Metal has gotten the premier kick in the nuts with the release of Miss May I’s Rise Of The Lion. Miss May I has steadily risen through the ranks to get to the top and I feel with this stunning release they have gotten there. Levi Benton took the time out of his hectic schedule to allow me to tap into what made this different approach to writing an album work for Miss May I.
An interview with Levi Benton of Miss May I
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You just did Rock On The Range. How did it feel to do such a massive festival in your backyard?
Levi Benton: it was pretty crazy and even though we have played in Ohio forever this was great, it was a great homecoming.
Metal Exiles: What did it mean to you to play such a huge festival?
Levi: It was an honor because we grew up playing in garages and then we have all of these radio stations in our home state wanting to interview us, it was pretty crazy.
Metal Exiles: Do you think that with Rise Of The Lion Miss May I have finally arrived?
Levi: We are working on it but after all of the tourimg we do for this album I will have a better answer for you.
Metal Exiles: What are you looking forward to getting out of doing Rockstar Mayhem all summer?
Levi: We have always wanted to do Mayhem but never got around to doing it. We have done WARPED where we were the weirdo metal band so its nice to be on a tour where very band is Metal.
Metal Exiles: You stated that nobody is making real metal anymore. What do you think real metal is and where does Miss May I stand in all of that?
Levi: Its not so much the heaviest or the riffiest its just there aren’t many records coming out where you really hear the amps or hear the pick hitting the strings because everything is done with computers now. With the older records you could hear every high hat hit or you could hear the Marshall cabinet and it sounded great but now everything sounds so perfect. We did not want to do that, we wanted to release a metal record where it sounded like 5 dudes jamming in a room.
Metal Exiles: Do you think that too many people are relying on fads to get noticed?
Levi: Oh yea of course. You can see it on the social sites like Instagram. The more fads you are into the more followers you have but we will stick to our guns and what we do best. We will stand by our sound and that’s all that matters. I know what we do isn’t big right now but we are having a good time.
Metal Exiles: Getting back to Rise Of The Lion, by having Terry Date on board do you think you were finally able to make the album that would put you over the top?
Levi: That is what we were hoping for. Our last record was a big transition record but it was something that we needed to do to get to this one. The best thing about Terry is he was hands off. Nobody has ever been hands off with us; he let us be the band we are. He did not interfere with our song writing, we just brought the material to him and we tracked it. His biggest thing is the way he mic’d the instruments, he just wanted it to sound real.
Metal Exiles: How you wrote this album is very different. I have never heard of anybody writing off of fan letters. I have seen things that fans have written and it blows my mind with what they say so it made me listen to this album differently. Were there certain letters that moved you enough to write like this in the first place?
Levi: You know, its not the ones that say I drove 30 hours to come to your show or I quit my job so I could see you guys it’s the ones where they claim you saved their life that gets you. That just grabbed our attention so we had to start writing lyrics to it.
Metal Exiles: For the songs were you writing back to the fans or putting yourself in their position?
Levi: We were putting ourselves in their situations. It was nice to do something different than a normal song. We had to research for this and understand how they were feeling.
Metal Exiles: Was it hard to put yourself in their position and step away from your own thoughts and what you go through?
Levi: Yes, but I think that was what was so exciting about it. We have been in a band for so long and wrote so many songs we were ready for something different.
Metal Exiles: What were some of the harder songs on the album to write mentally?
Levi: The hardest thing was to make the songs different. Some of the topics were so close that we had to go out of our way to make them different. When your venting its easy to spill the words on the page and sometimes its similar but we really wanted to make a different record this time.
Metal Exiles: Why did you go so far out of your way to do a diverse album?
Levi: Our last record did not have that diversity and we feel that some of the timeless records have that diversity to make them stand out.
Metal Exiles: The first single from Rise is Gone. What was the letter that sparked that track?
Levi: We got a lot of letters about a boyfriend or a girlfriend leaving and how our songs helped them get through it. So gone is a straight up heartbreak song, it is not vague, straight to the point.
Metal Exiles: Refuse To Believe?
Levi: That came from letters from the quiet fans that feel out of place at school or at home and when they are at concerts they really feel where they belong. They feel as though they are around their real family and that they belong to something.
Metal Exiles: Do you think the fans will feel better about themselves when they hear these songs and they know it is about them?
Levi: I hope so, I hope they can relate to it because this is the first time we have done something where we were trying to relate to everybody. We even have a military song with Hero With No Name which is way left field for us. We meet a lot of soldiers so we hope they can relate to that.
Metal Exiles: With some of the subjects so bleak were they hard for you to sing?
Levi: It wasn’t that it was hard to get through, it was just being bummed out the rest of the day. When you are writing the song and you are really getting into their shoes it was easy to get bummed out because you think “Man, somebody really feels like this all of the time.”. That was the hardest part of doing this album.
Metal Exiles: Are you glad that your fans write this stuff to you?
Levi: That is my favorite thing, I love getting things from fans. I have to interact with the fans and I would rather be out in the crowd for the whole show rather than being cooped up doing other things.
Metal Exiles: Considering the strength of Rise Of The Lion, where does Miss May I go from here?
Levi: I have actually been a little nervous about it. But this will be a long campaign for Rise so I know we will come up with other ideas and we never really throw all of ourselves out there, we always hold a little back. There are more places we can go with the band but I have been stressing because I know the next record will really take it out of me.
Metal Exiles: Last words to the fans that keep writing you all of this great stuff?
Levi: I want everyone to know that we read all of the letters so if you want to send us something we will read it even if we do not have time to write you back we want you to know we read it. Just keep in touch with us any way you want, we see it.
