Society's Plague is exploring more of their symphonic influences

interview society's plague

Society's Plague is a 5 piece Epic Melodic Metal band from Lexington, Ky. They love Ovaltine and Burritos but the reason for this interview is their upcoming tour with Mushroomhead, Final Trigger and Geminin Syndrome and their sophomore release. Before hitting the road Matt Newton (singer) got some time to answer the questions.

Hey you guys, how are you doing these days? Something interesting to share before we start this chat?
Hey! We’re doing pretty well, working on new music and eating Qdoba!

In 2011 we did an interview with you after some member changes but now you changed members again. Information please…
Yeah, we recently parted ways with JD, and it’s something we didn’t really expect, but he has some personal things going on and needed to step away to figure out what it is that he wants and needs out of life. He has been a good friend of band mate of ours for a long time and we really hope everything works out for him, he definitely deserves it, he’s a great drummer and a great friend. 

Don't you get tired when members come and go? Can imagine that it effects the atmosphere in the band. Or not?
It’s not something you really think about, it happens for sure, most bands will have lineup changes here and there. The level that we’re at makes it really hard to find a balance between your personal life and your professional life, you have to work to be able to tour but you have to tour to be relevant, and sometimes it’s really hard to find that balance without it taking a toll on you physically and mentally. It definitely affects the band atmosphere but not always in a bad way, bringing someone new in can give you a whole new perspective on music writing and can sometimes bring some excitement in that may have not been there before. At the end of the day we will always continue on until we absolutely cannot. Some members may come and go but Society’s Plague, and the idea behind Society’s Plague is something that we like to think is bigger than just the five us in the band, and as long as we work hard and stay focused we will thrive in adversity just like we’ve always had to. 

In a couple of days you are going on the road. Which songs are you gonna promote as "The Human The Canvas" is already 2 years old? Or do you secretly have a new album on its way?
We have a lot of new material we were hoping to bring out on this tour, however with JD leaving it left us with about 5 days to get a fill in drummer and get him ready to play one of the biggest tours we’ve been able to play. We are super lucky to have our friend Sean Thompson there to try and fill that void, and we owe him a ton for it. Everyone can fully expect us to be working on recording some new material to hopefully put out mid to late 2013!

What are the expectations for the tour? What are you hoping to achieve? And what absolutely not?
We are really hoping to get some exposure to people who wouldn’t normally get a chance to see a Society’s Plague show. It can be hard building a name these days and we really want to take every opportunity to meet as many people as we can and really get out there and make some friends and fans. It’s going to be a little different having a new drummer playing with us for the first time in five years, so we really hope to be able to build that chemistry quickly and bring our show to a new level. 

Bands that participate are Mushroom, Gemini Syndrome and Final Trigger. Do you know them personally? In what way do they differ from Society's Plague?
We don’t actually, but we definitely look forward to meeting them all. As far as musically I think we all have some similarities but over all we expect the shows will be very diverse both musically and in terms fan bases, which should be a great way to get some exposure to fans from groups that might not normally be exposed to our style of music.

Saw that you are giving free hugs at the mercy boot. I think you are hoping for lots of ladies or are you hugging guys too?
We will hug ANYONE! Whoever messes up the most during the show gets to hug the guys though. 

How does the band prepare for a tour? Practice a lot? Fighting over the set list? Buy beer and snacks for the road?
Lots of practice. Lots and lots of practice. We spend as much time as we can making sure we’re prepared physically for tour.

And how are you traveling? All in one nightliner or several mini SUVs? And are the distances between the cities huge as you are going to several states?
We are using our Ford E-350 Passenger van which we’ve appropriately named “The Enterprise” because anyone who follows us know we’re a bunch of nerds. As far as the distance between cities, this tour definitely has some long drives in it, but we enjoy the time to hang out and listen to music. You’d think we would be ready to kill each other but we get a long pretty well most of the time haha 

But maybe you dreamt about being part of the 70,000 tons of metal cruise?
That would be awesome! Probably the absolute best thing we can imagine haha But honestly, we dream about having enough money and down time to take any type of cruise

Asked about the sophomore album earlier (it must be there somewhere), what can be expect? Change of direction? Change of style?
There will definitely be a lot of new stuff, and it will definitely be a little more diverse than our debut. We are planning to announce some information about it in the next few weeks, but I can tell you we will definitely be exploring some more of our symphonic influences. We are not going to tone down the heavy side but we want to expand on the more epic/folk metal influences that I think took a slight backseat from “The Mercy Untold” to “The Human, The Canvas”.

What will be the red line of the album? Still hoping for hope for people? People will need it even more now with the world crisis going deeper and deeper.
I think the overall theme for us as a band is having hope and being optimistic and strong in the face of adversity. This album may be slightly different though.  A lot of what has been coming out lately is more personal to me specifically, but I think that just part of the evolution, “The Human, The Canvas” Is really about my view of world, and the next album is going to be about how I see myself in that world and how I fit in to the overall plan you know. 

Are you still positive about the the future? When will be the change in the crisis you think? What must happen to turn on the switch?
I’m always positive. I’ve always thought that when you stop thinking positively and progressively then you’ve already given up the one thing that brings change. Hope. I’m not sure what it will take to bring change to the country, or to the world, but I will say that we will be here to hopefully brighten the dark times and celebrate the good ones. And eat Qdoba. 

How can your music enlighten the misery of mankind?
I hope that when someone listens to our album it gives them a different perspective on things than they may have previously had you know. I’m not sure that we can change or enlighten the misery of man, but we can definitely write music to find optimism to, or make stupid jokes and comic book references, either way we will try our best to make your day a little better.

Closing down this chat, your chance to say something to get people attended the upcoming shows.
Thanks for chatting with us, it’s been great! Hopefully the Free hugs do the trick if not then you don’t wanna miss the chance to see me do the worm ;).
Interviewer: twansibon
Feb 12, 2013

Share this: