ND: To start everything off, what exactly happened?
CA: Well, I guess in a nutshell version, we recently played two shows, our last show, which was in Lancaster [May 8th, 2010] and the one prior was at the Galaxy theater in Santa Anna. At that show our guitar player Duane’s girlfriend mentioned to my wife that she was sad because she wouldn’t be able to make it to Duane’s last show next week. So, my wife said something to me about that and the warning signs went up there. I asked our bass player, Tanner, “Have you heard anything about it being Duane’s last show?” and he’s like, “No, I had no idea,” and he seemed kind of shocked too, so we were both kinda worried.
At the Lancaster show that night he [Duane] and Maldy asked if Tanner and I would have a meeting with them. At that time he said next week but as soon as they asked to have a meeting we knew something was up. We had the meeting with them last week and at the meeting Maldy and Duane both told us that they were done with Destroy the Runner. They were doing it for so long and they started the band back in the day when it was called Die Like Me. When they first got signed to Solid State with their debut album, me and Tanner weren’t in the band; we joined and did I, Lucifer, but they were just saying that over the years it’s been really hard for them to try and make it. They weren’t being satisfied and they just decided that they were done and they wanted to quit. They asked us not to continue with the band and they made a personal request that we didn’t continue the Destroy the Runner name or try and release any of the songs that we’ve been recording for the past seven months.
It was pretty shocking, me and Tanner were both pretty disappointed, but we both told them, “Well, there was a lot of news and a lot on our plate, it would be cool if you would let us think about this and let it marinate for a while and talk to other people and get their opinions and then get back to you guys.” So that’s exactly what we did and then me and Tanner both decided that we would respect their request even though we both wish the new album could come out. We decided to move on. We’ve started another band already and we’re recording a full length right now and it’ll be out at the end of this year.
ND: So you’re not planning on releasing any of the new material, is it just going to disappear or do you have a direction for that?
CA: I really want it to come out, I honestly do, even if they would just release one song that would be awesome but we asked them and they seemed pretty set that they didn’t want anything to come out. When I found out I was pretty depressed because we had been working on the album for seven months, we had Bruce from Living Sacrifice, he had already recorded his vocals on one song. It’s definitely my favorite song so far and I was really excited to work with Bruce, he’s one of my favorites. Living Sacrifice, Reborn was one of the first heavy albums I ever got. They never disappoint. When I was talking to Bruce he actually asked me, “What’s your favorite album?” and I told him, Reborn was my favorite, but The Infinite Order is just like all the albums put into one, I’m really excited about their new album, I love it, and I could go on about Living Sacrifice for ever.
But, I really don’t see anything being released but I wish it was so, I would like fans to hear it but it’s kinda out of my hands at this point. It was sounding good though, it was exciting.
ND: I read through the official release on your myspace page, sounds like you’re picking up Chapter 14 again?
CA: Yeah, we never really did anything with Chapter 14 and we wanted to, we really wanted to. Right before me and Tanner joined Destroy the Runner our drummer for Chapter 14 was drum teching for Jordan Mancino of As I Lay Dying and so we were having to take a break because we couldn’t go forwards while he was working full time with that. Everyone was doing their own thing at the time and then Destroy the Runner happened, they needed a vocalist and a bassist so Tanner and I jumped on that. Now that Destroy the Runner is over we were just like, “Man, let’s go for it again.” We’ve met a lot of people over the years, especially with As I Lay Dying and Austrian Death Machine and everything I was involved with. I got to know a lot of people and they’re all really, really nice and positive and telling us they’ll help us out with Chapter 14’s future, so we’re just gonna go for it.
ND: What direction are you going to take the music with Chapter 14?
CA: Well, we’re gonna rerecord some of the Chapter 14 songs we had in the past, they were just demos, they were never meant for an album. For the full length we’re going to redo them, rewrite parts for three or four songs we had demoed but most of those songs are really, really heavy. The fun thing about Chapter 14 that me and Tanner are excited about is that there wasn’t a limit to the style, we’d have really soft slow parts that almost sound like Coldplay then we can come into some crazy breakdowns with screaming or squeals or solos or whatever, I think we really don’t want to limit ourselves and just write a record that’s fun. Some of the material that Tanner was writing for Destroy the Runner, I think we’ll kind of use that for the new Chapter 14 album.
