by Christopher Mygrant

 Andrew Williams
World of Fandom: The music business is just that, a business. With that said, what methods does a band have to use to sell themselves and their music? In the case of Everytime I Die, what did you all have to do to differentiate yourselves and sound from the many bands vying for that illusive top rung of the ladder?

Andrew (Andy) Williams: First I would have to say is that we’re pretty original. We’re not like most metalcore bands. I mean, I would probably have to say that first. If I was to do one of those mixed things, like we sound like this and this, I really don’t think I could be able to describe it. The only thing that I could probably say is it’s (the sound) sort of like a Southern punk rock band almost. Like a Black Flag fused with like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Something like that. I don’t know. That’s a hard question. To sell yourself.

WOF: Well, when you are up on stage, you are in essence promoting yourselves so there would have to be some sort of a conscious effort to set yourselves apart from the many other choices out in the metal / punk community. If you don’t promote, you don’t eat

AW: Exactly. Yeah, I don’t know. I guess we’re fortunate to have people at the record label to do that.

WOF: How was E.T.I. D. recognized in order for you and your colleagues to live out a dream that many people in the world can only dream about?

AW: Dude that’s the first thing we like to stress. We know that we have been handed an opportunity. Most bands, they kind of like ride the high horse and are big headish about their success. Honestly though, we’re five dudes from Buffalo, New York that honestly got handed an opportunity. I think hard work was the biggest thing for us. I mean, we’ve been a band for like eight years and we’ve been touring all eight years, so technically it wasn’t something that was handed to us. I think the hard work finally paid off.

WOF: You’re reaping the benefits now.

AW: Exactly.

WOF: Due to the many aspects of the music industry (e.g. record companies, management, the creative process, touring, etc.), how is it that Every Time I Die has survived thus far when many bands have fallen by the way side?

AW: From the business side of things, I think we’ve done well because we haven’t burned our bridges. Nowadays it’s so easy to burn bridges with like so many record labels, so many promoters, etc., know what I mean? So we’ve been fortunate enough to never burn a bridge.

WOF: A non-forgiving world it seems.

AW: Exactly and it’s weird that a bunch of guys have tried to do this as real as possible. There’s no mask or anything like that. We’re open about everything and we tell people straight up. Where again, that’s another thing where everything is done behind the back. It’s a business where everything is done behind the back. No one ever knows anything. No one saves face anymore. So I think that was the one thing got us to where we are. Just being honest and working as hard as we possibly could.

WOF: Perseverance.

AW: Exactly man. It’s pretty cliché to say, and I know bands do say it, but I think we’re the one band that realizes that we were handed this opportunity, but it could end tomorrow. Anything could make it end tomorrow.

WOF: This is true. Playing in a band and touring is a dream for many, but when it comes down to brass tax, it is a job and like with any job, one can get fired or in your case, loose fan interest. Through the years, I think many bands have looked the gift horse in the mouth and forgot the entire reason they formed in the first place. One must stay a realist at all times.

AW: Exactly.

WOF: Okay. I display in front of you the CD cover of Gutter Phenomenon. What feelings are conjured up when you walk into a store and see your product on the shelves for everyone to see and purchase?

AW:  I love it. I mean honestly (pauses). I guess everyone sets goals for themselves and obviously for the band and stuff like that, but another thing we’ve been fortunate to say is that every goal we’ve ever made has been reached. We didn’t like keep our goals high. It wasn’t like, we were like, ‘Dude, we’re gonna do a Van Halen tour.’ We always kept it low.

I mean, I never thought I would be in Japan. I’ve been to Japan. I’ve been to Australia. I’ve been to Europe many of times. I never, ever thought in my life that my guitar would get me there. I thought that, you know, those were goals I never thought I would ever reach. I always thought those would be untouchable goals.

I guess the one goal, the first goal we made, was to have our CD everywhere we could possibly have it and now to see Gutter Phenomenon…you know Gutter Phenomenon is the one where us and our label (Ferret) finally grew together. We’ve been around the whole time and it was like finally we did our job and they did their job and look at this, you can go to Best Buy and buy Everytime I Die CDs. It’s awesome. It’s amazing.

WOF: Has Ferret promoted the band well?

AW: Yeah, yeah. See, another thing man, I mean, we’ve been offered those major label deals and stuff like that…

WOF: (interjecting) Oh you have and you stayed with Ferret?

AW: Yeah. Fuck them (not Ferret). Basically the one that’s really funny is uh, you know, these dudes will come up to you, some A/R jerkoff, that is never…it’s not a personal thing…this is a guy that works for a label and his job is to soak you for everything that you have. I mean that’s basically it. He’s not giving you an opportunity to grow. He’s just looking to bleed you until the next cool thing comes along and then drop you, but with Ferret, we’re the only band on the label that’s invited to that guy’s (the label president) wedding. We’re like a friend. He’s one of my best friends. You know, we go through Jersey and we all get wasted together. You know what I mean?

WOF: Ferret and you all are like family.

AW: Exactly. That’s exactly it man. As lame as it sounds, blood is thicker than water. I mean like look at the major labels, it’s water and then you look at Ferret and it’s blood. We’ll never go in that direction.

WOF: When did you decide to play the guitar and what still drives you to be better and to make Andy’s sound different from all the other guitar players in the world?

AW: Um, that’s a good question. I started playing when I was about…I started messing around when I was like sixteen. I didn’t take it seriously, I played drums at the time and guitar was like, eh whatever. I had a guitar, which kind of like sat in the corner in my room. Then this band, at the time, had their guitar player leave and they said, “Hey look, you play guitar right?” I said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t have any gear or anything like that.’ And they were like, “Let us show you this song and then you can come play tonight and that’s it.” So that night I picked up my guitar from the corner, went out and bought a half stack, they showed me where to put my fingers, I played the show and I did a good job.

