The Lowdown: Stuart Ross of Misery Signals

Hardcore for what it is now is far removed from what it’s supposed to be and in that sense it’s kind of fucked.

October 5, 2009, 07:05 PM

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Misery Signals have been touring around Europe over the past month or so and Alt Sounds were lucky enough to catch up with guitarist Stuart Ross at their London date at the Camden Underworld.

Altsounds: How’s the tour going so far?
Stuart Ross: Yeah, it’s been good. It’s been really long. It’s been 5 weeks so far and we’ve still got another week of dates left. Europe went really well and the UK’s been great, so can’t complain.

Altsounds: Where are heading to next on the tour?
Stuart Ross: Tomorrow we fly to Athens in Greece and then from there we go to Helsinki and then St Petersberg and Moscow.

Altsounds: So your going to places you haven’t been to before?
Stuart Ross: Yeah, we haven’t been to any of those places before.

Altsounds: What’s the reception been like so far?
Stuart Ross: Pretty good. Europe has never been a place that necessarily pops for us, so it’s been a gradual build for us there. It’s definitely been noticeable that things have been getting better. The UK’s been great, it’s always been good over here.

Altsounds: What are you listening to at the moment?
Stuart Ross: I like the new Strike Anywhere record (Iron Front). I’ve got the new Baroness record (The Blue Album), which I really like. There are some riffs on that album that are super sick. The New Polar Bear Club record (Chasing Hamburg). I’m waiting for the new Converge, I want to hear that record so bad.

Altsounds: How do you see the Metalcore scene, from when you first started in 2002 and to what the scene is like now?
Stuart Ross: It’s definitely different than what it was when we started, especially in North America. There’s changes in direction in the scene with what’s necessarily hip or cool. Hardcore for what it is now is far removed from what it’s supposed to be and in that sense it’s kind of fucked. Even when we started it wasn’t like hardcore and punk was anything like it was 20 years before that. It’s a little bit more commercialised now and a little bit more mainstream. But what can you do? It’s cool that lots of kids come out, it’s just that the ideas and the ethics that come with punk or hardcore, or even a scene are kind of lost now.

I think to a lot of people it was a place to go where it was open minded and people could just come out and hang out, and listen to music and create music. And now a sort of free environment has become this box, cookie cutter kind of situation. It’s hard for me to say because a band wants to be successful and a band wants to make money, but at the same time it’s sucks to be selling t-shirts because it’s got a cool exploded cat on it or something like that, instead of the message you're sending with your music.

So it’s sort of a weird take because I got into punk and hardcore because it was pissed of, aggressive and different, you know, something that I could identify with to separate myself from the people who have a normal kind of life, something that I don’t want to subscribe to. It’s strange though to see things come around and almost become what is considered normal. It’s sort of weird.

Altsounds: Following on from you last album "Controller" what sort of direction are you moving in?
Stuart Ross: It’s hard to say what will happen with the next record. We’ve gotten to the point where we don’t really care if we don’t become a big band. With that said we don’t want to cater to anybodies tastes, you know following the trends and movements in the music scene. So we’re going to continue along the lines of the stuff that we’ve written over the past 6 and a half years and if people give a shit then cool and if they don’t, whatever.

Altsounds: Devin Townsend produced the last record, will you be working with him again?
Stuart Ross: I’d love to go back to Devin. I just don’t know if it will work out time frame wise. He’s really busy, he’s writing 4 albums and I think he plans to tour those albums as well. So he’s going to have a very busy year. And I don’t think we’ll be ready to hit the studio until spring or summer next year anyway. If he’s available I’d love to work with him again. He really understands what we want to do and I feel like he contributed so much to the way our sound developed that it kind of sucks to not work with him. I wouldn’t really want to have to settle for anything less.

Altsounds: What do you think of you’re your touring companions, The Number Twelve Looks Like You?
Stuart Ross: Yeah they’re cool guys. We’ve toured with them in the US before. It’s nice when you can go on tour with people who you are already comfortable with.

Altsounds: Thanks so much and enjoy the rest of the tour and thanks for chatting with us.

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