Hailing from Buffalo, New York, Every Time I Die have just wrapped up their British tour and about to head out on the road in the US this summer as part of the Warped tour. John Consterdine caught up with frontman Keith Buckley to chat about what the band have been up to...

So how has wet and cold England been treating Every Time I Die so far?

Keith: Actually the sun has been out, I’ve never seen the sun here but I like it.  

How have you found the tour so far in general?

Keith: Great. The shows are packed, the other dudes are awesome, kids are great. 

Is there anywhere you look forward to playing in particular?

Keith: London. We have a day off in London so I’m gonna do the touristy shit, go and see things like Big Ben and probably just quote European Vacation the whole time I’m there. 

“The Big Dirty” came out last year; do you think it was well received overall here in Europe, especially as you also moved to Ferret Records over here as well.

Keith: Yeah, well the songs we’re playing off “The Big Dirty” have been going down really well, so that means a lot because we haven’t been over here in two years. 

I was gonna say, it has been quite a long time since you last toured the UK, do you think that time away has done you good, with most of the shows being sold out?

Keith: Too much time away from anywhere isn’t necessarily good but we just didn’t have a good opportunity to come back, to be able to come back and still have kids coming out even though they haven’t seen us for so long is definitely a positive that we need to get back here more often.  

What are the plans then for after this tour?

Keith: We go home and have about two months off, then we do the Warped Tour and then we’re doing International Taste Of Chaos which will bring us back here, from October to December we’ll be overseas so I’m not sure when exactly it will hit Europe and the UK but it will be within those months. 

Do you think in some your ways your reputation of not taking interviews seriously has preceded you a little bit?

Keith: Yeah it has preceded me a little bit but I can still be serious sometimes. 

Well, on an unserious note, if it was vampires versus zombies, who’s gonna come out of that one?

Keith: Well what would happen, because I mean zombies already kinda have eternal life until their head’s shot off, so it wouldn’t really do much for the zombies to get bit by a vampire, but at the same time vampires drink infected blood that would probably make him a zombie. So zombies will win and obviously get their way. So it would be foolish for a vampire to attack a zombie.

Then you’d get super vampire zombies.

Keith: They could fly!

Who have a hunger for both brains and blood.

Keith: Yeah, that’s a good idea, flying zombies, good one.

Then you’d have to get the guy from Evil Dead [Bruce Campbell] to hunt them all down.

Keith: That’s true yeah. 

Back to a more serious note, what would you say has influenced you when writing the lyrics for the band?

Keith: Erm, a lot of Tom Waits. Erm, I dunno, it was very close circuit, I tried to go inward instead of outward and taking things from bands I like. I definitely think it’s our most introspective album. I’d also say whiskey, which was my biggest inspiration.

You can’t really go wrong with whiskey and Tom Waits.

Keith: Yeah exactly. 

Would you say the band’s musical progression on each album has helped as well?

Keith: Yeah, definitely, I think that this new one is like a more matured “Hot Damn!” which is good for us, as that was the record that people seem to like the best. 

You’ve had people guest on previous albums, like Gerard Way [My Chemical Romance], Howard Jones [Killswitch Engage], is that like friends of the band that you’ve wanted to hook up with?

Keith: Yeah. Yeah. Luckily I’m in a position where, people I really admire are friends of mine. The new one has Dallas Green [Alexisonfire] on it, who I’m a fan of personally and musically, so to have him on it is a real, real treat. I think with Dallas, Daryl [Palumbo, Glassjaw/Head Automatica] and Gerard, there’s only two more people in this genre that I’d really wanna work with, it’s like a dream come true for me. 

So if you got the chance to collaborate with some one outside the metal genre who would it be and is there any particular reason?

Keith: Erm, ah Jesus, I mean if I could choose it’d be Thom Yorke [Radiohead] just because he’s my favourite person of all time. I dunno, Mike Patton [Faith No More/Mr Bungle] would be good to work with. I think Pat from Fall Out Boy has one of the best voices I’ve ever heard. 

It’s quite hard to put a specific tag to Every Time I Die, so what would you class yourselves as if you really had to, considering you’re a mix of everything?

Keith: Punk rock n roll I’d say. We’re always branded as a metal band but I don’t think that’s really appropriate, some of the guys listen to metal but we don’t have that image, I don’t think we have a lot of that sound. I think just because we’re heavy doesn’t mean we’re a metal band, there are a lot of heavy rock n roll band out there, a lot of heavy punk rock bands.

I suppose in a way your more of a modern interpretation of bands like Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat and bands like that.

Keith: Yeah, that’s cool, because I grew up with those bands.

Would you say the hardcore influence is definitely there as well?

Keith: Yeah, I mean that’s going really far back, but yeah Minor Threat, Chokehold, Dead Kennedys for sure, old, old bands like Mouthpiece, I don’t even know if people are familiar with those bands. There are bands from Canada like New Day Rising that I grew up listening to, because I used to live in Buffalo.  

Thank you for your time Keith and hopefully we’ll see you again on the Taste Of Chaos tour.

John Consterdine