STRIFE guitarist Andrew Kline was recently interviewed by Thrash Hits, where he discusses the making of their first album 11 years, “Witness a Rebirth”, which finally arrived earlier this month.
Okay, the most obvious question – why record a new record now? You’ve been touring as a reformed act for a few years, so what provided the spark to get back in a studio?
We have been touring quite a bit over the past few years after getting a lot more active back in 2010. Since then we have toured Europe, Japan, South America, Mexico, as well as some dates in the U.S. We decided that if we were going to remain active and continue playing that we should record some new songs. We wanted songs that not only represented who we are as a band in 2012, but also just some really new songs to play and get excited about.
How did you guys hook up with Holy Roar to put out Witness A Rebirth?
We made a conscious decision to work with smaller labels on this album. We wanted to work with labels that were really connected with the current hardcore scene, and labels that worked with some of the best up and coming bands in hardcore right now. 6131 Records released our album in the US, and were an obvious choice for us. They are one of the best up and coming hardcore labels, and they are based out of LA. I am a big fan of Rotting Out and Alpha Omega, so it is great to be on the same labels as these bands as well. We wanted to license the record in other territories as opposed to just have an American label release it. We were connected to Holy Roar through the guys at 6131, and they seemed like a good fit. So far it has been a great relationship – the album has been selling well internationally and within our own country. I think we will really be able to see how thinks worked out the next time we tour Europe and the UK.
Why did you choose Iggor Cavalera [he’s added an extra ‘g’, these days] to drum on the record?
Iggor is one of my all time favorite drummers and one of my best friends…. I was on tour with Cavalera Conspiracy when I was writing the Strife album. I played him some demo material on the bus and he was interested in playing on the record. If Iggor Cavalera wants to play on your record, you do everything in your power to make it happen! And that is exactly what we did. I flew down to Brazil with Nick [Jett], who produced the record, and we tracked all of the drum tracks in Sao Paulo. He is a very solid and hard hitting drummer, and he added a lot to this record. He knew exactly what kind of drumming these songs called for, and he added enough of his signature fills and flair to make it cool without overplaying.
Did you ever consider flying Iggor to California to record the record, rather than going down to Brazil?
It was a thought for sure….but If you had a choice to record a record in your hometown or in Sao Paulo, Brazil, what would you do? I went the adventurous route, and I am definitely happy with that decision.
How was the writing process of Witness A Rebirth different from your previous album?
Writing was a lot different. In the past, we would all rehearse together over and over and work out songs. This time around, the first time I played any of these songs with a live drummer was when we were recording the album. I would write riffs at home on an acoustic guitar and record them into my phone, then take those ideas to my friend’s house and record actual demo versions. We would then tweak and edit those until we had a song we wanted to record.
The rest of the interview can be read here.
