designs. Now the big thing is printing in alternate places rather than the normal front and back design. It’s all over the sleeves and on the sides. I like to take note of that and try different things and see if they work with some of my clients. And also clients asking for specific things that may be totally out of the bounds of what I’ve been thinking for a while which is kinda cool. It stretches your imagination.

S&T: Is it just you?

Mike: Yep. There was a time when I definitely was going to add some people but this band kind of took off and I set that on the back burner.

S&T: And you don’t have to actually pursue work right, it just comes to you?

Mike: Exactly. I have main clients that I’ve been with for years and years and years that contact me and it just so happens that I’m usually off tour when they contact me or they need stuff. Just talking to bands that we hang out with or play with that need stuff… bands always need stuff. It’s one of the easiest jobs I’ve ever not tried to get is band work. It’s the funnest too; you can really go off and not really be hindered by certain boundaries…

S&T: It’s not exactly like corporate work.

Mike: Exactly. Which is, and I’m well versed in that. I used to work with Clear Channel before I started this.

S&T: Really? The Evil Empire.

Mike: Yes, the Evil Empire. I did ads for them all way down the east coast to all these different markets and stuff like that. That was actually really fun too, like doing a billboard for Ozzy one day and then like an Allman Brothers flyer the next day. Like it definitely stretched the imagination too. And just like different formats and different genres.

S&T: Do you have to get a vibe to work on that kind of material?

Mike: Not really but it’s cool when other people in the office know of the band and can say, “Oh, well that type is a little too futuristic, you may want to do that a bit more western or something like that.” That can help, ultimately when the artwork is sent out, it goes to management and they approve it anyway. So you can either go back and forth and back and forth with them or it’s done the first time you try it.

S&T: And how are you in that context? Working for somebody or under somebody.

Mike: It’s a little stressful. It actually is very stressful and I feel way… less under the gun obviously in this band, but its tough, its really tough. There are definitely times when I’d sit at my desk and wonder what am I doing here? Why am I doing this? But you get through it. You know you work, at the end of the day after you worked out or solved the problem sometimes you get that sense of like wow! I did accomplish something today, that’s kind of cool. Even though I was buggin’ out about an hour ago ‘cause I didn’t think I wasn’t going to get it done, I did it and I feel better for it.

S&T: I’m not sure I could do it anymore (work directly under somebody) but having clients is close to the same thing. You’re still working for or under someone except now it’s a client. I think the thing that bothers me the most is when you do like three versions of something and there’s always the one you like least…

Mike: And that’s the one they pick. Absolutely.

S&T: You know it too you’re thinking, “Look how cool this is and look how not cool this is…”

Mike: Yeh. 9 times out of ten I’ll take that option and not show it (laughs). Unless they’re like, “Oh, I wish it was something…” “Here, look at this one.” “Oh that’s the best one!” Alright, that’s what I figured you were gonna say.

S&T: It’s a lot of pressure. Sometimes you have to come to terms with they’re the client and that’s what they want… Even though you know they’re wrong.

Mike: We are working for them, yeah. It’s part of the job.

S&T: How about pressure musically? With the critical acclaim that comes with each release, is there a sense of, “Man, we really need to produce, or we’re going to disappoint.”

Mike: I think we could be the worst critics of our band. So I feel like if we like it, other people are gonna like it. Other people that are already our fans are gonna like it. Its just one of those things where we’re really hard on everything we do. So its been constantly ripped apart already. By the time we go to record it, usually it’s at a level where we all feel confident and that I feel like that’s about the best you can do. Feel confident about your music and believe in it as much as you possibly can. It is stressful but I don’t think we really think about it that way. We’re just more intent on writing something that you can just pump your fist to or kind of just keep your head nodding the whole time.

S&T: We’re at a time, artistically, where there’s almost no way to be “new.” Everything is really just a variation on something that was already done. Does that happen where you’re working on something and you hear something else in it?

Mike: Well actually, there is a lot of stuff on the new record that I really didn’t like as far as it sounding too much like a certain band but no one else really caught on or (if I mentioned it, I was outvoted). It’s really hard to be original. I mean the one thing I always do is just listen to my old records like old New York hardcore Judge, Cro-Mags and Leeway. All sorts of bands that really influenced me back in the day. It helps me clear my head of things that have already happened, take me back to a time when I really believed in going to shows and putting forth the effort that the bands are putting forth to be there and to be involved with what was going on. I think the cool part about this band is that we all draw from different influences. Like I’m definitely the hardcore metal dude and I write a lot of breakdowns and stuff like that whereas Joel will write a lot of the chugga-chugga metal stuff. He was more into Testament and Metallica, more of the mainstream metal. And Adam’s more into the emo kind of side, will do lot of the structures and the choruses. So it’s cool that we can kinda just throw everything in a pot and just kind of stir it up and see what comes out of it. I feel like maybe if there was just one person writing it would be very one sided and probably a lot easier to discern if we’re stealing something from somebody else.

S&T: So you still a wrestling fan?

Mike: Absolutely, huge. ECW.

S&T: ECW was just doing something. A reunion show maybe? I had just read something the other day. They were doing something but the WWE was trying to stop it because, well most of those guys wound up in WWE except a few, like Sabu, he was doing some independents.

