Burnt by the Sun interview, with vocalist Mike by Jen

We're all originally from the central Jersey shore. Most of us still live there, except me.
Give us some burnt by the sun history...how and when the band started, etc...
Basically, John and Dave were putting together some ideas along with this fellow Tom Hayden and had asked me to come down and check it out. I did, liked it, and within the course of a couple months we had a steady line-up and a handful of songs, which would later be recorded as the split EP with Luddite Clone and the relapse EP. About a year later we had a guitarist change, and here we are.
Did you guys play in other bands before?
Sure. I played in Endeavor, Nora, and try.fail. try. John was in Time's Up and Black Army Jacket. Chris was in Time's Up and a band called Victory Hawk. Dave was about 100,000 bands, most notably Discordance Axis, Human Remains, etc. Teddy was in Human Remains. (Woo Hoo...Nora Rocks!!-Jenn)
How did you guys hook up with Relapse?
They showed a lot of interest right off the bat just because they saw that half of Human Remains was back playing crazy music again. They came out to our first handful of shows and then said that they'd like to do some records. After about 8 months of contract negotiations, we signed our lives on the way. Its been a smooth sail so far.
How did the debut EP do on relapse? Did it get the buzz going around about you guys?
I'm not sure what the latest sound scan number is, but it did pretty well considering it was our debut release, especially for an EP.
Other than the EP, do you have any other releases?
There's the split EP with Luddite Clone, which has the first three songs we wrote. We also have a black flag cover on an Initial Records cover comp.
How is the new album coming along?
We just recorded and mastered it. Its called "Soundtrack to the Personal Revolution" and is composed of 10 new songs.
Do you have a release date for it yet?
Word has it at January 22.
You have been working with producer Matt Bayles...Did you work with him before? How do you like working with him?
Matt was great. He's got a great ear, a good sense for ideas, and he's picky and motivating.
Tell us about some of the bands and tours you have done recently and I want at least one good, funny Burnt by the Sun tour story.
We've done only one short tour, which was about 10 days, most of which with Martyr AD. We had a great time playing with those guys. I've known them for a long time and it was great sharing the stage and equipment with them. Aside from that, we've only been weekend warriors. Funny travel stories? Aww, man not too many big stories, just a lot of little things, like me almost driving everyone off the side of a mountain, Ted kicking his horn while driving, me stinking up the van with bad gas, lots of laughs.
How have the big festivals you have played for been?
Fests are okay. I hate the metal fests, generally. Most of them are just way too uptight and restrictive, not to mention abominable sound. The KrazyFest this year was probably the best fest we've played. Decent outside sound, lots of fun, no fights (that I saw), good organization but not restrictive. If all fests were run like that I'd do them every weekend.
Have you made it to play oversea's yet and if so, how was that?
No, not yet. Hopefully within the next year or so.
What 5 albums have you been listening to lately?
Kool Keith "Spankmaster", Esham "Tongues", Nora "Loser's Intuition", Deadguy "Fixation on a co-worker" (Nice!!! One of my fav's- Jenn), and Duke Ellington's 3 disc set with the Blanton-Webster Band.
The most important question out of this whole interview...Who would win in a 3 man elimination wrestling match...Gordon Conrad, Pellethead, or Carl and be honest! =)
Definitely Gordon. He's so laid back and quiet that you know he's able to rip someone's head off at any moment. Like George Carlin says, "its the quiet ones you gotta watch".
Anything else you would like to add?
Thanks for the interview. Don't hate; just motivate.
http://www.burntbythesun.com/
http://www.myspace.com/burntbythesun
Relapse Records:http://shop.relapse.com/artist/artist.aspx?ArtistID=10018