Official Miss May I Site
BUY Rise Of The Lions
BUY Rise Of The Lions On Vinyl!
An interview with Levi Benton of Miss May I
By Jeffrey Easton
Metal Exiles: You just did Rock On The Range. How did it feel to do such a massive festival in your backyard?
Levi Benton: it was pretty crazy and even though we have played in Ohio forever this was great, it was a great homecoming.
Metal Exiles: What did it mean to you to play such a huge festival?
Levi: It was an honor because we grew up playing in garages and then we have all of these radio stations in our home state wanting to interview us, it was pretty crazy.
Metal Exiles: Do you think that with Rise Of The Lion Miss May I have finally arrived?
Levi: We are working on it but after all of the tourimg we do for this album I will have a better answer for you.
Metal Exiles: What are you looking forward to getting out of doing Rockstar Mayhem all summer?
Levi: We have always wanted to do Mayhem but never got around to doing it. We have done WARPED where we were the weirdo metal band so its nice to be on a tour where very band is Metal.
Metal Exiles: You stated that nobody is making real metal anymore. What do you think real metal is and where does Miss May I stand in all of that?
Levi: Its not so much the heaviest or the riffiest its just there aren’t many records coming out where you really hear the amps or hear the pick hitting the strings because everything is done with computers now. With the older records you could hear every high hat hit or you could hear the Marshall cabinet and it sounded great but now everything sounds so perfect. We did not want to do that, we wanted to release a metal record where it sounded like 5 dudes jamming in a room.
Metal Exiles: Do you think that too many people are relying on fads to get noticed?
Levi: Oh yea of course. You can see it on the social sites like Instagram. The more fads you are into the more followers you have but we will stick to our guns and what we do best. We will stand by our sound and that’s all that matters. I know what we do isn’t big right now but we are having a good time.
Metal Exiles: Getting back to Rise Of The Lion, by having Terry Date on board do you think you were finally able to make the album that would put you over the top?
Levi: That is what we were hoping for. Our last record was a big transition record but it was something that we needed to do to get to this one. The best thing about Terry is he was hands off. Nobody has ever been hands off with us; he let us be the band we are. He did not interfere with our song writing, we just brought the material to him and we tracked it. His biggest thing is the way he mic’d the instruments, he just wanted it to sound real.
Metal Exiles: How you wrote this album is very different. I have never heard of anybody writing off of fan letters. I have seen things that fans have written and it blows my mind with what they say so it made me listen to this album differently. Were there certain letters that moved you enough to write like this in the first place?
Levi: You know, its not the ones that say I drove 30 hours to come to your show or I quit my job so I could see you guys it’s the ones where they claim you saved their life that gets you. That just grabbed our attention so we had to start writing lyrics to it.
Metal Exiles: For the songs were you writing back to the fans or putting yourself in their position?
Levi: We were putting ourselves in their situations. It was nice to do something different than a normal song. We had to research for this and understand how they were feeling.
Metal Exiles: Was it hard to put yourself in their position and step away from your own thoughts and what you go through?
Levi: Yes, but I think that was what was so exciting about it. We have been in a band for so long and wrote so many songs we were ready for something different.
Metal Exiles: What were some of the harder songs on the album to write mentally?
Levi: The hardest thing was to make the songs different. Some of the topics were so close that we had to go out of our way to make them different. When your venting its easy to spill the words on the page and sometimes its similar but we really wanted to make a different record this time.
Metal Exiles: Why did you go so far out of your way to do a diverse album?
Levi: Our last record did not have that diversity and we feel that some of the timeless records have that diversity to make them stand out.
Metal Exiles: The first single from Rise is Gone. What was the letter that sparked that track?
Levi: We got a lot of letters about a boyfriend or a girlfriend leaving and how our songs helped them get through it. So gone is a straight up heartbreak song, it is not vague, straight to the point.
Metal Exiles: Refuse To Believe?
Levi: That came from letters from the quiet fans that feel out of place at school or at home and when they are at concerts they really feel where they belong. They feel as though they are around their real family and that they belong to something.
Metal Exiles: Do you think the fans will feel better about themselves when they hear these songs and they know it is about them?
Levi: I hope so, I hope they can relate to it because this is the first time we have done something where we were trying to relate to everybody. We even have a military song with Hero With No Name which is way left field for us. We meet a lot of soldiers so we hope they can relate to that.
Metal Exiles: With some of the subjects so bleak were they hard for you to sing?
Levi: It wasn’t that it was hard to get through, it was just being bummed out the rest of the day. When you are writing the song and you are really getting into their shoes it was easy to get bummed out because you think “Man, somebody really feels like this all of the time.”. That was the hardest part of doing this album.
Metal Exiles: Are you glad that your fans write this stuff to you?
Levi: That is my favorite thing, I love getting things from fans. I have to interact with the fans and I would rather be out in the crowd for the whole show rather than being cooped up doing other things.
Metal Exiles: Considering the strength of Rise Of The Lion, where does Miss May I go from here?
Levi: I have actually been a little nervous about it. But this will be a long campaign for Rise so I know we will come up with other ideas and we never really throw all of ourselves out there, we always hold a little back. There are more places we can go with the band but I have been stressing because I know the next record will really take it out of me.
Metal Exiles: Last words to the fans that keep writing you all of this great stuff?
Levi: I want everyone to know that we read all of the letters so if you want to send us something we will read it even if we do not have time to write you back we want you to know we read it. Just keep in touch with us any way you want, we see it.
Official Miss May I Site
BUY Rise Of The Lions
BUY Rise Of The Lions On Vinyl!
