turned into an over achiever, but I don't want to toot my own horn too much. I came to the feeling that "There Ain't Nothing To It, But To Do It!' I think its a good thing to be able to admit your weaknesses , but do whatever you can to improve your own life! Taking fearless moral inventory is what I call it! Always ask yourself, how can I be a better person? That's what I try and portray with my lyrics, I want to inspire people to feel the same way!
DDR: Some bands will make a song just for the sake of making a song or to make an album or maybe they were directed by the label and what the label wanted to hear.
QBall: I think that's absolutely true. More than ever before and I think this business is eating its own tail to the point that rock has been on a steady decline for the past two decades, in my opinion. It's become much more about the superficiality than the content and substance. I think to some degree that me stating that and making myself clear about that to everybody that has pursued us has kept our dignity instead of selling out for hopes of money. I think it has hurt us a bit with how long getting us to where we are now, but how much is a man's dignity worth? The music industry has really shot itself in the foot by not developing bands, by shoving "the formula" down everyone's throat. You got the sample guitar sounds, sample kick drum sounds and the vocalists sound so much the same that I can't tell one from another anymore because they have the same producers. It sounds like a rubber stamp and the labels are pushing down the radio stations throats with their big budgets and promos and tours. It's all being perpetuated and no one is standing up and saying 'enough'. I believe that big bands like Queen and Led Zeppelin would be ostracized nowadays. Versatility is swept under the rug and instead we are forced to listen to "Anaconda" a million times a week from some garbage like Nicki Minaj, or whatever her name is. We have actually been looking at sponsorships and I have been talking to Adam over at Coldcock Whiskey. They took over Jägermeister's spot on the Mayhem Fest. They are not in Ohio yet, but they have a lot of cool things coming up. They were really interested in our grass roots movement in regards to our promotions and the way we accomplish things. As a company that does not have a whole lot of cash sitting around to get their thing moving, they understand the whole grass roots and word of mouth thing. Hopefully we can come to terms but so far it has been a lot of talking back and forth. Adam's a little guy, but he's a hell of a guy! (laughing)
DDR: Talking about "Reboot the System", your seventh album, what was the direction you wanted to go?
QBall: One of the things we wanted to do was get everybody involved. This was the first time we had everyone involved from beginning to end. Our drummer came in, who is a fairly good guitar player, with some great stuff with melodies. Our guitarist and our bassist, who used to be our second guitarist came in as well. We used to be a five piece, but dropped it to a four piece because we were tired of catering to high maintenance drama queens. We knew that it would be us four from beginning to end and we could depend on each other to make a record and tour on it with the same lineup. We wanted to make a record that really stood for rock and that's how we came up with the name "Reboot the System". Mainly because I think the systems broke. (laughing)
DDR: One of my favorite songs from the album is "I Blame You". How did that song come to be?
QBall: It's like a love song tragedy. When we were on tour with Mushroomhead last fall, we met some people down south. I got a text from a guy that told me that our music was helping him get through some tough times. He went on to tell me over the next couple days that he had lost his fiancée to suicide. He was doing everything he could to be there for her and in the end, it wasn't enough. He was angry with her because suicide is a selfish deed. He was missing her but at the same time he was angry with her. That whole situation was inspiring to us, so the whole song just came together. We are actually shooting the video for that song as well. The video will personify very clearly what the song is about and it's our way of doing some sort of suicide prevention. It is important because you never know when you may save someone's life just by listening.
DDR: So I asked you about my favorite song on the album. Now it's your turn. What would you consider the most meaningful song on this album for you?
QBall: There's two, but there is only one that I'm digging. “All My Sins” is one that our drummer wrote musically. It's a self-reflective song that deals with the past and transgressions and learning that you can never move forward if you keep holding on to the past. You cannot undo what has been done. You can try to fix or remedy them, but not undo them. It's a pretty soul bearing song.