In an effort to expand our musical coverage I figured I�d lose my death metal interviewing virginity, I planned on popping my cherry with Swedish (read on, I was dead wrong) death metal heros, Darkest Hour. I met up with their guitarist and founder, Mike, before the show and headed upstairs for an enlightening conversation. As it turns out, he is the band's lone Vegan and token straight edge, which is a good thing.
I didn�t realize this, but it was Darkest Hour�s last day on the tour, so they went all out and left everything on the stage. I was really a little surprised to see how much fun death rockers actually have on stage. My first glimpse into the fun came halfway through God Forbid�s set. Soon after it was announced that it was Corey's (God Forbid drummer) birthday, my new friend Mike came out and pelted him right on the head with a very nice looking chocolate cake. To Corey's credit, he never missed a beat. That�s a true rocker.
The funny continued when Darkest Hour took the stage dressed in all black wearing eye make-up, just like Atreyu apparently does. "Hi, we�re Atreyu from Orange County, California and we�re gonna play songs off our smash hit..." You get the picture, they were pretending to be Atreyu, I guess you had to be there, but it was pretty funny. Near the end of their set, Darkest Hour got attacked with many pies and cakes and assorted wet and gooey substances. Straight edge Mike got a major beer bath, losing his edge. Of course Atreyu returned the favor and came on stage dressed in Darkest Hour gear. It was fun. Surprising. Not the best music I�ve heard in a while, but fuck, these dudes have fun and give the kids a good fucking show.
The show was a sell-out, by the way, which was another big surprise. The club�s pretty big, I had no idea these guys were so huge! Anyway, I think I�ll be checking them out next time through town, you should too.
Darkest Hour is: John on vocals, Ryan on drums, Kris and Mike play guitar and Paul plays the bass. Paul and Kris were busy selling merch, the other two were AWOL, so Mike handled the talking...
Sink Hole Zine: All right, who are you, introduce yourself please.
Darkest Hour: I�m Mike Schleibaum and I play guitar for Darkest Hour.
SHZ: I�ll be honest, the only reason I wanted to do this interview is cuz you guys are from Sweden and I always wanted to interview a Swedish band. How is Sweden and is there any culture shock from country to country?
DH: Well, I�m trying to think of the best way to answer this. Basically, we�re not from Sweden.
SHZ: What the fuck, I�ve been had, this interviews over!
DH: We�re actually from Washington, DC. We recorded the album in Sweden and because of that there�s been a lot of misinformation on the web, press and all over the place where people say we�re from Sweden. I think part of it is that we sound like a lot of Swedish bands and we did record over there. I see stuff everywhere that says we�re Swedish, from Sweden, whatever.
SHZ: Yeah, that�s all I�ve ever read.
DH: Well, we are actually from DC. It�s weird to us, and in a lot of ways I can�t understand why the press says we�re Swedish. To us, we don�t look Swedish, none of us have Swedish names.
SHZ: Yeah, I was thinking John Henry? Is that a Swedish name?
DH: Well, a lot of Swedes will pick fake names because their names are harder to say in English and they�re embarrassed of them. That�s really sad because they have pretty awesome names. The main thing I guess, is we are actually from Washington, DC.
SHZ: Well, since we�re both here, I guess I can continue the interview even though your just a stupid American like me... Lemme ask, though, why record in Sweden?
DH: This is the first record that we�ve actually recorded over there. The reason was, basically, there are so many bands that we love from over there, and the studio that we recorded at is, in our opinion, the place that puts out the best records in our genre. We figured, since we have had issues with people recording us and not understanding our sound, that we would just take it to where we had heard records that we loved were recorded. That way we can trust that they understand the sound we like.
SHZ: I really don�t even know of any Swedish bands really, other than The Haunted who are incredible. I know that you had their guitar player cameo on a song and I think you had a bunch of other folks with Swedish looking names appear as well. How did you hook up with so many people and bands over there when you don�t actually live there?
DH: Well, we went out on tour in the U.S. with a band called The Crown who are from Sweden. The singer, Thomas, is also the singer for At The Gates, which is what The Haunted was before it was The Haunted. At The Gates is kind of like the seminal band of this genre. Thomas is kind of seen as the head guy in charge around this genre, he�s the singer-the frontman...
SHZ: The Swedish death metal overlord god?
DH: Yeah, you could say that. Anyway, Thomas was really into the idea of an American band recording over there, we were the first band from the U.S. to record there. So, he was into that idea of an American band, that sounded like a Swedish band, coming over to record over there. He basically set it all up for us. He found all those people to do the guest spots, they were all into it. Really, the main connection is: Darkest Hour-Thomas Lindbergh-Sweden. That�s the connection.
