Interview with Matt Devries of Chimaira
HOB Las Vegas, Nevada 3-20-07
Phil We’re sitting here at the House of Blues, Las Vegas with Matt of Chimaira, how are you doing tonight?
Matt I’m doing great, everything is going good!
Phil You’re on tour with Dragon Force and Killswitch, how have the first few nights of the tour been?
Matt Probably one of our most successful tours, Killswitch has been selling out everywhere, packed houses, big venues, we’re playing second every night. It’s packed every time we go on, it’s been great! We’re great friends with all of the bands, so that makes it a little more enjoyable too.
Phil So you’ve got a new CD, Resurrection, which came out March 6th, how has the response been so far?
Matt It’s been awesome, with the crowd response at shows, playing new songs, the record sales have been great. We broke the the top 50 on Billboard, which was like huge goal of ours. And every review has been awesome!
Phil You were also number one in the UK, on the top metal band.
Matt Yea, that was an awesome feeling!
Phil You have a new video out, the title track for Resurrection, and you have an appearance from marshal arts fighter, Maverick.
Matt Yea, the concept was kind of a combination of Todd Bell who is our director, he also did our DVD, and Mark, our singer. It was an underground fight club type of thing, everything’s going on and the fight is the main thing. Somebody who was working on the film crew, knew Maverick, and asked him for a favor, to come in. And he did, and it was cool!
Phil Where can video be downloaded?
Matt Chimairatube, it’s up there and I think it’s on youtube too. The video was released too soon and had to be pulled. But I think it’s on youtube now, I haven’t checked.
Phil Where else can we get the video?
Matt If you buy our limited edition CD, it comes with the bonus DVD and extras.
Phil You also have some ringtones coming out?
Matt Yea, that’s pretty cool! The UK has been doing them for a couple of years now. I’m not sure if that was a label thing or what, we just think it’s a cool thing that you can buy our ringtones! Hearing our ring tone is kind of cool!
Phil Who actually profits off those?
Matt You know, I don’t know. *laughs*
Phil You guys own the rights?
Matt Oh yea, we own the rights, but I’m sure it’s chump change compared to what bigger bands are getting and what more mainstream bands get off of that. But we get a little bit off of that.
Phil And the available at ferretstyle.com, which is your new label, right?
Matt Yea, yep you can get them there!
Phil Did that branch off from something else?
Matt No, they’ve been a label. Karl the owner/ operator used to be a CEO for Roadrunner and was doing Ferret on the side, years ago. Ferret was doing well enough, where he left and could focus more on them. We love everyone that works there and they push the hell out of their bands. We were real impressed and they wanted to sign us. We couldn’t be happier to be on a label where they are actually fans of the band! It’s hard to find, because obviously it’s a business you gotta look at numbers and money. But, they care about the music and not just record sales.
Phil So this is part of the split with Roadrunner?
Matt A little bit yea, it seemed like a lot of people at the company loved us and pushed hard, but they could only push so hard, because the highers ups said “no we’re not gonna spend that on them.” So it was a pretty mutal split, we asked and they said fine. Which is awesome, because there’s no bad blood.
Phil So chimaira.com is under construction right now, what can we expect to see?
Matt It’s going to be brand new everything, with a different format. This is really a question for Chris, ‘cause he’s working on it, it should be up in a couple of weeks. I don’t know what kind of bells and whistles are going to be on it, there’s going to be some cool stuff that we’ve never done before on it. It’s going to be cool, he showed me some of it and it looks really cool!
Phil And you also have myspace.com/chimaira, which is pretty helpful for bands know days.
Matt Yea, it helps out a lot every one has a myspace page now. We actually take care of ours and moderate it, it’s not just some dude that’s hired, it’s us.
Phil There is fan site chimairaworld.com too, are you guys active on there as well?
Matt You know, we’re in contact with him. We thought it was the coolest fansite there was, so we like to push it. He does a lot, and our main message board is on there. We’re not as hands on as we are with our site, but we’re involved.
Phil What are you future plans for Chimaira?
Matt Just to keep touring. This is our first tour of the new album, so we’re just going to keep pushing it, for a good year and a half. Try to tour everywhere we can! To where we have been and haven’t been to already! Kind of focus on touring!
Phil Last words to your fans?
Matt We appreciate it! Keep coming back, and buy the record it’s in stores! I recommend getting the limited edition, while it’s still out! We appreciate it!
Phil Cool, thank you for taking the time out with closed coffin.com, here in Las Vegas. Good luck on the rest of the tour!
Matt You bet, anytime!