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Rock My Monkey: Hello, you are listening to the Rock My Monkey netcast on RockMyMonkey.com. Today we are speaking with Ryan Clark of the band Demon Hunter. How are you doing today, Ryan?
Ryan Clark: Good. How’s it going?
Rock My Monkey: Pretty good. What song on this cd do you think has the chance of being your “Ace Of Spades”, the song that fans demand for decades to come?
Ryan Clark: I think as far as crowd pleasers, maybe live songs, I’d say the title track, “Storm The Gates Of Hell”, will probably be the one that we get the most requests for live.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think there is about that song that’s going to really connect with the fans?
Ryan Clark: I think it’s anthemic. And I also think it’s just a real, it’s real fast and powerful all the way through. It doesn’t let up at all. I think that’s something that, at least live, will have a good response.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think makes Demon Hunter unique in the metal core scene, and what do you think you guys offer fans that no other metal core band does today?
Ryan Clark: I think we incorporate styles that other bands kind of shy away from. I know a lot of bands scream and they sing, and they do that whole think where they mix those two styles. But I think we kind of take it a step further into the melodic area. I think we kind of have a knack for bringing what could be a real poppy, commercial sound to the music without watering down the fact that it’s still really heavy and real metal.
Rock My Monkey: What do you think Aaron Sprinkle brought to the cd as far as being a producer that would not have been there otherwise?
Ryan Clark: Well, we’ve always gone with Aaron. In the studio he’s kind of the sixth member of the band. He has a lot of ideas, a lot of constructive criticism. He’ll help us chop parts if we need to chop them. He’ll help us add things. He has a lot of the little nuances, as far as the electronic stuff, and little samples and things like that. That’s all out of his brain. We usually just let him run free with that stuff, and he kind of has a knack for knowing what we want to hear. So there’s very little kind of back and forth with that stuff. Usually he does it and he nails it. So all those little things you’re hearing, everything like that, just as far as his attention to detail and his creative, the quality control of the whole thing. He makes sure everything is just as tight as it can possibly can be. He puts a lot of attention to every little piece, whether it’s the drums or the guitar or the vocals. He’s an amazing singer himself, and he’s an amazing guitar player. So he knows the instruments, and he knows the craft, so that allows him to really have a great ear for all that stuff.
Rock My Monkey: Is it ever strange having the A&R rep for your label also play bass in the band?
Ryan Clark: Not really. I’m actually the art director for the label, so it’s kind of just this big family.
Rock My Monkey: Interesting. Would you say that the band’s lineup has become stable yet?
Ryan Clark: Yeah. I actually do think so. It just feels like this is the group of guys that are going to be in it for the long haul. I think everyone’s really devoted to the band. I don’t think anyone really has their eye on anything else at this point. And I can’t foresee that in the future. It really feels like this is kind of the Demon Hunter family.
Rock My Monkey: So Yogi is officially in, or is he still a fill in?
Ryan Clark: Oh, he’s officially in.
Rock My Monkey: The video for Fading Away is actually doing really well. But who came up with the concept? Was that director, was that Zach’s idea, or did you hand him a sketch to go by?
Ryan Clark: We wrote up a treatment. I wrote up a treatment for the video. The bulk of what you see in the video I would say is my treatment, and Zach, when he got his hands on it, he made a few tweaks here and there. The idea of having each scene kind of go into the next, almost like, you can tell it’s all on a set, that was all Zach’s idea of kind of having it unfold that way. In my head I was thinking three entirely different locations, and we would be driving around shooting in different places. He had the idea to put it all in one spot, and just kind of give it that feel or that vibe that you’re in a different location, and then give away that it’s in the same location, that kind of thing was his added vision to the concept.
Rock My Monkey: What’s behind the promotional websites “Thread Of Light” and “Follow The Wolves”, and whose idea was that?
