Suicide Silence are easily the most celebrated metal band of today. They’ve been through more than any band should have to go through, and they’ve come out the other side stronger than ever. The band introduced Australia to their new vocalist Eddie Hermida at Soundwave 2015, and the response was unbelievable. We can’t get enough of them down under, and I was more than stoked to get the opportunity to chat with guitarist Mark Heylmun to chat about the band’s new album, their upcoming headline tour and what the band think of everything that happened with Soundwave.
Hey Mark, how are you?
I’m good, What’s up Craig! What’s up Sydney Australia!
Look it is titled Beers With The Band but it’s 9:20 in the morning here so I’m just actually having a coffee rather than a beer, hope you don’t mind!
That’s totally cool, I’m having a green tea latte from Starbucks right now, driving in traffic.
Look at us, partying hard. I love it!
Dude, raging dude. I got a hard on.
A party boner, love it. That’s good!
Haha, exactly. I always show up with a party boner, don’t invite me unless you want the party boner
It’s a package – you get Mark, you get a party boner. First of all I wanted to say it’s so good to hear that you guys are coming back to Australia and I wanted to know, what is the first thing you’re gonna’ do when you arrive in Australia?
Um, shit. Well you gotta tell me where I’m going first. I don’t wanna’ seem like I’m not excited to be there, because I am very excited, but where am I going first, do you know?
The first place that you’re going is Brisbane!
Brisbane! Uuuhh, Brisvegaz. I dunno, I’ll probably hit up some pokies!
Haha, ‘atta boy. When you think of Australia, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
I think of the most ‘okay with being different’ part of the world. Like, everybody’s just a little bit off in the best way. That’s what I think of. How like, everybody’s from the outback, everybody’s from the farthest place away in the world so they’re just okay with being a little different, and that’s sic! I love that shit.
We’ve accepted that we’re weird.
Yeah! Well I think more people need to accept the fact that they’re weird, like Australia has probably the least bit of complex about who they are. Like, you guys are just, you’re fucking weird and you’re okay with it. That’s the way it should be.
Haha, that’s brilliant. Well you guys have been working on your fifth studio album, how is that coming along?
Dude, so sic. How can I even put this? We lived on the beach in Venice, California in a really nice house with a record producer that we’ve always wanted to work with, his name is Ross Robinson, and we got weird ourselves. We just went fuckin’ full on crazy person, crazy people work horse just jam and let it all out. This shit is gonna’ be the newest Suicide Silence that you’ve heard since the last Suicide Silence.
The process has been sic and dude, I could jump in deep and just say that Soundwave, when we were there the first time with Eddy was the kick start to the momentum that we’ve been riding into this record. So we’ve just been riding this wave of awesome and having a blast being in the band that we are, and we were stoked when we [were] done with You Can’t Stop Me because we had just written a sic record, but we were stoked because we were ready to write the next one. We were ready to write a new record even after we had just finished the last one. We went to Soundwave and Australia gave us the best fucking welcome that we have ever had and we’ve been riding that wave and we’re here now, two fuckin’ years later, high off Soundwave and high off the fact that the band is up and rolling and we’re just stoked to be Suicide Silence, and that’s what this record is.
We’re stoked to be us and we’re stoked to be able to write these tunes and all around it’s just a good thing to be Suicide Silence at this point in time. I mean, we’ve been through a lot man and it’s been awesome, and it’s still awesome, and we’re just grateful to still be here.
Wow! I was gonna’ say, last time you came out it was for Soundwave, and not that I expected anything less than amazing, but I personally went to see you guys at Soundwave because obviously I saw you guys with Mitch when you were here in Australia before and I just wanted to see how the response with Eddy. Were you guys nervous coming back to Australia with a different lead singer?
Uh, nervous wouldn’t really be the word. We knew damn sure that there was gonna’ be a lot of eyes and lot of people paying attention and that we kinda’ had to prove ourselves. But on the same token, we chose Soundwave as the first place to bring that lineup to. Australia has always been a place that’s welcomed us and we’ve had a good fan base and I feel like we can relate to them because you guys are fuckin’ weird and so are we, and we’ve always connected with the fuckin’ bogans and all the shit that is Australia, and only Australia.
Like, Australia has it. And we knew if we went there on our first trip with the new singer [that] it was gonna be something special, and it was. Nervous wasn’t the word, it’s like… it’s just… people are gonna’ criticize and people are gonna’ hate it, love it, not give a fuck about it, and everything in between, and it was a perfect, perfect first tour for us with Eddy.
