I originally found out about this band, because of a post made by the lovely rockgoddess on the Loucifer Speaks forum. I checked out the band and soon found myself listening to all of the songs on their Reverbnation page. I liked what I heard and quickly got in touch with the band for an interview... The band also very kindly contributed to the Loucifer Speaks album - click here to download it.

Lou: Hey! Thanks for agreeing to this interview! How are you today?

Michael: We're doin' good. All the snow we got last week is about gone now.

Lou: Why did you choose to call the band Thirty 2 Life?

Michael: We couldn't decide on a band name, so we put all the names in a hat and drew one out. Our original bassist was the one who came up with the name Thirty 2 Life and the rest of us hated it at the time. And wouldn't you know it, that's the name that we drew out of the hat.

Lou: How long has the band been together?

Michael: We got together in February 2003 and started writing songs. We recorded a demo a month later, started playing shows and haven't stopped since. So I guess it's been five years. Damn, time goes fast.

Lou: I?ve noticed that you?ve got loads of songs available to download for free (on MySpace and Reverbnation). I was wondering why you chose to do this rather than charge people for them? (We?re all very grateful that we can download them for free though!)

Michael: Well, we've sold alot of cd's over the years, but we've probably given away as many as we've sold. Especially when we got requests on MySpace for a CD, we'd just put one in the mail. Some people have sent money to us, most haven't. But it's no big deal, we're just trying to get our music out there to as many people as possible. So letting people download for free is a lot cheaper on us than what we were spending on postage to mail CD's all over the world.
But there was one band around here who asked bands to come play a big BBQ and party at their rehearsal place, then charged the bands to eat and wouldn't even swap demos, they made you buy one of their demos. And another band who is pretty big around here won't even talk to you about doing a show unless you can guarantee them so much money. We've never understood that and have tried to be the opposite of those bands.

Lou: The music industry seems to be very download orientated at the moment, and it seems you have embraced this with open arms. Do you think that this is good for the industry as a whole? Would you prefer to be putting your music on CDs or vinyl?

Michael: Well, I would guess that most kids today aren't going out buying CD's. They're downloading them. And they're putting the music on their iPods and phones. Things such as torrents may not be great for the wallets of the record companies, but it's great for music fans. There is so much music available now online, it's mindblowing.

Lou: Are any of your tracks available on CD or vinyl?

Michael: Yes, we sold our E.P.'s at shows and in local stores and then we had our "Powered By Pain" cd pressed by DiskMakers and sold those at shows.

Lou: Have you had any interest from record labels?

Michael: Can't say that we have, but we haven't pursued them either.

Lou: Would you sign with one if the opportunity came along, or would you prefer to keep releasing your music as you are at the moment?

Michael: If a label was going to provide tour support, where we could go to all the places where people want to see us, we might be interested. We're not interested in giving up any creative control.

Lou: You?ve got quite an ?old school? vibe in your sound. Which bands are your major influences?

Michael: We gotta give credit to Sentenced. They have been a huge influence on this band. Megadeth, Life of Agony, Ratt, Alice In Chains, they've all influenced us in some way.

Lou: How do you write your songs? Is it a band effort, or do you all write things separately?

Michael: Most of the songs are written by me and I'll present them to the rest of the guys at rehearsal and we'll start to work on them. Before Andy decided to leave the band, he wrote a lot also. A couple of songs that were written differently are "Why" and "At Any Cost", we wrote those together at rehearsal.

Lou: Which song are you most proud of having written?

Michael: "I Dreamed of Killing You"

Lou: Are there any famous songs that make you think "Damn, I wish I?d written that!"?

Michael: I'm sure there are, just can't think of any at this moment.

Lou: What was the first album you ever bought and what was the last album you bought?

Michael: The first album I remember buying was Bryan Adams "Reckless". The last album I bought was Sentenced "Buried Alive" CD and DVD.

Lou: What are your top 3 albums at the moment?

Michael: Charon - "Songs For The Sinners"
For My Pain - "Fallen"
Megadeth - "United Abominations"

Lou: At what age did you begin learning your respective instruments?

Michael: We were all kids when we learned to play. I think Dennis picked up the bass a little later, when a band Daniel was playing in needed a bassist, he brought Dennis in and put a bass in his hands.

Lou: I?ve noticed that you?ve shared the stage with quite a few bands (Seether, ManMade God, etc). Which was your favourite band to share the stage with and why?

Michael: ManMade God was cool. When we got done with our set, they took the stage and the singer told the crowd "I don't know who those guys were that just played, but they fucking rock!"

Lou: Have you got any gigs coming up in the near future?

Michael: March 22 at Generations in Pocahontas, AR
March 29 at The Metal Shop in Jonesboro, AR
April 5 at Printers Alley in Memphis, TN
May 17 at X Fest (Randolph County Fairgrounds) in Pocahontas, AR

Lou: Which songs are really popular with the crowd? I?d imagine that "Powered By Pain" would be a favourite!

Michael: The song everyone wants to hear and we always close our set with is I Dreamed Of Killing You.

Lou: Do you have any plans to tour in Europe?

Michael: Not at this moment. We would love to, but without some financial backing, it seems impossible.

Lou: Which bands would play at your ideal festival and where would it be?

Michael: Well, of course we'd have to get Sentenced back together for that show. We'd have PoisonBlack (we still support Ville), Megadeth, Charon, Black Label Society, Six Past Hell, Children of Bodom.

Lou: Do you have any videos online for people to watch?

Michael: Yes, just go on YouTube and search for Thirty 2 Life

Lou: If you were to be given a time machine, would you go to the future or to the past? Explain your decision.

Michael: We would go back in time. We would take all the money we spent on illegal substances and invest it in our music endeavours.

Lou: Do you have any merchandise available?

Michael: We did have shirts, but have sold out of them and haven't ordered more. We are some lazy bastards.

Lou: Thanks for you time. The last few words are yours! Tell us about your current projects, websites, etc :-)

Michael: We are currently working on recording new material for a new CD.
Also would like to invite everyone to check out the music at www.reverbnation.com/billyadamsmemorialpage. It's a memorial page to my cousin Billy Adams and has some of his music on it. I played on 5 of the songs. He was a great musician and friend. If you like metal, be sure to check out his music.


More Links: Thirty 2 Life thread on the forum.