So I played that night and then, I don’t know, something just inside of me was like, ‘Whoa, this is way cooler than drums.’ Then the drums started getting super boring and the guitar got really really interesting.

WOF: How long ago was this?

AW: That was, I’m twenty-eight now, that was thirteen years ago and I still like, to this day, find new things. You find like new cords…

WOF: (interjecting)  And that is what I was eluding to, it is a never-ending learning process. But how to you differentiate your sound from other guitar players?

AW: I’m still learning and it’s still the most interesting thing on the planet. If I had a guitar in front of me right now, I would be playing it. My whole thing is, was never learning and I wanted to teach myself how to play so it was my own style. I wasn’t trying to learn how to play Joe Satriani songs. I wasn’t trying to learn Steve Vai songs; I wanted to know how to play Andy Williams songs. I wanted to write my own music. So everything that I have ever done is all original. I know how to play some songs; you know what I mean? I can hear it in my head and I go, ‘Yeah, I know that’, but I don’t want to play that.

WOF: This may seem like an aloof question, but how does that “hearing it in my head” process work? What I mean, there are many that have never had lessons, but have been able to become accomplished musicians.

AW: I think it’s just one of those things. It’s just for some people. I’ll tell you a little story.

I have horrible eye-hand coordination. When I was growing up, everyone of my teachers were always telling me I have terrible hand-eye coordination. I can’t write very well, it’s really weird. But I can play guitar. And that still baffles them (the teachers). I have a high school teacher that I am still friends with and he’ll call to remind me how terrible I was in school, but then he’ll ask, “But how the fuck do you play guitar?” It’s just something that’s inside a person. As soon as I put a guitar in my hands, it makes sense.

WOF: Are the five of you brothers? Not in the biological sense, but are you close as brothers?

AW: The four of us are brothers (Jordan Buckley, Keith Buckley, Mike Novak and Andy). We’ve always had a rotating bass player. Me, our other guitar player (Jordan), our drummer (Mike) and our singer (Keith) are like brothers in the sense. I mean we have so many inside jokes and all that stuff. I mean I know what our other guitar player is thinking before he’s thinking it. He’ll be playing a riff and then I’ll just add a harmony to it. Automatically, it’s just there.

WOF: Are you satisfied thus far in your career?

AW: Dude, like I said man…we were given the opportunity and I don’t ever want to like overstep it because honestly I never thought this would be happening. I never thought I would be playing at the Hard Rock Live. Every time we play a show, things happen that I thought never would. A thousand kids would show up to see my band. It’s weird. I just don’t want to take advantage of this opportunity.

WOF: You mentioned during our non-taped conversation that you were a wrestling fan.

AW: (laughing) Yeah, yeah.

WOF: When did you become so enthralled with the wrestling genre?

AW: Since I was eight and that was twenty years ago.

WOF: What event led you down the path of the sporting/entertainment event we know as “professional wrestling”?

AW: A scaffolding match between the Freebirds versus the Road Warriors. For me, it was unbelievable.

WOF: Do you attend matches whenever possible?

Future Professional Wrestlers Andy Williams and Brandyn Mygrant

AW: When I can. I just went to a WWE show, but it was just a house show. It wasn’t like a TV taping or anything like that. I thought it was cool because there’s no camera and these guys are still beating the hell out of themselves. I thought that was super cool. It kind of reminded me of this (the band).

Sometimes we’ll play in front of a thousand people and sometimes we’ll play in front of two hundred people, but we still play the same. So these dudes are doing the same exact thing.

WOF: The show must go on.

AW: Exactly. At the house shows is where they give the developmental guys a chance to get into wrestling in front of a crowd.

WOF: Do you have a deep down desire to become a wrestler?

AW: There’s another alliance called Empire State Wrestling and I love it. It’s small, but I am actually trying to get a match in it.

WOF: The next career challenge?

AW: Yeah, I gonna try to get a match in it. It will be great and it will just be fun for the band. I would love it. Even if they don’t have like a packed house, like a hundred and fifty people watching, to me it would be the best. It would be the ultimate high to actually have a wrestling match. I’m seriously, like, really into wrestling.

WOF: So the WWE president, Vince McMahon, will be calling you shortly?

AW: (laughing) Yeah, Vince.

WOF: With that, the interview concluded. Andy and I spoke for several minutes after the tape had stopped rolling. We discussed his future endeavors and just talked about the other aspects of the music industry and what he has encountered. From places he has toured to bands and musicians Every Time I Die has toured with. He had some pretty cool firsthand experiences that were very interesting. Unfortunately, these conversations were all off the record.

I do not doubt Andy could  become a good wrestler. He is a hulking individual (think of a V) that has the correct physical attributes that could slam and pin his opponents to the canvas. However, I found him to be a sincere individual and as you can see from the picture with my son, can also be a jokester of sorts. Before our interview took place, he and his cohorts were next door to the Hard Rock Live searching for wrestling memorabilia. You see, TNA (Total Nonstop Action) wrestling matches are taped at Universal Studios Florida. A fitting place for any wrestling aficionado such as Andy.

Gutter Phenomenon is a fast-paced, punkish sounding assault. The eleven tracks do not let you rest. Seeing the band play live also helped in the sense I could tell they believed in what they were playing. When listening to the CD afterward, it gave me a new sense of appreciation for their contribution to the metal genre.