Yeah, perfect. How has the writing process changed if at all since Eddie has come on board?
Just more and more tight knit and close with each other. We’ve written enough music with each other to know the way that we work and to know where our strong points are, and even with Eddie right away, he’s an open book, he’ll throw out ideas all the fuckin’ time and we got to know his writing process pretty early on in You Can’t Stop Me, and I’d say that as we just progress as a band we just grow tighter and closer and know how to encourage each other to be the best band members that we can be. I mean, that’s pretty much what the process is.
We don’t even show up to the band room if one person can’t make it, you know? Even though he’s the singer and he might not be writing music, if Eddie can’t make it to the jam spot then no one’s going. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, so it’s like ,show up every day. It doesn’t matter if you’re hung over, it doesn’t matter if your fuckin’ girlfriend broke up with you or you fuckin’ got hemorrhoids or whatever the fuck, just show up, be present for each other and I mean, just be fuckin’ happy you’re in a band and you’re not working some 9-5 job for some fuck head who’s tellin’ you what to do. We’re always reminding each other to be present and to know that this is what we do and be fuckin’ stoked because we’re lucky as fuck.
Yeah, that’s true! Well I guess you need all the workers in there. Suicide Silence is a business in itself so you need everybody to turn up and show up, ‘cause that’s your job.
Yep. at the end of the day we’ve turned music into a business! Haha.
I’m just sure you get somebody else to do all the accounting, boring shit for you right?
Yeah, dude. We have a slew of people that make sure that we’re able to do what we’re doing and it’s a good thing. Without them, who the fuck knows what we’d be doing? We’re all a bunch of high school and college drop outs, we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing.
Well you guys came down with Soundwave last time and now Soundwave is goneskies. I don’t think Soundwave is ever gonna’ come back, which is a little bit sad. What are your thoughts on that? Did you get to deal with AJ personally?
We dealt with AJ since the first time we came down there, and he’s always been a champion of the band. He backs the band up and sees that we do well and it’s unfortunate as fuck man. I mean, Soundwave really was the largest traveling circus of bands in the world and had the best food, the best hotels and the best coordination. Everything was fuckin’ sic nipples, just tight as fuck and enjoyable, and it was always too perfect. It kind of doesn’t surprise me that it had a gestation period, whatever the fuck that word means. It had a period of time it was going to last, and like all good things, it had to go. For us, Mayhem Tour in the US is no more. Ozzfest came and went. Everything kinda has its time. It sucks to see it go, but I’m sure it will make way for something equally as badass and all of us can remember Soundwave and hold it dear to our hearts.
Do you guys prefer to play big festivals? You’re coming to Australia and not playing a festival, do you find you get different fans coming?
If we’re headlining a show, everybody’s there because they wanna see us play. So it’s our crowd, it’s our time, meaning we don’t have to count the minutes for the length of time we’ll be on stage. If we play a festival we usually only have like 45 [minutes] to an hour and that’s it and we gotta like slam in as many songs as we can, so we’re playing a bunch of music and not just talking a bunch.
So, for the most part in festivals there’s not a lot of banter. Eddie isn’t gonna talk a lot, but if you come to one of our shows, a headlining show, you’re gonna see us in a much more natural habitat, just on stage and having fun and making fun of each other and being more free. We’re more free on our headlining shows. That’s our forte, that’s what we love to do; we love to be on stage and play, so you’ll just catch a more free, probably more full-on gig.
Before we wrap things up, I just wanted to ask you, are you guys gonna’ be able to play any unreleased tracks off this new album that you guys have been working on? Can we get any surprises?
You’re like a couple of days away from the deciding factor of that. We as a group still haven’t decided what the set list will be for that tour so it’s possible. It’s super possible. I would say it’s very, very possible. It’s probably like 80 percent positive that we will be playing at least one new song. But we gotta sit down as a band and talk about exactly what we’re gonna’ be doing. I guess it’s important how you release your new songs and it’s important when you release a record and how that’s gonna work, I don’t fuckin’ know. If it was up to me we’d be playing the whole new record, but not everybody would want that either. They wanna’ hear old stuff so, yeah, we’ll see what happens.
Well thank you very much, Mark! I look forward to seeing you guys when you’re playing in Sydney at the Manning bar in September. I can’t wait! Maybe we’ll do a video interview there and I can actually look you in your eyes.
Fuckin’ good on you cunt *said in an only-just-passable Australian accent*. Let’s do it! Later brother!