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Barbara chats with Bob

Telephone Interview

June 22, 2005

“A Life Once Lost” is one of the bands on the Sounds of the Underground tour. I apologize, but there were a couple of names I couldn’t get in the beginning of the interview. Unfortunately, sometimes a speakerphone and a tape recorder can’t get everything. Out of respect for previous members he did name all of them. Hope you have a great time on the tour!!

Barbara: For our readers that don’t know about A Life Once Lost, tell us a little bit about the band.

Bob: We formed back in 1999 with 3 guys who aren’t in the band any longer. They’ve gone to other bands and chose to pursue other mature responsibilities in life. We’ve had a couple member changes. We lost our first guitarist, we now have Robert Carpenter playing guitar. We then lost our bass player Rich Arnold; he was just pursuing a more responsible role in life like a job and stuff like that. We picked up Nick Frasca and we then lost our drummer and picked up Justin Graves. From then our sound has changed from typical metal core to the sound we have now.

Barbara: Describe the sound of A Life Once Lost.

Bob: Our sound now is more of a technical groove metal. The songs now are very well constructed with the verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge layout. We definitely stepped it up with this new record and producer Rob Caggiano who has worked with Anthrax, Bleeding Through, and Cradle of Filth. Our sound now is pretty monstrous, it’s very massive. The structures of the songs have just improved over the years and as time has gone by.

Barbara: Saturday is the start of the Sounds of the Underground tour. How are you preparing yourself for this outdoor festival?

Bob: Right now I’m just trying to spend some quality time with my girlfriend before I leave. It’s kinda hard because I don’t have a cell phone, I lack in that area of technology. So I try to spend as much time with her as possible. I gotta go out shopping and try to get good rest and try to eat good before I go away because I know that I’m not gonna be able to eat more than once or twice a day. It’s gonna be a really hectic and crazy summer. This is our first big tour and it’s a festival tour and it’s our first one so we really don’t know what to expect. We’re kinda going into this with our hands tied behind our backs and blindfolded.

Barbara: Performing outdoors and with a festival like this can change many aspects of a band’s performance such as lighting and time slots. How is A Life Once Lost using this to their advantage?

Bob: We don’t have any kind of particular light show this early in our career. We’re working on it, but it’s just something that takes time. As far as the live show goes it’s never changed. We’ve played outdoor shows before but our live show is pretty much the same. People really don’t know what to expect, I mean they can expect certain things. It’s always new, it’s always fresh. It’s not a routine we have a very strong punk rock ethic that we live by. Nothing is really gonna change, nothing will ever change with us.

Barbara: With there being 18 bands on the tour, how are you gonna try to stand out from the others. I know you have your own sound going, but is there anything special you’re gonna try to do?

Bob: We’re not really much of gimmick kind of a band. We’re who we are, we’re real. In everyone’s eyes in the band no one is better than anyone. Our fans are at the same level as us, if they want that microphone they have to come and get it. If they want to get on stage and rock out with us they have to show us that they’re feeling it. From their energy, we feed off of that. It’s definitely gonna be a relationship builder with a lot of new fans for us in my eyes. I’m just really excited to be playing in front of that many new faces.

Barbara: We spoke with Scottie of Norma Jean and he is stoked that you guys are on the bill and anxious to see your performance. Who are you looking forward to watching?

Bob: I’m really stoked to be going out with Norma Jean, we played a couple shows last September near my birthday, actually during my birthday. So it’s cool to go out with those guys again, we kind of kicked off really well with them. More importantly Gwar, I’ve seen them twice and it’s going to be a giant mess, I know that but it’s going to be very amazing, very sick halftime show. You can’t get better than that, the Warped tour doesn’t have a halftime show, Ozzfest doesn’t have a halftime show, Sounds of the Underground has a halftime show.

Barbara: If you were to put together your dream music festival, what bands would you have on the bill?

Bob: Um, I don’t know. I think the Sounds of the Underground tour is pretty sick. I would have loved to have seen Meshuggah on there. Some Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, In Flames. I’ve always been a big fan of In Flames, Cannibal Corpse. But yeah, I think Sounds of the Underground is pretty much hitting a lot of the bands that I can tolerate. They’re good, everyone is different, everyone has their own unique sound and everyone has their own image. It’s cool, you get a lot of tours like the Warped tour who have like 7 bands on there that sound exactly the same. On this tour everyone is totally different, everyone has their own personality so it’s gonna be a very memorable tour for a lot of people. I’m looking forward to seeing pretty much every band on here. I can’t play favorites on anybody. I’m stoked to see everybody.

