Miss May I have come a long way since they formed in 2006. After releasing three records and touring all over the world, the band has released their forth record, Rise Of The Lion, and are currently touring on the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival this summer. I sat down with vocalist Levi Benton at the St. Louis date and we had the following conversation: 

So you guys are on Mayhem after all these years, what's it like to be playing with bands you grew up listening to?

Um, it's pretty crazy. The cool thing is we'll go do signings and there's all these local band that are like, "Man, one of these days I'm going to share the stage with you." and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s a possibility”, because I remember going to shows and saying the same thing and now we’re on tour with freaking Korn and Avenged Sevenfold a few years later. It’s cool to know that anything can happen, it’s crazy.

Have you seen a surge of logo tattoos since Rise of The Lion has been released?

Oh yeah, the lion tattoo has been crazy, I’m actually supposed to get mine when I get home. I’m a loser, I don’t have one yet because we’re always on tour. But yeah, we’ve seen a bunch of them and it’s cool. We saw them a lot during the At Heart (tour) cycle and it really inspired the new artwork so it’s nice to see the explosion afterwards.

I really dug the artwork personally, like it’s such a powerful image. Just right there on someone’s skin.

Yeah, and it’s the real deal. It’s not photoshopped.

Right, you see the video for Gone and you literally see him getting that tattoo. Where did you find that guy by the way? I know you did an audition or something similar?

Yeah, basically. We put out it out on our socials and we had fan send in photos of themselves. We actually had thousands of entries and we ended up having to slim it down to that, we got a pick out of the last ten guys. We just tried to pick the biggest metal looking guy we could find.

Have there been a time when you’re on stage and you put the microphone to someone you think knows the words and it’s just nothing?

Oh, all the time. The best is if you think someone is singing along and you give it to them, only for them to sing the wrong words or just do like blah blahs. It’s all on our monitors so we all like look at each other and are like, “Did you just hear that? I don’t even know what that guy said.”

What are some of your favorite upcoming artists right now?

Oh man, that's hard. It’s weird but I think Issues is pretty cool, it’s a little different. There’s this band City In The Sea, they’re from Arizona. They’re awesome, they’re coming up. That’s about it really.

On an off day on tour, what do you normally do with the time off?

My biggest off day tradition is that I go to the movies because I’m a big movie buff. I went to go see 22 Jump Street yesterday, it was hilarious.

Have you seen Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes yet?

No, I almost did a double header though! My thing is to go to a matinee and sneak into other ones and I go all day.

You’ve toured numerous times overseas at this point in your career, is there any favorite food or drinking you can’t get over here that you have to have when you go back?

In Australia, there’s a ginger beer that really common there. I love it, there’s chunks of ginger in it and it burns your throat, it’s really good. In Japan, I really like the ramen restaurants over there. Oh and I love Belgium waffles from Belgium! They’re insane, you can get them at gas stations and they’re next level.

Have you had rough times going through customs at this point in your career?

Oh definitely. When we started out, we’d have like 20 bags we’d take with us but now we have gear stored over there. Our in ears cause problems because they’re square and they have an antenna, totally looks like a bomb. So every time they’re in a bag, they end up getting taken apart and they get ruined. On the way back from Europe recently, our monitors that has a digital soundboard with a big touchscreen on it, which we've had for years, got the screen smashed when the TSA shut the lid on the case.

So I noticed your setlist on this tour has mostly new material. Is this going to be an ongoing trend for future tours or are you going to do more of a mix?

Normally, we like to do a mix of our material on tour but for this, since it’s a first impression of us for a lot of people and we’re promoting the new record, we’re playing mostly newer stuff. We’ve changed a lot since our first record and with a lot of our throwback songs, 98 percent of the people out there don’t know what they are. They’re not going to understand, “Hey, back in 2009, this was a real banger!” or something like that.

What are some of your favorite songs or albums you like to play when you’re traveling those long stretches on tour?

Well, I don’t listen to a lot of metal when I do. I like listening to the new Die Antwoord record, it’s really cool. I like listening to The 1975, I’m a super fan. Those two bands are the ones I’ve listened to the most at this point.

So have any tour plans for the fall or in the near future?

Yes! We’ve got a lot of tours coming up, we’re going to tour the US a lot. With the the last record, we didn’t really tour the US a lot.

I remember you did that big tour with Killswitch Engage last summer…

Yeah, that was all we really did in the US. Our last record was a transitional record so we needed to do more worldwide stuff but this time for the first year, we’re just going to slam the US. We’re going to come back for a US tour in the fall.

Can you give me any hints on the lineup?

(smiles) Nah, but’s it’s going to be good though! It’s with bands we’ve never toured with before.

So how has this tour been for you so far?

It’s awesome! We’re used to doing Warped and this is a different thing for us so it’s nice.

You’ve done Warped for years and it always has a mashup of different bands and genres so it’s got to be different with all the acts being straight up metal bands…

Yeah, it’s like jumping into a warm pool. You know it’s going to be a good show.

Are there any bands that are standing out for you this tour?

I really like Veil of Maya, they shred. Upon A Burning Body is just insane. I really dig the headliners (Korn and Avenged Sevenfold) and Body Count. I’ve only seen their set in increments though since I’m always busy.

Is there any you’d like to say before you go?

Stay metal!