L’A7x Italia è sempre dispiaciuto di dare brutte notizie, tuttavia questa lunga intervista servirà a chiarire molti dubbi.

Un giornalista americano ha raccolto le domande dei fan sul sito chapter-four.net, tra cui la mia: “Quando verrete in Europa?” e le ha girate ad M Shadows.

Per chi non conoscesse bene l’inglese vi illustro i punti salienti:

• La band non verra’ in Europa nè in Italia prima della registrazione del nuovo cd a causa dell’annullamento di tutte le date europee, per mano delle agenzie di booking, non interessate alla band. Le agenzie non vogliono, vista la crisi economica, acquistare date piccole che non portino un certo numero di fan e che non assicurino grossi incassi Per quanto riguarda gli Uk, le date non ci saranno a causa di attriti con la casa discografica britannica.
• Le condizioni vocali di Matt non sono al massimo Si sta curando e aspetta gli esiti di alcuni test.
• La band si e’ ormai allontanata dallo scream, ma, nel limite del possibile, Matt eseguirà alcune parti in scream relative ai vecchi cd
• A parte la data italiana e le due francesi, il tour con i Maiden e’ stato molto positivo per la band.

Qui il testo integrale con tutte le domande.
1. As can be seen on your DVD Live in the LBC, you started screaming again on older songs as can be seen on your DVD Live in the LBC, you started screaming again on older songs from Waking the Fallen. I’ve read interviews saying that you chose to move on from screaming as an artistic choice, so why did you start screaming again? Did you feel it fit the song better, as it was written, or did you want to just kinda stick it to the people that said you couldn’t scream anymore? Or something else? Thanks.gs from Waking the Fallen.
Matt: I feel that we truly moved away from screaming in newer albums except in terms of textures, as you can hear in Critical Acclaim, Afterlife, Beast and the Harlot, Betrayed, Ect. because we didn’t like how screaming sounded as a main vocal and there was only so much we could do with it. We were and are still more interested in creating a melody over the music instead of screaming over it. Again, this is our preference and don’t expect everyone else to agree. As for live, I was just trying to let my voice settle and maintain my voice. Some nights I still sing those parts, but if my voice feels strong and I’m not going to be putting future tour dates in trouble by screaming, then I will scream the parts live from older records.

2. So you guys basically kick ass and take names when it comes to touring the universe. But honestly, the tour circuits seem to get longer and longer to the point where fans wonder about the members’ health. We hear about occurrences of common colds, the flu, vocal problems, maybe other weird stuff we shouldn’t know about, and Matt’s “facial paralysis” which could potentially jeopardize shows. Pretty extreme stuff. So where is the line drawn? How much is too much touring?
Matt: I understand where you are coming from but truthfully we will tour until we don’t wanna tour anymore. People are gonna get sick, things are gonna happen and it can happen on the road or while we are sitting at home. We toured City of Evil for almost 2 years, and we are only 1 year into this cycle.
My vocal problem turned out not to be over usage. If you remember I had 3 weeks off after the Maiden tour to rest and somewhere in that time home my voice got fucked up.
People wanna say I blew it out at the Kerrang show because I was so drunk. The only reason I was drunk was because I knew my voice was in big trouble well before that show, so I drank a lot to try and loosen it up and hopefully get through the show. I got through that show but by the time Reading and Leeds came around I could barely sing more then 5 notes, and thanks to YOUTUBE we can all see just how bad it was. I went home and the doctors told me to shut up for 3 weeks, so I did and it just made it worse, so getting back on the road and taking things easy from show to show is actually good for my voice. From Japan all the way to today I’m getting closer and closer everyday to getting my voice back to where it was. But Im still taking some parts easy live to make sure I don’t get back in that situation, which to the 6 doctors that I’ve been seeing and myself has been a mystery to us in the first place. As for the facial paralysis, I’m still waiting to get tests back from my MRI’s that I had this weekend, but doctors expect it to be some sort of TMJ which I would get from singing and using my jaw too much. Hopefully my jaw is just out of line and causing paralysis and I can get it fixed in jan when we take a month off. But the point is, shit happens, no one is making us do this against our will, we love touring and we are very happy right now.

3. After the production of four incredible albums, and having been together as a band for quite some time, how many more albums can we expect from Avenged Sevenfold, before you guys decide to go separate ways and pursue different things?
Matt: Thanks a lot. I think we will stop doing this when we don’t feel inspired to try something new, and that’s probably gonna be a long time. The other 4 guys are the most brilliant people I know, and when we get together ideas just start flowing even when we aren’t talking about music. I mean we seriously already have a very special and good idea what the next record is gonna be like and we’ve barely written 5 riffs. Well we’ve written a little more then that, but the point is we are excited and I just don’t know when it’s gonna end. But I never take things for granted because you never know in this business.

