Jan/Feb 2017 vandala magazine

Iinteriviiew. Am Imteumiew with IRorolilumderiwoosi and that's what makes us who we are. I think it's humbling and it's a fact that, maybeon the surface someone has a bunch of advantages over your walk of life, but they're going through their own type of shit too. I feel like that kind of attitude can bring out a lot of mutual respect from people that you might not feel that you have much at all in common with. So, yeah, I kind of like that idea.

For you, what was the most challenging song to write and perform within "The Damaged Ones"?

Ron: It's an obvious one with me as a vocalist. When it's just sheer vocal range and you're like, "Oh! I can't do that" he Actually, "Goodbye" is a good example of a song where we sing in these long high DAMAG NES notes on the chorus. Our drummer Mike had suggested that melody to me. He -brought the song and he was simply like, "Try this" and I was like, "No way am I going to be doing that" It was really cool to have someone else bring an idea outside of what my comfort level/tendencies were and actually make it work. It helped me grow!

I'm really fortunate in this band that everyone is able to write and put in their own two cents. It's allowed me to become a better singer and it's freed me up to some spend so much time writing. I was in another band known as, "Opiate for the Masses", for about ten years and I had a lot more of the writing and the recording responsibilities. It didn't allow me to grow as a vocalist because I was just sticking inside a safe zone and I would kind of write by catering to my voice. Now I realize that I can do a lot more than I knew I could then. It's been a blast working with these guys! They're great songwriters!

Any behind the scene studio memories you'd like to share when first recording The Damaged Ones?

Ron: This album was recorded throughout our touring process and things like that. A lot of it was done in our bands rehearsing studio. Our drummer is an amazing sound engineer/producer. We recorded a bunch of stuff on the road too. Literally in our RV in the kitchen area. I guess that was a new experience for me, just being able to record anytime we need to get an idea down/finish up a track. We finished the recording with Kane Churko (Five Finger Death Punch, In This Moment, Ozzy Osbourne) and I learned so much from Kane. He's one of those guys that is not just a writer and he's not just an engineer, he's both! You can get the best of both worlds when you work with someone like that. He's like a Mutt Lang or something like that where you have an idea and he can incorporate it immediately like, "Go hop on the mic and do something like this", so it was really cool for him to come in and have that spinal refinement process with everything. Sometimes just a tiny twist or just one repetition of a bar was just all the difference in the world. It was just so cool to be able to wrap everything up with Kane.

How satisfied are you with the final outcome of your debut record?

Ron: I'm so happy with it! I've never been involved with something that when I pop it back in; sometimes when you record you have to step back because you know where Jan/Feb 2017 - VandalaMagazine.Com 19