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It's just after 12- noon on a hot sunny day in Milwaukee, hundreds if not close to a thousand people are anxiously waiting for Avenged Sevenfold to rock the Maurice Stage on this summer's Warped Tour. Clad in black clothing, black eye makeup and white face makeup, Guitarists Zacky Vengeance and Synyster Gates, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer The Reverend fill the small stage. Almost a full minute goes by before M. Shadows finally comes through the curtain on stage left and Ax7 begin to fill the air with their super heavy punk and metal mania.

After the band's sock-knocking set, I had a chance to sit down with M. Shadows, 22 and Johnny Christ, 19 and learn a little bit about what the band does when they're not shattering the ear drums of the band's faithful followers and what they hope to accomplish in the long run.

Shadows walks up to the interview table and I'm immediately struck by his massive size. Black typically makes a person look small, but when you're benching anywhere from 315 to 320 pounds while on tour, there's little a person can do to hide it. Surprisingly Johnny is holding a Coors Light as the two sit down to begin chatting about the band's set. They think it was "shitty."

Why did you think you had a shitty set?

M. Shadows: Well, it was our own fault. We haven't played in two months. We had a big vacation because we were on the road so much and really didn't go our hardest in practice. We had like one real practice and then...

Johnny (Interrupts): Half of a [practice] after that.

M. Shadows: Then we're like, "Okay, we're good." Then we came out here and just got destroyed.

It seemed like a lot of people got a good vibe off you though.

M. Shadows: There's a lot of really die-hard fans that have seen us before know that we can play a good show. We've played good shows around here.

If you're headlining a tour or you're playing a long tour like Warped Tour, how do you keep your voice strong and conditioned?

M. Shadows: Good vocal coach, lots of good warm ups and really stick to it and don't fuck off too much. If you have a show the next day, don't drink the day before; they tell you that when you go do your voice training, get enough sleep. You've got to take care of yourself you know? If I don't warm up and [go] do whatever the hell I want I'll go out there and lose my voice in a couple of seconds.

How do you warm up?

M. Shadows: I just have a lot of really lame breathing things and normal warm up stuff. I have a tape and I listen to it, just sing along to it.

What's the hardest thing Warped Tour for your guys?

Johnny: I think sometimes, you only have so much time to set up, whereas on your own tour, you have plenty of time to set up. It all feels kind of rushed, like when you're just going out there for a half-an-hour.

M. Shadows: Like today, we didn't get a sound check, you get out there and your sound guy is fumbling around, trying to get sound up and then by the time he gets it up you're done. Everyone walks off stage with a bad vibe. They're bummed out that nothing is the way they want it to be. The in-ear monitors are fucked up, the sound is fucked up and then everyone's energy drops when stuff starts going wrong. It's just how it happens and [for] Warped Tour, it's kind of how it goes.

What are the challenges of staying healthy, especially during Warped Tour? You're going, it's hot, is there a key for you guys?

M. Shadows: Most of us work out everyday. We bring our own weights, we run everyday, we just eat right. If you eat right and you run and you keep yourself in shape then you're going to be fine. If you sit on the bus all day and drink beer and you expect yourself to be healthy everyday, then you're going to be in trouble.

How's the food on Warped Tour?

M. Shadows: The food on Warped Tour is always amazing. Surprising.

How is the interaction with other bands on this tour? Do you learn a lot from other bands or are you actually teaching other bands?

M. Shadows: I think sometimes we teach other bands. There's a lot of friend's bands that don't take care of their voice or don't do this or that. I think we're good role models in that sense because we take care of what we have to take care of. We're a real professional band. I mean we learn stuff all the time from other bands. A lot of the bands are bigger bands than us and have been through a lot more than us. They're always nice guys. It's always cool to see a lot of bigger bands to be cool to the smaller bands. It's always cool on this tour because everyone's equal on this tour.

What's one of the biggest misconceptions about Avenged Sevenfold?

M. Shadows: I think people that don't hear us, think we're wanna be AFI. People that don't hear it are like, "Oh, they sound like AFI." And it's like, "Well, listen to our CD, we don't sound like fucking AFI." There's that and there's, people who think we're a hardcore band when we're not.