Mike: He was doing TNA for a while, Jeff Jarret’s promotion in Orlando. Actually I went to a show, what was it, about two months ago and it was awesome. Jeff Hardy’s there, Big Sexy, Sting… Jerry Lynn. A lot of the guys from ECW are there.

S&T: There was that other one for awhile, XPW.

Mike: Yeh, that’s been around for a little while. I think Sandman is doing that. Yeah, I was way more of an ECW fan than a WWE fan back in the day but. Since the demise of ECW there’s nothing else to watch besides WWE. And since all my favorite wrestlers went to the WWE, I started watching but its really gotten boring like all my favorite dudes are just not really putting it out anymore. Just such boring matches.

S&T: It’s almost unwatchable now. It takes like forty minutes into the show before there’s a fucking match. It’s like forty minutes of Triple H just talking…

Mike: Again.

S&T: Nobody wants to hear that.

Mike: I had heard they were going to do an ECW pay-per-view, that WWE was going to put on an ECW pay-per-view sometime this year. Howard is a huge wrestling fan as well and he actually tells me more about the underground stuff that I don’t hear about or read about.

S&T: You get online on tour?

Mike: Yeah almost everyday, especially on this tour, it’s sponsored by a wireless company. I think Samsung helped us out with some routers and stuff like that so it’s mostly wireless, which is pretty awesome. OneWrestling.com and all those good sites.

S&T: LordsOfPain.net, I check that one out.

Mike: I love it. It’s awesome.

S&T: Sometimes that’s better than the show, man, just going and reading the results and you’ll get that five minutes like after show when the cameras go off. Like what happens afterwards, who comes back out and does what.

Mike: Yeah, it’s very cool. I’ve met a couple wrestlers. I’m walking out of the bus and the drummer for Shadows Fall is bringing some guy with him and he’s like, “Hey, you know this guy here?” It was fucking Bubba Ray Dudley. It was just like there’s a picture of Bubba Ray Dudley in your mind and the guy that you’re looking at and they just come together and you’re like, “Okay, I need a second ‘cause I can’t get this through my head that you’re standing in front me, that you’re right in front of me right here.” And then Chris Jerrico wandered on the bus. The best part of it was they’re like, “Yeh, Stone Cold turned us on to Killswitch.”

S&T: That’s awesome.

Mike: I’m like, “You’re kidding me! Kidding me!” And then Howard actually got a chance to talk to Stone Cold and Stone Cold talks exactly the same as he does in the ring.

S&T: See that’s cool too because it gets you guys all excited. That’s what a lot of the kids think when they get to meet you.

Mike: That’s one of the perks. I don’t normally get excited about music, people or whatever …

S&T: Chris Jericho, he’s a huge metal fan. Though that band he has is…

Mike: Not so good, not so good. I know one of the guys in that band, Andy Sneap, who mixes our records.

S&T: I know of him.

Mike: Yeah, he usually produces records but he mixes ours, just kind of adds the gloss to it. We kind of got introduced to him through the first Machinehead album, “Burn My Eyes,” which just had fucking amazing sound to it. Yeah, well Adam does his whole producing thing and engineering thing and Andy Sneap just comes on and just shines it up a little bit, adds a little bit of gloss.

S&T: And you have to head over there [Ed.’s note: Andy Sneap’s studio is in England] to do that?

Mike: Yeah he takes it over there. Usually it’s just Adam.

S&T: Without you guys?

Mike: Well we don’t need to be. We trust Adam enough.

S&T: Very cool. How is working with Adam?

Mike: I have a great time.

S&T: Is he ever not “on?” Does he ever stop?

Mike: Yeh, he always knows exactly what's going on. It’s a totally different atmosphere for him in there. I mean he’s always joking around and stuff like that but you could always trust what he is saying if a feel doesn’t work in a certain spot, if you think a spot you go there and, which is like that. And nine times out of ten he is absolutely right and you just trust what he does.

S&T: So he has a split personality?

Mike: Oh, Millions, millions (Laughs).

S&T: You get tired of any of them?

Mike: Oh, all of them (laughter).

S&T: I remember the first time we met him, it was Ozzfest. And he had these Daisy Dukes on…

Mike: Yeah at first he started just making fun of the whole Ozzfest thing, everyone was stressin’ out, “Oh, it’s Ozzfest. We gotta hype ourselves up and we gotta do this, that and the other thing in order to gain respect on Ozzfest,” and Adam’s just like, “I’m gonna wear Daisy Dukes. I’m gonna wear a pig costume and oink on all the background vocals.” Just like totally crazy stuff and we’re like, “Yeah, whatever, let’s just not take it that seriously, just do our thing and have fun with it.” And ever since Ozzfest, we’ve been having a really good time on stage, just goofing around. He wears the Daisy Dukes on this tour because it’s kind of more appropriate. We had to tell him to put those in the closet for the Slayer tour (laughter) because Kerry King actually said there would be riots if he wore them so he stayed away from those that tour. It’s cool to not take everything so seriously all the time, just relaxing, less stressful obviously.

S&T: Sounds like good advice. Thanks for your time, Mike.

interview by scott sisti