This Time It’s War has always maintained a commitment to thinking (and staying) outside the box. It’s this mentality that has helped them build a reputation as one of the more technical and unique metal bands to come out of Richmond, VA in the past several years, and their debut album Terror Plots is a testament to their ability to stay away from the norm. Formed in 2004 by longtime friends Alan Simpson (Guitar), John Gammon (Drums) and Justin Lawson (Guitar), This Time It’s War went through several line-up changes before being joined by Scott Quigly (Vocals) and Jeff Jennings (bass/synthesizer), with Jennings being the final addition in 2007. Several tours followed. In between they were constantly playing shows in the DC/Maryland/Virginia area, sharing the stage with acts like Periphery, Darkest Hour, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Karnivool and even Lamb of God. Eventually they built up enough material to begin recording a full length album, and released their full-length debut Terror Plots late last year. Unfortunately, production of the album was fraught with delays and miscommunication, and ultimately the band was forced to cut ties with their label and self-release the album. After a frustrating year, the band has finally begun working on new material for another EP, due out this November. Jeff Jennings and Alan Simpson were cool enough to give me some of their time to answer a few questions about the band.
The recording of your first full-length album sounds like it was a nightmare. If you could go back would you do anything differently?
Jeff: Probably everything. Seriously. If we could go back we would do everything completely different. The recording process lasted way longer then it should have, so we had to finish most of the album at home on our own. When we eventually finished tracking, we had to wait forever to get the album mixed, and at that point we didn't even know if the label would accept the album or not. Not fun.
Why wouldn’t they release it? How'd you feel about their explanation?
Jeff: They basically told us they didn't think the album would be marketable for 2010. I feel like if they had promoted the album, put us on few decent tours and made us look cool or whatever, then maybe it would have done all right. Labels want to make money. Investing in a band that is doing something differently or lacks the current popular sound/gimmick or whatever you want to call it isn't always the safest route to take, so their decision was totally understandable. It was just a big bummer. I don't think we were ever on the same page as far as what kind of band the label wanted us to be, and the kind of band we wanted to be. It happens to bands all the time. It was frustrating at the time after that long, drawn-out recording process and the lack of communication between [us and] the label. There were a few months after recording that we didn’t hear from the label at all. They eventually broke the bad news to us, resulting in a deal which allowed us to release Terror Plots on our own in order to pay back our recording fees. We sold our own copies at shows and online, shortly after we paid the label back we received our contract release and are no longer a part of that label. Could’ve been a lot worse. In a way we got lucky that they didn’t shelve our album or make us record everything again.
How does your creative process usually work?
Alan: It's a little different every time, but usually it starts with riffs or song ideas that Justin or I will have floating around. Jeff has been getting in on the writing much more this time as well. Usually, we'll demo a song at home and get it to the point where it resembles a song. Then we'll teach it to each other, head to the practice space and hammer it out with John, and edit/rewrite it from there until we get it to a point where we like it. By the time it's done, everyone has had an impact on the writing of the song, so it's definitely a group effort.
Jeff: When we record vocals, sometimes we have to change lyrics someone has written because they have to be tailored to fit the song or a specific vocal pattern. But Alan records our vocals and demos all of our songs at home and in the end we all have to agree on the song before we consider it “finished”.
What about lyrics? Are they a group effort too?
Jeff: Everybody wrote lyrics for Terror Plots. The lyrics tend to come about in different ways. Sometimes one of us will have a few ideas to pass around and we will all make suggestions or write a verse, in other instances someone will write a whole song. There's a lot of collaborating, which is awesome, I enjoy that aspect of songwriting a lot.
Are there any major themes in your lyrics? Or is a kind of mixture of different subjects?
Jeff: We really didn’t write lyrics specifically to a certain concept, but I think there are some underlying themes. Everybody's going to have unique experiences, everyone is influenced by different events, people, or circumstances; that's why it's cool that we all contribute to the lyrics. I think it's safe to say a good majority of the lyrical content on Terror Plots was inspired by free thinking and remaining open minded. I believe people should question their beliefs and always, always question the big entities that shape our planet and modern culture. We were all heavily influenced by those kinds of things at the time when we were putting these jams together. Still are.
