interview with Immunize
Have any of you played in other bands? Ive been in a number of different bands over the years. The one that did the most was my highschool band hardcore band 'My Dying Day'. We put out a 4 song ep, headlined lots of shows around central Aberta. Tyler and Curtis used to be in a techdeath outfit called 'Oooze' together. They got to headline for archspire and open for cryptopsy amungst others. Tyler is also in a band called Quietus. And curtis used to play in a band called skepsis that had a local legend type status, strongly influenced by his slap bass. Our current drummer devon was in a couple bigger local bands too, most recent 'The Numenon' who put out 2 killer techdeath albums. Jordan popped his band cherry with immunize haha
How is it that you started playing music? I started playing piano, when i was 6 i had a fisher price piano. It was one octave and each key was colored and it came with a music book and the notes were colored to correspond with the keys. My mom came into my room and i had learned the whole book. So she signed me up for piano at 7 years old.
What are your names? / Who plays what? / How old are you?
Calvin campbell - vocals - 30 years young
Tyler letourneau - lead guitar - 27
Jordan paras - rythm guitar 28
Curtis burg - bass 29
Devon wolfe - drums 30
Have you had other previous members? Yes weve had to switch up our rythm section over the years. Both bass and drums. Me tyler and jordan are original members.
Did you make music even when you were young? Yeah. Our first album was 10 years in the making. It started as a home project for tyler and jordan that came to fruition later. I wrote my first album when i was 10. I had a dream that i woke up as a lego person in a lego world so i wrote a concept album. I thought the song 'livin in a lego land' was gonna be the single haha.
Where are you from? We're from Canada's murder capital, Edmonton Alberta. Or as we like to call it Deadmonton.
What year did the band form? 2011
What's your style of genre? We play melodic death metal. Very european. But with a strong new wave american heavy metal influence as well.
What inspires you? Im inspired by everyday injustices and people in bad situations... An underdog that can overcome adversity... People who can rise up against the odds... Or people who end up ina bad place as a result of their adversity. I like the everyday stuff. Fit for a straitjacket is a song about me getting called fucked in the head or fucked up for liking metal and gore filled movies and things that aren't mainstream. Being judged and treated as a lesser human because of my interests. So my response in the lyrics are "fucked in the head and proud of it".
How often and where do you reherse? We rehearse weekly at my house. We have other band meetings as well and our band demands practicing on own time.
How have you developed since you started with the music? Obviously with member changes comes different influences and sounds. The album were about to put out has more of a focus on solid grooves and sexy melodies. A little less death metal. And now the riffs that are coming out are quite techy. Always evolving and making music that we're interested in at that moment while staying true to our melodeath roots
Do you have other interests of work outside the band? Umm well work is boring, Im a Welder. You could say i work and play with metal. but i can tell you we have a lot of other interests. We longboard, camping, play video games, ive been drawing and i wanna start building comics to correspond with lyrics. We've been playin around w video editing.. which is mostly for band reasons
Are you looking for a booking agency, and what are your thoughts around that? When the day come to book a bigger tour we probably will. Right now we're flying as independant as possible for financial reasons (we're a brokeass metal band)
Are you looking for a label, and what are your thoughts around that? No we are not. I would consider a really strong offer, but we idolize cryptopsy. All independant all the way. My thoughts are record deals are made for record labels to make money off bands. Right now, all i know, is alot of people ask us to pay them for "exposure". They can all take these offers and shove them up their asses. We see alot of 'pay us 100bux and we'll put one of your songs on our compilation cd.'. We dont even respond anymore. If 16 bands do this and then the produce 500 cds for 1000bucks. Theyre making money before theyve even sold/given away a cd. Its stupid. Young bands. Dont do fall for the 'exposure' promise. Thats someine trying to get all your hard work and creativity to make them money.
What made you decide to make this music? I fell in love with fast aggressive music through skateboarding. Sk8ing and music go hand in hand. And yeah it just progressed. I couldnt stand being in the crowd ive always had a lust for the stage. When i was younger i was in alot of drama and musical theatre. That was what made me love performance art.
What are your songs about?Its alot of overcoming trials and tribulations and person stories from me and my close friends/family. I wanna write and be true to myself. I also want people to relate to the lyrics. So we have songs anout personal experiences but i try and swing em slightly... to be uplifting. We have a song cslled 'slut' about a girl who was scapegoated as a slut for foolin around with a guy she liked at a party. When everyone was doin that. She just wasnt one of the girls in that click. So they let the rumors fly. She was a really nice normal girl but being called a slut everyday, her self worth lowered till she graduated and got a job at a strip club and entered a competition to get fake tits from the club. We have a song called evil alter ego which is about me dealing with major depressive disorder for the last 15 years and dealing with thoughts of selfharm.Another called house of cards its about 'mark twitchell' who is a somewhat famous killer. He was famous cause he had a government grant to make a short horrorfilm but he lost his mind and wasnt happy with it so he made a smut film of him killing a man he lured off the internet. The reason i wrote about this was because i lived directly across the street from him. You could say it hit close to home.
