18 VISIONS INTERVIEW
August 14, 2004

Ed Martin for Prophecy21.com: How'd the tour with Him go?
James Hart Vocals for Eighteen Visions: It was great. We definitely playedto a sold out crowd every night and it was a lot of pressure taken offknowing that all the shows are sold out. Its definitely 95% all new kidsthat we've never played to before, never knew who we were, never heard ofus. The few kids that did show up for us was awesome. Unfortunately mostof the Him fans are fanatics and bought all the tickets up right away, butwe went over really well with them. They're really cool kids, they're justlike young mall kids that probably shop at Hot Topic and stuff so the thingsthat's cool about those kids is that they're just psyched on music and justwanna find something new and unfortunately those are the kinds of kids thatget made fun of at hardcore shows ya know.

P21: How's this tour been going so far?
P21: How's this tour been going so far?JH: It's been great man. We've been out with Atreyu before and they'relike really good friends of ours and we've been wanting to tour with FromAutumn To Ashes for a while and it couldn't be better. Like I said beforeall the pressures off we're playing second out of four bands, we know thatthere are definitely gonna be some kids here for us, but we're definitelyplaying in front of a lot of new kids. So, we don't have to worry aboutheadlining and stuff and all the stress and pressure that goes along withthat. We play our show and try to grab as many new kids as possible andthese kids have all been awesome too and these shows have been great. We'rejust having a great time hanging out with all these bands, Anterrabe arereally cool kids too. We're just havin a lot of fun, I dunno it seems everytour we've done has been a lot of fun, we always make friends witheverybody.

P21: How have fans been reacting to the new material so far?
JH: For the most part all the kids that come out to the shows that we'vetalked to have liked it. Of course there's gonna be some kids that aregonna hate on it and stuff and that's to be expected. I think for the mostpart all the kids have been really cool about it. Definitely our managementand our label have been totally happy about it. And I think that the kidsthat liked Vanity for the diversity of the record are gonna like this recordtoo.

P21: The record obviously has a very different sound then anything elseyou've done especially the earlier stuff, what caused that change in sound?
JH: A lot of it was, obviously, we parted ways with Brandan, our guitarplayer and at the time he was writing close to half of the material. Kenstarted writing about half of the material and he's got a very differentapproach to writing and very different influences. Keith with writingmusic, all the stuff that he's always written has always been like a heavierhard rock edge to it, that's the way a lot of the songs on this record cameout. We've always been a fan of melody, but we just never really knew thatwe could do something like that when we were writing the metal stuff backwhen. Once we felt comfortable with doing that we were like hey letsemphasize on these parts more because these are the parts we really likeplaying. There's a lot of stuff on the Vanity record and the Until The InkRuns Out record where those parts would just seem too long or out of place. The way we would write songs was Keith would show up and be like I've gotthis song here it is and Brandan would be like alright well I wrote thispart I think it would sound cool after that one and we'd just be likealright and throw it in. We didn't really focus or think twice about whatwe were doing during writing. We actually started writing this record rightaround the time we finished recording the Vanity record which was Novemberof 2001 so we've had some of these songs for a good amount of time and Ithink that this record bridges the gap with Vanity. I think that you candefinitely tell that there's some songs that have a lot of likeness to theVanity record. We obviously emphasized a little more on some stuff and wenta little different in some directions.

P21: What are your feelings about Brandan leaving the band?
JH: It wasn't necessarily him leaving it was kind of like a mutual thing, wejust kind of initiated it. I think that its worked out best for both bands. He had been touring with Bleeding Through full time and I think enjoyedsinging and enjoyed the attention that came along with it, and there'snothing wrong with that at all, but when they started touring more I thinkhe started realizing that's more where his heart was and we could feel that. Mick was on tour with Bleeding Through playing bass for a few months andhe kinda saw that too. So, we talked to Mick about it and we kinda decidedthat the best thing for the band and for the direction we wanted to go wouldbe to do this as a four piece for now and eventually we got a new drummerand Ken moved to guitar. I think that it was a great decision for bothbands. Brandan didn't have to worry about Bleeding Through touring fulltime and what Eighteen Visions was doing he could just worry about whatBleeding Through was doing. And with us in Eighteen Visions we didn't haveto worry about his lack of motivation and his willingness to be involved inwhat we were doing. Soon enough, Ken and Keith we're both playing inThrowdown, but soon enough they both parted ways with that band too. It'sso much easier now, when bands are touring full time and some members sharedouble duties it becomes such a pain in the ass and sooner or later they'regonna have to take priority to one of the bands and the other band that'snot taken priority to is gonna be unhappy. It works better for everybody tonot be sharing members at this stage in our careers.