SHZ: When I first heard the CD before I thought you were from Sweden, which now I know your not, I thought it had a bit of a DC hardcore feel to it. Is that an influence? I don�t know how old you guys are, but I�m just about 30 and I grew up in that DC Hardcore, NYCHC era in the late 80's
DH: Everybody in the band is between 24 and 32. We�re kind of around the same age and the DC Harcore scene is definitely a huge influence on us and not just the music. We don�t like to have our shows beyond a certain price, we don�t like to have kids buy tee shirts or CDs for a certain amount of money. These are all DC ideals that came from growing up around the Dischord scene. We play Halls, we play churches, we play basements. We�re kind of like a metal band that does things in a way that a lot of metal bands don�t do and that is 100% because of DC Hardcore DIY ideals.
SHZ: That�s cool to say, but this tour your on has corporate sponsors and a $12.00 door. How does that fit into that ideal?
DH: Not every band can be Fugazi. We have a thing that we�re trying to do with this band and that is show people that you can play metal and not have to operate like a metal band. They can be like a punk band and play a Hall or something, while still being a real metal band. To do that, to reach new kids, to get your ideas out there, you have to play with different bands. If we were gonna say that we never wanted to do a tour unless it met with all the rules we set, we�d never get tours. All these other bands have different ideas about how they want to run their bands and we can�t force our ideas onto them, especially onto a head liner. We want the door price to be 8 bucks, we don�t think that local bands should have to play at doors, we don�t think local bands should have to sell tickets, we don�t think that kids should have to worry about a barrier or worry about security. Of course these are all things we can�t control this time around because it�s someone elses tour. This is Atreyu�s deal, we�re just a supporting act. We can�t control the door prices and we can�t control the ads cuz it�s not really our tour. When we can do our own tour, then we�ll do things the way we want them done.
(at this point Underoath�s set began and hearing each other got really difficult)
SHZ: When I first got your CD "Hidden Hands Of A Sadist Nation" I saw a song called "Oklahoma". Now at first sight, I was wondering why of all the 50 states in this country and all the countries in the World-why name a song after Oklahoma? Now, after I read the lyrics, I realized there was a story behind it, you wanna elaborate on that story?
DH: Well, we were actually arrested in Oklahoma, the whole band, we were charged with possession of drugs and a bunch of alcohol. We never had any drugs and all the alcohol that we had was in our trailer and it was sealed. It was the free beer that we got from the club the night before, we had it in our trailer, but we brought it across state lines, which was something we didn�t realize was illegal. Anyway, these cops pulled us over and they decided to throw the book at us. They charged us with having drugs that we didn�t even have. We basically had to pay a bunch of fines. It ended up being $5400.00 to get us all out of jail. We figured that we would pay the fines, then go back and fight. What we didn�t realize was that if you pay the fine, you admit guilt. So, we didn�t get the chance to fight it. We couldn�t do anything about, though, cuz we were in jail. We had to pay the money to get out of jail to fight it, or we could have stayed in jail in Oklahoma for 30 days which we did not want to do.
SHZ: Will you ever go back to Oklahoma?
DH: Never again.
SHZ: I used to live in Oklahoma...
DH: They actually have the hardest drug laws in the whole United States.
SHZ: When I lived there, I was told that they actually had a law on the books that said it was illegal not just to tattoo, but to have a tattoo.
DH: I believe it, I�m surprised that they didn�t charge us with that, too.
SHZ: Okay, let�s get away from Oklahoma... I know that you obviously weren�t born listening to death metal, what did you grow up listening to, and what were your early favs?
DH: AC/DC was the first band I ever really got into. Lynyrd Skynyrd was another, classic rock. Some of the first punk and hardcore bands that I got into were Minor Threat, Uniform Choice and Chain Of Strength. Older hardcore bands. Then, I started getting into more metal. I was never a metalhead at first. I kinda fell into it. A lot of the other guys in Darkest Hour were metalheads first, who found punk later.
SHZ: Minor Threat, Uniform Choice, are you guys Straight Edgers?
DH: No, the band isn�t straight edge, I am though, but I�m the only one in the band.
SHZ: Are you a Vegan, too?
DH: Yeah, (quick pause to slap hands-non-meat-eating brotherhood!) nobody else is, we don�t really take a Vegan or straight edge stance at all as a band, but I am.
SHZ: Is it difficult maintaining your diet and staying true to that while your on the road with a bunch of carnivores?
DH: YES! It�s extremely hard, that�s all I can say, fucking hard.
SHZ: Like we�ve already determined, your not Swedish, but you have been there. One thing about Sweden is I have never heard of a pop-punk band coming out of Sweden, just the hard stuff. That�s gotta be a nice scene, no pop, just hard and thrash. Am I off base?