What’s Richmond's metal scene like? Has anything changed since you guys started out?
Alan: It's weird. There's a pretty decent scene for thrash/death metal bands, and an ever-shrinking one for young kids playing metalcore/deathcore. We feel like we don't fit in here like we used to, but sometimes shows here are fun.
Jeff: Richmond has a really big hardcore scene. Lots of crusty punk bands, a lot of indie bands and unfortunately there is no shortage of dubstep house party DJ kids, who love to pretend they're actually doing something with their mac books. The metal scene in Richmond in my opinion feels like the different bands and scenes are segregated. Having so many different subgenres of metal, bands here never seem to intermingle. I don't really get it.
Alan: Back when we started playing shows heavily in 2005, we played Richmond frequently, sometimes a few times a month. It seems like there were show opportunities coming at as all the time, and we played with a lot of hardcore bands and older kids that brought us into the scene. The scene started to wane a
couple years later, and it's a shell of its former self now. The crowd just isn't there like it used to be and kids don't get as into it as they used to.
Do you still play in Richmond a lot?
Alan: We play Richmond every three or four months, sometimes more, sometimes less. Depends on if we get a good show offer or have a good reason to play around here.
Jeff: We try not to play too many shows in Richmond, we don't want kids to get sick of us.
How would you describe the Virginia metal scene in general?
Alan: Hard to say, these days. There was a time in the mid-2000's where there was a really strong scene that we were a part of, stretching from Northern VA through Fredericksburg and Richmond. Things seem to have changed a lot, with people growing older and growing out of it, being replaced by a younger crop of bands that seem to have a lack of originality and identity. I think that's just the nature of things, and we see it all over the place now. That's not saying that bands that are being true to themselves artistically don't exist, but that's something that I think was a big part of this music that has been lost over the past few years.
What are your tours like?
Alan: They're hit or miss, but usually a good time. We tour every few months, pretty much whenever we have a good opportunity to. We haven't had a solid booking agent other than ourselves, but we're working with someone now who's helping us out a bit. We've been all over the US, but we usually stick to the East Coast.
Jeff: Touring can be very expensive considering gas, food, toll roads and bridges, and van maintenance. It can be difficult to drop everything and tour, especially when we have other jobs and bills to pay. Every tour seems to get better for us. In the past we could drive 3 or 4 hours only to find out that the show was cancelled or in some cases not even booked. Other times we would end up playing for free because the promoter had no money to pay us.
Are you working on anything now?
Alan: We're working on a split EP with another band from Richmond called Fixtures. They're kids we've known for years, just from going to shows and hanging out together. Great people, we're very excited about releasing this with them. Originally we had plans to do an EP of our own, but they approached us about the split concept and it sounded like a good idea to us. We've finished most of the writing and we're fine tuning the songs in preparation for recording in a couple of months.
What originally made you want to work with Fixtures? How would you describe their music?
Alan: The concept of doing a split was pretty much a coincidence. We already had plans to release a three-song EP this fall, and they happened to be doing the same thing. It just made sense to us to help each other out and release it together. It's a win/win situation for both bands, really. We think they're one of the better bands in Richmond right now and they need to be heard more; we've been doing this for a while now and hopefully releasing a split with us will help them get more exposure. I don't think we sound much like each other at all, which is great too. You could classify Fixtures as a post-hardcore or post-metal band, though those terms are thrown around pretty loosely these days. Their music can be very open and ambient at times, and very noisy and aggressive at others; they counter the soft stuff and the loud stuff very well, and there's a lot of tension and release building up in their songs. They tend to have pretty long, epic songs and they create a great atmosphere with their music. Hopefully this split will appeal to all kinds of music fans.
Are there any particular changes or improvements you are going for with these new recordings?
