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The Consequences Of Life With JESSE LEACH From KILLSWITCH ENGAGE · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Hey, good any friends, This is Jesse Leach from Killswitch Engaged.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: New record is this Consequence?
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Super stoked on it and we're gonna have a little
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: chat about it right now, so let's get going.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: Fantastic Jesse, thanks for joining us today. Brother.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hell yeah, pleasure, my friend. Thank you.
• 0:35
  Speaker 4: As you say, Killswitch Engage release your ninth studio album,
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: This Consequence, on February the twenty first.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: So how you feeling about this one?
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Excited and yeah, it's been a long time coming for
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: many reasons. So there's a bit of an excited anxiety,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: like let's just get it out there, man, Let's get
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: it out there and let's start playing for the people.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm just say this is your ninth album, mate,
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: Like you still get the same feelings of assignment and
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: anticipation that you did back when you released your first one.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: It's a little different now.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: It's it's still very exciting, but there's a certain amount
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: of I don't want to use the word to ease,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: but just comfort in the fact that we've done this
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: enough and I think with this record especially, we all
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: kind of feel like this feels like taking it to
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: the next level, you know, even the decision to change
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the logo up, like, it just feels like a shift
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: into a different era of the band. So there's an
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: added sort of excitement, but also sort of a calm
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: feeling of like this feels right, If that makes any sense.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: Can it tell us a bit more about this consequence
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: from a musical point of view, then, mate?
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: And what do you were gone for with this album?
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah? I think it came out naturally more aggressive.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I think just because of the state of the world,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: what we'd all been through on a global scale, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: also I think taking you know, we all sort of
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: took things for granted, and then when the pandemic came
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: around and took.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: A lot of things away from us.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I think it reignited a passion, you know, once we
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: got back out on the road and started to do
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: this again. When it came time to make this record,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it was it felt important. It felt like I had
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a whole new energy to it because there was a moment.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: There where we're all like, are we still abeled? It's blazing?
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you chose, excuse me, you chose Forever Aligned
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: as the first thing to release off the album.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: So why picked that particular song? To represent this album.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: It felt sonically like a good representation of the album.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: But also I think the message, you know, it's a
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: message of love, it's a message of self discovery. It
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: feels like it's a nice way to introduce people to
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the new era, to the new album, and you know,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: just kicks off with the bang that it starts very aggressive,
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and then when that where it hits, it's like sing
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: a long time, you know.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: It just all of us were like, this is a
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: good one to lead off on. It just felt right.
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: And I'd noticed there's no song on there called this
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: consequence mate, so it means the album titled must have
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: great a significance.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: It kind of came in halfway through Mike, our bass player,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: who does the layouts and the artwork, and he's sort
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: of like, you know, our artistic division.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: He does the T shirt designs all that.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Him and I usually have a conversation about things, and
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: this time around, I sent him on my lyrics and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: he came back with that title and it just fit.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: When I looked at the lyrics as a whole for
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: what I was going for, it was like, oh, yeah, this.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Really does speak to the idea of you.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Know, I guess the concept of the album without even
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: realizing it was a concept thing. So once that title
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: was in place, I sort of was like writing under
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the umbrella of it.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It just made sense. It all flowed.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: And how does that tie in with the with the
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: album cover that's got like a couple of a couple
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: of skulls sort of with look Celtics or writing or
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: something on them.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so interesting enough.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: And I don't even know if this was intentional, but
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: in this day and age of A and I, where
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: bands are using that sort of to create artwork and
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: all that, this is a pushback against that because it's
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: it's robots, it's you know, sort of it looks like
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: ancient you know, ruins.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Of robots, and the idea behind it was.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm thinking of like movies like Terminator two,
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: you know, post apocalyptic, like the machines have failed. And
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: those are actual sculptures done by a sculptor who sent
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: them to Mike and then Mike had them professionally photographed.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: So all of that is it's real imagery, it's real artwork,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and it shows the failure of the machines. So to me,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it speaks volumes on like the consequences of our actions
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: now that we are living in the machine age, where
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: we're relying so much on these intelligent beings that were
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: designing AI all that, and it's a very treacherous course
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that we're on where we're losing touch with our humanity.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Art is being lost to it in some ways, certain
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: people are losing their jobs to it. There's a cause
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: and effect, and I do believe at some point we're
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: going to see the tipping of the scales. We're going
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to see something that's going to go wrong, and I
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: fear for the worst. So that wasn't even intentional, But
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: when that artwork was sort of being created, it was.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Like, aha, I see this, This makes sense.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: So it falls in lind with like the fall of us,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the aftermath, like discordination.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It all sort of ties together in the same theme.