4. Are you going to tour Europe in 2009 before writing a new album?
Matt: No, there is a long explanation to this that I will answer below in another question.

5. The Rev talked about doing a concept album and shredding a little more. Wanna tell us more?
Matt: I’ve learned that no matter what we say about future records it always turns out to bite us in the ass. So when I saw that quote I told the Rev not to say anything else about the new record because it’s so far out and to have speculation already doesn’t help anybody. But I will say that we are still working on ideas and I feel that this is gonna be the ultimate Avenged Sevenfold record!

6. When are you coming back to the uk??
Matt: After a new record is recorded.

7. Why does the band insist on repeatedly making promises to fans in the United Kingdom and Europe which it has no intention of keeping? Does it not feel that it should honour its promises or is it acceptable to betray fans time and again?
Matt: Betray fans is a little harsh. Just like everything in life things happen sometimes out of our control. As for this situation I wanna give you all a little information. Now this is in no way making excuses for other tours we may have cancelled which you may or may not be holding onto some sort of resentment. This is for the future touring in 09 which we said we would do.
We did the Maiden tour, which was a HUGE success for us, expecting to be able to come back in Feb. and replay all the markets we had hit with them as a headliner. Once we started booking dates our agent came to us and told us promoters didn’t want Avenged in the market place unless we were willing to do 300 – 700 capacity clubs throughout Europe. They felt the economy was so bad and they were losing money on so many other shows that they weren’t willing to take a chance on a band that they didn’t know about.

Last time I checked in Scandinavia, Spain and other parts of Europe, we had an amazing crowd response. So they went to the label in those markets and since our record is a year old they also had no interest in helping out the promoters and advertising the dates. We had already spent well over a quarter million dollars to do the Maiden tour with travel and crew expenses that came straight out of our pockets and we promised ourselves as a band we would never spend money out of our own pocket to tour any market again.
If you think about it, Avenged can go anywhere from south America, to Canada, to the states, to the UK and to Southeast Asia and Japan and play to thousands and thousands of kids every night, so to go play to 300 kids and go further in debt just makes no sense. So we fired our agent and went to the promoter directly and the answer was still the same. So hence, no more European tour. I know in my heart of hearts that Spain, Scandinavia, and Portugal would all be insane huge shows. But until people wanna book the shows, they just wont happen.

Also, the reason we aren’t coming back to the UK is that we had a falling out with the label there. They didn’t work any of our singles properly, they leaked music videos to the states and fucked up release dates for us. They basically blew their load on a bunch of shit and now nothing has happened since the last time we were there, so the band and myself feel it’s best to do a new record and then make it one of the first spots we hit. Most of the people at the label have been replaced since all this went down, so hopefully things will go more smoothly in the future. I know this may not make sense to some of you but the reality is this is how it all works, no label support, no promoter, no shows. It will get worked out and people in Europe will catch on but it’s just taking longer then virtually every other market in the world.

8. Does getting married or engaged means that you’ll all be settling down and starting families of your own soon? How will things change?
Matt: Hard to answer that because I don’t know how everyone else will respond. I know that I can multi-task and I’ve been with a girl so long that it’s felt like we’ve been married for so long that I don’t expect much to change, this is my life.

9. As off topic and selfish as this may seem (haha) have you guys ever considered doing more dates in Scotland20 and Ireland? England get about 8 dates and its quite far to travel from way up here, especially when you are skint!
Matt: Sure, we’ve been doing a lot of smaller markets in the States and I assume we will do the same in the UK once we get back over there.

10. Jimmy: What happens if something on the kit breaks during a set?
Matt: Jason fixes it!

11. Also, what is something unique about each of you that you feel comfortable revealing? Could be something like a favorite food or a hobby that you enjoy doing.
Matt: I’ll reveal about myself that I’m insanely obsessed with golf. Love everything about it and I try and golf everyday when I’m at home and on the road. Also been very active and learning about American Foreign Policy and politics. Got a lot of smart friends at home and we like to get drunk and argue about just about anything political or religious.

12. Are you guys currently planning on developing a new music video in the near future?
Matt: No

13. For many fans, ‘And All Things Will End’ is regarded as one of the best songs from Waking The Fallen. It seems like a fairly easy song to play and there is less screaming in it than most of the tracks on Waking The Fallen, so why have you guys never played the song on stage before?
Matt: No good answer I guess, maybe we will in the near future??