Alan: Every recording is a learning process and a snapshot of where the band is at the time. I think we've tried to not overthink things as much this time around, since we spent a long time writing Terror Plots and probably tried to cram too many ideas into it. We wanted this EP to be a cohesive batch of songs that make sense as a whole as well. The rhythm section is much more defined since last time. I think John and Jeff are really creating a solid and musically interesting foundation for the songs, and they're much more locked in together. That leaves a lot of space for vocals, guitar work, and keyboard sounds, all of which we continue to experiment with in new ways. We're really happy with how it's come along so far.
What artist/artists made you want to pick up an instrument?
Alan: I started playing guitar when I was 12, on a whim. I started taking it pretty seriously the next year after I was introduced to bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Metallica, and Black Sabbath. From that point on, my interests steered toward more progressive bands like Rush and Dream Theater. I was also pretty heavily influenced by guys like Steve Vai, Jason Becker, Paul Gilbert... all the guitar heroes of the 80's and early 90's. I was playing guitar every day before and after school for hours on end. Pretty soon that lead me to the more extreme metal bands, especially the Swedish melodic death metal scene – Opeth, In Flames, At The Gates, etc. and the “New Wave Of American Heavy Metal” i.e. Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall, God Forbid, Killswitch Engage... I could go on and on. That's the foundation of my influences as a teenager.
Jeff: I loved Limp Bizkit when I was like 13 years old. It's true. That's about the time I started fooling around with the guitar. Deftones, Limp Bizkit and Korn were my favorite bands when I started trying to start my own bands (Deftones still are one of my favorites). I remember watching Limp Bizkit playing Counterfeit on MTV's Spring Break back in 97 or 98'. Wes Borland had a Paper Mache mask; Sam their bassist had orange hair or something, they just looked so crazy on stage. The stage was setup like a runway at a fashion show and during the set all these super hot model girls in bikinis were dancing around everywhere. That was awesome, totally made an impact on my 13 year old brain. I mowed my parents lawn the next day then rode my bike to Best Buy and bought Three Dollar Bill Y'all immediately. I grew up listening to everything that was being played on DC 101, the DC/VA/Maryland rock station; I also grew up watching a lot MTV, during a time when they actually played music videos. I guess it all started for me with those sweet 90's bands: Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, The Offspring, 311, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Alice in Chains, Silverchair, Foo Fighters, Metallica, and Smashing Pumpkins. The list goes on. Then I discovered nu-metal and start listening to faster and heavier music, hardcore, death metal, metalcore, and it just went on from there.
Is Northern Virginia a good place to be in a metal band?
Jeff: Having a strong local scene is important for establishing a fan base. Unfortunately I don’t think there’s anything going on as far as metal goes in NOVA anymore, at least not like it was when I started going shows. NOVA had a few really good underground venues, tons of local and touring bands would play these shows at churches and community centers. Pop-punk, metalcore and hardcore shows used to happen all the time and I just don’t see that kind of thing around anymore. I'm not saying don’t start a band in NOVA. It might not be the ideal location, but anywhere a band can practice is a great place to start a band. I don't know even know if it matters where your band starts. I've seen bands pop out of nowhere, who promoted themselves online and got a lot of hype and internet attention.
A lot of your online reviews like the idea of you guys using synth sounds on your album as well as live. But some of them were wondering if playing the bass and the synth at the same time creates any difficulties at live shows.
Jeff: There are always going be technical issues at live shows, everything else comes with practice. I can't wait for that perfect show when all of our gear works the way it’s supposed to. Most of the time everything goes over pretty well. I’ve had trouble getting the synth sounds through PA systems and balanced in monitor mixes correctly. But as far actually playing them goes, I used to try and headbang as hard as I could, but I'd get super dizzy, then realize, “Oh shit, I'm kinda dizzy and I have to step on these pedals, and now the room is sideways.” That was a challenge for a little while. As long as I remember what I’m doing (or what I should be doing), I'm usually ok.