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This interview was done on Arpil, 2005 at Soma in San Diego before Hopesfall's show with Underoath, the Chariot, and Fear Before the March of Flame. Interview by Nick Norton.

SDP: Say your name and what you do in the band. Dustin: Hi my name is Dustin and I play guitar. SDP: So how is the tour going? Dustin: Really good. Today is like the sixth or seventh day and actually I think most of the shows have been sold out, so it's been going really good.

SDP: I want to ask you about a little history. How did the band form? How did you get into it?
Dustin: The band started about six or seven years ago but I didn't join the band until a little over two years ago. You know the old guitarist quit, so I was asked to join after that. So it was two years ago for me, but they were all childhood friends and started playing together that way.
SDP: Do you know why he quit?
Dustin: I think it was the touring pretty much.
SDP: But you're still on good terms and such?
Dustin: Oh yeah.

SDP: I read somewhere that one of the members is vegetarian. Are you guys into politics, straight-edge, veganism, or anything like that?
Dustin: Josh, our other guitarist, is a vegetarian, and we have our political views of course but it's not in any way affiliated with our music. We just get up there and play rock music; it's what we do. We're not straight-edge or anything like that.

SDP: But you did do Take Action last year, right?
Dustin: This year, we actually just got done. We actually came through here about a month ago.
SDP: And that was for a suicide helpline?
Dustin: Yeah, it was for the Youth American Hotline.
SDP: So do you try to work for social causes like that often?
Dustin: Of course, every chance that we get to help out with something like that we take. What was unique about that tour was that we got the chance to be a part of something that had a really strong message. It's really kind of inspiring to work with the people who put that together. It makes me happy.
SDP: Cool.
Dustin: Absolutely.

SDP: What do you do in your free time?
Dustin: Wow, free time? Jeez, we've been touring so much that…ummm…I like watching movies. You know, hanging out with my friends, hanging out with this girl that I kind of started dating. She's pretty rad, going to keep her around. That's pretty much it, I see my friends. I live in Charlotte now so I don't get a chance to ever really see my family and that's pretty unfortunate. It's really weird, living this life and being gone all the time and having this busy schedule every day all day makes the little, small things appealing, just because you never get to do them. What makes most people bored is what I love to do in my free time.

SDP: With touring all over have you seen any big differences between the coasts?
Dustin: Not really. The scenes are good, really strong right now. A lot of bands are doing really well for themselves and it's all a lot of fun. It's really surprising, there are a lot of really strong, solid markets out there and the kids are just cool. They're there to have a much fun as you are. It's pretty much the same coast to coast.

SDP: Who are your favorite bands to tour with?
Dustin: Man we like everybody! We have not toured with a single band ever that we didn't get along with. They've all been a great time. Dude seriously we've really made great friends with and loved almost every band that we've toured with. I can't even narrow it down. Even with what I've done in the past two years every band we've been out with has just been a blast.

SDP: Any wild times on the road? Good pranks to share?
Dustin: Yeah, to an extent. I'm trying to think of something in particular. You know there's always joking and things like that. It's an everyday occurrence of people messing with people so it's hard to pick out one. But yes tons of debauchery, lots of drinking. At least for us that is.

SDP: So I want to ask about the new album. It's really different from Satellite Years. Do you think that change in sound had a lot to do with your joining the writing process?
Dustin: I definitely filled in those shoes in writing. Definitely took my part in that, but by no means is that responsible for the sound of this record. It's a collaboration of all of us coming together and sharing ideas. The guitar stuff Josh and I pretty much split up fifty fifty. We would just start with something and play off of each other to get the riff that we were trying to go for. The vocals are obviously a huge change, and the guitars are a little bit less abrasive and more melodic. It kind of just started happening with Josh and I and we went with it. In the end we were happy with it and went to the studio, and because it was such a big change we didn't know exactly what to expect, but we kind of just put in our heads and went with it. We worked with a great producer, and that was a great help to the sound and the process.

SDP: Yeah I was going to ask about that. Didn't you work with the guy who did the Pixies?
Dustin: Yeah totally. It was him and I believe another guy. He's done a lot of stuff like that. He did Quicksand and the Brand New record Deja Entendu that really got them out and going.

