Coriolis

Album: The Endless Funeral | Release date: June 1, 2010 | Label: Youngside
Members: Jonathan P. Stamets – vocals, guitar, keyboard, programming, drums, and pennywhistles |
Dan Schultz – guitars | Jim Yanus – drums and drum programming | kL – live keyboards
RIYL: “We’ve changed a lot since the debut album, so I’ll just stick to comparing our current sound… Stabbing Westward, Celldweller, Rammstein, Marilyn Manson, and Nine Inch Nails.”

If there wasn’t music, what skills would your members use and what would they do?
“Dan has a background in criminal investigation, so he would probably be a criminologist. Jim is a pretty successful mechanical engineer in his own right, so he would advance further in that. I think I would have either pursued a martial arts fighting career, or gotten involved in the military.”

If you could ask God one question, what would you ask Him?
“It would be a lot easier to obey God, and follow His direction for their life if it weren’t so hard for people to hear His instructions in the first place. I’d ask God why that still, small voice has to be quite so still and small.”

Name three bands that, had they not released a certain album at a certain time … you would not exist as a band.
“Korn (Self-titled: introduced me to the world of truly dissonant, yet melodic music);
Rammstein (Sehnsucht: introduced me to the combination of heavy metal and industrial/EBM);
Klank (Still Suffering: introduced me to the idea that a one-man band IS possible).”

If you had a chance to perform for most of the televised world and play just one song, which song would you play … why?
“Probably one of our newer songs, “See you in Hell.” It is our longest song (at about 9 minutes), but it has so many progressive changes, it never seems that long. Dream Theater fans will know what I mean. It is a great song to demonstrate the best things that set us apart from other bands in the genre, (complete with NIN style electronics, Metallica style guitars, technical drums that change patterns, diverse vocal styles, and even a decent guitar solo.) In a word: “bragging.”

What’s the best video on YouTube (what would the keywords to search for it be)?
”My favorite Youtube videos are found through the usual searches: ‘groin shot, faceplant, bike wreck, roomate prank.’ You know; I like the finer things in life. Anything posted by the FAIL blog is bound to make me smile.”

What’s a secret or little-known fact about your band (or one of your band members) that would make you the darlings of the music world if we all knew it?
I used to be a twin, but absorbed my sibling in the womb. That’s pretty metal. (Oh, and all of us have a good working knowledge of music theory and scales, as it pertains to our instruments: all too rare nowadays.)

If there was another band and another album that you could give everyone as a present for Christmas, what album would that be? Why?
St. Anger, by Metallica. (Because I’m a mischievous jerk.)

What is one belief, conviction, idea, or passion that you honestly think might’ve been deposited inside you or given to you by God?
The understanding that the only way to learn and grow, is to be willing to change our opinions. Too many people, (most, I think,) take pride in being “opinionated.” Unless one’s opinions and outlook changes based on new information, it’s nothing more than “stubbornness,” and one will never get any smarter, wiser, or more successful than they already are.

What’s one of the most memorable things (either good, bad, or funny) that’s happened at one of your shows?
Our first show in Chicago, at the Nite Lite Cafe. We are smart enough to travel with backups of every piece of gear we use for backing tracks, including cables. This time, both the original AND backup cable we needed was inoperable. After troubleshooting for the longest 15 minutes of Coriolis’ career, (so far,) we decided the show must go on, and our drummer Jim was forced to play the entire show with no click track to keep him in sync with the electronics. Luckily, he pulled it off like a pro, and no one in the crowd noticed a thing. It was still terrifying, and now we carry triple backups.

If a super surgeon removed all of your emotions and the ability to feel any emotion for the rest of your life, which one or ones would you most want to have back? Why?
If you were to ask someone who knew me well, they would probably laugh and ask, “IF he had no emotions?!” They’re exaggerating of course, but I’m one of those super-logical guys that come off as a real life Mr. Spock. That being said, the emotion that I do miss the most would be excitement. When you spend enough years telling yourself not to get your hopes up, eventually it happens. Then you miss the days when a simple bit of good news could make you happy for days, whether it came to pass or not.

If someone came to you and said, “Hey! I need to make some changes in my life…Help me out! I’m going to take one piece of advice from you and apply it to my life and/or make it a habit for 30 days. What would that piece of advice be?”
My advice would be to stop making decisions based on short-term desires, and start at least thinking about the long-term effects of everything they say and do. (IE: “try it for more than 30 days, you dunce!”

In 4 sentences or less, explain how your band came to exist. (and give us a date).
I started a one-man industrial project in 2003 called Thundara, but I later changed the name to Coriolis. It became popular enough that an indie label released the debut CD, but after the owner of the label died I was forced to keep going as an independent band. Despite great buzz and reviews, on my own I wasn’t selling nearly enough CD’s online to justify the tremendous time and money put into the whole thing, so I decided to hire live band members so we could book shows, (and sell CD’s there!) These members ended up impressing me enough so that I asked them to join full-time and help with the future of Coriolis.

What’s one question you’d always wanted to be asked in an interview?
Q: What is the hardest part of “being in a band?”
A: Having to mislead people and “hype” yourself, to make it look like your brand-new band is every bit as established, well-funded, and impressive-looking as the bands with major label funding, booking agents, and advertising campaigns. Whether you’re trying to book a show, get a CD reviewed, or get radio airplay, no one care about the “potential” in bands anymore, they only care about whether or not the band is already famous. I understand it’s all about business, but that doesn’t make it any less discouraging, especially when you have to hype-up every little house party show you’ve done in order to to hide the fact that club owners never bothered to open up your package, let alone listen to a CD. It’s getting to the point where you practically need a rich relative to help you get started, before you even have a guitarist. (Sad.)