No.6 Where did the album’s title come from, The Healing Powers of Hate?
Mike: I like watching movies and the actors always have that one really good catch phrase. One day a long time ago, I’ve had this album title for years, I was watching Rob Roy; there’s a part in it where the guy can’t talk but he’s really angry and then he finds out that he can possibly fight Liam Neeson and he gets all this courage up and he says, “I won’t die.” His cohort then says, “and so are the healing powers of hate.” It shows it doesn’t matter what’s in you, whatever you’re feeling, hate can bring such an emotion and it almost sort of basically healed him.
No.7 Is there something specific that the album is aobut?
Mike: It’s about that we live in a really fucked up world, in a crazy society, and you have to look beyond that to survive and strive through it. Just because you’re broken down, beaten out doesn’t mean you can’t live a good life and survive a healthy life. But the album is about one man’s turmoil inside of his head, and trying to come to grips with that.
No.8 The album sounds great, I think that’s due in part to the levels – nothing is buried and you can hear everything. Was that intentional?
Mike: Yes. We wanted to be able to hear everything. While we were recording it we used to leave the rooms and stand back because I like music that you can listen to from a distance or it’s not in your face and you still know what’s going on. Like party music, it’s there in the background and you can enjoy it. So you had to hear everything.
No.9 How did Matt come to be in BornBroken?
Matt: Well, I sang for The Catalyst for five years, fantastic Montreal band. Mike knew my old bass player, Mike Marino, and he contacted Marino and he said, “Hey, Jesus needs to, you know, we gotta find a singer, we gotta do this, do you know anybody?” And [Marino] said, “Yeah, my old singer. [So] we spoke and I heard the record and I loved it. My influences are Hatebreed, Pantera, Lamb of God, and I hear this there and as soon as I heard this I thought, “that is something I wanna do.” [I've been] out of the scene for two years and I wanted to find something that spoke me. I didn’t want to join just any band to say I was playing music. I wanted to join something that I would enjoy playing onstage and I would enjoy the people in the band as well.
No.10 The Catalyst has a pretty different vocal style; how’s the adaptation going?
Matt: I’m bringing my own flavor of vocals to the table. I’m trying to recreate Jesus’ vocals to the best of my abilities, but I’m more of a Jamey Jasta, Randy Blythe kinda singer. I’m listening to the album every day trying to recreate what he does more and more, but I do a lot more gutteral vocals than Jesus would do.
No.11 Did it take much for you to learn the material?
Matt: I’ve done seven songs in four weeks. After being out of it for two years, it was quite the shock.
No.12 Any remedies for your voice?
Matt: Yeah, yeah, yeah, before we go on I always go to the bar, every show I play, get a shot of vodka, ask for a wedge of lemon, take the shot of vodka, eat the lemon. I find it cleans my vocal chords. Milk is another good thing, but in the heat of the summer I don’t suggest drinking milk before going on.
What does BornBroken have in store for the next album?
