An Interview With Chimaira [07/2007]

On a hot summer day in Philadelphia, PA, I had the chance to sit down and talk with Rob Arnold, the lead guitarist of Chimaira. We talked about the Sounds of the Underground tour, not getting killed by GWAR, and what it means to be a metal band in the music industry of today. Like a chilled out metal Buddha, Rob told it like it is – and has some of the best advice around for new bands.

We started off talking about the size of the band’s tour bus - a crowded, cluttered bus that was refreshingly air conditioned on a wildly hot summer day. I misunderstood him at first - thinking he said there were five or six people on the bus, and was quickly corrected. “No, if there was five or six of us, it would be totally cool. But there’s twelve or thirteen of us, and with everyone’s shit, and everyone’s bags, things from home, it does get pretty cramped.”

pixie: How long have you been traveling like this?

Rob: Six, seven years… But on this particular one, we’ve only been on Sounds of the Underground for about a week and a half, and it’s been going pretty cool. We just came back from Europe - we were there for five weeks. Got home at like 5:30pm and had to leave around midnight for this tour, so we’ve only been home for abut six hours between tours in the past - a little more than seven weeks. It’s a bit… well, you know, I could be digging ditches or something, so I can’t complain.

pixie: Did you get a lot done in those six hours at home?

Rob: Not nearly as much as I would have liked to.

pixie: This is your second time doing this tour, right?

Rob: Yeah, we did it in 2005, as well.

pixie: Is this one different so far?

Rob: This one has more mixed indoor and outdoor venues, when the first year was all outdoor venues, like a mini Ozzfest. It’s cool. We’re being treated really well and the response has been awesome. It also seems like it’s a totally new group of kids, which is totally cool. It’s either I’m getting older or they’re getting younger, but we’re playing for a ton of new people every night and that’s always cool because you make more fans. We love playing for our fans, but we also love getting more people into the band.

pixie: When the album came out, you broke the top 50, which is huge. I think the scene for metal, in general, in the US, is getting bigger than it has been in a while.

Rob: I actually forgot about that! It’s tough being in metal right now, because for a lot of bands, there’s no money in metal. Especially… it gets worse when nobody is buying records. Back in the eighties, those guys were huge, because you had to buy the record. People could obviously make tapes, but you couldn’t just click and download an album from some dude across the country just like that.

pixie: Plus, you were the loser if you were the kid who had all the copied tapes.

Rob: Yeah? Yeah… when your buddies came over, you wanted them to see your huge collection….

pixie: With the big, black tape racks on the wall? If you had only copies, you were lame. So, do you prefer to do smaller tours, with three or four bands, or great big tours like this one with, I think, about 1,000 bands?

Rob: Well, it’s all different. Both have pros and cons. I prefer bigger things because it’s a better way to get our message across. You play in front of more people, it makes the smaller shows better, too, because a certain percentage of those people come back to the smaller shows. But the smaller shows are awesome because it’s more intimate, and more concentrated on your fans - more people know the songs, sing along, and are really into it. So, a mix of both of them equals everything out and keeps things fresh.

pixie: Is it better, though, in Europe, as a metal band?

Rob: Maybe? Basically, it’s about the same. There’s so many bands out there, so many tours. Back around 2000, 2001, when we first started going over to Europe, I don’t think as many bands went over there as they do now… being an American band was a real commodity. But now, bands do shows all the time, and it isn’t as “hot” as it was. But there are a lot of good bands over there, and we have the opportunity to play huge festivals over there. Here, there isn’t really a “festival season.” I mean, there’s Ozzfest, Warped Tour, and stuff, but over there, people go for one weekend, to see 200 bands, and 100,000 people show up…

pixie: I think people behave better over there, though. You put that many people together for a whole weekend over here, you usually have chaos. I think when they tried that with Woodstock, it pretty much illustrated that.

Rob: It did, but I think a lot of it has to do with the organization. If you watch the documentaries about Woodstock, they say there weren’t enough bathrooms or water, or they were selling water for seven dollars - when they cut corners and try to make a quick buck, rather than caring about what goes on at the festival… that’s when the chaos ensues.

pixie: So, how have you toured with GWAR repeatedly and not gotten killed? I spoke with Oderus yesterday and he told me he plans to kill you all.

Rob: [laughing] He chose one of us in 2005, he chose Mark. I don’t remember what state, but yeah… I just heard Matt, our guitarist, is going to be killed sometime in the next couple of days. But I’m going to try to avoid it again.

pixie: How do you avoid a guy like that? He told me how to kill my bosses, even.

