AVENGED SEVENFOLD's M. SHADOWS Discusses His Evolution As A Singer

In a new interview with Finland's Chaoszine, AVENGED SEVENFOLD singer M. Shadows talked about his evolution as a vocalist. Speaking about AVENGED's early touring days, the 42-year-old singer, whose real name is Matt Sanders, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's always a learning experience. I would even say like we just headlined [U.K.'s] Download [festival] for the third time and this was the first time I felt comfortable up there, because just maturity, being in the situation already. It's like being in a game seven or being in the finals and knowing you've been there and knowing what's gonna come at you allows you to really internalize everything and then just focus on the technique and what you're trying to do let it all come to you. So those early days, it was just… You're trying to do too much right off the bat, and then your voice blows up. And it's typical. You're just, like, 'Okay, we're gonna kill this show,' and you get out there and all of a sudden, you get nothing, 'cause you push too hard."

Asked if he had any pre-show routines in the early days that helped him prepare for the live stage, M. Shadows said: "The difference is when you're riding your bike around with [late AVENGED SEVENFOLD drummer] The Rev, you can just sing and sing and sing and nothing goes wrong. Then you start playing shows, and you have 18 shows in a row on Warped Tour, and all of a sudden things start getting worse and worse every night. You're trying to get sleep, you're trying to drink water, but just not having the technique. And then there's all these different ways people describe technique, and that takes a long time to figure out, because sometimes the things you need in the beginning are the exact opposite things you need as your career goes on."

He continued: "Yeah, the early days it was just a struggle. When I think of going on stage, I think of never being at 100 percent in those days and just being really nervous that I wasn't able to perform where I needed it to be or what I knew I could do."

Asked if there are some foods or drinks that he avoids before the show that he thinks can negatively affect his performance, M. Shadows said: "Yeah, earlier in my career, and maybe if you would have asked me 10 years ago, I'd have a bunch of things. But now that I've been working with [vocal coach] Seth Riggs for the last seven, eight years, I've realized that none of that stuff affects me. Now, I'm not gonna go eat spaghetti before I go to bed, because if you get acid reflux and it burns your cords, you're really in trouble, 'cause you're fried. But in terms of things [like food], honestly, technique can trump all that stuff. Tea and ginger and honey might make the muscles feel okay. It's not gonna affect my vocal cords. My vocal cords, if they're in the right spot and I continue to do the correct things, none of that stuff's going to affect me — food's not gonna affect me, none of that stuff. You just wanna watch out for things like acid reflux. You wanna watch out for what you ate the night before. Don't sleep with your head completely flat, 'cause stuff might come back up. Things like that that are interesting, but, really, when the voice feels right, it feels right. If you don't damage yourself the night before on the show — don't go too far, don't go outside the bounds, don't go too wide on your vowels, don't do these things that you feel like you can do when you're out there in the moment. If you keep it locked in, then the next day should be fine."

AVENGED SEVENFOLD launched the 2024 leg of the "Life Is But A Dream…" North American tour on March 6 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The band's 2024 run included AVENGED SEVENFOLD's first-ever performances in Manchester, New Hampshire; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Newark. The group performed in Des Moines, Iowa for the first time in 18 years; Cleveland, Ohio; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the first time in 15 years.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD has been touring in support of its latest album, "Life Is But A Dream…", which sold 36,000 equivalent album units in the U.S. in its first week of release to land at position No. 13 on the Billboard 200 chart.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD made its first festival appearance in five years on May 19, 2023 at Welcome To Rockville at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.

AVENGED SEVENFOLD's first concert since June 2018 took place on May 12, 2023 at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

To date, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has sold over 10 million albums worldwide and earned two consecutive No. 1 albums on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart (2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King") to go along with over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, as well as multiple No. 1 singles on rock radio.