Interview withMatthew Leone (bass) and Dan Torelli (drums) of Madina Lake
The Chicago-based Rock band MADINA LAKE is on tour with PAPA ROACH right now. In this year’s April, the four-piece consisting of Nathan (vocals) and Matthew Leone (bass, backing vocals), Dan Torelli (drums) and Mateo Camargo (guitar) released its second full-length long-player entitled with `Attics to Eden´. Within the scope of the guys´ appearance in Wiesbaden, we had the chance to have a chat with them after they had left the Schlachthof’s stage.
Reflections of Darkness (RoD): You are very busy these days. What’s the best thing about being on tour and what’s the worst one?
Madina Lake: Ummh, worst thing would probably be like... I guess it’s just the comfort that you miss while being away from home. On the bus it’s pretty much like sleeping on like this (They are knocking on the table.) So we are scratching and itching all night. We need to go to a furniture store to buy some pillows and blankets. (They laugh.) There’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes when you’re not on stage. So it’s just the unexpected, you know. I think the best and worst thing are the same. The best thing is being busy all the time in travelling, in meeting nice people, and the worst thing is being busy all the time in travelling and being around with other people.
RoD: Your guitar player’s leg is injured. Best wishes to him - what happened?
Madina Lake: Well, right before we came here we were touring in America. And while we were playing a show, he fell off the stage. He jumped off and hurt his knee.
RoD: Hopefully, he will get well soon.
Madina Lake (laughing): Thank you. We try to get hurt over here with this free health care.
RoD: The artwork of your recent CD is great. Who did it and does it stand for a special message you would like to send out to your listeners?
Madina Lake: The artist’s name is Vick Linden. He’s a burgeoning artist in America and is starting to become very successful. We got in touch with him because we loved his artwork. It turned out that he was a fan of our band. So he was willing to paint the cover of our record. In return, we recorded a song that we wrote for him. So it was like a perfect exchange. We loved it. The album’s theme and the message of the cover is the journey to discover yourself.
RoD: You were described as a fusion of MUSE and LINKIN PARK. Do you agree with this description?
Madina Lake: Yeah, to be honest, we love to hear that! First of all, we love and respect both of those bands and with our previous record we got pigeonholed into a certain genre we didn’t feel that’s was us at all. We were compared to bands like TAKING BACK SUNDAY and FALL OUT BOY. We don’t feel like we belong there and so we’re happy being compared to bands that are inspirational to us.
RoD: Beside MUSE and LINKIN PARK, what bands have influenced your creative work?
Madina Lake: We generally say bands like SMASHING PUMPKINS, NINE INCH NAILS, anything like that, but our musical taste is all over the place. For example, we’ve also been listening to TOM WAITS. He’s such a great songwriter. There’s just so much to listen to. We like anything that’s real authentic - the artist, the songs, the whole stuff, you know.
RoD: How do you prepare yourselves for the show? What do you do while you are waiting for getting on stage?
Madina Lake: We just do a lot of like finding a little corner or something like that. There we try to get into a kind of head space. We talk about the upcoming show and everyone gets on the same page. We think it’s important for us to do that. A lot of other bands do a lot of different things. Some of them like to party before the show, but we get really serious. (laughing) We know that some artists shut down their notebooks when there are only 30 seconds left until the show begins. That’s not the way how we could do that.
RoD: When you’re on stage, how does the audience respond to your new songs?
Madina Lake: Absolutely great! It all worked well and many kids knew the words of our new songs. The German audience is great and we’re very happy to be offered the chance to play here.
RoD: When you look back on your early days, what do you think today?
Madina Lake: We were very lucky though we weren’t shot to fame. I mean, we started in 2005 and we took step by step, but now everything is fine and we enjoy it a lot. Our families are very supportive and proud of us. They encourage us to do what we like to do, that’s simply amazing.
RoD: Any last words?
Madina Lake: Thank you very much; we love Germany and the German audience. Thanks for everything.
RoD: Thank you very much for taking time to answer our questions. I wish you a lot of fun and success while being on tour.
Madina Lake: Thank you, we really appreciate that.
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