UN: Let’s start off with a tried and true classic. Can you go through a brief history for the band. Would you say that this band takes elements from some of your previous bands and refines them?

Carl: It all started 4 years ago when me, Kevin and Jonathan,our old drummer, wanted to start a band that sounded different. Our old bands were more like a straight foward type of hardcore. After a year of playing shows here and there, We did some members changes. We recruited Yan on drums and Frank on vocals.

UN: Has it always been important for you guys to stay away from the cliches of the scene? In this day and age it’s more common to see bands taking influence from At The Gates then it is Cro-Mags. I like how you guys take influence from the older style of thrash metal. It’s more along the lines of what metalcore once was.

Carl: We never wanted to follow the actual trends. 2 years ago People were playing that poison the well style cuz that’s what was cool to play you know. And Now it seems that Old school hardcore is gaining power in the scene. I mean I dont care about it you know but when something is becoming popular and kinda huge, everyone seems to wanna play the type of the trend. I think that’s why APM sounds different. We all love old thrash metal bands and of course we love legendary hardcore bands like the cro-mags. We try to put these two elements in our music. If you listen carefully to cro-mags’s Best wishes and Alpha omega, You’ll notice that those guys were fucking metal you know. But with a hardcore lifestyle. I don't know if we are a metalcore band like a lot of people like to call us but we are defenitly doing Heavy metal music.

UN: How did Victory come into the picture for the band? With all of the buzz surrounding the band with Cease to Suffer they must have been aware of what the band was doing. Do you think that being on Victory allows the band to take things more seriously and commit to doing the band full time?

Carl: I don’t think that Victory records had hear of us before we’ve met Stephanie. We are good friends of Premonitions of war and Mike Is totally down with us. So he was kinda pushing us a lot. Then we got on that tour with Bury your dead, Between the buried and me and Scars of tomorrow. Two other victory bands. I think scars and btbam fell in love with our music. I’ve heard that they were talking a lot to victory and was saying like.. you should sign that band blablabla. So on our way home, I received a call from Stephanie and she said if we were able to come to chicago and meet tony victory. Of course we were J. Then we’ve met him and talk about 3 hours of everything. That’s how we got to be with them. And of course, since we are on it, It takes a lot of time and we all want this band to be full time. We wanna make a living from that ya know. It is a great label. I know they’ll will promote the shit out of it.

UN: I think it’s a great thing that they have signed another Canadian band. They also have Silverstein, but this is the first Canadian straight forward hardcore band I believe to ever be on the label. Do you think it’s a good thing that US labels are starting to realize the talent that Canada has?

Carl: Of course. There are a lot of bands working their asses off in Canada. The thing is it is so hard to cross the borders when you are a Canadian band. And of course, you need to play USA ya know. That’s where your band will be recognize. So I think that’s why US labels are kinda afraid to sign Canadian bands. If your band cannot tour in the US or is afraid to get stuck at the borders, Forget it. They want you to tour whenever you can. What’s the point of signing a band that cannot tour the USA and promote the cd the most they can?? Absolutly nothing. But yeah, there are good bands here and they should be recognize on the same level as an American band.

Have you ever run across any border problems? I’m sure that if you have all of your shit sorted out ahead of time there must not be many problems. Unless you come across an asshole I guess. Wouldn’t you find it funny if you guys got searched for drugs? I’m sure they wouldn’t know what straight edge was, and wouldn’t believe you if you told them anyway.

Carl: hahaha. We had all sorts of problems at the borders. Sometimes you got all stressed out and start being paranoid about it and then once a the booth they tell you. It’s all good. Have a nice day. Sometimes, you cross with the same plan as usual and they pull you over for about 30 mins. Ask millions of questions, search the van with dogs and ask everyone the same questions over and over just to make sure that maybe someone somewhere will fail you know. Bunch of fags.

When writing Unbroken was the band thinking that you had to try to write an album that would outdo Cease to Suffer? I’m sure that at least subconsciously you had it in mind. But at the least, did you think you had to step things up a little bit?

Carl: Definitely. We always wanted to sounds way more Thrashy and metal. But i guess experiences comes with times. So when I and Yan first start to write unbroken, we wanted it a little more full. More like complete. At least two chorus and two verses to make more catchy you know. But it needs to have good transitions and good ideas. If not, your songs will all sounds the same. I think we kept all the agressivity and groove that we had. We just had everything more. Fast,slow,mid-tempo and different mosh part. We all want to stay away of the chug chug chug mosh you know. It’s getting boring at some point.

