Q ’n’ A: Killswitch Engage

After a jilted departure and a long battle with anxiety, Jesse Leach has returned more than a decade after helming seminal album Alive or Just Breathing. Massachusetts band Killswitch Engage are now undoubtedly one of the go-to blueprints for metalcore and had moved from strength to strength without Leach; but as ex-frontman Howard Jones lost his fervor and last album, 2009’s self-titled consequently left fans unsatisfied, the reprise of Leach last year is game changing.

This month the band will release sixth album Disarm The Descent, and while touring Australia with Soundwave Festival Leach and KSE songwriting and producing linchpin Adam Dutkiewicz sat down with TMN at Sydney’s Sebel Hotel to talk about the band’s new record, Leach’s restoration and Dutkiewicz’ funeral.

Adam Dutkiewicz: I just had a nice big Whiskey.

Ah, good, is that how you always start the day?
AD: No it actually isn’t, I just feel like I’m on vacation here. And the label is paying for our tab so I’m like yeah I think I’ll get a double Whiskey.

Jesse Leach: I’m hitting a wall man.

AD: Na not me, I’m feeing alive. I think our periods are not aligned anymore dude.

JL: I’m on my manstrations. Don’t print that! That’s between you and us.

AD: My crotch bleeds but not because I’m manstrating, for other reasons. Chafe.

Firstly Jesse, I think it’s great that you’re back with Killswitch, the last album you recorded with the band (Alive or Just Breathing) was considered genre defining, what has the last year been like for you after a decade apart?
JL: It feels amazing. I’m having a blast. I work, I’m a… was a normal working guy and this past year has been amazing. I’ve never toured on this level. Just being back in the family, the guys have been great.

What were you working as?
JL: Oh, various things. I was actually studying to be a mixologist behind a bar. Because I figured people won’t pay ten bucks for a CD but they’ll always pay ten bucks for a cocktail. But ah, thankfully I don’t have to learn that anymore. I’m on the other side of the bar now, just critiquing everything, it’s great. I actually hit it off with the bartender in there. (points in general direction of Sebel Hotel bar).

After you left Killswitch in 2002 you were diagnosed with mild depression and anxiety, what sparked your return and what was it like taking on frontman duties again?
AD: Well we needed a singer.

JL: I was initially approached by these guys before the announcement, before they had officially parted ways (with ex-lead singer Howard Jones), so I wasn’t sure if I could handle it because I’ve never sang anyone else’s songs. For me it was just a matter of right place at the right time. We were reading the press release where they announced they were going to have try-outs and were parting ways and I said to Adam ’you know what I think I’m going to give this a shot man’. Adam said ‘oh you wanna try out now?!’ I really just dived into the songs, learned them and fell in love with Howard’s material. It was either rejoin this band with my brothers or continue working the work-life that I was working. I also heard the demos for the new record so everything was just like, it just seemed like a great opportunity. It was the best decision of my life. It’s changed everything.

Did you audition like everyone else?
JL: Yeah. I put my name on the list.

AD: He sure did. There’s no easy way in! You gotta earn that shit!

JL: And honestly, as their friend and turning them down initially I felt it was important to show faith and step it up and get in line with everybody else. If anything, some of those guys had just as much of a shot as I did.

Because of your past, are you ever worried that you’ll fall into the same traps that lead to your departure?
JL: I think not being confident as a vocalist, not being confident as a person (lead to departure). Just insecure, I didn’t know who I was. It was really nobody’s fault, it’s just something that happened. I just kind of knew that I wasn’t the guy for the job. And I’m glad that Howard stepped in and brought the band to where they are, you know, and I came back in in the height of it all, it’s great! No, but on a serious note, it’s one of those things where things happen for a reason. I walked away for a reason to get my life together and these guys got their career going and we all came full circle.

AD: You learned a lot going through all that didn’t you?

JL: Yeah, personally and professionally I learned a lot. I did tours with other bands, I learned how to sing properly, I learned how to take care of my voice and I grew up. Ten years of becoming a man, back then I was a boy; big difference.

Are you anxious that you may relapse into past traps?
JL: Nope. Not at all.

AD: He’s a completely different person now, completely different. I’ve seen the way he works in the studio, it’s completely different this time.

JL: And I love the road too, it’s great!

AD: You’re just taking precautions now to take care of your throat. You know what you’re doing now instead of just being this fucken’ dimwit kid (laughs).

JL: You know what it was, it was punk rock guilt. People who come from the punk and hardcore scene can relate to this, you do everything yourself. You don’t take shit from anybody, you don’t take advice, you do what you wanna do. It’s thick headed and I grew out of it. I finally grew out of it and went to therapy for my head and figured out how to sing properly, all these things are just part of growing up.

What are you doing to make sure you don’t fall into the same patterns?
JL: Open communication is one thing. We’re all really close now whereas before we were just musical acquaintances, we weren’t super tight ten years ago. We were just figuring out who we were as a band.

AD: Now we’re old as shit.

JL: But if someone’s off their game you call them out and we talk about it. That’s how it’s been the past year. It’s a good balance.

