Ken Susi - Unearth
Unearth, what can you say about them that has not been said yet. They own, along with Killswitch Engage, the North East, their stomping ground as well as the rest of the world. Ken Susi, the humorous as well as amazing guitar slinger of Unearth, checked in with Metal Exiles to talk about the creation of their masterstroke, Darkness In The Light as well as the beer bong they are offering with their new record.
An interview with Ken Susi of Unearth.
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: I saw your pre order packages and one of them has a beer bong. I know Unearth is a party but where did the beer bong come from?
Ken Susi: We use beer bongs on stage every night so we figured that we would give them out to people to.
Metal Exiles: What does that say about Unearth?
Ken: We are just in it to win it. We hang out with our fans, we are a blue collar band and we are just like everybody else, we want to party on Friday and Saturday night.
Metal Exiles: And Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc…
Ken: You party as much as you can and everybody would party every day of the week if they could and we are out to do that.
Metal Exiles: You guys have had a Spinal Tap type issue with your drumming stool.
Ken: Derek Kerswill is a good friend of mine and he helped us finish the writing for The Oncoming Storm after Mike Rudberg. Everybody has a misconception about that, Mike Justian was on the Oncoming Storm but the truth of the matter is that the record was already written before he joined, Mike only played on it. Derek is a great drummer but he is not a great metal drummer nor do I think he really wants to be one. Everything happens for a reason and we got to call on Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage and he just naturally that we expect a drummer to do.
Metal Exiles: What does it take to graduate to being a metal drummer?
Ken: It’s not about graduating or not graduating to be a metal drummer. I hate to say it but there are not many metal drummers that cannot play with any feel or groove and instead of saying not many I would say hardly any. I think it is tougher to play rock music and hit hard and play with feeling than it is to play with hard blistering speed. It is just what you train yourself for. If you play hockey and all you can do is take a slap shot and then that is your one trick. It is two different animals and I think it is harder to play slow than to play fast. Derek can do it well, he can play like Vinnie Paul but he cannot play faster than Vinnie, it was cool while it lasted and he is doing the right thing and we are doing the right thing.
Metal Exiles: Trevor Phipps said Darkness In The Light was the best record since The Oncoming Storm. What do you think In The Eyes Of Fire and The March was lacking?
Ken: The only way I can reference it is that when The Beatles came out they would play stuff like I Want to Hold Your Hand and Love Me Do and stuff like that and then they get into stuff like Sgt Peppers. For Unearth we did The Stings of Conscience and the n the Oncoming Storm and people got used to what we did. At the time we thought there was going to be a huge climate change so we wanted to thrashier, more chaotic and faster, just different. We gained a lot of fans from doing that type of thing so those were records were done well. Now, do I think if those records were done properly, recorded well or sounded great, no I do not. I love In The Eyes Of Fire though, it has a lot of great songs and the you fast forward to The March and that has some great songs as well and it is great for what it is and it was a step in the right direction and it was a great stepping stone to Darkness In The Light. I do not want to play the “This record is our best one yet” card so I would rather say that I like this record a lot, it has all the ups and downs, it has spirit, the rhythm section is tight and the solos are great. I spent a lot of time on the songs and song writing and I think the songs are well orchestrated than they have ever been. If you like The Oncoming Storm more, if you want to carry a torch for it that’s good but I can assure you that if you like that record you will love Darkness In The Light. Who am I to say though, that is for the public to decide but I think it is a record I can get behind and listen to from top to bottom.
Metal Exiles: I like The Oncoming Storm but in some places I like In The Eyes Of Fire better because there is some amazing guitar work on there.
Ken: III, in my opinion, is my least favorite record out of all of them but there are people in this world that are calibrated to listen to that type of metal in the way that record was delivered. Maybe it is not my fav but it will be someone elses. We wanted to strip it down and let people hear how we play in the studio. There were no pro tools, there were no click tracks, there was not a lot of editing, we just went in and played music. I cannot off the top of my head think of a band that has done that in the past five to seven years.
Metal Exiles: It does seem that there are a lot of bands playing to the formula now.
Ken: Yeah, there is a cookie cutter going on, same sound, same guy mixing it and we took a chance. To me it is not my favorite record but I do like the songs but it is tough to listen to. With Darkness In The Light, it captures and emotion, there was a lot of know how on this record as far as song writing goes. Putting it together, understanding how the song is supposed to flow and hear what’s best for the song and I am really excited with the result.
Metal Exiles: This album does have some of your best work as far as guitar solos and melodic chords. What pushed you on this record?