14. What’s the most stupid thing you’ve ever done?
Matt: Talked to the press during the “City of Evil” days.

15. Recently you guys seemed to have toned down the image alot- the band seems to have shedded the heavy make up and motley crue-esque bad boy image that caused you guys to get alot of shit. Was this a conscious decision, or has it just been part of your evolution as a band?
Matt: I’ve never thought about that. I’ve always just done what I felt comfortable doing. I can see how the guys have toned it down a bit, and I’m not sure why, maybe lazy with age? Hahah not sure.

16. Zacky, you ever gonna play another solo on an album?
Matt: I’m sure Zacky will play many more solo’s on our albums.

17. You guys have achieved alot- you’ve played with your heroes, toured the world etc. What one particular thing do you guys wanna achieve?
Matt: The more we play and the more people see us live, the more respect we get. I want people to know us as people and to respect the different elements about our band. I want to maintain our fanbase because every band we tour with is jealous of it. They don’t understand how we got such hardcore fans. Makes us proud. The older I get the more I just wanna do what we do and get out of the spotlight, it’s all just a bunch of bullshit.

18. All you guys seem pretty full-on, confident people. Were you guys popular in school or not?
Matt: Jimmy was known as being out of his mind, because he just never gave a fuck, now that we are older people respect him now for being his own person and never conforming. Everyone else had a typical high school experience. Me and Zacky were different because we played sports but hung out with the punk rockers and the goth kids, so we were friends with just about everyone. I wouldn’t say popular though.

19. Are you gonna change the setlist? I’d be nice to hear some older stuff from Sounding The Seventh Trumpet and Waking And The Fallen.
Matt: Sure, we just added Chapter Four, and we were thinking of adding remenissions or Eternal Rest. Its hard because these are mostly new markets and kids haven’t seen us yet, but a lot of the hardcore kids travel and want new songs in the set. But for newer fans seeing us for the first time the current set feels good.

20. Speaking of which…If you were held at gunpoint and forced to play two songs from each album you’ve released, what would they be? Ass-kicking is not an option.
Matt: Darkness Surrounding, Shattered by Broken Dreams, Unholy Confessions, Desecrate Through Reverence, Blinded in Chains, Beast and the Harlot, Critical Acclaim, Dear God, Girl I Know, Tension.

21. Are you going to come to the south of England on the next UK tour?
Matt: Sure, we will try.

22. Will you ever add any songs off Diamonds in the Rough to the setlist?
Matt: Yeah I think so.

23. Do you have any plans of returning downunder to New Zealand and Australia in the near future? Oh, and what was your favorite part of NZ when you were here?
Matt: Near future I doubt, but for sure after a new record. I love new Zealand, it feels very liberal in the sense that people are very relaxed and friendly. Played some great golf there and went skydiving, then went to the casino and played a great show. What a great country!

24. It’s been almost ten years since you started. How are you gonna celebrate?
Matt: Haven’t thought about it. Probably have another reason to throw a party! Maybe play some older songs??? Who knows?

25. Why don’t you guys tour with bands like Maiden and Metallica in the US? Do you guys know anything about the confession sense their break up and if they are doing any new bands/side projects?
Matt: I hang with the confession guys sometimes and they are doing well. They are starting new bands and producing and whatnot. We don’t tour with those bigger bands here because we don’t feel we need it. If they were to do a huge festival tour we would be interested but most people in the states know the name Avenged Sevenfold and we feel we would rather put on our own show then be a support band.

26. Why does M Shadows keep shaving his head?
Matt: Lazy?? Every time my hair gets more then an inch I’m over it and cut it all off.

27. I saw you guys getting a really awful reaction from Maiden audience at both Paris gigs and20then an amazingly good reaction in Oslo and Gothenburg. So what do you guys think about Maiden fanbase? Would you go as far as guys in Trivium and say we’re worse than Slayer fans or no?
BTW message for Johnny – luckily for you Avenged didn’t support Maiden in Czech Republic “your” Beast got burnt during The Number of the Beast.
Matt: I would agree that Italy and Paris were by far the worst reactions we got from Maiden fans. We were actually expecting that response every night, so when that wasn’t the case (which was every other market) we were really surprised. All the Maiden fans were great and I know we gained a lot of respect from most of them. We talked to a lot of them and met them on the streets and they were surprised that they liked us because of things they had heard. We had a blast and besides the 3 shows I mentioned above, the tour was a huge success. We heard horror stories from trivium and bullet for my valentine but it actually wasn’t bad at all and turned out to be one of the best tours for us. Nah Slayer fans are much worse hahahah.

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