Interview with Madrost (Orange County (Lake Forest), CA)

Interview with Madrost.

MRP.Hello guys,thanks for the time to do this interview with MRP.First of all congratulations with the full length debut.Please,can you introduce the band to the readers?

Tanner: Thank you very much for taking your time to interview us. We appreciate all the support that we are getting because of the debut. We are Madrost from Orange County (Lake Forest), CA.

MRP.The year was 2007.How did you guys met up,and is this still the steady line-up as in the beginning of the band?

Tanner: In July of 2007 me and our original drummer Zack Cohen met through a mutual friend and just started jamming out in the garage together. Madrost actually started out as a three piece which only lasted a couple months with original bassist Sean Atkinson completing the band at the time. After Sean left, we said to ourselves we need to get another guitarist and bassist to make our sound full. We soon got Spencer Woodard on bass and our first guitarist Ryan Ottele that same year. After many lineup changes from 2008 to 2010, the lineup that we had up until last month was our most stable one. It consisted of Tanner Poppitt on vocals and guitar, Nic Ody on guitar, Mark Bell on bass and Josh Alves on drums. We all met at different times. I met Josh in a guitar center in Lake Forest where I live. Nic and I talked through myspace of all things and jammed at a guitar center up in riverside where he is located. Mark and I met at our old buddy's halloween party and just hit it off from the start.

MRP.The first demo appeared in 2008, and was entitled 'Crypt Keeper'.How were the responses hearing this 4-track piece of Death/Thrash,and how was it spread around?

Tanner: At that time when we released our first demo in 2008, people did not get it at first because there were not too many bands doing that kind of music, at least not to my knowledge. The Orange County scene at that time was more metalcore and deathcore based. It was spread around merely by word of mouth. We would hand them out at our shows and some people would tell others about it. There were only 100 made and I still dont have a copy of it myself haha.

MRP.personally i am not familiar with the demo,can you tell what's the difference in sound and production comparing to the nowadays material?

Tanner: Hearing the demo on my computer for the first time since it was released in 2008, the quality of it is not as good as the debut. For a demo it sounds good, but as far as the material on it, we have gotten a little bit better as song writers. The material nowadays has progressed from the 2008 demo. We know now what type of material that we want to write, when before we were just putting too many riffs together and calling it a song.

MRP.The band exist out of a 4 piece formation.Please,can you introduce the members of nowadays line-up?

Mark: Nic plays lead and rhythm guitar, Tanner also does the duties of lead and rhythm guitar as well as vocals and I play bass. At the moment we are a three-piece searching for a drummer. I think we have that narrowed down well though.

MRP.The band is formed is well known in erea of Los Angeles and Orange County.Got any postive feedback elsewhere from the US?And how about European fans?

Mark: The tour we did with Sacrificial Slaughter and Isolation in Infamy definitely gave us more U.S. fans, particularly in the Southwest towns we stopped in. The feedback from the live shows were better than we had anticipated. Even with the release of "Maleficent" we have started to see a few more people outside of California to check us out, which is way cool! As far as Europe there might be a few fans who like us on Facebook, but I am not really sure.

MRP.Until now the band has released 1 independent full length,namely 'Maleficent'.Curious about what the future will bring?Personally i think the music blows everything away,and hopefully get signed soon by a recordlabel.Where was the album recorded?

Mark: Thank you very much! Interestingly the album was not recorded in one place. Most of the recordings were done at the home of our friend Ryan Weever. Vocals and some lead guitars were recorded at Tanner's house with our other friend Daniel Luttrell who also helped us with mastering "Maleficent". It really shows how digital recording technology has become quite useful. Hopefully this record will get some attention from labels and music fans in general so we can go out and play more places!

MRP.The lyrics in the band.Who writes them,and what are the main influences?

Tanner: As far as the lyrics go, I usually write the majority of them. I like to write lyrics that tell a story, whether it be fictional or apply to day to day life. To me, the lyrics are what I like to go back to and just read them without the music. Influence wise, I like write about everything including death, life, human emotions, suicide, murder, etc.

MRP.Remarkable thing is the sound has abit the influence of old school bay erea thrash,but also the Swedish Gotenburg style,which is balanced perfectly.Correct me if i am wrong,but it just sounds really the band is aiming for a certain style.

Tanner:Our style is more death/thrash orientated, but we like to add in other elements of genres of music as well such as hardcore, grindcore and punk.

MRP.I was blown away by the vocalist!For me personally it's really important a singer has the right voice for such duties to bring out the vocals the right and understandable way.Also it reminded me abit of the vocals Jon Nodtveidt (Dissection) for example used to had.Can you tell abit more about the choice of this style,and his he inspired alot by this style of singing.

Tanner: Well thank you for that! What I always try and aim for vocally is to never be comfortable with one style of singing. I like to mix it up a lot but still have that energy that I feel is lacking a little bit in today's metal scene. Anywhere from power metal to death metal to opera, I am inspired by everything vocally speaking.
 
MRP.There was also talk about this tour with Sacrifical Slaughter and Isolation In Infamy.How did it went down,and how were the responses from the audience?Also,was it a local tour,or also abroad.

Nic: The tour was great! It was a lot of fun being out on the road for the first time and the other bands were really cool about letting us use their gear and whatnot. It wasn't local but, we only had one date were we went out of the country.

MRP.On Social Media there are alot of flyers of past gigs.Seems the band has quite a reputation doing live shows.Is this also the goal of the band,to play as much as possible?

Nic: I don't think it's an active goal of the band to play as many shows as possible, We're just usually down to play whatever shows come our way as long as it fits our schedules. Which turns out to be quite a lot at times.
 
MRP.If buyers want to purchase a record,what is the best way to gain a copy?

Nic: Come and check out our merch table at any of our shows! We're always more than welcome to meet any of our fans! If you live out of the area then check it out on Itunes!
 
MRP.Thank you for taking the time doing this interview,and goodluck for the future to come.

Your final words.

Tanner: Thank you for taking the time to interview us man! I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported us through the years and we will have new material for you all real soon. Until then, we will see you at the next show!


Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/madrost

Reverbnation:http://www.reverbnation.com/madrost

Myspace:http://www.myspace.com/madrost

Discography:Crypt Keeper Demo 2008
Demo 2009 Demo 2009
Infected Chaos Demo 2010
Infected Chaos EP 2011
Maleficent Full-length 2012

Interview: Danny/Copyrights:MRP