ARCH ENEMY Guitarist Talks About CHRIS AMOTT's Return, New Album

Peter Atkinson of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with ARCH ENEMY guitarist Michael Amott. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

On being forced to move the first show of the current North American tour with MACHINE HEAD from House of Blues in Anaheim, California to the Glass House in Pomona:

Amott: Yeah, it was crazy, it was a sold-out show in the end, which was cool. But they had to switch the venues two days before and do all this scrambling around. We got here and it was like, "OK, what's going on?" It was really nothing to do with us, it had to do with the booking agent and the venue owners. We're too metal for Disney, I guess. Mickey Mouse called and he was really pissed. (Laughs) They're pretty down on metal, I guess. It really wasn't too bad for us, but it must have been a hassle for all those people who bought tickets for a show they thought was going to be in Anaheim who had to drive like 70 miles to the new venue.

KNAC.COM: It was just the fact that this House of Blues was on Disney property, right?

Amott: I guess so because the other House of Blues shows we have booked aren't going to be affected. At least that's what we're hearing now. Who knows what games people play.

KNAC.COM: With all of the corporate ownership of the venues and the promotion and everything nowadays you're at their mercy?

Amott: Yeah, we'll have to see what happens. It's hard enough touring over here as it is with all of the travel and getting all the work permits squared away for the band and the crew without having to deal with stuff like this too.

KNAC.COM: Did the show itself go OK?

Amott: Yeah, it was fun. It was sold out, the crowd was into it. It was the first time we'd ever played in Pomona, and you're nobody until you play Pomona (laughs.) It was a good time. There's still some bugs. We were missing some of our crew who were still trying to get here because of the paperwork stuff I was just talking about. But it's getting tighter, the show yesterday went that much better and it's just a matter of getting back in the swing. It usually takes a couple of shows to work everything out, but since we haven't toured in six months it might take a couple more than usual. We only did two festival shows before this, so we're a little rusty.

KNAC.COM: Plus you've got Chris [Amott] to get acclimated back into the mix?

Amott: Yeah, but he's full-on back into it. He's enjoying himself and having a good time and playing very well. So it's falling into place. He's pretty stoked to be out here, he hasn't been on the road in three years so he's excited to be out here playing shows and to be playing guitar again.

KNAC.COM: Did he rejoin the band in time to do the album?

Amott: He rejoined the band about six weeks before we went into the studio so he was there for pre-production and rehearsals and when we did the arrangements for the songs.

KNAC.COM: Did you feel that he would eventually come back to the band, or did you think he might be gone for good?

Amott: I don't know. I think we all were hoping he would come back at some point, but it had to be because he wanted to be in the band, not because someone was pressuring him to come back. He approached us and we talked about in the new year, actually, he said he'd really like to come back to the band we were like, "Yeah, the sounds great." But we thought we'd give him a couple months to think about it, because this is a very important part of our lives. This is our life, we don't really have anything else. We don't want get into a position where we got rid of the guy who we had, and who we were quite happy with, and then have Chris leave again because he decided he really wasn't into it after all. We wanted to make sure he was 100 percent certain, so we gave him time to make sure this is what he really wanted to do, and he convinced us that it was. So he's back in the band.

KNAC.COM: Just what did Chris do during his time away, I read some stuff about him going to school, talking about a solo album?

Amott: He didn't stop playing guitar, but he didn't record any music or wasn't part of any serious projects. I think he just wanted a break from all that. He did go to school for a while, then he started teaching music. He did some bar-type shows, doing covers with some friends. I think he just wanted to get away from the insanity that is ARCH ENEMY for a while. When you join a band like ARCH ENEMY it takes over your whole life. It's a full-on thing. There isn't really room for anything else, it pushes everything out. You can't have a little plan for yourself, what you would like to do with your life, forget about that. it's all about the band. And he got into the band when he was young, he was only 17. Basically he hadn't tried anything else and he wanted to experience something else. And you can't really blame him for that. We all had been employed, we had had day jobs, we all knew normal working life was like, we had all been out on our own. He just went straight from school and living with our parents to being in a band and being a musician. He didn't know that the grass was pretty green on this side (laughs.) He knows that now.

KNAC.COM: Will you be touring for this album as hard as you did for the last couple albums?

Amott: I hope not (laughs.) But I think so, that's how it goes nowadays. But each time, things get a little bit bigger and a little bit better and it keeps building, which is the kind of position you want to be in as a band. We did five months on the road in the U.S. alone last time, which is quite a lot for a little band from Sweden. We toured probably did 18 months, almost two years for the last album all together, so that was quite a lot. But if you want to keep moving forward, you have to work hard.

KNAC.COM: Chris burned out once, how are the rest of you holding up?

Amott: OK. Angela's [Gossow] the one it wears on the most, because she has to scream at everyone every night. But she takes care of herself and we're not a wild, crazy party band. We can't really afford to be when we've got this many shows. If you go out getting wrecked every night it takes it toll on the shows. The show is No. 1 for me, putting on a good performance for the fans. And that might seem like I'm kissing ass, but it's not, it's my philosophy about this. That's why I'm away from my family at home; it's why I'm standing here on the phone in San Diego. I'm not here to get drunk and hang out in a parking lot; I'm here to put on a great performance for the fans.

KNAC.COM: Are you pleased with how "Rise of the Tyrant" turned out?

Amott: Yeah, I'm very pleased. There's always little things you'd like to change, production-wise and whatnot, but at some point you've got to let it go and accept that this is the album that we've made, hopefully it encapsulates where the band is at right now in a good way. I love the songs, I love the music on the album. I'm really excited about it. It sounds pretty fresh to me, it's got a lot of old-school metal in it that we love, that we've always had, but I think we got a lot more intense about it this time. It's a bit more technical; it's looser and a little bit faster. Angela sounds amazing, I love her performance. And Chris is back, so there was a lot of crazy energy in pre-production and rehearsing, there was a little bit of friendly competition going on there, which is fun. And I'm really proud that this our seventh studio album, this is our fourth one with Angela, and it's fucking sick and extreme and we're getting bigger every time around without us selling out. We're not writing commercial songs, far from it.

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.