Karlie caught up with Unearth to talk about the history of the band, their latest album and much more.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today, can you tell me a bit about the band and your history together?
Well, the band started in 1998, we were all kids back then and came from different bands. The original members back then had a band called Point 04, and my band Second Division would play shows with them all the time. They got rid of their singer and asked me to join their new project. That’s how we started. We did a bunch of local shows and small tours until 2001, then we got signed by Eulogy Recordings in 2001, and ’03 got signed to Metal Blade. We’ve been touring full time since 2001, and we have 4 records now with Metal Blade, with a new one that came out last month. So we’ve been touring full time for 10 years.

How did you come up with the name Unearth?
Our original drummer came up with it, he wanted to ‘unearth’ a new blend, a new sound in the metal world.

How would you describe the band to those that haven’t heard of you?
Picture early thrash metal mixed with Iron Maiden mixed with Pantera, into Earthcrisis/Hatebreed style. So those are our main influences, then we go into the Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and In Flames. It’s a mix of that, up until that point it hadn’t really been done before, then in the late 90’s we came along, us, Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage all pulled our influences together and made something different. We’re all from Massachusetts.

Who would you say your biggest musical influences are?
Me, personally, I have two. Mine are Pantera and Testament. Those are my two favourite metal bands of all time.

Have you got any ‘guilty pleasures’ that you listen to?
Yeah! I don’t just listen to metal all the time. This other singer I’m into now is a folk singer, his name is White Buffalo, it’s just a guy and a guitar, but it’s really dark folk, it’s really good. I’ve always liked Dave Matthews band, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, not so guilty but he’s got some pretty amazing shit. I got into music with classic rock, that’s what my dad was into so I like all the classics. The Beatles, I listen to them almost daily.

This is only your 2nd UK date of this tour, is there any date/venue that you’re looking forward to playing in particular?
The whole tour in general really. We were looking forward to London but that got cancelled because of the trouble that’s been happening there recently [Riots], hopefully we’ll come back really soon to do London. But we always love coming to the UK. Our first time here we did Download [Festival] for the first time and that was one of the best shows we’ve ever played so we always love to come back.

Have you got any favourite places to play on a worldwide scale?
It depends how I feel. Sometimes it depends on the weather. My favourite was Australia, and we were always there in their summer. The past couple of times we were there it was there winter, so it wasn’t my favourite anymore! It’s really nice there, I think it’s a great country. Every place can be nice, if the weather is nice and you actually take the time to go and explore the cities and the culture a bit, that’s what I look forward to on tours, a bit of sightseeing. I’m working but I like to be a tourist at the same time.

Have you got any plans for a future tour once this one has finished?
We’re talking about it right now, we’re not sure if we’re going to come back early next year, or wait for the festivals. I think the festivals are definite, so it’s just a case of whether we leave people hungry and keep them waiting, or come back sooner. I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of that pretty soon. When we’re done with this tour we’ve got 2 weeks off, then going to Japan to headline a tour, then in November/December we’re headlining a tour in America. The new year we’re just trying to plan out. We’ll be back for sure, we just don’t know if it’ll be June, July, or February.

How did touring with Evergreen Terrace come about? And have you played with them before?
We’ve known them for a long time. We used to be on the same label [Eulogy] Now we’re both on Metal Blade. We toured with them back in 2003 and actually played shows with them in 2001. We’ve been friends with them for quite a long time. We were actually over in Europe this past December on the Persistance Tour with them, it didn’t come to the UK but stayed in Europe mainland. Their good dudes, we’re all sharing a bus.

What do you like/dislike about being on tour the most?
Dislike, Umm… I guess being away from friends and family. This is a great job but we’re gone a lot. We’re gone about 7 or 8 months of the year, so it kind of takes its toll sometimes. I can’t complain though, I get to see all these countries around the world, different cities, and play music to people that enjoy it, stuff that we wrote. That’s probably the best feeling on earth for us. The good will always outweigh the bad with this job.

What’s your most treasured possession while you are on tour?
Probably my iPhone, I had a Blackberry forever but the iPhones are just way better. The games on it, I just can’t imagine touring without it. Even though years ago we used to tour and I didn’t even own a cell phone, and now it’s like, I’m hooked on this thing! Total lifeline.

Your latest album ‘Darkness in the Light’ was released at the beginning of last month, how do you think it’s gone down with the fans?
Very well, some people are liking the new stuff. On our Facebook and Twitter feeds we’ve had people saying they love the record, that it’s the best record yet, etc etc. Hopefully that’s a good sign and it’ll continue to sell.

How did you come up with the name for the album ‘Darkness in the Light’?
We had a few different names for the record, but this one tied in with the lyrics more, a lot of the themes are a bit more negative on this record, ‘cos we all go through tough times in life, so this was my chance to vent and get those demons out. There are also uplifting themes, the song ‘Arise the War Cry is about overcoming that bullshit. It’s kind of push and pull. If people can relate to it, that’s great.

What’s your favourite song from the album?
It’s Eyes of Black, it’s heavy, it’s fast, more of a Crowbar influence. I just feel like it brings everything I wanna hear in a metal song into that song.

You played the Rockstar Mayhem Festival this year, how did you enjoy that and were the crowd receptive to your performance?
That was a party every day. It was a festival, so there were 10,000 people or more every day. You go out there, you have a half hour or so, and you just run around. We were lucky, we had a fixed slot, we were always main support on the Jager stage. It was packed every day, we took the beer bong on stage, we had fun. It was a good tour.

We were going to ask you about your beer bong promotion, does this assist in your partying in any way?
We’ve always had the beer bong, ever since 2004, Ken, our guitar player, started to do them on stage just for fun and it just became part of our image for a little while. Then our label decided to make it part of the pre order package, so it’s kind of become part of our personality. It’s our little gimmick I suppose. It worked, people liked it. We didn’t bring one on this tour though, I don’t know why. It’s still early in the tour I might try and find one.

Have you got any rituals before going on stage?
We always put on some tunes about an hour before we go on, and we call it our ‘Power Hour’. So it’s not a real like, take a shot a minute, but we take shots of whisky, or Jager, depends on the day, we get pumped up a little bit, do some push ups or something, get the blood flowing. Listen to some classic hard rock, drink some shots and exercise a little bit, that’s our ritual. Gets us pumped up, y’know.

Where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years’ time?
Hopefully keep the band name going. Keep touring, keep people coming back. The ultimate goal for the band is to reach the status that Pantera did, because that band got their on their own terms without selling out. That’s our ultimate goal. But our main goal is that we just want to be around as long as Slayer has, the band is massive, but they never got to the Pantera status because they are too heavy. They’re great, and respected by their peers and by fans around the world. I just want to be doing this for as long as possible.

One last question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or a giraffe, which would you be and why?
[Looks confused] A zebra or a giraffe? That’s an interesting question. Why do you wanna know? That’s strange. [Pauses for a while] I would probably be a giraffe. There’s less predators for a giraffe because they are so big, and umm… yeah, they’re just giant animals. Zebras just get hunted down by lions. Fuck that, yeah. Giraffe.

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today, we’re looking forward to your show!

Interview by Karlie M