The Red Chord are up there as one of my favorite metal bands. I've seen them a number of times and have spent a ludicris amount of money at the distro that vocalist Guy has at shows. I asked him at Metal Fest about doing an interview and I Emailed this to him a few weeks later.

Check out their reissue of Fused Together in Revolving Doors, as well as anything on Black Market Activities, which is Guy's label. He seems to be a real stand up dude who didn't make me feel like an ass with some questions I was off on. This is actually a really informative interview that I had fun reading the answers to.

1. Correct me if I'm wrong, but your new album will be coming out on Black Market Activities/Metal Blade? How does that work?

The band is signed with Metal Blade/Black Market Activities. Though Metal Blade is the main executive force behind The Red Chord's next releases, the discs will also be promoted by and distributed through BMA.

2. Are all of the other Black Market Activities bands part of Metal Blade?

No sir. Black Market Activities is a seperate entity from Metal Blade and has functioned on its own for the duration of the past few years. All studio advances, advertising, etc... have come from myself directly and all deals have been negotiated by myself or members of my staff with the bands directly. We are finalizing a distribution agreement with BMA and Metal Blade as we speak and they will probably lend a hand with the promotion of our artists, but we are run as our own company.

3. You have Supscript Media doing PR for Black Market Activities? Why did you choose to go with them as opposed to someone within the label?

I have known Kathi Haruch for several years now since I was booking part of a tour with The Red Chord, A Life Once Lost and Dead to Fall. She was working at Victory Records at the time and she was absolutely relentless about getting show information and such out of me. She works hard for the bands and companies she represents. She eventually popped up doing publicity elsewhere and finally started her own company. She is one of the hardest working people I know and she gets amazing results. We still do direct PR and try to maintain the best relations possible with all our press people and peers, but having Kathi working with us just makes it a million times more effective.

4. What do you look for in a potential Black Market Activities band?

Obviously, the quality of the music and musicianship is first and foremost but almost as importantly is the band's work ethic and ability to get on the road and get things done on their own. It's a pain in the ass to get out there initially, but there are ways to do it and bands need to take the steps towards helping themselves before I will really get involved.

5. Was Black Market Activities a PR agency before it was a label? How did it morph from that into a record label?

No sir...I went to college for Public Relations/Communications, but never went the extra yard and started my own PR thing. At one point I did a few really brief campaigns for some friends bands (one being Backstabbers Inc years before I started the label) to help them get signed and to aid in negotiating record deals, but that was about it.

6. The Red Chord managed to taste a good deal of success without doing an extensive amount of touring (by that, I mean going on the road for most of the year). Why do you think thats so? Will that change once the new record drops?

Depends on your idea of what 'extensive' means. Last year we were on the road somewhere between 120-150 days and managed to play 11 different countries. The year before that I think we played just shy of 100. I don't think it's that bad considering ever venture was self-financed without tour support from a big label or anything like that and the majority of that was booked directly by myself or members of the band(no disrespect to our loving label guy over at Robotic Empire, of course). We're taking some time off to finish training the new members and complete the writing of the new album, but once it's done you can be sure we'll be off like a bullet.

7. Would you consider labels like Metal Blade and Century Media major labels in their own right? Explain.

No. Those labels are really substantial in the indie scenes and with the way things are going with the music industry lately, the attention of the majors and the masses are gradually turning to that of the underground to see what's going on. People are sick of the same bullshit and now various media outlets are playing the extreme videos and shit. However, in comparison the staff size of a label like Metal Blade is considerably smaller and more intimate than that of Sony or Warner Bros. And that's definitely not a bad thing as far as myself and my band are concerned. The people care about who they sign and you have better relations with the folks because you actually know them. Some majors probably forget which bands are on their label day to day and if it doesn't sell right away, they drop them. The way things are going, indies will be able to move a lot of records...in some cases maybe more than majors can, but they're definitely not major labels.

8. Do you ever see yourself doing anything that doesn't involve music? Why or why not?

I can see myself doing lots of stuff besides music some day down the line. I have a lot of things I need to accomplish first, so my musical career is far from over. The other guys in my band are much more music-focused and I can't picture them ever giving it up for the world.

9. How did John Longstreth end up playing with you?

I called him. He was a swell guy. It all went from there.

10. Do you worry about Longstreth's track record with quitting bands?

There's always two sides to every situation and I think that people definitely missed the whole situation in the cases of John's old bands and his relations with them. But no, I'm not worried that John will quit.

11. What happened with previous drummers of yours?

We only had one and he currently plays in the band Unearth. We're still on great terms and he's actually filling in for us at a show in Maryland this weekend while John's learning the material.

12. Why do you think that drummers are either so hard to find or so hard to keep in bands?

I think that finding a drummer or a guitarist or any musician for that matter is never the problem. Most kids who are really into music at some point want to aspire to the bands they hear, so there's typically not a lack of musicians. It's finding the right musician that can be tricky. In our case we chose to play all this weird and ridiculous tech-grind-hardcore that really needs an amazing drummer, so we brought it on ourselves by choosing to do so.

13. How important is it for you guys to have fun within the band?

It's the most important thing to all of us.

14. How did your distro at shows start? What deal do you work out with other labels to sell their stuff as well?

I loved the idea of carrying bands who we'd like to personally endorse. Especially the more obscure discs that you might have a hard time finding. The terms from label to label are always different.

15. Are you going to vote in this upcoming election?

Yes.

16. Do you have any final comments?

Thanks for the interview and be on the lookout for lots of great things to come over the rest of the year from The Red Chord and all the BMA bands.

Interviewed by RF

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