SDP: Are you writing anything now? Any new songs?
Dustin: Umm…no. [laughs] We have some material, some stuff that we throw around, but as far as getting stuff completely done no. Josh and I tell ourselves that when we get on Warped Tour we'll get the chance to, because it's the opportunity for us to be on a bus tour and I'm going to bring my digital recorder, so we'll do as much recording on that as we possibly can. Just to like get parts and stuff finished. Since the record's come out we've just been touring. Except for Christmas, when I went home to Kansas City for like a month. Everybody took a break. It's been a jam-packed year, and we've got another one ahead of us.

SDP: So you mentioned the more melodic sound of the record. Technically speaking, how did you get that sound out of your guitar?
Dustin: That was me and our bassist, but you can accredit that to our producer and our engineer. When you hear that on the record you can credit them as well. We used a total array of different heads. I think we had eight or nine, and a bunch of different cabs, and we just messed with that. So on the record, we would be like "this is the part, this is what we're looking for" and the producer would dial in the tone and the engineer would make it happen. But tonight if you watch us and think the same thing, then you know I'll brag. Josh and I both play Mesa Triple Rectifiers with Gibson SGs, but we EQ ourselves totally different. We go for very different distortion sounds.

SDP: Cool. What influences your writing? What do you listen to?
Dustin: All kinds of stuff. I have everything from like hip-hop to rock, just tons and tons of different stuff. Of course there are the essentials Smashing Pumpkins and Jeff Buckley are amazing. Especially his guitar work. And Deftones of course. I'm really into Radiohead and Sigur Ros. I don't know, there's a lot of stuff. As far as influences are concerned it's tough, because you know I can be influenced, but all the bands I like are so much better than I'll ever be it's not like I can really hear that or even come close to doing it. But it makes me want to. It definitely inspires.

SDP: Did you want to do this as a kid?
Dustin: I've always been into music, but it's kind of funny. I didn't start playing guitar until in between my sophomore and junior years of high school. So I'm 23 now, that's six years I've been playing. I feel like that's late to have gotten into it, Josh started way before me. Most of the people that I know started earlier than me too. It just dawned on me one day. At that point I probably was listening to Pulp or Dinosaur Jr. I was like "I wonder if I can do that." So my dad went up and got me my first full starter guitar set. I started on that thing and just kind of ran with it.

SDP: What was the first show that you went to?
Dustin: Hold on, let me think. This is going to sound really funny. The first show that I went to and I would do anything to go back and see it again, because I was more inspired by it than I really appreciated it I guess, was when I was in seventh or eighth grade I went with a friend of my dad's to see Plant and Page live. That was just mind-blowing. After that I just started to go to a lot of local shows, you know, people hanging around, friends starting to get into bands and stuff. You're young, you don't know any better, so you just start to go to local coffeehouses and stuff. But yeah, Plant and Page was the first real concert that I ever went to. That was awesome. They rocked my dick off. They played "Cashmere" and they actually had the entire orchestra onstage.

SDP: Wow. I'm hoping Mars Volta does that in a couple weeks.
Dustin: Dude that album is so cool.

SDP: Yeah it is. You're lucky; my first show was Britney Spears and LFO.
Dustin: Oh yeah we've all had those. You know what? Now that I think about that I remember what my first show was, but I'm not even going to tell you. It was an auditorium type show before that and I can't even remember why I was there, I was too young to even care. I was like "okay rock and roll, what is it? What's it about?" And those guys definitely showed me what it was about.

SDP: Speaking of rocking, are you playing "Waitress" tonight?
Dustin: Nope.
SDP: Aw.
Dustin: We've got a new album!
SDP: But the clap track is so cool!
Dustin: We've got to play the new stuff. But we are playing The Bending and A Man Exits. Unfortunately we only get 30 minutes tonight, we've been switching off with The Chariot to support, so tonight we're actually second instead of third. The set is about six songs, because our songs are so damn long. Yeah, five or six songs.

SDP: I love that one "Breathe From Coma" on A-Types. The beginning is so creepy.
Dustin: We were actually going to play that but we don't have time.
SDP: Aw.
Dustin: I know, I'm sorry, but we'll still rock, it'll still be good.

SDP: I know it will. Any closing statements for San Diego?
Dustin: Thanks for taking the time. And tell all of your viewers or readers to keep supporting the scene.

http://www.hopesfall.com
http://www.trustkill.com
Hopesfall interview by Nick Norton.