QTV - The Unpublished Interview...Published

So we did an interview with a European metal magazine a couple of months ago. We won't say who just in case there are any legal implications. At any rate, our contact dropped off the face of the earth and for whatever reason the interview was never published. We feel that if we took the trouble to spend a couple of hours filling it out over lunch at Jardin d'Olive that it should see the light of day.

But first a shameless cash grab...Have you donated to our Kickstarter project yet? Here, we'll make it easy:



Now, on to the interview!

Band name: Quarter The Villain

Formed: 2008

Origin: Orlando, Florida USA

Current release / demo: Regicide EP

url: www.quarterthevillain.com

Where do you come from, what’s in your band name, and who are your band members (note anything / anyone exceptional).

We are Quarter The Villain, hailing from the once and future home of death metal, Central Florida. Our name comes from a list of “verb the noun” options (the epitome of fashion way back in 2008) put together by our “manager” at the time. Only one current band member was present at the time of the democratic vote and now we’re stuck with it. In our opinion, this is a valid argument for a return to the monarchy, which we wholeheartedly support. We are a group of exceptional individuals with various gifts/curses besides musical ability, but that’s for another time…Miles-Bass, Mike-Drums, Dennis-Vocals, Alex-Guitar, Jason-Guitar

Where are you going musically? Describe your musical output. Is there a concept to your music lyrically or aesthetically?

We’re still trying to pin that down. We’re either a mathy death metal band or a death tinged mathgrind band. We basically try to make things as hard on ourselves as possible because anything less would be boring. Lyrically, we have tackled all of the important issues including robotic Sherpas, time travel, life on the American frontier circa 1880, sock puppets out for revenge, and our unanimous awe and respect for Bear Grylls. Our next release will have a unified lyrical concept. We’re jumping on the green movement bandwagon and doing an album about the 100% natural horrors that nature’s creatures inflict on one another in the name of survival. We predict that after one listen most people will stop recycling immediately. This is not our aim, but an unfortunate side effect of the disturbing nature of reality.

How do you think you differ from your contemporaries and who are they? Who / what influences your music?

Our true vision has yet to be fully realized and we continue to draw influence from various sources every day. Musical and non-musical influences include: polymeter, 70’s prog and fusion, high doses of caffeine, space exploration, Schoenberg’s 12 tone serialism, sleep deprivation, hatred for breakdowns, whiskey, breakneck guitar riffs, Collin Farrell, John Swartzwelder, WuTang Clan, the number 4, the person that decided to put breakfast in a burrito, your mom, gravity blasts, Journey, extravagant facial hair, camouflage apparel, extreme tap dancing, shark week, tribal drums of the south pacific, jungle rats of the Sahara, and Stephen Hawking.

We feel that the combination of these various elements filtered through a sieve of brutality is what sets us apart from our peers.

Why did you select the track included on the [censored] covermount to represent you? Tell us a little bit about it – what’s it about, how does it fit in with the rest of your demo / cd?

We chose the opening track from our Regicide EP “Frontier Justice” to appear on the CD. Musically, we feel this one encompasses the disparate elements of our sound. It’s fast and heavy, yet gets a little weird at times. The song is about life on the American frontier circa 1880. The lyrics are a series of unrelated “brushstrokes” that paint a picture of the harsh realities and awesome anarchy experienced by our predecessors, especially Alex’s because he’s from the mid-west. The rest of us are easterners, so our ancestors were busy participating in the industrial revolution at the time and missed out on all of the fun.

Are you very much DIY oriented or have you recorded “professionally” (i.e. with a particular producer / studio).

Our recording is indeed DIY. Alex and Jason actually formed the primordial predecessor of the band while attending Full Sail University, which is an acclaimed recording and media school. As such, all of our recordings have been homemade and will continue to be; even when we are on top of the world, mad with power. If TV has taught us anything, it’s that spending a fortune on antique suits of armor will get you back in the poorhouse pretty damn quick. When that happens we’ll all be glad we are able to record DIY. We continue to be gear addicts and have upped our game considerably since the last time we recorded.

Do you play live and if so, have you any dates coming up?

We play live pretty frequently. We’ve got somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty shows under our belts at this point. We’ve toured nationally in the US a couple of times and play out locally and throughout the state of Florida as much as possible. Our ritual before every show is to get in a good stretch. Careful attention must be paid to the biceps femoris as cramping is commonplace. Instrumentalists must loosen the dorsal interossei before attempting anything too technical. We’re pretty active on stage so precautions must be taken to ensure everyone’s safety. We have lots of local shows coming up and will tour nationally again in late summer 2011.

Do you have an ultimate plan / goal for the band? Are you planning any new recordings etc.?

Our ultimate and exceedingly unrealistic goal is to write, record, and perform our music for a living. Our slightly less unrealistic goal is to travel the world, giving the locals a weird impression of Americans in the process, and have someone else foot the bill. Nothing less will be acceptable. We are currently hip deep in the writing process for our next release, tentatively scheduled for early-mid summer 2011. The new release will introduce more experimentation with rhythmic and harmonic elements, atmosphere, and the above mentioned lyrical concept.

How can [censored] readers hear more?

Go to our site www.quarterthevillain.com, check out our entertaining and informative blog http://quarterthevillain.blogspot.com/ or email us at quarterthevillain@gmail.com Thanks for giving us the opportunity to reflect on our own shortcomings and triumphs as human beings!

So, there you have it. QTV's first interview with a European publication, published for the first time on the geographically nebulous internet.