P21: Are you a fan of Bleeding Through?
JH: Yeah, the new record I haven't listened to as much and for that reasonI don't know it as well, but their last album Portrait of the Goddess, Ireally liked that album a lot. That's a great metal record.

P21: How did you guys decide on I Let Go and Waiting For the Heavens as thesongs that would appear on the sampler?
JH: I Let Go was the song that our management and Trustkill really wantedon it, which we were okay with. Waiting For the Heavens we were just likethis song really emphasizes what the record is in a whole. It has likeevery element of every song on the record, its got heavy rock parts, its gota couple break downs, a melodic chorus, then its got a soft like vocalbridge, and we just felt like because that had so much involved in it as faras the diversity of the parts went. We were just like lets put this song onthere for sure and lets actually do this song first as our video and stuffbecause this is kinda what the records about.

P21: What's the concept behind the video?
JH: The concept is a middle aged man in about his early thirties walks backonto an old site where his parents were killed in a train wreck and he cutsroses and newspaper clippings and leaves them at this site to pay tribute tothem. I see that all the time, everyday at home I know two kids I went toschool with died in a car accident and there's two little crosses up on thebrick wall where they died. Wherever there's a car accident on majorstreets there's always something there paying tribute to them that peoplevisit like monthly or yearly.

P21: You guys call Tower of Snakes the heaviest song you've ever writtenwhat exactly did you mean by that?
JH: Its just that. The breakdown in that song is just, I dunno. Toeverybody else it may not be the heaviest thing they've heard by EighteenVisions, but to us it's just got a very punishing feel to it. I think thatwhole song musically just has a really heavy heavy vibe to it. I mean itsbroken up by like a melodic chorus, but I think that its probably the mostpunishing song that We've written.

P21: What was your inspiration for the lyrics on this album?
JH: Lyrically I just did things dealing with relationships and the problemsthat come along with them. Relationships on an emotional level, afriendship level, on a parental level and dealing with trying to make mylife better and not fall into the evils that society will bring and like awaiting for a better tomorrow kind of feel.

P21: How are you guys hooked up with Sony now?
JH: Trustkill actually has a distribution deal with Sony and he'd beentalking to people over at Columbia for a while now trying to upstream us, tosign us and it kind of never happened. When we we're recording the recordour manager, he manages Lamb of God also who are on Epic records, had like abreakfast meeting just like a hangout with an A&R guy from over there hedoes Vendetta Red and he signed Sunny Day Real Estate when he worked over atTime Bomb. And he just talked about us and was like yeah this EighteenVisions record is kickin ass and he was like cool. So when he gets back toL.A. he calls our manager and is like hey can I sit in on these mixes and hewas like yeah let me call the band and we were like yeah that's cool its nota big deal. So he came out and he listened and he was really into it andbefore that he was just like yeah I know who Eighteen Visions are they'relike a metalcore band you know and he really really liked the new materialand worked really really hard to get us a deal and that's kind of the way itwent about. Some things that happened had to happen on Trustkill's end andJosh was totally awesome with everything that happened. He's been more thenjust a label representative for us more then just a business associate, he'sbeen like a real friend from the start to the finish of working with him. It kind of bums us out because we've been dealing with him on a daily,weekly, monthly, yearly basis for the last five six years and its slowlycoming to an end so its like kind of disappointing that our relationshipwith him on a musical levels not really gonna be there anymore. Its kind ofsad because that dudes done so much for us as a band, he's done so much forour careers we owe him so much, I don't even know if a dollar amount in thisworld could repay him.

P21: Are you guys doing the band completely full time now or are you stillworking other jobs when you're not on the road?
JH: No, now this is completely full time, we just picked up on that Himtour and we do not have any time off until Mid-September I believe and Iimagine that we might take a week or two to collect ourselves then possiblyhead over to the U.K. or somewhere else in Europe. Then come back over hereand give it round two. So, this is full time, this is what we wanna do andwe have this record coming out and we wanna make sure everything is done theright way and if that means touring for a really fucking long time we'll doit.

P21: What do you like to do when you have time off?
JH: When we have a day off we go to a mall, shop around, hang out, go toChili's and eat a nice meal. We usually hit up the movies and try to seesomething cause that's what we do when we're home, we go to movies all thetime, and when we're on the road we don't get to do that as much becausewe're playing a show every single night. So, either that or we have todrive all freakin day which kinda sucks.

