State your name and what you do in AILD
Jordan Mancino - Drums
What do you feel has contributed to your long career as a band? Bands like Haste The Day have recently broken up, a band that had been at it for awhile.
At the end of the day, the music and the passion behind that music is what keeps bands around and relevant to music fans old and young. However, there are many other factors that keep bands alive such as the creative and business decisions made throughout your career. Timing has a lot to do with it as well. It’s hard to really pin point every little detail that’s attributed to our longevity, but we’ve always tried to stay true to who we are as it relates to our music and the way we do business and I think fans can sense that.
Did you ever think your life would turn out this way? What did your parents say about your first bands?
I definitely didn’t! My parents were always extremely supportive of my music and the bands I was playing in, although I don’t think they totally understood what I was doing until we did tours like Ozzfest. I remember telling my mom and dad that we were going on the road with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden for the summer , bands that they knew and listened to growing up, and at that point it seem to settle in that I was doing was more than just a hobby.
What’s your favorite song to play live?
That’s a tough one… I would say Condemned off The Powerless Rise. The song is fast but still has groove, which is fun for me as drummer.
Speaking of playing live; you’re set to embark on the Decade of Destruction tour. Will any of the shows be filmed for a DVD or music video similar to This Is Who We Are?
No, nothing as extensive as This Is Who We Are, but we are going to filming footage for online video updates and stuff like that.
In my opinion, “Upside Down Kingdom” and “The Only Constant Is Change” are two of The Powerless Rise’ strongest tracks. Can you give us the background of both of these tracks?
- That’s awesome! Yeah I really like both of those tracks. As far as background goes, both of those songs came about as all of our songs do, that is with a general riff structure and arrangement. UDK was more of a straight forward riff extravaganza and TOCIC was more about layering and atmosphere. We actually did around 5-10 different drum track for TOCIC, which was a lot fun for me being able to experiment with percussion, etc.
Digging a little bit further, what song(s) were particularly hardest for you to write and why?
-Well, the toughest songs to record are the ones that we spend a lot of time changing or writing in the studio. It’s nice when I have the time to practice and work on a song a month or a few weeks prior to jumping in the studio, but there were songs like Paralyzed that I had never gotten a chance to practice or get familiar with before I started to record the drums for it. The funny thing is, it’s actually my favorite song from that particular session, maybe because of the spontaneity that was captured being that I was so unfamiliar with it.
What’s coming up for AILD in the near future?
After the DOD tour, we plan to take some time off the road and being writing for a full length, hopefully released by late in the summer of 2012.
Are you playing the Vans Warped Tour or Mayhem Fest next year? If not, do you have any headlining tours planned for early 2012 and if so, can you tell us who you’re playing with?
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but we plan to be active during the summer.
Speaking of touring: in your opinion, which is the best/worst run venues from a production and band point of view?
Haha, are you trying to get me in trouble?! Actually, my favorite venue is The Grove in Anaheim, CA. Very clean, professional, moderately sized venue. Plus, there’s a Starbucks a stone throw a way, which makes me happy. I’m a coffee junky. The worst venue… I “can’t remember” the name of the venue, but it’s in Oregon. I don’t even think it’s around anymore, but it was just a whole in the wall store front that had bands come play. I just remember the beverages provided for the touring party was a paint bucket full of unsweetened iced tea. NO water or anything like that. Just a bucket of iced tea that could only be retrieved by dunking your hand in with your cup. Haha. There were a l lot of other gross things about the place, but I’ll just leave it as that.
What made you guys decide to go the dubstep remix route and only do 3 new songs for Decas?
Haha, well we the remixes are there to be enjoyed, but that’s not a new direction for the band or anything like that. Decas is a compilation, not an original full length. We put the remixes on there for our fans that requested it.
Last question: what’s one book and one band you’d recommend to anyone that listens to AILD?
The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis is a great book. One of my favorite records and a record I would recommend everyone take a listen to is Testament - The Gathering. Amazing record!