Gods Girls

DARKEST HOUR

interview by Paula

What made Sounds of the Underground 2007 so amazing for me, was that one of my personal favorite bands, Darkest Hour, was part of it. Thanks to Tito, their tour manager, I had a chance to not only interview guitarist Mike Schleibaum, but also hang out with the guys! I was very nervous, mostly because of my accent, but the guys turned out to be amazing and extremely nice, and made the whole process a lot of fun. When I caught up with them, they had just started SOTU, between the tour and the release of their new (amazing) album "Deliver Us" on July 10th, the boys are keeping themselves busy! The rest of the year looks to have similar in store for them, shortly after the SOTU tour wraps up, the band is kicking off a European tour with As I Lay Dying, and another tour is in the works for as soon as they return home.

Hanging with the band was definitely one of the best days of my life! As a fan it is always nerve wracking to meet a favorite band, you never can be sure what to expect. The boys of Darkest Hour were a pleasant surprise; they love their fans, and love talking to them.

Paula: Introduce yourself.

Mike: My name is Mike Schleibaum. I play guitar in the band Darkest Hour, and I love looking at naked girls on the internet, occasionally, when I'm allowed by my wife.

Paula: Describe Darkest Hour's sound for those who know metal but have never heard of you guys before.

Mike: If you know metal, it's kind of like... sounds like older Swedish influenced death metal with some American punk-rock and hardcore, all mixed together, I would say.

Paula: How's the tour (SOTU) going so far?

Mike: It's only been like 3 days, but it's awesome. It's a lot different than Ozz Fest is like, less bands, so there's more of a regular tour vibe, and the regular tour vibe kind of makes it cooler. You can just walk on everybody's tour bus, so it's pretty cool, I'm into it.

Paula: The new album "Deliver Us" is coming out on July 10th, what can we expect from it?

Mike: Is coming out in 2 days! I'd say you can expect a lot of things that made the last record "Undoing Ruin" really good, with a little bit of a new spin. I think what we tried to do is take the things that were really good and amplified them, you know? Like in the songs, make the songs a little bit more interesting. I think people can expect just a better Darkest Hour record than the other ones.

Paula: What are you listening to now-a-days?

Mike: I listen to some metal, but it's been kind of interesting, I think the last record that I bought was the new White Stripes, I think it's really good. My music, my personal music taste, is kind of all over the place, so I wouldn't say I listen to too much metal, all the time but when I do... It's funny, we were talking with the singer from Shadows Fall and he said that he used to love listening to metal before he did it for a living. It's kind of funny, that's kind of how I feel too, in a lot of ways. I'd rather find new rock bands and bands that inspire me in different ways.

Paula: How/When was Darkest Hour born?

Mike: It started in 1995 as a high school, heavy metal band. We were just little kids and we just, me and the singer John, we started the band and we just never really stopped.

Paula: Who came up with the name?

Mike: Actually the name was on a list of a bunch of other names, we needed a name because we had a show, and we wanted to pick a name but we didn't want it to be really shitty, so Darkest Hour was just a common, random name that fit and wasn't offensive so we just picked it.

Paula: What else do you do, besides playing guitar, on your free time?

Mike: I mean, I like sex, and I like playing guitar, and... I mean that's pretty much all I do when I'm home, when I have free time, either that or just chill out. I guess it sounds pretty boring but when you do what you love for a living you don't want to do anything else, you know what I mean?

Paula: It makes sense. Have you watched Transformers?

Mike: No! We are going to try to see it tomorrow, but I'm a huge fan. There are a couple little details already that I'm a little bit nervous about, but I think it should be cool. You liked it?

Paula: Loved it! I actually clapped after it ended, and I never do that because I think is cheesy, haha, but I did it, it was awesome.

Mike: haha, so you were into it.

Paula: What's your favorite 80's movie?

Mike: My favorite 80's movie is probably Fast Times at Ridgemont High, I mean, it's kind of like the most real 80's movie, it just spoke teenager to me. I also really liked Better off Dead too. I really like John Cusack movies, I don't want to see him in horror though. I only want to see John Cusack as a romantic love interest, not in a fucking horror movie.

Paula: Most memorable time as a member of Darkest Hour?

Mike: I think that you go through phases of most memorable times, you know, and I mean, if those are defined by the times in where you did something that... where you feel like you have achieved something, I would say the writing of any of the records or when we did Ozz Fest was kind of a crazy deal. I don't think anything else has come close to those.Paula: Do you believe robots are going to take over the world?