DH: Yes, you�re a little off base...Sweden is a very colonialized country. They love American culture because it�s feed to them so much. Especially American pop-culture, American punk rock, nu metal and pop punk, so there�s plenty of bad Swedish pop punk bands that you just don�t really hear about.
SHZ: I saw your sign by the merch stand. I know its one of the shitty parts of touring, getting robbed, so I have to ask what happened, how are you getting on and how did you even have $12,000.00 to lose?
DH: Well, it was money we had made after a bunch of shows, then we went to another country (Canada) and we couldn�t deposit any of our money cuz we were in the wrong country. They don�t have a bank in Canada for American citizens. We were just gonna wait and pay our sound man in cash, which would have been half the money, then we were going to bank the rest to pay for all our shirts and stuff when we got back to the U.S. Unfortunately, we ended up getting robbed in Toronto.
SHZ: Now you said the cash was in a safe, can someone even get that open?
DH: Yeah, it was a cheap little safe, you don�t need to be a pro to get in that.
SHZ: Have people been helping you out to keep you on the tour?
DH: A lot of kids have been donating money, the other bands have been really cool.
SHZ: I noticed that you didn�t hike up your tee shirt prices, still 10 bucks, that�s cool.
DH: I have to say that I thought that we could have raised the prices just for this tour, just to try and make a little more money back, but keeping with our DC ideals, we couldn�t agree on it. I mean we�d all feel bad charging kids 12 or 15 bucks for a shirt.
SHZ: Yeah, I�d rather buy 3 shirts for 10 a piece than one for 12 bucks, just on principle.
SHZ: You guys are on the Victory Records imprint and have been for while now. Lately, they�ve put out some crappy bands, a lot more pop punk type stuff. Does that direction that they�re taking bug you guys and are you still happy with them as a label?
DH: Victory can sign whoever they want to sign and it doesn�t really effect me. If they signed bands I like, they wouldn�t make a cent as a record because most people don�t dig what I like. So, they�re running a business, they want to sell CDs and they sign bands that they think can do that and we understand that. I will admit that I don�t like all the Victory bands. There are a few bands I like, some I don�t and a bunch more that I�ve never even heard. As a label, they�ve always treated us fair, never asked us to do anything we didn�t want to and we�ve always been happy with the job that they�ve done so I can�t complain either way.
SHZ: Is there anything that�s happened on this tour that will translate into a song on the next album, and will there even be a next album?
DH: Definitely there will be a next album, that�s certain. I can�t say what events will translate into what songs, I have no idea what we�re gonna write about. I mean we could write a whole record about beating up God Forbid, or beating up Metallica.
SHZ: Now your sitting across from me with a pink shirt and a trucker hat, you guys are all kind of goofy looking. How do you go from that to being all dark and spooky on stage? Is it a Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type deal?
DH: Actually, you�ll notice later when you see us, we definitely aren�t dark and spooky, we are a lot more goofy. It�s not choreographed either, we�re just losers! If we tried to be all serious and shit, it would just be retarded. We�re just who we are and that�s it.
SHZ: So many of my "prepared questions" revolve around you guys being from Sweden, I�m really thrown off...
DH: That�s okay, ask em anyway, I can pretend I�m from Sweden.
SHZ: No, it�s ruined now. You should have pretended from the start.
SHZ: Moving right along...I�ve heard of bands like Conflict or World Burns To Death, etc. having their stuff confiscated at customs. You guys are always in and out of countries, have you had any issues getting through customs?
DH: The funny thing is we always have the most problems going from customs to get back in the U.S. Especially coming through Canada. The Canadian-U.S. border is really tight right now, so that border really sucks. We�ve always had van searches, questions and harassment. So, yes, we have a ton of problems getting through customs even though we�re not from Sweden! One time I did have to explain some lyrics to a guard and he wasn�t really stoked about it.
SHZ: They actually read your lyrics?
DH: He found my notebook with my lyrics written in it. Of course he thought it was some kind of weird terrorist bullshit.
SHZ: Have you ever had anything confiscated?
DH: Yeah, cigarettes and a bunch of copies of our "Prophecy" EP, both times in Canada!
SHZ: So, I was reading the liner notes on the way here and I was wondering what exactly a "Gig Butt" is and why your thanking it?
DH: We do stage hand work in Richmond and DC. Basically, we just load gear for big name arena acts. We worked Cher, Bruce Springsteen, we did Lil Bow Wow, all sorts of stuff. Basically we just carry shit around for them. Anyway, we have a joke that we made up where we call the guys who do it "gig butts" cuz they�re all old, pissed off, southern white guys. So we can just yell "Gig butt!" at them and they don�t know what we�re talking about. So, a gig butt is a stage hand.
SHZ: Is that what you do when your not on tour?
DH: Yeah, I haven�t had a real job in like 3 years. The band has kinda supported us.
