Mind Equals Blown

Interview: As I Lay Dying

We got the chance to chat with Jordan Mancino of As I Lay Dying at the Hollywood Palladium stop of the Cool Tour.  Come in to hear about the set list, birthdays and touring overseas.

Mind Equals Blown: Alright, so we’re here with Jordan from As I Lay Dying. Jordan, you’re currently on the Cool Tour and so many bands are out here. How’s it been hanging out with all these bands and other people you’re familiar with?

Jordan Mancino: Oh it’s been great. Uh, yeah. I’ve had a really, really good time. Some of the bands we’ve just met on this tour and it’s cool getting to know them. But the tour is so short it’s like, you get to say, “What’s up,” and get to know each other and then you’ve got to say, “Adios,” you know. So it’s uh, [laughs] it’s a quick one. But yeah, it was pretty great, everyone had a lot of fun. And a lot of long, long drives for everybody, especially the few that have been rolling in vans. They’ve been the troopers for sure.

MEB: Now we hear that you’ve been playing a new song on the tour. Can you tell us about it?

JM: We’re playing four new songs actually. We’re playing “Beyond Our Suffering,” “Anodyne Sea,” “Vacancy,” and “Condemned.” So we have four new songs to showcase.

MEB: So of the new songs, what’s your favorite to play so far?

JM: I like “Beyond Our Suffering,” that’s really a lot of fun.

MEB: Definitely one of your harder ones. It’s actually doesn’t have clean vocals in it; I can’t remember the last time you guys had a song without clean vocals in it.

JM: Yeah. You know, there’s a lot of screaming songs on each of the records. Obviously usually the singles have clean vocals and stuff in them, but this one we just, you know, all screaming.

MEB: Alright. So you guys’ most recent release is The Powerless Rise, how was the creative process for that one different than the last few?

JM: I think we just spent more time. We’ve finally got comfortable writing with each other and understand how each of us works in a creative scenario. This time we just had I guess a lot of time to write and a lot of time to record and being able to do everything we wanted, nothing was missing. We got to mix for almost two months, by default really. But yeah, we just got to spend a lot of time to be really, really riffic to where it was almost getting out of hand [laughs]. But really we were able to do everything we wanted to do.

MEB: Now one thing different from this record is I know you guys brought in Josh Gilbert to play bass and clean vocals for you guys before the last record, but I believe he didn’t contribute to the writing process for that one. Well how has the dynamic of the band changed since Josh came in?

JM: He’s fit in great. He’s actually pretty seamless really. It was cool this time around having him part of the creative process. He’s had a lot of awesome ideas and helped write a lot of the record actually, which I think brings another element to the band. You know, we’re used to writing just the four of us for the last couple of records, and it’s good to have every member of the band involved in that creative process. You have the ideas flowing around and having opinions. And yeah, it really shows through.

MEB: You’re one of the two guys who have been around for the whole time; you’re on all five records. How do you guys put together a set list every night with so much different material to go through?

JM: Start cutting songs. [Laughs] Um yeah, actually this is the first tour that we haven’t played “Forever.” It’s crazy. We actually played “Forever” on the first tour that we ever did. It wasn’t even finished yet and we just played it. But you’ve just gotta start cutting the old songs. We try to change up the set list every tour to kinda try to keep things interesting so people will come out to multiple shows. And obviously we’re trying to promote the new record as well. So it’s a fine line with trying to please your fans with the old records, but also promote your new record too and give them something new to listen to. But I think we have a pretty well-rounded set list.

MEB: After the Cool Tour is over, where are you guys headed to next?

JM: Were home for about a month and half, then we’re doing a headline run in the States and in Canada and basically any and a lot of the markets we’ve missed on this tour. And that’s about a year for the headline run and I’m not sure what’s coming next year.

MEB: Now, we’re all used to the tour Stateside. Most people don’t know what it’s like to tour out of the country, I mean you go to Canada, you go to Europe, what are the differences between over there and over here?

JM: It’s not that much different to be honest. Obviously your surroundings are different, but the shows are great. Venues are a stage in a building basically. We try to do the same show here as we do there and vice versa. We always try to put on the best show that we can. Especially in a headlining scenario, you’re trying to create something exciting for the people that are coming to the show and create a cool production for them and lightshow them all up. So it’s pretty much the same. The crowds are awesome everywhere.

MEB: Now I know you celebrated your birthday not too long ago. You guys were actually at the House of Blues in Vegas during that time. Any good stories from that trip?

JM: Um, gosh. Not really, you know. It was a fun night. Actually a lot of my friends ended up coming out from San Diego, so yeah we just hung out, had a couple beers and just kinda chilled. It was part of the end of the tour and my birthday as well so yeah it was a lot of fun.

MEB: I know a lot of people that weren’t there that didn’t get to know this, but you did a whole big drum solo that night. So it was pretty cool to see you do your thing behind the kit.

JM: Yup!

MEB: Any other memorable tour story from either this one or the last one that you care to share?

JM: Gosh, there’s so many I can’t even think of any. My mind draws a blank. But honestly, all the best tour stories are captured on camera for the most part on the DVD. So we have loads of tour stories from there and fun stuff to watch. So anybody who hadn’t gotten that yet, I definitely recommend it. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of footage, but it’s definitely well worth the expense. Gosh, it’s like three days and over six hours of footage and stuff but it has all the entertaining tour stories that you can get visually.

MEB: Okay. And we always try to leave by finding out what musicians are listening to. What are a couple of albums that you can’t put down lately?

JM: I’ve really been into Testament a lot lately. I’ve always liked the band but I just kinda renewed my passion for that band lately. I recommend the Gathering which has actually James Lombano plays drums on that. One of my favorite records, it sounds amazing. If you don’t have it, I recommend you get it.

MEB: Alright, well that was our interview with Jordan from AILD. Jordan, thank you.

JM: Thanks a lot.