Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Naveed Stone - Vocals

Jon Conway - Guitar

Vito Racanelli - Guitar

Thomas Diognardi - Drums

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to In Loving Memory? How long has the band been around?

Naveed had actually started In Loving Memory as his solo project prior to it becoming a full band. He started it towards the end of high school and stuck with it, so it's his only serious project he's pursued.

Thomas, Jon, and Vito were all in a band called Insanium right before joining In Loving Memory. Thomas and Jon founded that band in their teenage years and Vito joined later on.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Naveed picked the name In Loving Memory to embody the idea of embracing one's past and reflecting on it positively, allowing you to become a stronger person in the future. You usually hear the phrase "In Loving Memory" in reference to someone who has passed. Our meaning takes a positive meaning and celebrates life.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Naveed and Thomas are the primary songwriters in the band, with Jon and Vito contributing riff ideas as well. Thomas also has produced everything that In Loving Memory has released. Naveed writes all the lyrics for the band, drawing from personal experiences that range from love, heartbreak, growing up, figuring out your path in life. We always aim to create personal yet relatable songs that many people can relate to, especially those in our own age group.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

The cool thing about our band is that each of us have wildly different musical tastes in the band and draw influences from many different places. We love and look up to bands in our scene such as Issues, Periphery, Avenged Sevenfold. Lately we've been taking influence from poppier artists like Jon Bellion and Blackbear.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

As we said, we all come from pretty different musical backgrounds. Naveed started picking up the guitar after being inspired by the song "Hey There Delilah" by the Plain White T's. That was the song and band that made him want to start writing songs of his own. Thomas was heavily inspired by Iron Maiden. His first concert was seeing Iron Maiden at Madison Square Garden in NYC. Next you know, he's learning and covering all their songs on multiple instruments, and that was how he developed a lot of his chops as a multi-instrumentalist. For Vito, Green Day was the band that started it all for him. He found their music to have such a raw and intense energy while at the same time being beautiful to listen to. That's what made him pick up guitar and want to start his own band someday.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Stretching is always very important since we're always running around stage, jumping, headbanging, and all that good stuff. Failing to stretch properly definitely means waking up the next day in pain, so we try to take care of ourselves. We also try to find time at every show we're at to slip away at some point so we can warm up. Usually this means going back to our van or somewhere private so we can warm up on guitar and vocals.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Our biggest highlight as a band would definitely be a tie between two incredible headlining shows we played this year. Our members live in both New York City and the Long Island area just outside of NYC, so we consider all of it to be home turf. In August, we got to headline an incredible show at Gramercy Theater in the heart of Manhattan. This show was an incredible milestone for us because of how many people showed up and gave us amazing energy the entire time. Our recently released live music video for "Nomad" was filmed at this show and perfectly captures what our hometown crowd is all about.

Then a few months later we headlined at Revolution, a very popular venue in Long Island. We actually made history for the local scene as this show was the first show with all local bands to sell out the venue at 500 capacity. Having two amazing headliners under our belt is really amazing because it shows that we are one of the only local bands in the NYC area that can execute shows of this scale. We hope to continue growing and take on even larger venues next year.

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

One band that all of us would agree with is Avenged Sevenfold. That band introduced a lot of us to the realm of rock and metal, and they paved the way for so many of the bands that we listen to now. We'd also love to tour with bands such as Issues, Periphery, Bring Me The Horizon, PVRIS.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

We just want to say thank you to everyone who's supported us so far in our 3 years of being a band. If you haven't heard of us, please feel free to check out our new EP "Introspective" which can be found on all major outlets and streaming services. We make music because we want to build a community, so please feel free to reach out to the band or any of us personally on social media. We always try our best to be responsive and get to know you guys. Keep spreading the word about us because if you do, there's a good chance we'll be able to hit the road in 2018 and meet as many of you as we possibly can!