What made the band to decide to record at Trax East? I think it’s an amazing studio which really manages to get a tight, heavy and clear sound. Was that pretty much what the band wanted out of the studio?

Carl: Sure. We always thought that Trax East was the perfect Studio for us. We wanted to record CEASE TO SUFFER over there but money was a big problem at that time. Eric Rachel is the best dude ever. He knows his shit. He will defenitly be doing the other record. We got an amazing relationship with him. He know how we wanna sound like so it helps a lot when it comes to record a cd.

Was this the longest time that the band had been in the studio? Some albums are recorded in a matter of days but you guys were in for awhile it seems. Did it allow you guys to get everything perfect and really get the sound you were striving for?

Carl: That’s funny. We were a pretty fast studio band. We did an EP that isn’t out yet and it tooks like 4 days and it was done. That’s what we thought with Unbroken. We were like, 3 weeks for recording?? Are you kidding me. Give us 1 week and a half and everything will be done. Man we were so wrong haha. When Rachel told us that we were recording from Noon To midnight every day for 3 weeks we were like.. euhhh are you crazy??? Dude he’s been pushing us so much. But he was always super nice. He never yelled at us or anything like that. He was always calm and down with everything. So we had until march 5th midnight to finish it and everything was done on march 5th at 11:30 pm. Hahah Tight man.

Are you guys excited to have Karl contributing guest vocals on No Truce? There’s no denying the impact Earth Crisis have had on hardcore and the metal core genre in particular. Were you guys nervous at all to have someone you look up to in the studio with you?

Carl: Man that was so memorable. Earth Crisis is the reason why i am straight edge and they were the first band that got me into hardcore music 6-7 years ago (i’m still a young mothefucker man haha) When Stephanie told me that Karl was down to do the guest vocals I was like a child when he first starts to walk.Surprised and mouth shut. I wasn’t believing it. Until I picked him up at the airpot in Newark. Dude, Check this out. You know the extreme dedication Karl have for straight edge and everything . So i do. We were on our way to the studio, It was maybe 11h in the morning (we’ve been waiting for about 3 hours in the airport. Whatever that’s another story ahah) and the first thing he told us is like: ‘’ Do you guys hook up with a lot of chicks on tour’’?? I'm looking toward yan and i was like.. euh. Not really, we all have girlfiend. Then he adds "Dude you need to hook up that shit. You never know if your girlfriend will be around for years. You need to have fun man’’. I wasn’t believing it. Karl Crisis asking me about if I fuck girls on tour?? What the fuck is happening. Then from no where, he said ‘’ Hahah dude I’m just kidding around with you’’. It was funny. But yeah. Karl has one of the most powerful voice in the metal and hardcore scene. When he started screaming he was like.: "Is this ok??". We were like: ‘’ haha However you scream man it sounds fucking killer’’. It was good times.

Would you say it was a conscious decision to keep the layout and cover of the album simplistic? I think the black background with white text and the eagle head are extremely effective. I think it would look amazing on a t-shirt actually.

Carl: That’s what we wanted. Keeping it simple. You know. Black and White are classic colours. And they mix well together. What you want to hear is the music ya know. Even if the layout is ugly as fuck. Who cares. The essential is the music. Am I right?? We kinda have a fixation on eagles so that’s why there’s an eagle on the cover. But some Of us think that this is a chicken actually haha .

UN: While A Perfect Murder is a straight edge band you don’t come across as preachy with the lyrical approach. Is it important to not come across as heavy handed? Obviously it’s something you guys believe in, and it’s going to be spoken about in the music, but it’s not being stuffed down anyone's throat.

Carl: Like you said, We do not preach straight edge. This is a personal lifestyle.But at the same time it is very important for us. Time Bomb is actually a straight edge song. Even if there’s no STRAIGHT EDGE sing alongs in every 5 secs. It will obviously be a theme for some songs.

UN: Do you think that this new album could appeal to both hardcore fans and metal fans? Some of the riffs are pure thrash metal, yet the vocal approach definitely is more hardcore based. Do you guys hope to have a bit of crossover success in the metal scene?

Carl: Yeah we do. Like i said. I don’t think A Perfect Murder sounds like an hardcore band but we do have a hardcore based lifestyle. Metal fans should like it. And Hardcore kids should dance on it. Both scene are amazing and what we want is playing music that we like. Music that means something for us. So I hope that both crowd will enjoy it. I think that’s pretty much about it. Thanks for this interview. You can go visit our website at: www.xaperfectmurderx.net Peace out