Altsounds - Whitechapel - Interview with Alex Wade

1.Hey who's this and what brick are you in the wall of noise that is Whitechapel?

This is Alex Wade and I am one of the three guitar bricks haha.

2.To be honest I've never heard your music before but it's awesome! There are a million bands like you though so why don't I love them too? What are your extra toppings?

There are alot of bands out there doing what we do but I feel like we have a certain intensity that sets us apart from the rest. Like almost you can feel the hate and anger when you listen to the music. We also incorporate alot of unique effects to our music and alot of melodic epic parts. Alot of bands focus on just trying to be so heavy and I think thats when it gets monotonous, you've got to have interesting
sections incorporated into the music that breaks up the heavy parts.

3.Listening to your music makes me feel a bit narcistic, angry and egotistical all at the same time… is this normal?

Funny you ask this after the answer i gave in the last answer, so from reading my last answer and you saying that you feel these things, yes, I guess you could say it's normal ;).

4.Posession and Ear To Ear have pretty definitive beatdowns, almost like Lamb Of God's 'Laid To Rest' in that it fits into the song perfectly and is 110% brutality encapsulated in sound. What's the secret?

We try to write breakdowns as creatively as possible because that's an aspect that can get old quick because it's done so often in our genre as well as others. There's no certain manual we follow to writing our breakdowns, we just definitely try to writes ones that aren't even similar to anything we've heard before.

5.Staying on breakdowns (because it's always a good place to be), what's your favourite one ever? I think mines at the end of 'My Promise' by It Dies Today.

Probably the breakdown at the beginning of obZen by Meshuggah, though their "breakdowns" are really more just groove parts it comes in sssoooo heavy it's just stupid haha.

6.Here in the UK we're a bit stereotypical and like to think that Tennessee's all about old men drunk on whiskey with battered acoustic guitars singing about god and domestic violence (god bless us), so where did you guys spring up from?? You have completely shattered our image so I hope that you feel guilty!

Hahahaha guilty as charged. We come from a collection of of small cities in Tennessee, I guess we're just lucky that we all happened to love writing and playing the same brutal music and that we stumbled upon each other. There aren't many bands like us in the TN area where as in California you can find a deathcore band on every street block.

7.I've never heard of a band that has such amazing surnames… Lane, Crisp, Wade, Householder, Savage and um, Bozeman. Is this line-up of surnames that are actual words intentional or coincidence? It's not a criteria for getting into the band is it?

Hahaha definitely not, just a cool coincidence ;).

8.With a surname like 'Savage', was a career in death metal the only possible option? I suppose that the other obvious one was to be a murderer so good call with the band thing.

Hahaha very true, with a name like that you've got to have some kind of evil career going on. It's funny though because he as well as the band gets alot of shit because in the US we have a show called Boy Meets World about a high school teenage boys life and the actor on it's name is Ben Savage.

9.Guys… there's a big, big, big summer ahead for you what with the Summer Slaughter Tour and the Never Say Die one in November, are you nervous about playing to so many people?

Nah, we're to the point where we don't get nervous before playing shows anymore, unless somehow we get on Ozzfest or something similar and start playing to thousands and thousands of people, then I might get a little choked up ;).

10.The Never say Die tour brings you over here to the UK as well as a lot of European countries, what can we do to prepare for your arrival?

Bring plenty of towels to soak up the blood after our set from the crowd pummeling each other, and wear protective gear, especially a cup for all you dudes coming out ;).

11.Which date on the tours are you most looking forward to playing? The audiences surely have to vary a lot from country to country?

We're excited to play all of the cities and countries, we've only played 3 dates in the UK before so we are stoked to get to see so much of the world in one tour. It's going to be a memorable experience!

12.Okay I'm out, enjoy the tour and pack plenty of beatdowns in your bags for when you come over here!

Believe me there will be more than you can handle brought over, the airport will probably tax us for the amount we bring over ;).

See you then!