Interview with Guitarist John Chavez

UN: "Helping the World to See" sees Vehemence taking their sound to the next level. It surpasses the debut in pretty much every possible way. Did you guys feel any pressure to write an album that matched or outdid the debut cd?

John: Seeing the events that occurred in the past few decades the lyrical structure decided to take a turn for something more informative and viable to human nature. Our previous album, a fictitious conceptual horror story entitled God Was Created gave reviewers some confusion on what our band was really about. We felt no pressure in the creation in this record because we had four months to record it in with our material already finished beforehand.

UN: Do you think there has been a progression in the bands sound between the albums? I'd say the new album is heavier, and also a bit more energetic. Was there anything specifically that you wanted to do different on this album?

John: The musical content on our new album turned out to be a straight forward energetic death metal album with some advances in our skills. We write music for ourselves so we try if anything to top our last work and to progress as much as possible.

UN: Would you say it was a much more relaxed environment in the studio this time around? Maybe relaxed isn't the right word, but you seemed to have a lot more time in the studio. Did the extra time allow you to get the album to sound exactly how the band wanted it to sound?

John: Working with producer Will Solares at Open Primary Productions gave us ample time to get the right ideas that we wanted on the record. We did the drums within 2 days at Porcupine Studios in Tempe, AZ and the rest at Will’s studio. Extra time can help anyone’s record in many ways with the right planning. We got the sound how we wanted and worked around that to make the album better than it was during the first finished test product. More time gives you time to reflect what could be better on your record to make it better.

UN: What made you guys decide to record with Will Solares again? If I'm not mistaken he helped out with the debut album as well. Was it a matter of going with someone who was familiar with the band? Was any thought ever put into recording with some of the more renown producers for death metal?

John: We have talked about spending big money on some of the known death metal producers. We felt that working with someone that knows our music riff by riff and can actually play some of our music on guitar would be the right choice for this record so we went with Mr. Solares. We are a new band and with being new there are a lot of other business decisions the band has to make dealing with record advances that they get. Budgeting for your album at first leads to other opportunities like getting transportation and more profitable merchandise made. I foresee our next record being an even bigger production since we have accomplished many of the business goals we set out to do.

UN: You guys made a video for the opening track, By Your Bedside. Does it seem like having a music video is pretty much mandatory these days? As an added bonus to the fans who might not get the chance to ever see you guys live? Can you explain the concept of the video?

John: For every band it should be mandatory to make a video and is a part of being in a band. Music videos are there to show what the band looks, moves, or acts like. Personalities can even be gathered from some music videos. By Your Bedside is a song about the terminally ill and we have some artistic visuals of just that in our video. We also added a hour long Vehemence timeline video within our disc that shows footage from 2003 to 1997. This was added to show that the band has history and didn’t come out of the wood work.

UN: Does it piss you guys off at all that MTV2 and Fuse won't play the video? I mean, it's all trendy but it would have been good exposure for the band. Maybe if you started playing metalcore and had more tattoos they'd play your video...

John: That’s not entirely true that they always favor fashion core bands and not the traditional death metal bands but it does seem that way. The stations also declined a Cannibal Corpse music video along with Grip Inc. video, so it’s not like they are playing favorites. Stations like those expect quality videos and at the time they viewed a much darker version of our video. I actually brightened the contrast in our video to make less dark and more viewable. We will resubmit the video when we get on one of those big 30 date metal tours as we have before and see what happens then. Stations want to see that the band is the flavor of the month and will be a good idea to have them on their shows for rating purposes.

UN: Can you explain the meaning behind the album name. What exactly are you helping the world to see? Is this album a concept album like God Was Created was?

John: We are helping the world to see the realistic problematic issues the world is facing today. This album is not comparable to the lyrical content that was on God Was Created because HTWTS is a real issue topic album. We try to have different lyrical ideas with each of our albums to keep everything refreshed.

UN: The cover art looks amazing. I think Wes Benscoter totally outdid himself with this cover. Did you guys explain the concept to him and give him free range to do whatever he wanted with the idea? It seems that with someone who has done so many album covers you know he's going to come back with something amazing.

John: Yeah all we did was give him the title of our new album and he came up with the rest himself. We also think his new piece of artwork is his best work out to date. Anyone expecting something off the wall and something grim should go to Wes Benscoter. He has done everything from Slayer, Sinister, Mortician, Vader, and the Cattle Decapitation artwork.

UN: Do you think the lower cd price will help expose you guys to new people? People are going to take a chance on a cd for $10 more so then they would with a $20 cd. Do you think it would have been an ideal price to start off at with God Was Created?

John: Lowered cd prices are really helping bands get off the ground threse days. The price change is welcome because of the amount of internet music downloader’s. I felt we have already sold more than God Was Created with our new album because our previous album was $17. At the time our release came out Metal Blade was trialing out a few new artist’s albums under the price of $9.99 but unfortunately ours wasn’t put to the test. Bonus footage included within albums are also a plus for buyers because you get more for what you pay for.

UN: I was curious to ask why you decided to re-record the older track from the demo. Is it possibly because a lot of people who are into the band might have discovered the band with God Was Created?

John: Her Beautiful Eyes was released on this album because no one owns the white demo tape but the people from where we live. We have played the song at almost all of our shows. The song is basically about the child molesters or the Catholic priest issues with molestation. As typical in death metal as that may be, it was a very old song around the 1998 era and was just a song that needed to be re-recorded. God Was Created got our name out to the world and thanks to Metal Blade’s vast distribution we have the chance to help the world to see and hear our band.

UN: Is the band planning to be on the road for a long time to promote this new disc? Do you think that you will tour even more then you have in the past for this album? Do you think it's still too early to embark on a headlining tour, or will you still mainly be a support act?

John: We just did a west coast tour with the band called Prong. It was a pleasure touring with a band of their caliber and their new album kicks major ass. We plan to tour a lot more for this album than our last album. I think it is too early to headline a tour of our own but our fans seem to think we can absolutely do so. We prefer to be a support act for now until we have certain serious things helping us like a lighting crew, sound engineer, and dedicated tour manager. In future news, Vehemence has gained interest from Europe and we plan to travel over there in spring of 2005.

UN: Do you think that Vehemence is still very much at the beginning of it's career? You guys have improved greatly with each passing release so far, so I can only assume that you'll keep improving in the future. Is there still a lot of goals you guys have as a band that you haven't achieved yet?

John: Since we signed into the business only 2 years ago I think we are very new and there is a lot ahead of us. Thanks we have many goals also ahead of us and we plan to be a band for a long time. Signing into good management seems to be our next step as well as securing work for us monthly. Thanks for this interview and the compliments! Anyone can visit our website at http://www.vehemence.com and email the band at vehemence@vehemence.com for merchandise or any questions regarding the band.