Interviews: Interview with Cody Childers of Into The Void
Cameron (Bass and vocals) and Cody Childers head up one of the most powerful young metal bands around today, Into The Void. They blend new school attitude, and technology with old school work ethic, and sound. With two releases under their belt, See You Pay and Black Dawn, plus thousands of miles of touring, these young guns have bucked traditional ways of getting to their audience for going it alone with both records being done in their studios, on their own label, booking gigs with all sorts of bands be it rock, metal or hardcore punk to even creating their own videos. You would do well to check out Into The Void and their past catalogue while they're working on the new one. In the meantime, we’ve talked to Cody (guitar) about what's happening at Into The Void's home base, and what fans may expect in the future.
MR - It’s been a few since Black Dawn - what is the bands working on now? CC - We are recording a new EP right now with my brother on bass, vocals, and drums, and I’m playing guitar and keyboards.
MR - Keyboards??? I don’t recall keyboards on the past Into The Void releases. Is the band heading in a different direction? If not, how do you think this will fit into the band's sound? CC - Well, actually there are some on more of our songs than you'd think. On End of It All Pt I, I doubled the whole bass line with Hammond pedals. They have a really round, bassy sound and I liked how that sounded. The outro on that song also has Hammond keyboard on it. A lot of stuff... if you listen really close it will be there thickening it up.
MR - Since the departure of Kevin Williams on drums the spot has remained vacant. Are there any prospects? CC - Yeah we had some, but we wanted to release some new studio stuff, and this seemed like a pretty fun idea so we are giving this a shot. It's really interesting to record with just two people playing all the instruments, because you never hear the finished song until it's recorded, so you really can't tell exactly what it will sound like. In a way it's almost a surprise because you hear it different in your head than it turns out, but that's the way it goes with most stuff.
MR - Has the band considered moving the base of operations, currently Fairmont, West Virginia, to a bigger city where opportunities may be better, and drummers more available? CC - Well not really, but we do travel a lot, so it doesn't seem to effect us as much. Although, in the future, who knows? I think everywhere has some advantages and some disadvantages depending on how you look at it. As long as you can find someone willing to travel that can play you are set.
MR - One thing that surprised me is how involved you dad is in helping the band, in what seems to be an unobtrusive way. That is unusual to see in music. What's his role, and what is it like? CC - Yeah, it’s really cool to have supportive parents they help with stuff like carrying equipment, taking turns driving the tour bus all that kind of stuff.
MR - It's been a number of months since the band played a live show. How is that effecting the band? Does it feel like a clock is ticking? CC - Not really, because we've been focusing on our new EP, we've been pretty busy... no time to worry lol. We needed to get some more recorded stuff out because we were on tour so long. A new album was what we needed to do. Everything is all good as long as this isn't the EP where everyone says "yeah they sucked from then on". Then if that happens we'll just bitch to everyone that we evolved haha.
MR - Before this live hiatus you were playing everywhere. Any favorite cities or shows over the last couple of years? CC - Well, it's tough to say... we really like Chillicothe.... there’s a good following there. We had an awesome time in Detroit.... I'd say that really ranks up there. I'd love to go back. LOL Lots of crazy times. I'm not sure how many times we could have died at Skatopia. That is one of the most insane places we've ever been. People were shooting the massive fireworks people put off in the air at each other on ground level. Cameron's hair caught on fire. I almost got hit in the head with one. People were getting branded, massive head injuries. Although, it was still a good time.
MR - But it's common wisdom in rock n roll the bands live and die by what they can accomplish on the road. After the EP is out will the band focus on finding a drummer and head out or can we expect more studio work? CC - Well, we aren't sure yet... we like both so much. I guess we'll just have to see what comes up. Haha... we’ve been getting a ton of show offers but we were in the studio so we couldn't make it. Maybe we should just get a hotel room and end up like Howard Hughes or Syd Barrett, or we could start carrying swords and tell everyone we are Highlanders. Either one would make a pretty sweet story and would probably make our band bigger LOL.
MR - I've seen a number of videos you have posted up on youtube.com. Who's baby is that project, and how did you go about deciding which live shows to use in them? CC - We both do the vids pretty equally. When you watch one on our YouTube you are looking at about a week of our lives (hopefully that makes it more special) from gathering footage, to storyboarding a concept and editing it all together, not even counting writing and recording the song. For one video we did we watched every episode of this old cartoon series to get the shots we wanted. It's pretty fun though..... Usually we will just pick a live vid to fit with the atmosphere of the other footage we are using, it just depends. Speaking of which, do you have the footage from when we played in Detroit?
MR - Do expect to be shopping the new EP to some labels, or do you expect to release on your own again? CC - We will probably put out the EP and then just see where we should go from there. We aren't really sure at this point.
MR - Does Into The Void prefer the control that releasing independently offers, or would you trade that in for the backing that a label may be able to offer? CC - Honestly, if a label was a good fit we would be all for it. Honestly though, there are a lot of smaller labels we have contacted, and they have been like "look guys there isn’t anything we can do for you. You have all the bases we would work with covered". It's kinda funny to hear that, but I guess all labels aren't what they use to be.
MR - Do you and Cameron have any music you work on as individuals that does not fit into the bands mold, or side projects you like to work on? CC - Well, we try to fit a lot of different stuff in the band, try to create something unique. We are getting into a lot of different stuff like circuit bending and we are always collecting more equipment so more and more is bound to show up. Plus, having it all under one band name makes that whole tax evasion thing easier haha.