Who does the composing and writes the lyrics? Most riffs come from tyler. Hes got songs for years. Hundreds of riffs ready to lay down. But the rest of the boys contribute as well. I write all the lyrics. Theyre my baby.
Do you start with the music or the lyrics? Always music first. Sometimes i freewrite and draw from those lyrics to write a song.
Do you compose in a certain inviroment? Tyler writes at home. With slut being the exception. He and our last drummer Yannick Bussweiler jamd that out one day.
Have you done any covers live? Yup we cover an oldschool rage against the machine track - bulls on parade (or as we call it balls on your face)
What language do you sing in? English
What are the least and most people to attend one of your gigs? the least was a handful. yah know. bands and girlfriends. the most was probably 200.
What ages are most of your concert attendants? 18-35 probably
Do you always play the same songs live, or do you vary? We have some songs that always get played like fit for a strait jacket. But we like to switch up the rest. Keep it fresh
Do you have a regular place you play live often? Not really. We've had a lot of bad luck with venues closing in edmonton over the last couple years. Alot of key havens for the underground
What was your first gig like? Immunizes first gig was awesome. Luckily we got hooked up. It was a packed show and we opened for devons old band the numenon and tylers other band (just before he joined it) quietus.
What was your latest gig? The latest gig was opening a bigger show. We opened for expain and divinitys dual album release tour in edmonton. Both those albums kick ass by the way. I really dig expain.
Have you had to cancel a gig? Yeah it happens at the local level. We were recently on a christmas show like 6 months in advance. And we dropped off before any advertising was up. It was no big deal. Christmas partys and family travels got in the way
Where have you played live this year? We've said no to like 6 gig offers already in 2018. All in edmonton. We're busy planning a cd relasw for this summer.
Where do you plan to gig the comming year? We forsure wanna branch out across alberta. Hoping to hit bc too but we'll see what happens.
When did you start to sell merchandise, and what do you have for sale? First show we had tshirts. We sell shirts, got hats on order. Stickers. And cds.
Where can people buy your merchandise? They can contact us through facebook and we'll deal with it personally. But you can get a digital copy of our album through bandcamp. Immunizemetal.com will link you directly there.
What do you think about people downloading music instead of buying records now a days? As long as there paying for it. All good. Free music is a slap in the face to the entire industry though. We dont have our music on itunes or spotify. We wouldnt benefit from that. Maybe people would hear our tunes. But spotify would collect the check.
How do you think the music industry have changed because of this? It makes it easier for shitty artists who are good at networking to get their music out there and harder for people like myself who hates facebook but work my ass off everytime i hit the mic. I like the oldschool word of mouth. Wowd at a show vibe.
How do you think and know that this interview will help you in the music business? You'll have a different audience and a different reach than we do. The interview process gives our pre-existing fans more info on the band and a chance for new fans to check us out. We're always honored to be asked to be interviewed.
Do you have any role models or idols?
Well i mentioned cryptopsy above. Theyve changed the game with their music and by staying independant.
They axemen are big jeff loomis (nevermore) fans.
My vocals are heavily influenced by randy blythe, corey taylor, and phil anselmo.
Why do you think that they exist? Cause they kick serious ass haha
Is it easier to find inspiration from older bands, or bands that are more active today? Hmm. Id say newer bands. Everyones pushing the limits. Have you listened to archspire? That guys vocals make me wanna go home and practice.
What have been your biggest obstacles? Id say finances, a lot of competition and our resistance to social media(we all hate it haha i didn't even have fb until this band got rollin). A dude who i won't name from our local scene described the alberta scene perfectly he said "the problem is too many shitty bands too many shitty venues too man shitty promoters and too many shitty shows" haha kinda a shitty attitude but its kinda true.
What advice would you give other bands or artists?
Be good at social media. Do music cause you love it. Dont expect to make
money. Be awesome. Make your shows a show. Dont stand there and bore me for an hour cause youll kill the show.
How do you get psyched for a gig? Hookers and blow. Isnt that how everyone does it? Haha no the second i put the strait jacket on i change. Its the catalyst for me
Do you have any new material? We are waiting to get masters back on our upcoming Self-Titled ep. it will be out this summer. and yeah we have lots of upcoming songs too. always writing.
What are your web sites?
www.immunizemetal.com will directly link you to our bandcamp. immunizemetal.bandcamp.com
IG @immunizemetal
How can people reach you? email at [email protected] or fb messenger or instagram direct
What are your plans for the future? We plan on releasing our album this summer and playing across alberta, and hoping to spread into british columbia and saskatchewan
Do you have something to add? Look us at @immunizemetal. we have a handful of live videos on youtube, and more coming with the promotion of our upcoming e.p. thanks for taking the time to check us out. if you liked us on youtube, fb or ig, it helps out more than you might think.