Rob: Those guys have worked out all the ways and methods.

pixie: This has to be a fun tour, though.

Rob: Oh yeah, those guys are all great. We had a bad bus breakdown the other night and they picked us up in the middle of the night in Alabama and took us all the way to Florida in their bus. They helped us out a lot, they’re really good guys.

pixie: I’d imagine on a tour like this, you pretty much become friends with everyone, right?

Rob: There’s no enemies, but I’m noticing it seems like the veteran/older guys are kind of in a clique, and the younger guys are as well. It’s all cool, but it just is. Maybe it’s just me, because I have somewhere to sit all day - on the bus, not just out next to a van having to hang out all day or whatever - so maybe it’s my fault for not reaching out enough….

pixie: Yeah! Let them in here, it’s hot out there!

Rob: But they’re like raccoons. You let one in, and more and more keep coming. [laughs]

pixie: It might also be a respect thing, that they know you’ve done this before, and they’re intimidated.

Rob: Sure, when we were younger, we wouldn’t go up to a bus unless invited. And that type of respect is what gets you the invitations.

pixie: Well, even interviewing you. I was nervous, thinking, “oh God, he’s going to be so badass. He’s going to eat me alive.” Do you find that people generally think you’re going to be intimidating and mean?

Rob: I guess I never really thought of that, because I am just a laid-back, whatever dude, so I don’t think of myself like that. But I guess it’s kind of cool.

pixie: Well, when you see you play, it’s pretty intense.

Rob: We’re definitely more intense on stage than we are off.

pixie: It’d probably be a little hard to always be screaming and thrashing.

Rob: And making that mean face all the time.

pixie: Do you lose credibility if you smile on stage?

Rob: I’ll tell you a good story about that. I smile a LOT on stage, basically because I’m happy with the success, we’re playing in front of a lot of people, and I remember being a young dude and wanting that. And now that I do, I’m happy. And I see the smiles on kids’ faces, and see what our music is doing for them and how pumped they are… so I smile a lot. BUT… Both Kerry King and Jeff Heineman [SP] pulled me aside one day and said, ‘you gotta stop smiling on stage.’ And I was like, ‘seriously?’ and they said ‘dead serious, you don’t see us smiling ever, do you?’ and I was just all, ‘yeah man, I’m sorry…’ but yeah… they told me not to smile on stage. But I still do it.

pixie: You guys are actually really tight with a lot of those bigger bands, right? Slayer really helped you out early on, no?

Rob: Absolutely. All those guys, but Kerry especially, would always give us props in his interviews and that helps out a lot. People see Kerry King from Slayer likes this band… and they think ‘I may have to check them out.’ So every little bit helps and they’ve been big supporters of us, took us out with them. And Matt and Mark both spent the night at his house a few times, stuff like that.

It’s surreal. I remember when I was a kid, my dad coming into my room and saying ‘what is this’ and now we’ve somehow impressed those guys, and they know who we are? It’s pretty amazing.

pixie: What does your dad think about your music?

Rob: Ah, he loves it now. My parents were always real supportive, but back in the day, they were always saying I should do it as a side thing, go to school… they were just being parents, of course, and I totally understand that. But now that things are the way they are, they’re super-proud and happy and they come to shows. All our parents are really stoked.

pixie: What do you say to kids who are in bands now and want to make it? What’s your advice?

Rob: Number one is really you have to want it more than the next guy. And do everything possible to make that happen. If you slack off anywhere, if you cut corners, try to do shit the cheap way, someone else is going to do it better. There’s always exceptions, but for the most part, especially metal, it’s the hardest working band, the band with the best chemistry, and the band thinking about the little things. Even down to image and professionalism; spending money where it counts. Have the production to make sure you sound good, look top notch all the time. Otherwise, somebody else is going to do it.

When we first started the band, Mark said to me, a band like KISS, no matter what… even when they were a small band, they still brought out the costumes and the huge amps and pyro and everything and they gave the impression that they were this gigantic band. And so they became one. Maybe not just due to that, but if you look and sound professional and have a professional attitude all the time, that’s really what counts. No doubt about it.

pixie: I think that is the best advice I have ever heard anyone give a young band.

Rob: Well, good. It was definitely general. I can talk about that stuff for hours.

pixie: It’s concise. I mean, it is the music business, and I think a lot of people forget that.

Rob: Exactly.

pixie: So do you have any last words for the people reading this?

Rob: Thanks for the interview, and everybody reading - tell your friends about Chimaira, Chimaira.com, and come catch us on tour.

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