WITH PASSION interview
by Benji Womack www.armyofpitsoldiers.com
May 2005 Issue 30



April 28th, 2005 I received a special invite to the rehearsal studios of With Passion.

When I was giving this interview, I was like who the hell is With Passion, never heard of them and I been booking here in Sacramento for a while. Well, I..m glad to say this band was one of the coolest bands I ever caught up with. Please read more about this Sacramento national act now signed to Earache Records.

Benji- Ok, first off can you state your names and band name for the record?
WITH PASSION- Mike, Sam, Brandon and we are With Passion.

Benji- Your thoughts on the Suffocation tour this fall?

 WITH PASSION- WOW! Suffocation and the gods of Pagan Hardcore Metal Cryptopsy. It's a dream come true for a lot of us. I mean Suffocation is pretty much like one of the forefathers for metal of all time. For a new band that just got signed to be able to tour with them our first year, it's unheard of and it..s a pleasure, and I think we will fit right in and we are going to get the opportunity to play with a lot of bands that we normally wouldn..t play with for 2 to 5 years, but we get to do it right now, so we are pretty excited that we get to tour Canada, our home tour, with bands like Suffocation and Cryptopsy.

Benji- Tell me the worst show you can remember playing.
WITH PASSION- Well, we've got a couple of those. Long Island, we played recently at Molly Blooms. Turns out it had been snowing that night out of nowhere and people still came out to the show, but the owner of the venue or the guy running the place was drunk himself and he was all uptight, and he wasn..t used to this type of music. People coming out looking like us, people getting all rowdy. He turned off the breaker in the middle of our buddies, Red Death's set, almost damaging 1000's of dollars of equipment. Just turned it off. The people got crazy, the show was canceled and it was just fucked up, fucked up.

Benji- So tell me how is the new album doing and is it doing as good as you expected?
WITH PASSION- As of now we don..t even know what the first week sales are. It's only been a couple of weeks since the records been out. Apparently it is doing a lot better than I had expected. These are songs that we recorded 2 years ago and released ourselves a year ago, made a 1,000 CDs. Now it got re-released and it's getting some reviews, where people are like, this is new. For people to say it's new and to know it..s a couple of years old, I think it's pretty neat. Hopefully people will spread the word because being on Earache now, we just want to make them happy and get people ready for the next album.

Benji- So you guys are playing with Deicide coming up. Also, are these some of With Passion influences to the reason you wanted to start up a band?
WITH PASSION- I would have to say it's my reason. They did have keyboards but they did get me into Death Metal, Black metal, something I favor, being a Deicide fan since Jr. High.

Benji- In your opinion is the metal world living or dying?
WITH PASSION- It's living, it never dies. The European Metal Scene, the bands coming out of there new and old, they influence bands in our industry, black metal, hardcore metal, death metal. Bands in America everywhere are still all over the world and are still extremely influenced. This scene will always be there. Personally that..s what I believe, and I think it..s the same for a lot of bands around here.

Benji- You guys are signed with Earache Records. How has this label been treating you so far?
WITH PASSION- Great, they are treating us fantastic, they've been backing us 100àThey actually came to one of our shows at B.B. King's and just had nothing but good things to say and they've been keeping in close contact and I actually received a call the other day to hook me up with you, and they just keep feeding us more exposure and more interviews. They really want to get us out there. I think it..s going to turn out great. It..s just good that the label is backing up such a young band like us, it's so great man, especially a young band from America.

Benji- Are you guys getting on the shows you really dreamed of playing yet?
WITH PASSION- Yes my first show with With Passion was with Six Feet Under and I was not in the band at the time, just a fill in and then they asked me to stay full time.

Benji- Tell me the feeling you have deep down inside of you soul when you are on that stage performing in front of all those With Passion fans?
WITH PASSION- Wow, I would have to say it's overwhelming sometimes. You come out and the front set is saying the words to your songs. I can..t describe to you how amazing and overwhelming it is. There was this time when we were on our first tour on the East Coast, there were some kids there that had our first E.P. that was never released. It..s just an amazing feeling. I personally can't stop smiling when I see people reaching up grabbing the mic from Sam. I am supposed to be in this like really tough metal band and I can't quit smiling. It..s just a great feeling to know that someone else enjoys your music as much as you do.

Benji- Any advice for the new bands out there lacking the knowledge of making something work for them in the scene? What would you have wished someone would have told you starting out in the music scene?
WITH PASSION- Someone told me never to give up, and I have never given up. Even when the revolving doors are in play, members coming, members going, I never gave up. I always persevered. You've got to promote yourselves. Go to a show with some flyers, even if you don..t have any flyers, get out there and promote your self, support the local scene, because when people see you out there you become a real person, not somebody that is just taking advantage of people coming to your shows. It..s giving back to the local scene.

Benji- Tell me a little about the show your playing tonight. Why Club Retro and how long is your set going to be tonight?
WITH PASSION- Tonight is our drummer Jacob..s last show; he is leaving the band because of some personal reasons. Club Retro is an all ages church that has nothing to do with why we are playing here, but we've got to play those all ages shows and there..s one in town. Hopefully there are a lot of kids here tonight.
www.withpassionmetal.com
Interviewed by Benji Womack
www.armyofpitsoldiers.com