AS I LAY DYING Guitarist Discusses Bassist's Departure

May 5, 2007

AS I LAY DYING guitarist Nick Hipa confirmed to Blistering.com during last weekend's New England Metal and Hardcore Festival that bassist Clint Norris has left the band.

The rumor "has been circulating for a long time . . . we've been wanting to say that" Norris left, Hipa said, but the band had not officially confirmed it until now.

"He wanted to pursue a normal life and he's getting married, and he was just kind of ready to close a chapter in his life," Hipa explained. "So Clint's moved on, and we're all still great friends with each other and we're all at his wedding."

Norris left in September before the band started recording its new album, which is due in August. AS I LAY DYING had friends fill in for Norris during a European tour last year; Josh Gilbert is now the group's bass player.

"It's kind of a hard thing to fill, because Clint, not only did he play bass, he did all our clean singing, you know?" Hipa said of his contributions. "On top of that, he's a very charismatic and identifiable member of the band. So losing him, it's hard, but he didn't write any of the music with us, so . . . it's not a loss as far as what the band is going to sound like. It's going to be unusual and maybe a bum-out for many kids who are like, 'Aw, man, I miss that guy.' "

Hipa also addressed the speculation surrounding the title of AS I LAY DYING's new album. "It's going to be called 'An Ocean Between Us'," he revealed. "There's been some rumors floating around the Internet that it's called 'Evolution', but it is not."

He says of the record, "Collectively we've all pushed ourselves, and we're all doing things that we weren't even capable of doing on the last record. And on top of just experimenting and trying different things, I think we just wrote some pretty sick jams, so I'm happy with it. That's all I can say. For kids who like our band and think they know what to expect from us, it might throw them off a little bit . . . I encourage anybody who likes our band to approach this album with an open mind."

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