Eyes Set To Kill
Alexia – Vocals / Guitar
Brandon – Screams / Keyboards
Greg – Guitar

1. Who are some of the influences for your musical style?
Alexia: I grew up listening to Blink-182 and Green Day, but I like to
think that my biggest influences were Thrice and Muse. Not only their
music, but their attitudes and the way they play with passion.

2. What was your attitude/what feelings went into writing “Reach”?
Alexia: We didn’t really set out to write certain songs for the album
purposely, but whatever I felt on the road or in relationships went
straight to paper. I mostly wrote about longing, hoping, and frustrations
as negative things that most people deal with. Hopefully anyone who
learns our lyrics will be able to relate, and let us help them through
times they thought were impossible to get through.

More positive lyrics were written towards our fans like in “Only Holding
On”. The songs about how life on the road can be discouraging when you
miss what’s home, but fans keep us touring and inspire us every day.

3. How does it feel to be on tour supporting such a great album?
Brandon: It’s awesome because we worked so hard on the album, and now we
get to play all of our new songs for our new/old fans. It’s also cool to
see kids sing along to our songs.

4. How does tour life typically go for Eyes Set To Kill?
Greg: It’s so much fun. We are all best friends…so if you can imagine
touring the country for months at a time, with four of your best
friends, you’ll understand what I mean. Aside from playing shows our
nights usally consists of WAL-MART super center parking lots (because
they have 24 parking). It’s our home away from home.

5. Do you prefer to play big venues or smaller ones?
Alexia: It never really matters to us, just as long as the venue is
packed with people excited to see us as much as we are excited to see them:)

6. What keeps you entertained during down time while on tour?
Greg: Well since we’ve toured so much in the past year, we have made
lots of friends in different states, so if we get lucky, we will find
ourselves spending our down time with friends. If not, it’s all about
the phone games.

7. Is there a meaning behind the cover art for “Reach” or did it just
seem like a good picture?
Alexia: The cover of reach is related to the video of reach. The video
takes place in an old room of an eerie victorian home.

8. How do you feel about the final product for “Reach”?
Alexia: We couldn’t be any happier with the album. We worked really hard
on carefully formating and constructing the songs in between tours. It’s
our first finished album with our most solid lineup and it was Greg and
Caleb’s first time recording with us so they were extra excited when it
was finished.

Farewell to Freeway
Richie – Drummer

1. Who are some of your influences for your drumming style?
John Bonham from Led Zeppelin is my biggest drumming influence. Also, Vinnie Paul, Carmine Apice, Morgan Agren is incredible, Neil Pert, etc.

2. When did you first realize you wanted to be a drummer?
I used to watch the Muppets and Animal was the one who always rocked out on the drums, he’s my first drumming memory. I also used be a huge fan of this kids rock band called KIDEO and I always loved watching their videos and TV show. The first time I saw them when I was 5 or 6 I knew I wanted to play drums, luckily my uncle has as old Royce kit and he let me learn on those.

3. What was your attitude/what feelings went into writing “Definitions”?
Its a very positive record. We wrote it gradually over the course of about 8 months. During that time we still toured as much as we could staying on the road and persevering and working as hard as we could. We toughed it out through a lot of hard times so it deals heavily with staying determined to what you want to accomplish. We knew it would be our first major release when it came out so we wanted it to encompass everything that we’re about. Its a very honest record.

4. How does it feel to be back on tour supporting a great album?
Thanks! It feels awesome, the record comes out real soon on February 19th, so we’re thrilled to be playing all the new songs and supporting something we’ve put so much into. We can’t wait for everyone to hear it. We’ll be on tour for the next 5 months as well all over North America.

5. How does tour life typically go for Farewell to Freeway?
It’s day to day, thats what we’ve come to realize, is to just take things as they come, stick together and work towards our bands goals, whether you have a good show that day or not. We try to always have that in mind. We all have a great time on tour, its an amazing way to see the world and to be playing music every night is what we always want to be doing.

6. Do you prefer to play big venues or smaller ones?
We like playing all size venues, thats the exciting thing about being in a different room every night. I think though at this point we like playing bigger venues just cause we’ve been playing smaller ones for the last 4 years and we like big sound systems!

7. What keeps you entertained during down time while on tour?
I try to spend a bit of time seeing some of the area that we’re in, sometimes we don’t get much time so I try to get as much in as I can. It’s always cool meeting new people all the time too. Other than that we usually just hang with the other band(s) we’re on tour with or play video games and watch movies.