AD: Once in a while everyone’s out of line. They yell at me all the time.

What for?
AD: For being an ass.

JL: He’ll drink and just turn into a crazy…

AD: Or I won’t drink and I’ll be even more annoying.

JL: But we all love each other it’s great. It’s a democracy, everybody is self-aware of our role that we play in the band.

Adam, how has having Jesse back in the band affected the dynamic, compared to what it was like with Howard?
AD: Honestly I think Howard was just burnt out so having him back is just absolutely refreshing. There’s fire and passion again. Having your singer just lit the fuck up ready to go, you know he’s just this dude who is ready to go, it’s like ‘wow, this is cool’. I’ve never taken being able to do this for granted but when you’re around people with negative energy it’s easy to get trapped in a funk here and there. To be around somebody who’s got nothing but excitement and enthusiasm, it’s infectious.

Adam you’re known as an incredible songwriter and producer in your own right, but your last album (Killswitch Engage), lyrically was a bit more theatrical than your past releases.
AD: I completely agree, that’s exactly what I’ve been saying. When I started writing music for this record I was like you know the last one almost feels singer-songwriter-ish. I was like let’s put some teeth, let’s put some aggression back into what we do. Because those are always my favourite songs to play live.

Why was the self-titled so different? I watched an interview where you referred to it as ‘lazy’.
AD: It kinda was. Talking from where Howard was coming from; that for him, was the beginning of him getting burnt out. I think – just like I was saying earlier – having a frontman who is not 100% really turned things down for the rest of the band.

What can we expect from Disarm The Descent in terms of influences, will it be similar to Alive or Just Breathing?

JL: It’s kind of all over the place but I think lyrically it’s in line with the title of the record.

AD: It’s like a slow cooked beef.

JL: Yes. It’s a recipe for a slow cooked beef. It’s essentially about redemption, frustration, betrayal but in the end finding hope and redemption.

In (Disarm The Descent track) New Awakening you talk about standing up to fear and living life without regrets. And during In Due Time you talk about the trials and tribulations we go through, and how they shape us. Are the lyrics autobiographical there, what are you referring to?
JL: Absolutely it’s autobiographical. It’s about things I went through but it’s also about things these guys have been through it’s also about what family members have been through. It’s really something now that I’m striving for in my age, to write in such a way where the listener can draw their own conclusion to what I’m writing about. Although it has a lot to do with what I have seen and been through, what’s more important is the listener and the experience of being able to grasp onto a sing and make it your own. Say you just went through a divorce or, whatever, in your life and you hear this song and it just makes you feel like ‘I get what this guy is saying’. For me to go out and say this song isn’t about that, it’s about this, and I think for me as a writer I’m totally enjoying the ambiguity and letting people draw their own conclusions.

Are you opposed to fans knowing the true meaning behind your songs?
JL: It’s not that I just feel like it’s not even about me; it’s about all of us.

AD: It’s always cool when you’re the listener and you hear the song and you have your own personal connection. You hear the words the way you interpret them. I personally have lots of songs like that.

JL: God forbid the writer says ‘no that’s not it – I was chewing gum one day and the bubble popped in my face and I got annoyed when a little bit of it went in my beard’. And someone else is like ‘oh that was to me, like I lost my dad and that song meant a lot to me’. and I’m like ‘na it’s about my chick that I just broke up with, dude.’

AD: I found her in bed with my dad! Which would be really fucked.

JL: I could take it further but we won’t. So for me that’s the power of music. Somebody else’s interpretation of it, and I don’t want to spoil that for anyone.

Will there be a coinciding doco DVD with the album?
JL: We do have a documentary that we’ve been making with the album. It’ll be released with the album on the special edition.

How do you feel about artists and labels who constantly put out a ‘reissue’ and a ‘repackage’?
AD: It’s so lame. Record companies don’t make money. Times have changed.

JL: People don’t buy records so it doesn’t matter anyway. You can steal whatever you want it doesn’t matter anymore.

AD: We’re professional t-shirt salesman, we don’t even make records.

JL: I used the analogy that you can’t go into an art gallery and steal paintings off the wall. You can’t clock into your job for a full week and your boss be like ‘eh we’re not going to pay you for this week’. But that’s where we are in music. It’s been brought down real low where I feel like it should be free. To me that’s absolutely ridiculous but that’s where we are. Come and see us live, help us pay our bills.

AD: Buy a t-shirt!

Will you still be touring when you’re 60?

AD: I’ll be dead.

JL: I’ll be someone like Tom Waits, I’ll be bluesy, boozy and smoking a cigar all day.

AD: As long as you do a keg stand at my funeral.

JL: Shut up.

AD: All you can eat, all you can drink. Fireworks.

JL: Everyday. I love him to death but he pisses me off with his ‘oh let me tell you about my funeral’. Okay let’s talk about my best friend dying.

AD: I’m just ready to go.

JL: We’re about to put out a record. Can you please tour it first?!

AD: Okay. And then just put me in a dumpster somewhere.