Johnny: We just play metal.

M. Shadows: We play such and eclectic style of music that you can't just call it a hardcore band. There's kids out there that are like, "They think they're a hardcore band." And it's like, "We don't think we're a hardcore band. We don't want to be a hardcore band."

With that said, what would you say are the biggest influences to your style of music?

M. Shadows: Our style? Pantera, Metallica, Iron Maden.

Johnny: Guns and Roses.

M. Shadows: Maybe some Bad Religion even.

What do you personally hope to convey through Avenged Sevenfold? What do you want people to take away from a show or a CD?

M. Shadows: We want them to think that they saw the best rock band and I want that to fucking transfer onto the CD. I want them to have a CD they can delve into, not just a couple pop songs and you're over it. I want it to be something that you listen to a few times and get into. Find more thing that you didn't hear the first time you listened to the CD.

What do you want people to take away from the music itself?

M. Shadows: I hope they take away whatever they need to take away from it. The lyrics are really vague in a sense that people can take away what they want and hopefully help them in some sort of way. It's not straight ahead telling you what you should think or be or do or anything like that. It's kind of letting you make your own mind up.

What do you guys do to relax?

Johnny: I like to drink a lot actually.

M. Shadows: Everyone likes to drink a lot; go fishing.

Johnny: See that surprises [people].

M. Shadows: Go fishing, play Texas Holdem.

Johnny: I still haven't caught a fish, but I've only gone once.

M. Shadows: We go fishing at the worst times.

Is there a limit to how far you guys want to go as a band?

M. Shadows: We want to be the biggest band in the world.

Do you?

M. Shadows: Yeah

Johnny: There's no limit to how big we want to be.

That's great because a lot of bands won't come right out and say that. I think that's real bold.

M. Shadows: Yeah, well, you know, be the biggest band in the world without losing your integrity. That's what we want to do. It's way past a garage band at this point. We're just writing music we want to write and see how far it goes.

Do you guys have any fears within the music business?

M. Shadows: I don't really have any fears. I think we've built this band almost label proof. We had a huge following and our [time] on an independent label before we jumped to a major, but if any label drops us, we still have our fans. We don't have any pressure. The label loves Waking the Fallen, they want something new. They want to break the conceptions of what rock is supposed to be. So we're just going to write the record we want to write and if they don't like it, we'll just go somewhere else. We don't have fears about label stuff or this or that. If the band doesn't work out, we all have gained plenty of friends and people in the industry that we could do something with them.

Which brings me to my next question, what would you be doing if you weren't in this band?

Johnny darts his eyes toward the table, like a high school kid who doesn't know the answer when the teacher calls on them.

Johnny: Yeah, I don't know what the hell I'd be doing. I'd be trying to do something in music. To be honest, I don't know where I would be without this.

M. Shadows: It was kind of a thing where we got out of high school and said, we're doing the band and that's what's going to happen. We're not going to school, we're not going to waste our time doing anything else except the band. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

If someone came up to you guys and gave you $50 in cash, what would you do with it?

M. Shadows: I'd go gamble with it. I would. I'd go play Texas Hold'em until it was gone or I'd go the casino.

Johnny: I'd probably spend $20 of it on beer and then I'd just lose the other $30.

Do you have any crazy tour stories?

M. Shadows: Everything's a joke. If you'd follow us around with a video camera, you'd be surprised of how many horrible things (laughs). Tons of girls and bad shit with lots of girls.

Any last words of wisdom or advice?

M. Shadows: For bands starting out. Don't think you're the shit and hype yourself up until you're actually good. That's one thing I can't stand, is all these bands think they are the shit. We were the exact same way and I wish we weren't because it got us a bad vibe. When we first started out, it made it harder to win these kids back over. We did everything to promote ourselves, but we sucked.

Look for a new Avenged Sevenfold album to drop by next summer!

By: Adam K. Zakroczymski III - Senior Editor / Founder

August 29, 2004

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