This is just a backup of the original interview. You should check the original one here.

Interview

By Amy Bateson @ Kill The Noise
With Vinnie, Ratt, Kellen and Mike
On May 13th, 2005

Can you introduce yourself and what you do in I am the avalanche?
Vinnie: Hi, I'm Vinnie and I sing for I am the avalanche
Ratt: I'm Ratt I play drums for I am the avalanche
Kellen: I'm Kellen I play bass.
Mike: I'm Mike I play guitar
V: There's Brandon, he plays guitar too, but he's not here.

I have to ask this, can you explain the real reason behind why the Movielife split up?
V: So I could start I am the Avalanche.

How did I am the Avalanche form?
V: I had known a bunch of these guys through The Movielife, I met Mike in Virginia Beach, and Kellen and I, our bands toured together -scraps and heart attacks- was the band that he was in. I toured with Brandon in Further Seems Forever when I was in The Movielife and then I moved to Brooklyn.
R: Me and Mike lived together and the rest is history.

How did you come up with the name?
V: It was actually a lyric, I still hadn't a name for the band and I was juggling a few around. I was trying to fit the lyrics to the song and then I was having a tough time making it sound cool so I kinda just changed it to the name of the band.

Can you explain your sound and influences?
R: There are bands that we listen to that we are very influenced by, I'd say mostly since we started the bands that we've been influencing off of each other. We all have different musical taste so we all kinda just pull and take from each other. I pull a lot from Kellen's style, and Vinnie grew up in a different musical environment from me. I really think we are more influenced as friends more than anything.
M: Me, Kellen and Vinnie all grew up on the hardcore scene, and you can hear a lot of punk elements in our music.
K: Our dads all raised us on really good rock ‘n' roll.
R: Exactly, but we all listen to reggae, a lot of us are into hip hop its not just that. We listen to a lot of Crotch Duster, have you heard of them?

(Laugh) nah
R: Ohhh you have to get with it.

You've been working in the studio recently on your full length, is there a date set for the release?
All: September 27th!
R: We worked with Barret Jones, a producer out there. We literally just finished the record about 3 days before we got here. We flew out of Seattle straight to Brooklyn for one day, and then we flew out here.

Have you decided on a name for it?
V: I don't know
R: We were talking about something to do with peanut butter today, what was that
M: The last...
R: Oh yeah The Last of the American Peanut Butters, we were gonna call it.
V: We must point out that's definitely what we're not calling it.

You've been on tour in the UK for a few days now, so how's it going?
V: Its been incredible, we're out with three other awesome bands that are all really nice and everyone hangs out and chills, we're really lucky. Everyone cares about us at home and our record label cares about us, they put us on this bus and we're playing in front of all these kids every night, its been amazing. Some kids are familiar with The Movielife, some kids realise after and then there are a lot of kids who just don't know who we are. It's really cool because Hellogoodbye were supposed to be on this tour and sometimes we get into cities and it still says Hellogoodbye on the posters, so when we get up on stage we're like, we have half an hour to blow everyone away, who cares if we're the first band lets go out and kill it.
R: It's like we get up there and they wanted to see the two bands that aren't playing so we have to push it up a notch.
M: We're very comfortable with out slot and place right now in the scene. It's very comfortable and welcoming, it's very cool.
V: A lot of bands are looking out for us, trying to hook us up with shows, trying to help us get to where we wanna be, so we've really been touring all year, promoting our record because we worked for a while on this record and we're really really proud of it, we haven't heard it mixed yet but so far it sounds amazing.

If all the Drive Thru/Rushmore bands got in a fight who'd win?
V: I saw the Drive Thru DVD and I saw one of the guys from The Early November, he got asked this question and he was like Movielife!

The guys in Hidden in Plain View said you guys...
M: Yeah, well we're from the mean streets of Brooklyn.
K: Yeah, well we carry brass knuckles around with us everywhere (laughs).
V: We like yell and scream and jump around and we're kinda covered in tattoos and from Brooklyn, I think people kinda have a perception of us. But obviously we're all pretty chilled, look at us.

Do you think you could take them though?
V: Erm.. I dunno, I'm trying to think of the other Drive Thru bands
M: I think Allister would put up a damned good fight.
V: Yeah those guys have got something
K: Yeah I would definitely not fuck with those guys
R: Yeah but those guys are really down to earth, they're cool.

Right, this question's from my editor... he wants to know if you've ever touched Daryl Plumbo's bits?
V: (laughs) I'm sorry, (laughs) why would I have done that! Definitely not (laughs) I tattooed his ass once though...

Really? What was it?
V: I don't think anyone knows that, I guess they will now. It says my name with a heart over the I. He tattooed me too.

What's yours?
V: It just says Daryl on the top of my leg.

On your leg?
V: Yeah well we have a lot of friends that have tattoo guns, so we just like to mess around and tattoo each other. Hopefully my dad wont read that
R: Or mom
V: Sorry mom.

What's planned for the rest of 2005 for I am the Avalanche?
K: Lots of touring
V: I plan on being in a band with my best friends spending probably the best time of my life. When we get back from this tour we're doing two weeks with the Gym Class Heroes and Fireescape, have you heard of them?

Yeah...
V: Yeah, the Gym Class Heroes are an indie hip-hop band from New York, they kinda play more punk and emo whatever you want to call it shows. They're getting a really big following over there. Doing a bunch of headline stuff, I think we'll be heading out with Hidden In Plain View in the states and after our record comes out I guess we'll be coming back here and doing a headliner tour. So yeah, it wont be too long until we get back here, our record will be out so everything will be different I hope. Not that its not been amazing but I think we have too many sing along parts in our songs for no one to know the words. So we'll wait for the record to come out, but it should be a good year. This tours going to eastern Europe so we kinda had to hurry through, but I think when we come back through we're only going to do the UK so we'll be able to do all the markets and make everyone happy so that no one has to drive 2 hours to get to the show.
R: Yeah and we'll be playing headline shows 'cos right now we're just playing a 5 song set, so when we come back our record will be out so we'll be playing a full set.
M: We're playing more rock songs on this tour, this is a very heavy guitar driven tour like all the bands sound really loud, so we're not playing any slow songs on this tour.

Cool, cheers, thanks for your time.
All: Thanks

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