Interviews : Chimaira (Rob Arnold) – 22/12/2009

After somewhat a false start in the metal world with Pass Out Of Existence in 2001 , Cleveland Ohio’s Chimaira returned with The Impossibility Of Reason two years later, placing them at the forefront of the so called NWOAHM movement. They’ve pretty much been there ever since, topping it off to date with their latest offering, The Infection, which builds on their groove laden past catalogue.

Metal Obsession spoke to guitarist Rob Arnold about the new album and their upcoming tour of Australia!

—————————————————-

Click play on either the Quicktime or Window Media Player application below to listen to the interview.

—————————————————-

Metal Obsession: I’m talking to Rob Arnold from Chimaira who are heading out here in January next year, gudday Rob how’s things mate?
Chimaira: Doing well man, thanks for having me.

MO: So you’ve completed a new album and have been touring for it pretty non-stop since, how’s the reception been to the new material?
C: It’s been really well, It’s going great man, a lot of people have been saying they’re digging the new record, the sound of it and sonics and everything and the songs. We’ve been playing three of four of them a night, the new tunes and they’ve been going over well, they’re becoming staple live songs for us, and we’re getting excited to bring the shit over to Australia!

MO: Everyone’s been saying how you’ve really stepped up the groove on this album, but to be fair, Your music has had a lot of groove in the past, to me it seems like more of an evolutionary step for Chimaira’s sound….what’s your take on that?
C: Well, I think the critics have been saying some good stuff about it and the bad stuff I just either ignore or don’t remember or don’t care. We pretty much write the record so that we like them, so that it feels good to us and we can bop our head, and just put it out there and all we can do is hope that the people are gonna like it!  But in terms of what you said about it being groovier than the past, we just try to do our best with each record and try to grow with each record. All of us come into each record with a new set of influences and new things that we’re listening to. We’ve played for a few years together since the last one so we’re better at our instruments. We just take on each record with a new style, whatever we are feeling we never come into it with a pre-conceived notion, saying we need to make a record that sounds like this or that, just whatever feels good. So when it came time to write the infection, the first song we actually wrote was Try To Survive. It just had this slow chuggy deep type of opening riff, everyone in the band dug the sound of it and it kind of set the tone for how the record was gonna be and just came out of us like that. We just followed suit with that groove tone and that slower sort of drag-you-through-the-mud type of vibe and the infection was born.

MO: Chimaira as a band have always been pretty open about their influences, Pantera, Deicide, Metallica etc. but are there any not so obvious ones that people wouldn’t know about?
C: Not really, at least not for me personally. I kinda listen to the same stuff I always listen to, Metallica, Pantera Sepultura, Morbid Angel, Slayer that sort of thing. Maybe a little bit of crowbar was an influence there, some Decapitated stuff like that, but for the most part, I just listen to the same stuff and write what feels good at the time.

MO: Any new bands that have caught your ear recently?
C: I’m digging Whitechapel a lot, fuck, y’know whenever I do hear a new band I think to myself, I gotta remember this ’cause I’m asked this all the time, ‘What new bands do you like’, and when it comes time to it I can never remember! I’ve been listening to a lot of Opeth and Decapitated lately, but in terms of new bands I apologise I gotta get more on my game!

MO: All good man! Chimaira are no strangers of being lumped into a genre or classified, what’s your take on the whole deathcore thing?
C: Well sure, I definitely think it’s cool cause I’m such a  fan of extreme music, but to me what’s mind boggling is just how popular it is now. Still to this day, but when I was 16-17 years old the best death metal bands at the time were Morbid Angel, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Suffocation, Six Feet Under stuff like that, but it was still considered so underground, at least I thought so at the time. So now all these bands to me are doing the same thing again, just the total brutal death metal now all these young kids are loving it and they’re certainly dressing different for the morbid angel days, but y’know times are changing and you can’t be upset with that. I’m just surprised about how popular this extreme music is and I’m happy about it! I’m glad more people are digging metal and all I can hope for is that it helps Chimaira in one way or another.

MO: With the impending death of cd’s what do you think of the state of heavy music at the moment and what do you think the future holds?
C: Man, you know like everybody I have no idea. I’m kinda just glad that we’re still relevant, still hanging on, playing great shows, that we can still move cd’s, still selling t-shirts and that people talk about the love for us all the time even tho the industry is dying in terms of cd sales. There’s no format on how to do this, there’s no book on how to have a successful metal band, we’re trying to hang on and do the best we can. I think the number one this is no matter what, great music will always be noticed and will always sell and be popular. That’s kind of the mind set that we have in Chimaira, we’ve just got to make our music as great as possible, and hopefully it won’t go unnoticed. We’re just going to take each day as it comes and see if the whole thing survives. Obviously music is something that people will never be able to get rid of, in what format it will be available to people, who knows? Maybe it’ll be some new thing that will bring the whole industry back to life, I don’t know. I really have no idea, I’m in the same boat as everyone else, seeing if we’re gonna catch a wave or get drowned by one.

MO: Psyched to be doing your own tour of Australia?
C: First time we came we supported In Flames and that was a great tour, awesome experience, first time being in Australia. Second time was with Korn that was even better, that was in arenas, bigger shows, so it’s gonna be cooler now to headline, play a longer set for the fans, kinda gauge what type of success we’ve had from those previous supporting tours.

MO: You’ve got a pretty big catalogue now, 5 albums worth, is the setlist gonna be a broad spectrum of songs from the back catalogue?
C: We haven’t even actually discussed what we’re gonna do, but of course we’ll do like the staple ones that we’ve done as they come along and become staple songs, I mean we weren’t playing Power Trip or Nothing remains back in 2001 but as touring progresses we realise what songs are popular to the fans and the songs we like to play, that’s kind of how we build the set list. So we have the staple songs and then maybe we’ll throw in some goodies here and there, like try another new song or maybe play an older song that people have been asking for that we haven’t played for a long time. I’m sure we’ll come up with something cool tho, that will span the catalogue and hopefully satisfy everyone’s appetite.

MO: Are there any interests that fans wouldn’t know about Rob Arnold From Chimaira?
C: Well I’m a massive fan of the NBA and I play basketball with a group of guys when I’m home and stuff. Out here on the road I’m constantly trying to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers, we have Lebron James, I have no idea how bog basketball is in Australia if you guys have even know him, Lebron’s the next Michael Jordan. So basketball’s an exciting thing in Cleveland Ohio, where we’re from and I’m a big fan. Other than that, it’s really what I do, just watch basketball, hang out with my wife and play music. There’s so many business related things all the time with Chimaira so when we’re not on the road we’re constantly doing stuff that is business related or being in the studio, so that takes up pretty much 99% of my time. So a lot of the time I say, music is my hobby!

MO: How does being married go being on the road all the time?
C: Well pretty much two thirds to three quarters of the year we on the road and so, it’s definitely hard being on the road and away from the ones you love. My wife and I we were high school sweethearts, went to high school together and that’s where we first met, so it’s worked out great, she’s my best friend. And if you’ve ever heard the old saying, don’t marry a pilot if you don’t like to fly, so we kind of have that understanding and we try make it work the best we can, but it’s certainly not easy.

MO: Anything last words to the Aussie fans before you come out? Strap your balls to your cerebellum?
C: Strap them for sure! We’re just excited to come over there man, and Australia is one of the places we truly do love to come to, the fans are always great, the shows are always great, and it’s a good time. We’re looking forward to coming over and destroying it!

—————————–

Q’s: Owen Thomas
A’s: Rob Arnold
Date: 23/12/2009
Origin: USA
http://www.myspace.com/chimaira