SHZ: I hate you!
DH: I do gig butt sometimes, I was a bike messenger...
SHZ: Are any of y�all in any other bands?
DH: Our drummer is in a band called "Suppression", it�s kind of like an old grind band. Our other guitar player is in a band called "The Locust Factor". It�s even more metal than Darkest Hour.
SHZ: I only noticed one record on your merch table on vinyl("The Mark Of The Judas"), everything else on CD, do you put all your releases on vinyl and how do you feel about that?
DH: We try to, we love vinyl. On the Victory releases they usually refuse to let us do too much of that because it doesn�t really sell. It�s an older punk thing, since we�re older punks naturally we�d like it all on vinyl. A lot of people collect it, but it just sounds better.
SHZ: Any plans on a 7 inch anytime soon?
DH: Probably not, its been about 5 years since we�ve done one and that one didn�t even sell.
SHZ: Is that a reason to do side bands, to put out vinyl releases and call your own shots?
DH: I think the chief reason for the side bands is so we don�t get bored and forget how to play. Plus, its not like this is the only kind of music that we all like. Metal can be boring if that�s all you ever do.
SHZ: This is supposed to be the first question, but I got flustered, how did you guys meet and all that, how did Darkest Hour get started and has it really been 8 years, and when did you get involved in the band?
DH: I started the band, it was a shitty high school metal band. I was the only one in it who is still in the band. Anyway, I kicked the singer out and I asked John to sing cuz he was a friend of mine. It was just a crappy high school band up till 1998, then we added the drummer we have now, we got a new bass player and it just started to be more of a real band. We made some records, became Swedish...
SHZ: I like it when tours have names and I guess this name is okay, "Bitter, Broken, Bound and Gagged", I�m assuming Atreyu dubbed it such. I thought "Frolicking Pink Bunnies Hugging Teddy Bears Grinning" would have been better.
DH: If we named it, guaranteed, we�re all about pink bunnies...
SHZ: You could sing about them, or better yet, drop a smooth 80's pop-cover, or some disco. Do you do covers?
DH: Actually, we really don�t. If we ever did, "Working For The Weekend" by Loverboy or "Eleanor Rigby" by the Beatles would be my top choices.
SHZ: Tonights the night, any chance?
DH: I doubt it. Our sets are so short cuz we�re opening, I think some kids might get pissed if we did a cover.
SHZ: I wouldn�t!
SHZ: Speaking of short... I love that segue, Anyway, I don�t listen to metal. I�m used to punk and metal songs that top out at 2 minutes typically. You guys have songs that are like 10 minutes long. Did you get bored or do you need to take a nap halfway in between?
DH: I understand coming from that background, the weirdness of the long songs. I don�t know if you remember, but there have been some awesome hardcore metal bands that did some long songs. Damnation AD from DC and they did these awesome 8-minute long "In Justice For All" type songs that were incredible. I guess it really depends on what your outlook is. If what your looking for is stage-dive, circle pit, rest; then you need the short songs. If your looking for epic story telling songs, obviously that�s more metal and that�s what we�re into.
SHZ: Are funny stories on this tour...I know that losing what equals more than more 6 months salary for me puts a damper on things, but it looks like your still having fun.
DH: We did get kicked out of the Dillinger Four owned club in Minneapolis for being too drunk except for me. So that we was me herding 8 drunks around. We�ve been having a van war with Underoath. We covered their van in chicken feathers and made it look like a turkey. They retaliated by covering ours in saran wrap and syrup. We hung a banner in front of them when they were playing that said "I heart (imagine an actual heart cuz I can�t draw one on a typewriter) Boobs".
SHZ: Whoa...what a minute! A vegan using chicken feathers?
DH: They weren�t real feathers.
SHZ: Okay, just wanted to straighten that out. Another thing, I don�t drink either and most of my friends do. It kind of sucks cuz they always have more fun and you get stuck babysitting, apologizing and driving all the time, do you deal with the same stuff?
DH: Yep, it�s worse when your on tour, you do all the driving and all the work.
SHZ: Unless you have anything else that you want to add, I think I�m spent. Got anything else to say?
DH: Thanks for doing the interview, and everybody should buy the new God Forbid record when it comes out. Dallas does some sweet vocals on it and I�m gonna do some guest rapping on it, too. Get it, it�s awesome, it�s like a Flava Flav meets Eminem kinda thing.
SHZ: That�s it for me, unless you change your mind and tell me your really Swedish, I�m asking my final question. We end all our interviews asking folks for 5 words to live by or to describe it all.
DH: I�ll go with a Big Lebowski quote. "Strikes and gutters, ups and downs".
SHZ: That is 6 words, but I like it. Have a nice show and good luck.
For more info on the band, check their website, Darkest Hour dot CC or their labels site.
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