Interview with Bloodsimple vocalist Tim Williams
By Sara Eckman
Sara Eckman is a longtime reader of the site, and our latest contributor. To start things off with her, we threw her right into the fiery pits of Metal with Bloodsimple! The band has a killer new album out called Red Harvest and is kicking as all over the world. Sara spoke with vocalist Tim Williams about the album, and here's how it went...
Sara Eckman: So I listened to yall’s music after I found out I was interviewing you and it’s really different so where do you get your inspiration from?
Tim Williams: Well one of the biggest differences is uh inspirations would be to stay different. Like, ya know stay within the confines of heavy metal, hardcore, whatever the hell you wanna call us but, defiantly switch it up, throw some curve balls, just to keep it interesting. I don’t know if your familiar with our history, but we’ve all been doin’ this for ya know bout 15 years. So six records in ya just can’t do the same shit every fuckin’ time. We always try to stay ahead of the curve and do the best we can, and then stay true to the fan base we have and maybe try and grow.
Sara: So how do you prepare going into making a new album?
Tim: Shut off the outside world just go in there and write what feels right, ya know it’s important to have fun with the studio because the studio can get very sterol and uh enjoy it.
Sara: One of the songs that I really liked was “Out to get you” what is that about?
Tim: “Out to get you” is based on a book actually um we had the song, the music of it basically the nut of it and we had some verses done and stuff like that, and we were really having problems getting the chorus done properly, you want the chorus to be big! And we were having problems, so I was reading a book called “Go Ask Alice” and basically that whole song is based on that book. Ya know what that girl went through and all the experiences she had, and I read the whole book I mean I crammed like within 9 hours because I really wanted to write something cool for this song. And uh pretty much that’s how we did it.
Sara: So what’s your favorite part of performing every night?
Tim: The live show. That’s it. Because everything else fucking drags like a motherfucker. But, for that half hour or 40 minutes, how ever long your up there for and you get a good crowd reaction, you get some halfway decent stage sound… its on and everything goes away and if you have a really good show its almost therapeutic, you feel really clean and really fresh afterwards and that’s pretty much why I still do it.
Sara: So what are the downsides of this business?
Tim: The business itself. It’s a tricky business. It really, really is there is a lot of competition, and at this day in age with the internet the label is really takin’ a hit. Money wise it’s getting harder and harder in certain ways for certain level bands to make a move and that’s pretty depressing in a way. But the whole downside of this business is unfortunately the artist can only do so much to really get where you wanna go you have to depend on other people. Sometimes those people, more times than not, will let you down. And then it’s out of your hands.
Sara: So do you think that depending on the type of music that you do also effects how popular you’re gonna become with people?
Tim: If your in a pop-punk band and your halfway decent and you hit it right your gonna be huge for a little while. Heavier bands generally takes longer depending on the climb which isn’t a bad thing, you’ll have a longer career that way. It defiantly effects what band your in Fall Out Boy ya know they were hardcore kinds to begin with so that’s cool but then they fit a perfect package and they exploded and if that’s what you want in a life then they got it pretty good with that. That’s what you get but you have to decide if that’s what you want.
Sara: So out of everyone you have gone on tour with who was your favorite group to tour with?
Tim: We’ve been on tour with almost everybody uh Stonesour was awesome Alice in Chains was phenomenal, Slayer was awesome. Mudvane all those guys. I don’t want to offend anybody, we have toured with Disturbed it was a lot of fun the Jagermeister tour was really cool.
Sara: How did each of you get introduced to music as a kid?
Tim: Ever sense I can remember I’ve always liked music and I’ve been super obsessed with certain bands like Motley Crew and then it was like U2 then The Doors just completely blew open everything. That was what really made me want to get into this whole business ya know just feeling that the music came to you the free spirit-ness. And all of those things combined, that’s what really got me into it.
Sara: What are some of the influences for some of your music? Bands? Friends? Family?
Tim: I mean this is part of my job ya know? All the stuff going on around me, what’s goin’ on in the world, stressful situations, this is all just like what I said earlier in the interview, it’s like the live show it’s therapeutic. Channeling all that negative energy out through heavy aggressive music, all the negative stuff around me getting put into the music.
Sara: what were some of the bands you listened to growing up? I know you mentioned The Doors and U2.
Tim: Alice in Chains is another one.
Sara: yeah, so would you draw inspiration from them when you first started?
Tim: Yeah! The three biggest influences to this day are Pantera, The Doors, and Alice in Chains. On me at least, I mean those are the three there are billions of others but those are the major ones.
Sara: Who would you all like to tour with in the future?
Tim: Slipknot, we did some work with the Deftones I would love to go on a tour with those guys. Any of the bands we’ve already toured with I would tour with again. That would be a lot of fun but first to come to mind would be Slipknot, that would be pretty ridiculous.
Sara: Yeah, that would be awesome. What are the plans after this tour?
Tim: I think a well-deserved break, because we’re all pretty burned out. We’ve been on the rode, not to long, but probably five months. And we’ve been home here and there for that but after this the holidays are coming up so we’re shutting down shop for a while next year something will come are way and if we see its worth it, then we’ll wind up back out here to do it.
Sara: Even with all the travel are you just writing new material all the time or do you go in right before you’re supposed to make an album write the music?
Tim: You have no time to write on the road, you play music, you breathe music, the last thing you wanna do is go write music. Sure we jam around a ‘lil bit but nothing significant. But then after the tour is over and its studio time we get right into it. Ya know facing a record for the first time can be intimidating. It’s like what the hell are you gonna do? But before you know it you have seven or eight songs, and the next thing you know you have fourteen and you’re cutting songs.
Sara: What’s your favorite song to play live and why?
Tim: I like the new ones because the old ones I have played for fucking two years ever goddamn night! But they’re still cool. But I like playing Dead Man Walking a lot. That’s always a good one, it’s real smooth, got a good beat.
Sara: What you said about the old songs, do you still get pumped every night to perform in front of a new crowd?
Tim: With the music we play if you don’t get pumped you’re gonna throw your back out or something. Ya know go do some stretches go lift some weights with me and my buddy, then you start drinking beer and by the time the show comes around you’re pumped, you’re ready. When you have a packed house it’s hard not to get excited. Last night was a perfect example Memphis Tennessee we didn’t know exactly how that was going to go...but this fuckin’ place was just packed.
Sara: There is a movie called Bloodsimple. I don’t know if you knew that but did you all get your name form that?
Tim: We’re big Cohen Brothers fans but I’m not gonna say we took the name from that but we liked the name even more because we love all their movies. But two of us were in a band before with a long name so we knew right off the bat that we wanted a short name. The one day we were like Bloodsimple and it just hit.
Sara: well that’s all I have so thank you so much!
Tim: Oh you’re welcome!