Unkempt Interview

Here’s a new interview for you – with the superb Unkempt! Once you’re done reading the interview, make sure you check out their MySpace

Dave from Unkempt

Lou: Who would you say were your biggest influences?

Dave: We all listen to everything from Death Metal to Smooth jazz so just hearing and seeing any kind of pure and or great musicianship is probably our biggest influence!

Lou: How long has the band been together?

Dave: Unkempt originally got together in 2002. We’ve evolved over the years, sharpening our stage performance and maturing in our music. We’ve had our share of line up changes, but our newest addition, our drummer Andrew, has been with us 2 years this June.

Lou: What equipment do you use?

Dave: I use a sure beta 58 wireless and that’s pretty much it. Chet is playing a Jackson guitar with a Peavey Jsx tube head and 5150 cab. Andrew plays dw 9000 bass pedals and a pacific custom drum set. Andy and our stand in guitarist Shaun De Leon Both play Schector Guitars with Andy playing with the Ampeg Classic 8-10
with the Ampeg Svt-3 pro head And Shaun playing a the classic Marshall cab with the Marshall jcm200 head

Lou: I’ve seen that you’ve got a show coming up soon with Whitechapel. I’m guessing that you’re looking forward to that one! Are you fans of Whitechapel yourselves?

Dave: Ya absolutely! We’re really excited to share the stage with those guys and definitely a fan and we appreciate what they’ve done helping create and popularize the death core genre!

Lou: Unfortunately I won’t be able to make that show… I blame geography! So, could you describe an Unkempt show for me? What am I going to be missing out on?

Dave: Hmm that’s a tough one! Our shows are like packing your whole family into a room with a mess of beers on Christmas. Our fans are incredible and really loyal to the music. You’d definitely see a bunch of chaos from me flailing around like a brim outta water to Andy’s mad man approach to thrashing and Chet’s hairless headbang. I like to think it’s kinda like a brutal and chest-pounding primal, with the sometimes insanity of Andrew’s beats blasting into your ears.haha But i really we just play what we’d like to hear, and try to perform it in a manner we’d like to see ya know?

Lou: Do you have any plans to play on this side of the pond? I’m sure that the UK would love to have you!

Dave: We would love to make it across the pond! Unfortunately we don’t have any direct plans for touring there yet but with enough support form the good people like you readers anythings possible!

Lou: What are your thoughts on the ‘metal scene’ at the moment? Is it thriving in Lakeland, Florida?

Dave: I think the level of metal music today is arguably as good as ever! I think the metal scene is kinda hit or miss at the moment because there’s a lot of metal bands that are really big and live the rock star dream and then you got a whole lot more that are arguably as good as anyone out there but are still really underground! But overall i’d say the metal scene worldwide is doing really good! As far as our hometown in Lakeland, Fl it’s struggled do to numerous venue closings and few places to play but the level of the bands around Lakeland is as good as you can find anywhere!

Lou: Which other bands, that you’re local to or have shared a stage with, should we check out?

Dave: We’ve had the pleasure of playing with some really great and diverse metal bands from Despised Icon to Suffocation! Some of our favorites have been Obituary, Born of Osiris, The Absence, Dying fetus and Darkesthour! Some bands from Lakeland We would recommend checking out would be Empty myspace.com/emptyisdead Tug myspace.com/tugmusic and Bedlam myspace.com/bedlamband1

Lou: What has been the highlight of 2009 for you?

Dave: Just being able to play music with each other and share the stages with so many great bands!

Lou: Your music has progressed quite a bit throughout the two CDs and on the new track (“Pigs Get Fat, Hogs Get Slaughtered”) that’s currently streaming on your MySpace page. Was this a conscious effort, or was it just a natural evolution?

Dave: A little of both but mostly is just a natural occurrence. As our members have changed what we can do has changed with it. Right now we couldn’t be happier with our line up and we’ve been able to pretty much just play what we like and let it flow!

Lou: What’s the writing process like for you? Do you all jam together or does one person bring the ideas in and then have you all work from that?

Dave: There’s no exact method to the madness! Usually someone will have an idea whether it be on drums guitar or bass and then everyone will just play off of that until it becomes a completely collective collaboration!

Lou: What sort of subjects do you like to write about?

Dave: A lot of what i write about deals with the dichotomous nature of humankind, the realization of death, and the relationship between a higher power and oneself. what doesn’t, usually deals with personal experiences in my life that had a strong impact on me personally. the newest material, yet unreleased, is based off of a rescent near-death experience of mine and the events revolving around that.

Lou: I read on your MySpace that you’re looking for a new guitarist. How is the search going?

Dave: Lately we’ve been lucky enough to be playing with one of our dear friends Shaun Deleon so far only on a temporary basis but he’s been able to step in there and help us continue to play live, write new material and just generally move forward!

Lou: Do you have any new material on the way? What can we expect from the new stuff?

We’re writing some new material right now and are in the process of finishing up our next ep which should be out by spring this year! The music we’re writing write now with our guitarist Shaun everyone is really happy with! We’ve been keeping it as brutal as possible but with a lot of melodic and some progressive parts in the mix as well!

Lou: I’d just like to talk about a track from “In Articulo Mortis” – I know it’s a couple of years old, but hey – “An Hour of Lonely Sleep” is a fantastic song and has that almost ‘haunting’ quality. What is the song about?

Dave: The music for that song was written by the band while i was locked up in jail some years ago. The lyrics i wrote within the confines of my cell. The song deals with the loneliness i felt there, especially after losing someone i cared for very much in the mix of the whole ordeal. that era still has an affect on me. “these concrete walls, this cage of glass, the barbed wire wrapped deep around my throat. my teeth, they scrape on my own regret and here i’m left with your face.” i spent night after sleepless night there within those four walls and i’m man enough to admit i was hurt and i shed a lot of tears. hence the chorus, “these bloodshot eyes, an hour of lonely sleep.”

Lou: Which Unkempt song are you most proud of and why?

Lyrically, i think the content in both “in articulo mortis” and “scaling the precipice” have valor. Both of those albums have deep seeded emotion in them that i express in and am no other way open about but i think as a whole we are most proud of the newest material we have been pumping out like “pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered” available for a listen on our myspace. We continue to write and grow individually as musicians, broadening our dynamics and the creativity of our sound and hope it shows in every new song we write.

Lou: Where can the readers of Loucifer Speaks buy your CDs from?

Dave: You can pick up our music at Cdbaby.com, itunes, rhapsody, napster, or from our myspace merch page!

Lou: Will Unkempt continue to release CDs in the future, or will you go down the download path?

Dave: We hope to continue releasing cds. For the last 6 months or so we’ve printed about 1,000 cds of our new single just to give away for promotion! But right now as everything moving towards the download path we’re just gonna keep trying to keep with the evolution of the business before we get left behind!

Lou: What’s next on the agenda for Unkempt?

Dave: Right now we’re about to play huge Tampa show with the legendary Obituary and then it’s back into the studio for a couple of months and then we’ll be looking forward to hitting the road and hopefully heading your way!

Lou: Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Dave: You rule, thank you so much for your support and taking the time to ask us a few questions, We really appreciate it!