Ryan Clark: It was a combination of our manager and the band and the marketing team here at the label. It was basically just to have fun with the release, and experiment with new ways of marketing, and new ways of spreading the word or getting people excited or interested. Just kind of pique some interest in terms of what is going on, and give kids something to search for or seek out. Just add a new dynamic into that whole area.
Rock My Monkey: Are those going to be singles, then, or just the namesakes for the promotional websites?
Ryan Clark: Most of them are names of songs. They’re the URLs that weren’t already taken. So we just gathered up whatever ones were available from the song titles. So that’s them, and we have a few others, as well. We’re still kind of working with that. We kind of got it to a point where it launched the site with the radio player on it, which is what you’ll see now if you end up at ThreadOfLight.com. And then we’re using FollowTheWolves.com for a contest site. We’re just doing different things with them.
Rock My Monkey: There are three editions of the album, so what can fans expect from each of those, and why buy one over the other?
Ryan Clark: The regular edition, even though it’s the lesser of the three, it’s still got special packaging. It’s got a die cut booklet. It’s a twelve song record, so it’s definitely not short or skimpy in any form. It’s got all the lyrics and band photos and everything like that. The special edition is beefed up a little bit. It’s in a digipak, like a die cut special digipak, and it’s got some different images, and it comes with a DVD that has some band interviews and the video, and some other little things you can browse through on the DVD. And it also comes with, the cd comes with two extra songs, which were technically B-sides for this record, but they’re not like acoustic tracks or live tracks or anything like that. They’re new studio songs. Then the deluxe edition comes with those two additional songs on the cd as well, and comes with the DVD as well. But it also comes in a box, a die cut box, and it comes with a sticker, a vinyl sticker, five postcards, a large format book with tons of studio photos that are exclusive to the book, and liner notes for every song. Individual cd and DVD wallets are inside, and it comes with like a necklace pendant that easily could go for twenty dollars in any store, and the whole thing is $25. That one is definitely the best deal, but as far as I know at this point they’re sold out. At least online they are.
Rock My Monkey: What are the chances of the band doing a full coast to coast tour in the U.S. anytime soon?
Ryan Clark: We’re still putting the pieces together, but we’ll definitely be out next year in the summer of 2008. We’re just kind of arranging all that right now. We hope to kind of get the word out about the specifics pretty soon.
Rock My Monkey: So you’re thinking maybe springtime, then?
Ryan Clark: Yeah, it’ll probably be early summer. Late spring, early summer.
Rock My Monkey: Now is the time in the interview I like to call ‘The Lightening Round.’ I will name something in popular news or popular culture, and you sum up your thoughts in one short sentence. Ready?
Ryan Clark: Okay.
Rock My Monkey: Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Ryan Clark: Don’t know enough information to comment.
Rock My Monkey: The NBC show, Heroes.
Ryan Clark: Never seen it.
Rock My Monkey: The iPhone.
Ryan Clark: Own it. Best invention ever.
Rock My Monkey: President Bush.
Ryan Clark: Fallen on some difficult times.
Rock My Monkey: Fox News.
Ryan Clark: Don’t really watch it.
Rock My Monkey: Recording Industry Association Of America.
Ryan Clark: Also fallen on some hard times.
Rock My Monkey: I do have one final question. Every year we do choose one final question that we ask every single band from classic rock legends to the most extreme death metal bands at the end of every interview, partially to stump people, but also to see who wusses out and won’t answer. This year I’m asking people to look into their crystal ball and predict what political figure, world leader, musician, celebrity, anybody well known, anybody world wide famous, who do you think might die before the end of the year?
Ryan Clark: Wow. Die before the end of the year? Let’s say Courtney Love.
Rock My Monkey: I think that’s a unique answer. (both laugh) I thank you very much for doing the interview. Anybody that’s listening to the audio version can go to RockMyMonkey.com for the full featured version with clickable links, readable text and many more wonderful features. I’m asking people to click on the album cover above and below this interview to pre-order “Storm The Gates Of Hel”l by Demon Hunter. And I do hope to see you guys up on tour soon, and I thank you very much for your time.
