Words and live images by Simon Milburn

“We’ve been home from the tour for about three days now,” begins As I Lay Dying vocalist Tim Lambesis. Since the release of 2005’s Shadows Are Security, As I Lay Dying have become road dogs more than ever before. This hard working quintet from San Diego, California (U.S.A.), who are Lambesis, guitarists Phil Sgrosso and Nick Hipa, bassist Clint Norris and drummer Jordan Mancino, have been touring constantly around the U.S.A. and Europe both as a part of festivals as well as support and headlining slots on various tours that has given these five guys very little time off to catch their breath.

That’s the price they pay however since forming in 2001. Hot on the back of their debut album, Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes (which was released on Pluto Records in 2001) and the follow up EP titled The EP (also on Pluto Records, released in 2002), legendary metal label Metal Blade Records was quick to sign the band in 2003. The result was their sophomore effort Frail Words Collapse which garnered enough praise from the press to put this group on the metal map and their fan base increased accordingly.

Two thousand and five saw the group make their first trip to Australia supporting thrashing metalcore heroes Shadows Fall. Soon after, As I Lay Dying were in the studio prior to the antipodean jaunt to record their all important third album but it wouldn’t see the light of day until mid year. Shadows Are Security clearly showed the bands maturity and the rave reviews it received reflected that. From that point on, Lambesis and Co. would call the road ‘home’ for the best part of the next twelve months.

On the eve of their return visit to Australian shores, where they will unleash their headlining tour as well as co-headline a small handful of shows with Orange Country hardcore metallers Bleeding Through, I caught up with Lambesis to discuss the band’s imminent return, their recent and pending touring commitments, the band’s progression from Frail Words Collapse to Shadows Are Security and just how well their latest album has been received by the press and fans alike.

“It’s been great! We had a very slow build up on our last CD, Frail Words Collapse. We went out and toured for a long time and it built our fan base. With the new record, it was very immediate. Everybody seemed to buy the record right away and the response has been great and I’ve had a great time touring on the record so far.”

When considering the feedback and reviews that Lambesis has heard regarding Shadows Are Security, there’s nothing that he’s heard or read that has really been surprising to him.

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard anything that really shocked me. I don’t really know. Y’know, the responses have been all good, at least the ones I’ve heard. I’m sure there’s some negative reviews out there but I don’t get a chance to read all of them.”

Regardless, the final product is clearly something that Lambesis is satisfied with and he leaves no doubt that the band’s third full length album has lived up to his expectations.

“Yeah, it has. In my opinion, it’s gone beyond my expectation. I just wanted to be able to put out an album that I loved and put my heart into and to be able to make a living doing that, and we’ve been able to do that. So it’s definitely met my expectations.”

What makes the fact that the album exceeded Lambesis’ expectations even sweeter, is the fact that it was exactly the album that As I Lay Dying wanted to make at that point in their career.

“I wanted it to represent that time, y’know, the time that we spent writing that record. It represents that time and y’know, I think that we’ll be able to out do it with our future recordings. But that is part of the excitement of being in a band – every album is a progression.”

The progression from Frail Words Collapse to Shadows Are Security is easily identified by Lambesis.

“Well, because we actually had guitar players who helped write on this record, there’s more complex melodies from the guitars on this album, it’s a little more guitar driven. Overall, I think it has a stronger sense of melody in the guitars.”

However, as well as the aforementioned stronger sense of melody that is apparent on Shadows Are Security, the other thing that clearly distinguishes the album from its predecessor is the more rounded, fuller, and cleaner production that it exudes. As the man responsible for the production on Shadows Are Security and Frail Words Collapse, Lambesis is quick to agree with my comments and explains that the group are still in the process of finding the right producer for their next album.

“Yeah, I agree. As a producer, I learned a lot and had a lot of experience between the two albums. I learned from my mistakes and was able to really feel confident about the production of this album. Y’know, I became pretty unhappy with the tones and sound of Frail Words Collapse – the longer the record was out, the more it started to bother me. I really focussed on fixing that this time around. We’re looking for a producer that we can work with, but I’m not … we haven’t found anybody yet but I would like to find somebody. Even with Shadows Are Security, we were hoping to find another producer but we just never found the right match.”

The right person for the job has to be hands on almost like another member of the band.

“Just somebody who is gonna work as hard as we do, and is gonna bring as much creativity to the table as the rest of the band. A lot of producers just kind of come in, show up for a couple of hours, make sure everything is running ok and then leave. We want somebody who is gonna be there fifteen hours a day like we are.”

Right now though, the band are far from ready for their next album as they have been constantly touring supporting Shadows Are Security since its release in mid 2005.