Mike: No, it's going to be aliens. See, I don't buy into the whole Terminator theory that technology would take over, like, technology is evil and dangerous but I don't think it's going to move that fast. What's really going to happen is: all this poking around in space, eventually aliens are going to find us, and whether we pull together as a human race, I think it will determine whether we survive the alien... you know. I don't necessary believe it will be an invasion, but I think once they realize what our nature is, I think this aliens are not going to be stoked, and we are going to have ourselves a fucking problem. But, I believe that aliens are good, I'm not a person that believes they are all bad, so I want to throw that out there, aliens if you hear this transmission, you know... Take me, please!

Paula: Do you guys snuggle with each other?

Mike: Umm, I've found heavy metal as being rather homophobic, judgmental, so I'm going to just go off the record, or go on the record with "No Comment". That's like, safe for me, maybe we don't snuggle, but I'm sick of people being homophobic, or maybe we do snuggle and I'm just covering up the fact that we are all gay. You don't know, but I'd rather just leave that out there.

Paula: What was the first concert you ever went to?

Mike: First concert I ever went to was Metallica, Guns & Roses, and Soundgarden. It was killer. Fucking, got to see 2 songs from Guns & Roses cause they took like 8hrs to set up, and the metro was leaving.

Paula: So if you find out you are going to die, what would be your last meal?

Mike: I would have ribs and fried ice cream, I mean, if I'm going to die, fuck it, right? Ribs, fried ice cream, a coca-cola, some weed... dude there has to be some fucking weed... ummm...

Paula: As you are having sex? Haha!

Mike: YES! Sex, you are right... sex on the food, haha, that sounds gross. Sex on ribs and fried ice cream! That's what I would want to do, that sounds perfect.

Paula: Who is the ladies man?

Mike: Ryan Parrish, the drummer, all the time, any time, he likes to talk to them. He's a nice guy, he's a good guy. Some of us are perpetually dating, and he's perpetually single.

Paula: Since we are talking about relationships, how does that work, with the distance and stuff?

Mike: Is this a set up? Haha, this is a set up. This isn't some episode of Cheaters... I'm not going to fall for this. No! It's not hard, Period.

Paula: Who's your favorite superhero?

Mike: Umm... see, I'm really into sci-fi. I would have to say a superhero... Wolverine. Yeah, Wolverine is badass, with the claws and shit. But, I came up with my idea for a better superhero. I want to have a superhero who has a shit load of tattoos, but he can pull the tattoos off of him and make the things happen, you know? Yeah, because he can always add new powers 'cause he can just get tattooed, like, "I need naked strippers, bam! I need a shark, bam!"

Paula: Haha! What was your favorite toy when you were growing up?

Mike: Well, before I found a guitar I'd say it was... I mean, I was really into Transformers, I was, man, no fucking joke. I might have been more into Star Wars, but see... Star Wars was old by the time I got into it 'cause it came out right around my birthday. Star Wars came out May '77, and I was born in June of '77, so by the time I was four, it had been out for four years. So, pretty much Star Wars, Transformers, and Ninja Turtles.

Paula: Do you play Guitar Hero?

Mike: Yes, both, One and two. Me and Johnny (the sound guy) actually got five stars together playing The Police "Message in a Bottle" on hard!

Paula: Who is the oldest one in the band?

Mike: The oldest guy in the band would be the bass player, Paul Burnette, he's thirty-one – thirty-two ish.

Paula: Worst situations while touring?

Mike: Twelve thousand dollars stolen. Paul Burnette had a spider bite, and he almost had his foot amputated. Kris Norris had to get all of his teeth removed. John Henry, he breaks a lot of bones, he gets dehydrated a lot, he has a lot of weird problems, nothing major, but we are always helping him out. Ryan Parrish... I can't think of anything, oh yeah! He had some ear problem and we had to take him to the hospital. I had a kidney stone, and that was probably the most painful moment of my life on tour, it was fucking brutal!

::: ::: :::

After the interview, Mike had to leave, but I had a chance to hang out with John Henry for a while and talk about music and life. Later on I hung out with Ryan, we had some good conversation, played air drums, did some silly dances, and he introduced me to a few other musicians. Seriously, these guys are amazing, and extremely talented. I would like to thank all the guys of Darkest Hour, Johnny (sound production manager), and of course their tour manager Tito. If you have never heard of them, you should definitely check them out at www.myspace.com/darkesthour. If you are a fan already, make sure to check out their new album Deliver Us, and any others you may have missed, you won't be disappointed. Also, if you have the opportunity to see them live make sure you do, it is always a great show.

-THE END-

Lynks:

Band Interview : Darkest Hour