Barbara: Oh yeah. You have a new CD coming out on June 28, 2005 titled “Hunter”. What can you tell us about this CD?

Bob: This CD is lyrically and musically artwork. Everything about it is just a big step forward for us, it’s showing our maturity and progression through all of our CDs. This is definitely our best and most intense and well structured CD we’ve released to date. Definitely do not expect “A Great Artist”, do not expect “The Fourth Plague”. This is just something, again us progressing forward.

Barbara: Well how does “Hunter” differ from your previous “A Great Artist”?

Bob: “A Great Artist” was the CD where we picked up our drummer Justin Graves. We were really going out on a limb and trying something different and trying to find our own sound and then try to venture elsewhere musically…this genre of metal, metal core is pretty typical. There’s not a lot of bands out there doing their own thing and trying to reinvent themselves and reinvent the sound. There are bands out there don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of bands out there doing it and I applaud those bands because they’re constantly blowing me away. But there is a very large number of bands that are just typical. You just want to be unique, don’t be typical. With “Hunter” we took the delivery and the sound and the intensity and aggression from “A Great Artist” and we just took it and improved on it. We’re trying to improve ourselves and the next CD is going to be completely different but it’s 2 or 3 years down the line so I can’t really talk about what it’s actually gonna sound like.

Barbara: Well the best bands always do try to make it better. That’s what it’s all about.

Bob: Yeah. You have to improve on what you have, you have to out-do yourself. It’s gonna make you work harder, you shouldn’t be satisfied with the formula that you have and the formula that got you there. All the greats, if it’s the greats in literature, the greats in movies, or if it’s the greats in music or politics or whatever, they always improve they’re always trying to out-do themselves and constantly not settling with what they have.

Barbara: During the Sounds of the Underground, can we expect to hear some new stuff off of “Hunter”?

Bob: Yeah, we’ll be playing 4 new songs.

Barbara: Good! Okay, enough seriousness, let’s have some fun. If you were a fly on the wall of a celebrity, whose wall would you be on?

Bob: A fly huh?

Barbara: Yup! A fly!

Bob: Um, I don’t know. Probably Schwarzenegger, I just wanna hear him talk all the time. Maybe Danny DeVito, he’s kinda funny. Actually I’d like to be a fly on the wall of the set of “Twins”. That would probably be my dream.

Barbara: *laughs* If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?

Bob: Um, probably someone in the Frosty the Snowman movies. The one where it’s him melting, because when I was a little kid I cried when Frosty the Snowman was melting.

Barbara: *laughs* Yeah me too.

Bob: That was one the most memorable cartoon moments. Or either Tom or Jerry.

Barbara: Tell me a day in your life on tour verses off tour.

Bob: Just what you would expect on tour you’re looking out a window and observing the country from a window and just appreciating it for what it looks like beauty-wise, not being able to touch it. That kinda sucks but at the same time we get to see a lot of things and you’re like hey man one day I’m gonna drive on this highway and I’m gonna stop there and I’m actually gonna go down and touch it. When I’m not on tour I just relax and not do much, just spend time with family, friends, loved ones and just make up for time lost. You really can’t but you can try your best.

Barbara: Absolutely! If you were put on a deserted island for 1 year and could only bring 1 CD, 1 piece of clothing, and 1 drink, what would you bring?

Bob: A drink…Knob Creek whiskey.

Barbara: 1 CD.

Bob: 1 CD would probably be Miles Davis, some kinda jazzy stuff. And what else?

Barbara: and just 1 article of clothing.

Bob: I’d live on an island I’m not bringing any clothing *laughs*

Barbara: Ok! *laughs* Is there anything you would like to plug, A Life Once Lost, The Sounds of the Underground tour or “Hunter”?

Bob: Hey! We’re sick kids! Buy our CD!

Barbara: Any message for your fans?

Bob: Keep it real, Keep up the support and Thank You.

Thank you, Bob for taking the time to talk with us. Best of luck! We’ll be listening out for you guys.

Official Site: www.alifeoncelost.com                   

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