8. With a name like Farewell to Freeway, people may assume you guys are an Emo band. What might you tell someone who makes this assumption? What would you classify FtF as?
I would tell them to just listen to the music and try to see us live to make an accurate assumption. It’s hard these days, but I usually describe our band as Hard-Rock with Metal, Pop, and Punk influences. I know it’s pretty vague but it best suites us as we do have a lot of varied sounds.

9. How has being in Farewell to Freeway impacted you the most?
Just being on tour all the time, It has a huge impact on my life as you have to say goodbye to everything at home and know that your going to be living out of a van for a month or longer. Also, just being a musician that is able to play so often has been one of the most important things in my life, I always look forward to it.

10. How do you feel about the final product for “Definitions”?
I love it! We couldn’t be happier with how it turned out. We recorded in Westfield, MASS just outside Boston at Zing Studios with Eric Arena (A Day to Remember). It’s the same studio that Adam D records all the Killswitch Engage records. Most recently, he recorded Parkway Drive there, so it’s awesome we got the chance to record there, it was awesome! It’s our best sounding and best written material to date, and to know that it’s being released all over the world is pretty amazing. I’m super proud of the record.

Bloodjinn
Joel Collins – Vocals

1. Who are some of your influences vocally?
I’m gonna have to say I’m really into various different singers. It’s hard to pinpoint just one. If I had to choose a few current ones it would be Bjorn from Soilwork, Lajon from Sevendust, Randy from Lamb Of God, & Jens from Meshuggah.

2. What are some of the influences on your lyric writing?
Lyrically I write about mostly about relationships. It’s just a subject that has always stuck with me. I don’t like to be too opinionated. I want people to relate to our songs and hopefully feel the energy, emotion and meaning of what’s being said. We’ve all been through horrible times in life. We’ve all had the friends that stab you in the back or treat you like you are nothing. And let’s not forget the great times as well.

3. What was your attitude/what were you feeling while writing “This Machine…”?
I felt a lot of rage on “This Machine Runs On Empty”. I locked myself in my bedroom for days on end, only leaving to get food and such. I just wanted to really re-live the moments I wanted to capture on paper. I’ve been through depressing times in relationships, and when I put myself back into that mentally, its the ultimate release. There’s nothing like being on stage and really feeling the meaning of your songs. I’m a very laid back quiet guy but that’s when it’s time to let it out.

4. Do you prefer playing larger or smaller venues?
Both have their ups and downs. I love the feel of a smaller room, because it is more intimate. I want to be able to reach out to the kids in the front row and crowd surf on top of them or give them the microphone. The bigger rooms however are awesome too. Especially when they are full of people. It’s really like nothing but people’s heads staring at you and judging your every move. I guess that’s kinda freaky, but thats the rush of being on stage. I want them to remember us so. Big rooms are also way more exercise, which I need!!

5. What is the meaning behind the name Bloodjinn?
Bloodjinn means to hit with heavy force, just like the original spelling and meaning. When we first started, we chose that name because we thought the spelling was cool. The name has a strong meaning in general, and being the way its spelled, it looks cooler than the original way of spelling.

6. How has being in Bloodjinn had an impact on you?
It really has changed my life. I remember 12 years ago, not ever thinking I would be on a stage, much less a vocalist. When we formed Bloodjinn 9 years ago, it was like my ultimate chance at being a front man. My brother gave me the opportunity and when we started Bloodjinn, it was something we created together. Brian Lewis took his place in 2004, but I’ve never given up this band. Regardless of the ups and downs I have been through, it’s been my dream. I still feel the passion that I had in 1999, even though I’m getting older by the minute. Roger of Agnostic Front once said to me, “hardcore has had half my life” and I realized… “Bloodjinn has had almost half my life as well”. I thought that was an interesting way of looking at it.

7. How does Bloodjinn compare to your other projects?
Bloodjinn is obviously my number 1 goal. The other projects I am involved with are just other forms of musical outlets.

8. Does working with Forsaken Records and Pluto Records ever really “clash”?
Not even. Pluto is an entirely different label out of Texas, ran by Brian Cobbel. He’s an awesome dude. I run Forsaken Recordings here in North Carolina, and I spend all my free time working with that, or my music management company, The Direct Agency. I try to stay busy, but I do have a manager and very close friend by the name of Jay Tavernese of Indegoot Entertainment, who keeps me straight as well. After all, music and the friends I’ve made, are my life! Wouldn’t trade it for anything.