ND: You can definitely see the deliberate decisions that were made between the Saints album and I, Lucifer, the effect of having you and Tanner in there and how it shifted.
CA: Oh yeah, there was an obvious change in style with both the music and the vocals. I’ve been in the metal scene for a while, since playing guitar for As I Lay Dying, I was like, “Man, I’ve been screaming for so long, let’s do an album on Solid State Records where the music has that heavy side but it’s mostly singing.” I think that album was probably 80% singing and 20% screaming and the new Destroy the Runner record, which was our third album that was going to come out, we totally switched on there to 20% singing and 80% screaming. I guess that, again, I want you to know and I want all the fans to know that I really hope the third album can come out, I still do but I just don’t think that that is a possibility now.
ND: That’s really unfortunate, I know I was really excited about it, I’ve been keeping up with what you guys were doing for a while. Anyway, do you have any big plans with Austrian Death Machine?
CA: I get fans writing me on Facebook and MySpace asking me that a lot, too. I’ll see Tim this Friday and Saturday and I’ll probably talk to him about it, but I know he’s planning on doing a third album. I didn’t do the second album, I was too busy at the time with Destroy the Runner, so he hired Josh Robert Thompson for the vocals on Double Brutal and Tim actually called me saying that he had a lot of fans that were pissed off writing him saying that Ahhnold sounds so much different and that they were used to one Ahhnold and all this stuff so I don’t know if we’ll do a third album together, it’d be really cool but I haven’t talked to him about it. I do have time now that I’m not touring, I’ll just be recording with Chapter 14. I definitely have time to do a third Austrian Death Machine album.
ND: About the word choice in your official announcement, why did the band lean towards “indefinite hiatus” instead of “break up”?
CA: Well, I’ll be completely honest with you, and I wanna thank you, too, for doing this interview with me. This last Saturday I got and email from Duane saying that all the MySpace and Facebook passwords had been changed because he was nervous that me and Tanner would try and release songs or try to keep Destroy the Runner going, which was shocking to me because me and Tanner had no intention at all, we decided to leave Destroy the Runner in the past and start up Chapter 14 again. We didn’t even get a chance to come back and tell Maldy and Duane what we had decided. I got the email saying that all the passwords were changed and that if I wanted to say a farewell or a goodbye to the fans I could write an email and forward it to him and he’d look it over and post it on the MySpace. I haven’t talked to Duane since Saturday but I’m pretty sure I’m blocked of everything and I think Tanner is as well. It’s sad and unfortunate how things went down. There were no bad feelings and I didn’t get the vibe that anything like that would happen but it has and so I’m just thankful that by you doing this interview I can say goodbye to fans and let everyone know that I really do wish the album could come out but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
ND: Like I said, we’re happy to give you a platform. Is there any opportunity for you and Duane and Maldy and Tanner to straighten all that up or do you think you’ll stay locked out for a while?
CA: You know, I don’t know. I hope so, but like I told you, there’s no hard feelings against anyone I just would have had things go down differently if it was up to me. I know Tanner was really disappointed in the way everything went down as well. I hope that it hasn’t caused anything like brokenness or broken friendships with anyone. Hopefully it can be mended. I’m just looking forward and looking up and I’m really excited for the Chapter 14 album and what’s in store for that and any door that God opens up, just walk through it and keep asking him to close any doors that he doesn’t want me in. I guess that’s it, stay positive and keep moving forward.
ND: Anything else you would like to add?
CA: I just wanna thank everybody again, thank you again for doing the interview and I just wanna thank everybody for all the support since I’ve been in Destroy the Runner. I’m so thankful for the experience and getting to do that one album and all the positive feedback and the negative feedback, all of it was just awesome. I’m glad I got to be a part of it, thank you.
You can check out Chapter 14, featuring Chad and Tanner, along with Mike Catalano (Chiodos and DTR), Eddie Hudson (Paper Mache), and Noah Slifka (In Fear & Faith) at http://www.myspace.com/chapter14
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