P21: If you guys we're going to play a cover what song would you want it tobe?
JH: Well we did a cover for Bring You To Your Knees it's a Guns 'N' RosesTribute. We ended up doing Paradise City and it came out awesome. We had agreat time recording it, it almost didn't happen though because it needed tohappen right around the time that we we're doing our record and we were sofocused on that that we didn't really care about doing a tribute record wewe're just so focused on our record and what needed to be done, but we endedup whippin it out in two days. Laying down the tracks one day and mixing itthe next day. It came out awesome and it was just a lot of fun and we'vegotten to play it live a few times when we've had enough set time and it'sbeen fun and it goes over really well. I actually wanted to Don't Cry andthat didn't happen, nobody else really wanted to do it, I dunno I thoughtthat would be a fun song to sing.

P21: What's your favorite part about being on tour?
JH: Playing shows. Playing every night, it's like so rewarding. Eitherknowing that there's kids there to see you or if you're playing a sold outHim show knowing that like no one is there to see you and you still sell aton of merch and a ton of CD's that's what's rewarding. Knowing that kidscan appreciate your music whether they were already fans or they didn't knowwho you were. They're sending you e-mails the next night saying how awesomeyou were, I think that's the most rewarding thing about touring.

P21: How long have you been singing for?
JH: I've been singing in this band for about eight years, but reallyseriously singing for like the last two years since we've released theVanity record. I started doing more with my vocals, I didn't really knowwhat I was doing when we recorded the Vanity record. I was kind of justlike okay this might sound cool here. I wasn't really vocally in tune withmyself, I didn't really know what I was doing or why I was doing it I wasjust like oh that sounds kinda cool there. After singing the songs for solong live I began to develop my voice a little better, then when we got homefrom touring and went in to pre-production I went and saw a vocal coach. Hereally made me understand what I was doing and why I was doing it. My vocalability increased probably like fifty percent or seventy-five percent, whichis a lot. I was just able to do a lot more. I had a lot more control.

P21: What singers have influenced your style?
JH: I'm really into the early nineties hard rock era. Vocally I like alot; Layne Staley from Alice In Chains, Scott Weiland from Stone TemplePilots/Velvet Revolver, and Chris Cornell from Soundgarden/Audioslave. Ilike those dudes a lot, I don't necessarily go out of my way to try andsound like those people and it was really weird cause when I went to see myvocal coach he asked what bands I like and what I listen to. So I told himand he was like cool because musically are stuff had somewhat of a feel likethat and he was like do you think you can sing like those guys and I saidyeah. My vocal range that's how I sing and he told me I could sound likeany of those dudes and I was like awesome. So basically, I kind of fit intothat same range musically, but he worked with me so that I'm really good inmy range and I wouldn't try to step out of my box, try not to go to high,try not to go to low. When I do stick in my vocal range it might startsounding like a Stone Temple Pilots song or an Alice in Chains song, becauseit fit the part. It's not necessarily because I'm like okay now this partneeds to sound just like the part on the Core record or just like that songon Super Unknown. Nothing like that, its just vocally that's kind of theway I sound I guess.

P21: What made you guys decide to release a DVD with the album?
JH: We've always wanted to do it and we just kind of wanted to do somethingfun and something extra and something for our fans. It's being releasedwith the first 50,000 and we sold something like 25-30,000 copies of theVanity record so hopefully all those kids will be the first to go out andbuy this record and they'll get the DVD. Its basically like us in thestudio recording the songs and I think its kind of cool because if your notinvolved with music you don't play an instrument, your just a fan then youdon't necessarily know what its like so it's like an in depth look at therecording process and how it went in the studio. It's just something wewanted to do as like an added extra, an added incentive for all our fans togo buy the record sooner rather then later.

P21: Do you guys have any plans to release a full length DVD with videosand live footage?
JH: It's in the works, we just bought a video camera. Epic's kind of toldus to record some footage over the next few months on the road just likehanging out and I'm sure down the road when we're like ready to startputting this together we'll hire a crew that can shoot like a week of thetour like live songs and all that other stuff. Then we'll be able to tack acouple of videos on there. I wouldn't expect it to be out within the nextyear and a half or anything, but definitely down the road its something wewant to do, but its going to be a long process.

P21: Thanks, is there anything that you want to add?
Mick Morris Bassist for Eighteen Visions: Buy our record.
JH: And Bulldogs are great.