As I Lay Dying

The members of AS I LAY DYING are the kind of musicians that refuse to be measured solely by their most recent accomplishments. The new album, An Ocean Between Us, is evidence of this fact, proving once again that these guys are not afraid to push the limits of their sound and always keep things moving. The music grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until the album’s finish. Building upon the foundation that AILD has laid over the past several years, growing from a small San Diego outfit slowly and deliberately into a priority national act, the band has become Metal Blade Records’ biggest sellers with an extremely devoted following. AS I LAY DYING has the goods to take it all the way and stake their claim as the metal band “you need to know about” in 2007 and beyond.

LBM had an oppertunity to chat with Nick Hipa (guitar) before playing their last show on the 2007 Warped Tour.

Tell me about the new album.
The name of the album is called An Ocean Between Us and in my opinion its the best record we've done and its a lot more mature then our last album. There’s a lot more elements of our playing and songwriting that we've progressed in and I think we showcase that in the new songs, but I still think the intense energetic feel that we've always had in the band is still there.

Did you guys do anything differently this time around during the writing process?
Yeah it was different. We jammed so many of the songs out together this time. Before it was kinda 1 or 2 people who would write songs and on this album, someone would come to practice with a song written, like you know, recorded with a drum machine and guitars. Like I'll bring that and everyone would be like "oh, I like the first minute of it" and we'll kinda take what we like and everyone worked on it in the practice room till it was something we liked. Then we recorded it, cause we have a studio at Tim's house and then we would go home and listen to it and critique it, come back and write it again. I think we just approached it way more... I guess critically but organically at the same time. Everyone had something to do with it.

And you got a new bass player too right?
Yeah, Josh played all his bass parts and sang on the record really well, I would say...with as much time as he had cause we found him towards the end of the writing process. He was only there when we were writing the last 1 or 2 songs. But he learned his parts well enough.

How was it like working with Adam Dutkiewicz?
Amazing. Adam is such a talented person. He has such a good ear for everything. He's a great songwriter and musician. He plays everything that we play but better then us. He kept us focus and on time with everything, but he was also very good about keeping the mood light. There was always jokes and tomfoolery in the studio.

That always helps! Recording gets boring after a while!
Oh yeah, it gets miserable sometimes!

How's Warped Tour going?
We've been getting a cool response. Between us, Throwdown, Poison The Well and Kill Switch, there’s been a lot of kids here to see heavy bands. But at the same time we've been playing to so many new people who are here to see like Coheed and Cambria or Bad Religion or something like that. It's a very welcoming vibe but its also a growing vibe too because a lot of people are seeing us for the first time.

So now that Warped Tours ending, what’s next for you guys?
Well, Now that the albums out we're just gonna tour for a long time. We already got tours booked till like February. Its Europe and then its Thailand, and Korea and Japan, the States and then its Australia. So we're gonna be making circles around the globe

Any moments that stand out for you?
Playing the gorge in Seattle was one of the moments that I really enjoyed because its such a naturally beautiful venue and I'd seen footage of Radiohead playing there. I always thought it would be cool to just be there for a show and the fact that we got to play there was amazing.

Any advise for kids struggling with their faith?
One thing that I've learned is don't be so hard on yourself and don’t demand perfection. Cause I know a lot of people who are like "man, I need to be this this and this before I can be a perfect Christian" and that’s not what it is. We're just messed up people like everyone else. You just have to accept that. It doesn’t make any sense to where you have to be perfect for you to receive grace because that’s not really grace at all.

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For more info, show updates and music
check out As I Lay Dying on Myspace.com
www.myspace.com/asilaydying