Ken: I am a huge fan of stacking guitars on top of guitars and we lacked doing that on the past few records and I knew it was time to do it again. If there was a song with overly melodic influences then maybe we sing over it but if is heavy and grueling then let it breath but as far as solo work after the record was written I was stressing over the solos. I was trying to write the best solos for the record and I forced myself to reach a certain goal for it.
Metal Exiles: It seems that there are more solos now and you guys really pushed the envelope.
Ken: Buz and I we played guitar very well but around the time of The Oncoming Storm we were more worried about showing off, we were worried about the sound and the song but now we have found a happy medium so we can write a great song and add some flavor to it.
Metal Exiles: The opening track from Darkness In The Light, Watch It Burn, has an intro that really minds me of a lead off to an Iron Maiden track. Was that what you were going for?
Ken: We have been open in public since day one that we are huge Iron Maiden fans and sometimes it comes out. Believe it or not the lead on the original take was double that length but I had to cut it in half because I want the songs to start within the first 20 seconds with the vocals so I cut it short because it was almost a minute long. It was very Maiden influenced in the intro but the song has everything. The song has the 12 year old me obsessing over Maiden, it has the traditional Unearth verse, it has a double breakdown back to back and right back to the verse. To me it was my favorite song that we have ever done because it was able to capture the spirit of the band rolled into one package.
Metal Exiles: Ruination Of The Lost is about how we are ruining our world. Where has this “end of the world” fetish come from lately?
Ken: It’s not weather we are ruining our world, we have always had that political view, its more of a “wake up and smell the coffee” kind of vibe. It’s about fighting through the stuff, to see the errors so you can change them. The band has never been about “guess what, the world is going to end in 2012”. We have never taken a supposed catastrophic event to base our record off. It is always tongue in cheek, you can dictate your own destiny based on how you live your own life. We have the glass is half full view, its never too late to change.
Metal Exiles: Adam Dutkiewicz is a great producer, he brings so much to Killswitch Engage so what does he keep bringing to your records?
Ken: This is our third time using him and the thing about Adam is he is a good friend of mine as well as the bands and it is not so much of what he brings to the table is that he has the knowhow and his wisdom is very important. I think very highly of my friend and only one person every decade really changes something and Adam really changed metal for this decade. Adam is just like a Paul McCartney, ask him to write something and he will write it. For the way it works with Unearth, we will bring the material to him and what it comes down to is emotional involvement and since Adam has no emotional involvement, meaning he did not write the song, he can easily come in and orchestrate whether or not something is good or bad. You can say to him that “this part is awesome” and he will shoot back that it really isnt as great as you think it is. Adam makes you step back and look at the song in a different light. George Martin, even though Lennon/McCartney were superior song writers, was there to orchestrate everything. A great producers job is to keep everything in order and make sure you do not get to invested in the material and make the proper calls. Adam is meticulous, he makes sure the guitars and drums are tight and sound great. I co-produced this record so I was able to work on my own guitar and vocal parts as Adam was not there for most of the vocal tracking.
Metal Exiles: How do you separate the producer side of Ken Susi from the guitar player side?
Ken: I own a recording studio so it is something that comes naturally to me. When I hear a riff I can usually start producing it on the spot. People tell me to slow down but I start thinking about the song and they tell me they haven’t finished writing it yet, slow down. I think faster than I can play but that is not a bad thing.
Metal Exiles: It shows that you are a forward thinking human being. Now you guys are about to drop this record and go on tour as usual. Unearth are hitting the festivals again so what made you pick the Mayhem festival?
Ken: It is the place to be as far as I am concerned, it is the prom every day for five weeks. . It is the big show, we feel this record is great and it is a great time to go out in front of a massive audience and create a huge buzz. We want to start this album cycle off well so we can finish big.
Metal Exiles: The Mayhem tour keeps getting the best bands, how do you think they keep pulling that off?
Ken: It should be equally awesome this year as well. You have Godsmack, Megadeth and Disturbed as big radio bands on the main stage so that creates a lot of people for the concert so you know it is going to be a fun time.
Metal Exiles: You guys are headlining the Jaeger stage, why aren’t you guys eating at the big kids table?
Ken: It is one of those things, we had options to do other things this summer but we wanted a fixed slot on the second stage because we wanted to be at ground level in front of the fans, face to face. We did not want to worry about fans filing in from the second stage to main stage, we wanted a slot where we knew fans would be right there in front of us. It will be great to get back on the festival wagon again.
Unearth are about to unleash the album of their careers in the form of Darkness In The Light and you need to be first in line to receive this piece of metals elite.