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you've been quite a design that it feels more
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: like a collaboration than the last few records have been.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Can you explain what you mean by that?
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: Very much the five of us discussing things each step
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: of the way. The last couple of records were everyone
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: submitting their ideas we work on them via email. Just
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: kind of email back and forth, and then Adam and
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I get in the studio and we hash out the vocals.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: This was very much get five guys in a room,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: crack some beers, jem on some stuff, talk about it,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: create things in a real time with each other. And
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: then you know, the demos came out of that, and
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I started working on the demos. Instead of just sending
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the demos to Adam, I was sending them to all
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: four of those guys, and everybody had a voice.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Everybody was able to say I like this.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I don't like this at all, Like Na, you need
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: to rewrite that, Like this, you can do better. So
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I had like four guys coming at me with quality control,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and as difficult as that really was, and I did
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: have to rewrite a bunch of stuff, the end result
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: is a group effort of all of us just pushing
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: to put out a record that we all could sort
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: of look back and go We did everything we could
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: to make this as good as it could be.
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: And you've also said that this Consequence was very carefully
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: planned and passionately written. So does that mean that mean
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: it was planned song by song from the outset.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Or the direction was planned? What do you actually mean
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: by that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry say the question again. I got distracted, but
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: I get distracted by AI.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: That's so good.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: You've also said that this consequence is very carefully planned
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: out and passionately written, So what what do you actually
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: mean by that?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So you know, we were we kind of went through
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: lyrics with a fine tooth comb, like there was a
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: lot of like not using the same words I've used
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: in the past. What does the message mean? Adam and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I discussing the message of the song, and then the
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: track listing, even the way how it starts to how
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: it ends. The entire record is it's meant to be
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: listened as an album. The story is being told from
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: point A to point B. But what also is interesting
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: about this is we put it up. The idea was
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: like a side ay A side B. I had this
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: vision of me as a kid when I was skateboarding
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: with my cassette tape, you know, my headphones on back
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: when you have to flip the tape over the side
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: A side B. So we laid out the first couple
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: of songs up I believe a side and then you
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: flip it over and starts out with the instrumental that
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: leads into this is where it dies, and to me
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: that was just nostalgic of the early days of listening to.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Music, the way we used to consume music.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: So it's very much laid out in a cohesive way
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: where every song is purposely put in order so you
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: can listen to it from start to finish and get
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a story that's being told.
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: And that's pretty hard in the moderniz's doing it because
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: everybody's got their shuffles and their skips and stuff. So
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: it's good to see a band still putting that time
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: and effort into making a cohesive album rather than just
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: expecting people to pickingtures.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we live in the day and age
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: of just people picking up a song on Spotify or
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Title or whatever Apple Music and digesting it, which you
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: could do, but I feel like, if you really want
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: to get the point of like what we're trying to convey,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: listening to the album and it is the way to
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: do it for sure, And I you know, I don't
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: think we'll ever stop doing that, regardless of where society
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: is are, what trends are going on in music. I
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: love the idea of a long format album. It's just
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: something we all grew up with too.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: You know, it's romantic to him that what's a romantic
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: in a way?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is, of course, yes, you know I have
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: memories of me like sort of sitting in front of
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: the record player and opening up the vinyl and you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: big ken headphones on and reading the lyrics and.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Studying the artwork and all that. I love it. I
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: still love doing that now.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: One thing kill switching guys has always been known for
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: is your blending of harmonies with the brutality. So how
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: easy or how difficult is it in the writing and
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: recording process to get that balance right?
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: I sort of think it sits in the middle of
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: easy and difficult. I think it's something that sort of
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: comes naturally. But there are moments where Adam and I
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: will discuss, you know, I'll be singing a song, singing
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: a part rather and he'll say, you know, I feel
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: like what you're saying there needs it needs more.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: The melody doesn't serve.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: It well, it needs to be aggressive, yell it or
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: scream it, don't sing it, and vice versa.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: There's times when it's like, well, maybe try to sing
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: that part.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: You know, I think of the fall of us, the
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: chorus is straight up blast beats, and my idea was like, well,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: why don't we just put a hook over that sing
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: over that blast beat, because you know, the obvious thing
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to do would be like, yeah, get scream that blast beat,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: but let's put in a really interesting, catchy melodic thing.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: So there is stuff that just flows, and then there's
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: stuff that like will sort of discuss and purposely like
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: throw something different in, you know, because I think keep
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: it interesting for sure.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: Now, kill Stretch Engagements formed around the turn of the
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: century twenty five years ago. Made so what was some
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: musical climate like that gave birth to the band?
