IN THIS MOMENT Frontwoman Talks New Album

101 Distribution recently conducted an interview with vocalist Maria Brink of Southern California's IN THIS MOMENT. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

101 Distribution: Cool. So Jesse Landry left the bass position recently.

Maria Brink: Yea. Kyle [Konkiel] is our new bassist and Jesse is no longer in the band, but it was a good thing. It was a mutual thing. He wanted to fly airplanes and it's so funny because he's been sitting in the bunk for the past year — while we're on tour — doing these flight simulating video games and it's so funny because we'd make fun of him. But he actually made the choice that he wanted to fly airplanes and he is flying airplanes now by himself, and getting more licenses so he can actually be a pilot.

101 Distribution: So you guys recently recorded the new album entitled "A Star-Crossed Wasteland". How do you feel about it?

Maria Brink: I love our new album so much. I think it's a defining album, as far as our sound is concerned. I think in the beginning, we were trying to figure it out and exploring different things, and I think on this album, we kinda found what our sound is. I guess the last album ("The Dream") was a lot more bright and [had] a storybook album feel, and this album went to a darker fairytale ... definitely a darker realm.

101 Distribution: What was your inspiration this time around?

Maria Brink: A few different things. For me, the way I like to do things ... I love storytelling, but I like to write about things that are super-passionate to me because I feel like if I'm not writing about things that I believe in — my personal feelings, [then] you won't really hear the emotion in my voice and to me, that's one of the most important things I can have. So what I did was I wrote about my experiences and kinda this metaphorical story type thing. There is definitely an underlying theme for this whole entire album of this post-apocalyptic wasteland world and "star-crossed lovers" is obviously where these two people are meant to basically fail and it's not gonna work out, so it's this star-crossed wasteland world. It's a cool theme ... kinda like a western desert feel to the songs about this cowboy on the search in this world. It's super cool, super fun and big metaphors of things I'm going through in my life. I went through a break-up and a broken heart, and a bunch of other stuff, so it's storytelling throughout my entire experiences.

101 Distribution: You said you broke up with your boyfriend. Is this the one you've been dating for like two or three years?

Maria Brink: Yeah. Jonathan Miller from DEVILDRIVER.

101 Distribution: So you're on the market now?

Maria Brink: (Laughs) I'm single, yes.

101 Distribution: Goodness gracious! A lot of guys are gonna hit on you at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival!

Maria Brink: You know, you say that, but men do not hit on me. It's so rare and few that men actually hit on me, whether or not they're intimidated because I'm in a heavy band or my tattoos - whatever it is. I actually rarely ever get hit on. Isn't that funny? People think I do, but I actually don't. I guess the men who are meant to be a part of my life won't be intimidated by me and will be stronger. There's a specific breed that won't be afraid. The man who is meant to be with me won't b afraid of me, so it's gonna take a strong man to step up the plate.

101 Distribution: "The Gun Show" is the first single. Tell me about the video and what was the idea behind releasing that song first?

Maria Brink: It's kind of a western ranch feel video for sure. I dressed up as a cowgirl and have these cowgirls in the video with me. We had so much fun doing it. It's just, I think it's one of the heaviest songs and we really love it, and it's just a fun, awesome, summertime kick ass song. It's pretty brutal because we wanted to come out with a serious bang and our next single would be our radio type single. This one isn't for radio. It's too heavy, but we decided to make an impact, kicking down the door and lighting up the place!

Read the entire interview from 101 Distribution.