AS I LAY DYING Frontman Discusses Upcoming Album

Finland's HardcoreSounds recently conducted an interview with AS I LAY DYING frontman Tim Lambesis. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

HardcoreSounds: The new CD has been titled "An Ocean Between Us" and it will be out on August 21st through Metal Blade Records. What does the album title mean?

Tim Lambesis: It's one of the songs on the album. When I was writing lyrics for the song it was about how so many people and band's care only about money and success. I personally just really don't care much about those things and there's an ocean between me and them as far as when it comes to my dreams and what really matters to me.

HardcoreSounds: How was the recording process of the album?

Tim Lambesis: It was pretty traditional recording process but we had some bad luck. Our computer crashed, we had some problems with our guitars not staying in tune and things like that but the actual process was pretty traditional. We did the drums first, then guitars, bass and vocals. It took us a little longer because these songs for us are a little harder to play than on our previous CD. It was a difficult recording process for us.

HardcoreSounds: You made the CD with Adam from KILLSWITCH ENGAGE. How was it to work with him?

Tim Lambesis: It was good. We have known him for awhile because we have done three tours with KILLSWITCH in U.S. It was easy for him to communicate his ideas into our sound because we know each other so well. Sometimes we liked his ideas and sometimes we didn't but overall he got everything out of each of us.

HardcoreSounds: How would you compare the sound of your new album to "Shadows Are Security"?

Tim Lambesis: Compared to "Shadows Are Security" it's more diverse. Some of the songs are darker and technical but there's also some melodic guitars like there were in "Shadows Are Security". Musically "An Ocean Between Us" is more faster and heavier but lyrically the album is really memorable. If you put the two together it has a cool energy because everything is more balanced. I also had more time to focus on lyrics this time.

HardcoreSounds: Will there be any guest appearances on the album?

Tim Lambesis: Not really. Only some background vocals my room mate did. We wanted this album to show people how we have progressed as a band so we wanted to make it without any guest appearances.

HardcoreSounds: You have a new bass player Josh Gilbert. How has he done so far? Has this member switch affected into your live set somehow?

Tim Lambesis: He is pretty similar live. He has only been playing with us for a few months but he is getting more comfortable on playing our songs all the time. The main difference is the recording process. Clint never actually sing on our records. Or he did sing but we wanted it to sound more full so we had to blend it a little bit. We didn't like the overall voice of Clint himself so it was always hard to get Clint to sound certain way in a studio. With Josh Gilbert things go more smoothly. I showed him the parts that I had written for the clean vocals and when he came in, he did an amazing job. Even Adam said that he is one of the easiest vocalist he has ever recorded. We were really happy with him in the studio.

Read the entire interview at HardcoreSounds.