“It’s usually too hard to write on tour. We’ve come up with a few individual ideas but no complete songs yet. Ideally, we’d like to record it in December so obviously we’ll have to start writing sometime before then.”

In the meantime however, As I Lay Dying do have a new release on the way. Technically it’s a new release, but the majority of the material is old. It’s called A Long March – The First Recordings, which contains their two releases for Pluto Records, their debut long player Beneath The Encasing Of Ashes (from 2001) and the follow up EP, 2002’s The EP, which appears in its original and also re-recorded forms.

“We felt bad that a lot of our fans were paying too much money for them because there was a limited amount of copies available. The price started to go up on the used CDs. Even though we don’t feel like it’s the best material, we wanted people to have access to it. Brian, who owns Pluto Records, is a very reasonable guy. He was interested in selling the material. It was just a matter of us paying a competitive price for it…or I guess Metal Blade payed a competitive price for it. We have both of the original Pluto Records recordings, but then we also re-recorded some songs of those and those re-recorded versions are on there as well. It’s all new artwork but it includes the original covers on the inside. There’s liner notes that are completely new – it’s a letter from me on our history, and the inspiration behind those songs.”

Shadows Are Security has been a sign of big things for this San Diego based quintet. It enabled the band to undertake their first headlining tour of the U.S.A. late last year.

“It was great. We had an amazing turnout. It was the first time really going big with the production, y’know, lights and all that. It was a really exciting experience for us. It was an interesting experience for us because usually we’ve supported other tours and played for a limited time slot, and played for other people’s fans. So, to get up on stage to know that everybody there was there to see us … we were able to put on a show that was exactly what we wanted it to be.”

Coming down from that and more recently, they took part in this year’s Taste Of Chaos tour which would seem to be quite a direct contrast from their headlining tour status.

“That was a good tour after our headlining tour to go out and reach people who normally wouldn’t have a chance to see us. We want to reach new fans and that’s what a tour like Taste Of Chaos is for.”

However, the group are set to return to the headlining spotlight later in the year as a part of 2006’s Sounds Of The Underground tour.

“Yeah, I guess it’ll be the best of both worlds – we’ll have the big audiences and some people who normally wouldn’t have a chance to see us and we’ll also have the intimacy of our own show and making up the rules.”

Lambesis is a little unsure of his expectations of Sounds Of The Underground tour at this point.

“It’s too hard to tell at this point. I know that we really want to do our best job as a headliner as we’re playing after a lot of great bands … bands that have been around for a long time actually … bands like In Flames and Cannibal Corpse that have been around twice as long as we have. So we’re very, very honoured to headline that and we want to make sure that we live up to it.”

There’s an air of humbleness in his voice knowing that As I Lay Dying will be headlining over and above bands who have been around for much longer than they have.

“Well, uh, it feels a little weird to headline over those bands because within their own genre, I think that those are legendary bands. Every band has its own history. I think that since we’ve started, we’ve been very aggressive about the way we’ve toured and pushed ourselves. We’ve stayed very active ever since we first started. On that level, we feel very comfortable. And those guys, as far as In Flames, we toured with them twice before and they’re great guys and we look forward to spending more time with them again.”

One thing they never expected when starting out was the opportunity to play in Australia.

“When we first started playing, I hoped that if we had a chance to go overseas, we would hopefully make it to Europe. That for me was sort of a dream, and to actually make it all the way to Australia is beyond that again!”

Now, some 15 months since making their first trip down under supporting Shadows Fall, As I Lay Dying are set to return and for a handful of shows, they’ll be co-headlining with Bleeding Through as a part of their return visit which marks their first headlining tour of this country as well.

“The last time we were in Australia is one of my favourite tours. We had a great tour manager, a great, vocal crew and everybody made it a great experience for us, so I can expect it’ll only be better this time around.”

As I Lay Dying are touring Australia playing the following dates:

Fri 12th Rosemount Hotel Perth Under 18’s
Sat 13th Amplifier Bar Perth 18+
Sun 14th Corner Hotel Melbourne under 18's
Mon 15th Corner Hotel Melbourne 18+
Tue 16th Fowlers Live Adelaide all ages
Wed 17th Arena Brisbane all ages WITH BLEEDING THROUGH
Thu 18th Byron High School all ages WITH BLEEDING THROUGH
Fri 19th Cambridge Hotel Newcastle 18+ WITH BLEEDING THROUGH
Sat 20th Manning Bar Sydney all ages WITH BLEEDING THROUGH

For more information on As I Lay Dying, check out www.asilaydying.com.