OFFICIAL UNEARTH WEBSITE!
BUY DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT!!
An interview with Ken Susi of Unearth.
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: I saw your pre order packages and one of them has a beer bong. I know Unearth is a party but where did the beer bong come from?
Ken Susi: We use beer bongs on stage every night so we figured that we would give them out to people to.
Metal Exiles: What does that say about Unearth?
Ken: We are just in it to win it. We hang out with our fans, we are a blue collar band and we are just like everybody else, we want to party on Friday and Saturday night.
Metal Exiles: And Sunday, Monday, Tuesday etc…
Ken: You party as much as you can and everybody would party every day of the week if they could and we are out to do that.
Metal Exiles: You guys have had a Spinal Tap type issue with your drumming stool.
Ken: Derek Kerswill is a good friend of mine and he helped us finish the writing for The Oncoming Storm after Mike Rudberg. Everybody has a misconception about that, Mike Justian was on the Oncoming Storm but the truth of the matter is that the record was already written before he joined, Mike only played on it. Derek is a great drummer but he is not a great metal drummer nor do I think he really wants to be one. Everything happens for a reason and we got to call on Justin Foley of Killswitch Engage and he just naturally that we expect a drummer to do.
Metal Exiles: What does it take to graduate to being a metal drummer?
Ken: It’s not about graduating or not graduating to be a metal drummer. I hate to say it but there are not many metal drummers that cannot play with any feel or groove and instead of saying not many I would say hardly any. I think it is tougher to play rock music and hit hard and play with feeling than it is to play with hard blistering speed. It is just what you train yourself for. If you play hockey and all you can do is take a slap shot and then that is your one trick. It is two different animals and I think it is harder to play slow than to play fast. Derek can do it well, he can play like Vinnie Paul but he cannot play faster than Vinnie, it was cool while it lasted and he is doing the right thing and we are doing the right thing.
Metal Exiles: Trevor Phipps said Darkness In The Light was the best record since The Oncoming Storm. What do you think In The Eyes Of Fire and The March was lacking?
Ken: The only way I can reference it is that when The Beatles came out they would play stuff like I Want to Hold Your Hand and Love Me Do and stuff like that and then they get into stuff like Sgt Peppers. For Unearth we did The Stings of Conscience and the n the Oncoming Storm and people got used to what we did. At the time we thought there was going to be a huge climate change so we wanted to thrashier, more chaotic and faster, just different. We gained a lot of fans from doing that type of thing so those were records were done well. Now, do I think if those records were done properly, recorded well or sounded great, no I do not. I love In The Eyes Of Fire though, it has a lot of great songs and the you fast forward to The March and that has some great songs as well and it is great for what it is and it was a step in the right direction and it was a great stepping stone to Darkness In The Light. I do not want to play the “This record is our best one yet” card so I would rather say that I like this record a lot, it has all the ups and downs, it has spirit, the rhythm section is tight and the solos are great. I spent a lot of time on the songs and song writing and I think the songs are well orchestrated than they have ever been. If you like The Oncoming Storm more, if you want to carry a torch for it that’s good but I can assure you that if you like that record you will love Darkness In The Light. Who am I to say though, that is for the public to decide but I think it is a record I can get behind and listen to from top to bottom.
Metal Exiles: I like The Oncoming Storm but in some places I like In The Eyes Of Fire better because there is some amazing guitar work on there.
Ken: III, in my opinion, is my least favorite record out of all of them but there are people in this world that are calibrated to listen to that type of metal in the way that record was delivered. Maybe it is not my fav but it will be someone elses. We wanted to strip it down and let people hear how we play in the studio. There were no pro tools, there were no click tracks, there was not a lot of editing, we just went in and played music. I cannot off the top of my head think of a band that has done that in the past five to seven years.
Metal Exiles: It does seem that there are a lot of bands playing to the formula now.
Ken: Yeah, there is a cookie cutter going on, same sound, same guy mixing it and we took a chance. To me it is not my favorite record but I do like the songs but it is tough to listen to. With Darkness In The Light, it captures and emotion, there was a lot of know how on this record as far as song writing goes. Putting it together, understanding how the song is supposed to flow and hear what’s best for the song and I am really excited with the result.
Metal Exiles: This album does have some of your best work as far as guitar solos and melodic chords. What pushed you on this record?
