"Diecast: Molded in Metal"

Mike SOS: What has been your fondest musical moment thus far?

Colin: I would have to say that each year we play the New England Metal Fest has been amazing.  Every year we play it gets better and better and its a rare opportunity for bands like ours to play to an appreciative audience of thousands as opposed to hundreds which we are all used to.  There are definitely others, though, too.  Opening for SOD and meeting Scott Ian was definitely a huge highlight for myself because Anthrax is one of my favorite bands ever and Scott Ian is definitely one of the reasons I started playing guitar.  I am sure that members of the band have their own favorites, you know; these are just mine.  Since we started this band there have been so many things that have happened to us and that we have done which I never thought I would be lucky enough to experience, so to try and answer it all in one questions is just impossible.

Mike SOS: Which shows and scenes have fared better for you, metal or hardcore?

Colin: Well, we came out of the hardcore scene originally, so it is still our home, but metal shows have embraced us just as well, and we love the diversity of playing to both crowds.  It is just a different kind of vibe from one to the other.  Hardcore shows involve a lot more direct audience participation, so it's easier a lot of times to see if the crowds dig what you're doing.  Metal show people are more reserved and stuff, but they are a lot more vocal when they are into a band.  We enjoy both; it would be great and our goal eventually is to bring both crowds to the same show so we can have as big and as fun a show possible.  Imagine how great shows would be for heavy music if everyone came together instead of segregating the different genres of heavy music; it would be unbelievable.

Mike SOS: What do you guys do for fun when you're on the road?

Colin: We do whatever is around at the time.  The great thing about being on tour is that each night is different and you never know what could happen.  It's the randomness that makes it exciting.  Some of us drink, some don't.  We like hanging out and meeting people, having parties at the hotel; if the mood catches us right, destroying public property is always a good time on tour (haha).  Whatever we do, though, we always try to catch it on tape so one day in the distant future when we have money (laugh)... be on the look out for a Diecast DVD featuring all sorts of silly shit from our various tours.

Mike SOS: What should we expect from Diecast in the next 6 months?

Colin: A lot of touring, God willing.  We have had very bad luck with our tours.  Every time we think we have caught a break on a great tour it winds up being cancelled at the last minute.  We have a new agency booking for us now and it's a huge one so we are hoping to get onto some really big tours.  We actually just got onto our first pretty big one.  This should get a good laugh from people; we are starting a tour opening for Alice Cooper on Halloween in NYC.  We never thought we would open for a guy as huge as him so we are pretty excited and a little bit nervous, to be totally honest, but it will be an experience we will never forget either way.  As well as touring be on the lookout for us showcasing some newer songs at various shows; we have about 4 or 5 new ones which we are working on, so we might be testing those out at some shows.  We are just going to try to get our name out there as much as possible.

Mike SOS: What bands would you like to play with that you haven't thus far?

Colin: Wow, this list could get very long.  To prevent that I will just name my personal dream bands to open for.  In no particular order, Metallica, now I know they have cheesed out a little bit and have changed completely over the years but they were the band that got me into metal in the mid-eighties and their stuff from 1983-1991 is still some of if not the best metal ever written and they are one of my all time favorites.  Pantera is one of my all time favorite bands and they are amazing live and I think they would be fun to hang out with even though they would give me shit for not drinking but f*ck it, it's Pantera, so who gives a shit right.  Iron Maiden would definitely be up there, as well as Anthrax and of course Slayer.

Mike SOS: When did you start to feel that you guys were moving to the next level?

Colin: I think we started to realize that at The New England Metal Fest in 2000; it was the first time we had been asked to play the main stage and the first time we had played to a crowd of about 4,000 people.  Not only was the place packed when we went on but there were hundreds of kids up front crawling all over each other who were singing every word to every song.  That was really a great moment for us because it showed us that our hard work was starting to get us somewhere. There have also been other things like getting offers from labels and signing to Now or Never and releasing Day of Reckoning.  When our CD hit number one on CMJ's Loud Rock charts for 5 weeks in a row that was really something for us; we never in a million years thought that could happen.  I think that was a really big moment for us and really made us work even harder to make it to the next level.

Mike SOS: While traveling through the US, what are a few things that you observed that you'd like to share?

Colin: Well there are some really weird people in the United States, that's for sure.  We have driven though small backyard towns and huge cities and seen some odd people.  I guess that's one of the things that makes this country great or at least interesting anyway.  When you're on tour it's like you're invincible and you can do whatever you want, so you can get yourself into a lot more trouble than normal and with that you see a lot of interesting stuff.  Traveling through the entire country is really exciting because you get to see a lot of the things you hear about on the news every day or about different places and it makes those places a lot more real in your mind.  If you travel around this country long enough I am convinced you can see anything and eventually will see everything.

Mike SOS: What are you currently listening to?

Colin: I like to listen to a lot of different kinds of music.  Jazz is one of my favorites, especially the older jazz.  I like listening to a lot of thrash metal from the '80s, too, classic stuff like Slayer, Celtic Frost, Sepultura...  I have been listening to a lot of Incubus lately actually also, worlds away from metal but they are just great songwriters with great songs.   My tastes are very wide when it comes to music I'm willing to try anything as long as it's genuinely good to me.  I don't care how uncool it is to like something; if I like it, I will listen to it.

Mike SOS: Why do you think the New England scene has been blowing up as of late?

Colin: I just think that because New England is so densely populated that there have been a ton of bands here for years.  When you have that many bands in such a small area it's kind of hard to stop bands from breaking out and to keep the shows from being huge.  You have so many states so close together with so many major cities in them that it's no surprise that the scenes have gotten so big.