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: And where did you fit in? And initially.
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: I don't think we really fit in very well.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: Actually, when we first sort of got going, people were confused,
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: this is a hardcore band?
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Is it a metal band?
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: Like? You know, I remember reading a review from a
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: death metal fanzine where they were basically saying, these guys
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: are trying to be death metal, but they're not death metal,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: And we kind of chuckle, We're like, we're not death metal, Like,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: we're not trying to do that. I think I think
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the blend of styles we were doing was fairly unique,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: but we were surrounded by bands that you know, like
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you know, I can name bands that some people might
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: not have ever even heard of, Stark Weather, Kendaria, you know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Dead Guy, blood Let Integrity. They're bands that were in
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: the hardcore scene, but we're playing metal, so it's a.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: Real mismatch of styles.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: And we were sort of part of that scene and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: all we did is added a little more melody in
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: you know, I was I was pulling from like Discord
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Records music bands like Fugazi and Hoover and you know,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: sort of the more post hardcore stuff as well.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: So it's just being at the right place at the right.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Time and the right scene, being surrounded by people who
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: are being super creative. And we sort of stood on
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: the shoulders of giants in our local scene and put
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: out a record leg Our Larverage's Breathing, which pulled from
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: all those elements and it was the right place at
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the right time.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Right And how has the band sort of adapted over
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: the ease to survive they ever changing trends in the
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: music industry. I know you've always done things you go way,
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: but it would have been hard, you know, with everyone
• 12:27
  Speaker 4: else coming and going and just sticking to your own path.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I think it's just being genuine, you know, being genuinely
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: who we are and not really compromising and worrying about
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: trends or or what's going on.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: You know. You know, we didn't detune our stuff. We
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: didn't add keyboards, or we didn't add bass drops.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Like, you know, the trends in the in the genres
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that are created in music, I respect all of them.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: I think it's great that music continues to evolve, But
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: I think you have to play your strengths, you know.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: I think Killswitch is good at what we do, and yeah,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: we may push our sort of of boundaries a little
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: bit stylistically, but we're also smart enough, I think to know, like,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: we still have sort of a sound that people enjoy,
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: and our fans have been with us this long. So
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: we're not going to give you a you know, a
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: record with no screaming, or we're not going to do
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: an acoustic you know, it's just we're going to continue
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to be kill Switch. And I think, you know, if
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: you're true to yourself, it doesn't trends come and go.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter if it's quality music and you've.
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Got a fan base that loves you, you can continue
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: on the way you are, and I think we've done that.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: I said so along those lines like, how would you
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: say that the band's music has changed since Alive or
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: just breathing to Diseconsequences.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I think there's a maturity there just from life lived,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you know, wisdom as far as the lyrics and the
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: approach to the music. And then I also think, you know, stylistically,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you know, we've changed. You know, people have gotten different
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: influences coming in and pulling in, so it it naturally
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: grows with you. You know, the style of music we play
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: is a reflection of who we are. So every album
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: is sort of capturing a moment in time. That is,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: you know, five guys doing their best to give out
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: the best expression in art that we have. So I
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: think it's just kind of a natural It feels like
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: a natural progression when I look back on it. You know,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: nothing's really that jarring to me. I do think the
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: message has changed a little bit lyrically, but on the whole,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: if you've been with us since the beginning, that hasn't
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: really changed much.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: You're right, Jesse.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: Thanks for you Tom that I might have been a
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: pleasure speaking with you this consequence is the out February
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: twenty first. It is a sensational album. Might congratulations and
• 14:42
  Speaker 4: take Karen's your next time.
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Now shouting Science giving two sides seven p f Ronnie and.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Side West Time.
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: I'm what you still time to make a feeling that
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: the self stack the willing nasty night so people will
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: sell this finist sides this dark times keeping you know
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: by there is a girl side base face scout go
• 16:07
  Speaker 5: safers to settle, spot to spare, No matter what this
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: well will to do, you do not.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: Thing duel that got you that of the pace Jack con.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: By sunning that night, my damn bus I rag.
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: I will there is all the fair day we got
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: to what we shot the ron will Johnny down shot
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: along Sha sag Gilling, New York. When you stop bag
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: and say watch side so gay.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Gay job.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Master and nothing less.
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: Than my way I work the fam. I worry that
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: result that forgets