Ken: I am a huge fan of stacking guitars on top of guitars and we lacked doing that on the past few records and I knew it was time to do it again. If there was a song with overly melodic influences then maybe we sing over it but if is heavy and grueling then let it breath but as far as solo work after the record was written I was stressing over the solos. I was trying to write the best solos for the record and I forced myself to reach a certain goal for it.
Metal Exiles: It seems that there are more solos now and you guys really pushed the envelope.
Ken: Buz and I we played guitar very well but around the time of The Oncoming Storm we were more worried about showing off, we were worried about the sound and the song but now we have found a happy medium so we can write a great song and add some flavor to it.
Metal Exiles: The opening track from Darkness In The Light, Watch It Burn, has an intro that really minds me of a lead off to an Iron Maiden track. Was that what you were going for?
Ken: We have been open in public since day one that we are huge Iron Maiden fans and sometimes it comes out. Believe it or not the lead on the original take was double that length but I had to cut it in half because I want the songs to start within the first 20 seconds with the vocals so I cut it short because it was almost a minute long. It was very Maiden influenced in the intro but the song has everything. The song has the 12 year old me obsessing over Maiden, it has the traditional Unearth verse, it has a double breakdown back to back and right back to the verse. To me it was my favorite song that we have ever done because it was able to capture the spirit of the band rolled into one package.
Metal Exiles: Ruination Of The Lost is about how we are ruining our world. Where has this “end of the world” fetish come from lately?
Ken: It’s not weather we are ruining our world, we have always had that political view, its more of a “wake up and smell the coffee” kind of vibe. It’s about fighting through the stuff, to see the errors so you can change them. The band has never been about “guess what, the world is going to end in 2012”. We have never taken a supposed catastrophic event to base our record off. It is always tongue in cheek, you can dictate your own destiny based on how you live your own life. We have the glass is half full view, its never too late to change.
Metal Exiles: Adam Dutkiewicz is a great producer, he brings so much to Killswitch Engage so what does he keep bringing to your records?
Ken: This is our third time using him and the thing about Adam is he is a good friend of mine as well as the bands and it is not so much of what he brings to the table is that he has the knowhow and his wisdom is very important. I think very highly of my friend and only one person every decade really changes something and Adam really changed metal for this decade. Adam is just like a Paul McCartney, ask him to write something and he will write it. For the way it works with Unearth, we will bring the material to him and what it comes down to is emotional involvement and since Adam has no emotional involvement, meaning he did not write the song, he can easily come in and orchestrate whether or not something is good or bad. You can say to him that “this part is awesome” and he will shoot back that it really isnt as great as you think it is. Adam makes you step back and look at the song in a different light. George Martin, even though Lennon/McCartney were superior song writers, was there to orchestrate everything. A great producers job is to keep everything in order and make sure you do not get to invested in the material and make the proper calls. Adam is meticulous, he makes sure the guitars and drums are tight and sound great. I co-produced this record so I was able to work on my own guitar and vocal parts as Adam was not there for most of the vocal tracking.
Metal Exiles: How do you separate the producer side of Ken Susi from the guitar player side?
Ken: I own a recording studio so it is something that comes naturally to me. When I hear a riff I can usually start producing it on the spot. People tell me to slow down but I start thinking about the song and they tell me they haven’t finished writing it yet, slow down. I think faster than I can play but that is not a bad thing.
Metal Exiles: It shows that you are a forward thinking human being. Now you guys are about to drop this record and go on tour as usual. Unearth are hitting the festivals again so what made you pick the Mayhem festival?
Ken: It is the place to be as far as I am concerned, it is the prom every day for five weeks. . It is the big show, we feel this record is great and it is a great time to go out in front of a massive audience and create a huge buzz. We want to start this album cycle off well so we can finish big.
Metal Exiles: The Mayhem tour keeps getting the best bands, how do you think they keep pulling that off?
Ken: It should be equally awesome this year as well. You have Godsmack, Megadeth and Disturbed as big radio bands on the main stage so that creates a lot of people for the concert so you know it is going to be a fun time.
Metal Exiles: You guys are headlining the Jaeger stage, why aren’t you guys eating at the big kids table?
Ken: It is one of those things, we had options to do other things this summer but we wanted a fixed slot on the second stage because we wanted to be at ground level in front of the fans, face to face. We did not want to worry about fans filing in from the second stage to main stage, we wanted a slot where we knew fans would be right there in front of us. It will be great to get back on the festival wagon again.
Unearth are about to unleash the album of their careers in the form of Darkness In The Light and you need to be first in line to receive this piece of metals elite.
OFFICIAL UNEARTH WEBSITE!
BUY DARKNESS IN THE LIGHT!!
