Chris Garza of Suicide Silence
Interviewed by Dave Fonseca on 11/11/2007
Transcribed by Dave Fonseca
Suicide Silence, who seemingly never stop touring, took some time out of their current jaunt with A Life Once Lost and Walls of Jericho to talk to Metal Review. Among other topics, Chris Garza addressed the band's often critically lambasted style and the assumption their success has more to do with Myspace marketing than good old fashioned hard work.
Dave Fonseca: You've been on tour since September with Unearth. How have the shows gone so far?
Chris Garza: Every show has been insane, not one bad show comes to mind. Tons of kids are coming out and rocking out; I’m having a blast.
DF: Any funny or interesting stories to relay from the road?
CG: I ate A&W midway through these Canada dates....and just for the record...food in Canada is horrible. All it took was ten minutes for me to feel it. We had to pull over in the middle of nowhere and I shit on the side of the road as cars and trucks drove by. Mitch did the same thing earlier in the tour. We have no shame.
DF: Where does the band's name come from? Does it have any significance beyond being brutal?
CG: Haha, well we weren't going for anything brutal at the time, which was a long time ago when this band was named. There's no real meaning to it....it's a silly name to be honest, but once everything got going, the music made the name seem much better.
DF: How long have you guys been playing music? What are some of the projects you were involved in prior to forming Suicide Silence?
CG: Wow, as long as I was in diapers and crawling around. My Dad was a musician so I was around it since I was born. I started really jamming in bands in junior high school with some straight up nu-metal bands. Alex, our drummer, is the same way. Our bands played together all the time and that’s how I met him. Just grew from here.
DF: How did you get into heavy music? What are the albums that inspired you to start playing heavy music?
CG: Getting into Nirvana & Jimi Hendrix really got me into guitar in general, but what pushed me into the heavy side was Korn. Being in 7th grade and hearing that first Korn album caused me to flip out and tune my guitar straight from E to drop A.
DF: Can you describe your sound? Does the "deathcore" tag bother you?
CG: The deathcore tag is “eh” to me, haha. People can call it whatever they want to call it. It's simple....just straight up heavy music. Not complicated at all. Simple structured songs that you can just bang your head to.
DF: The style of metal you play has risen in popularity in recent years, and consequently has been the subject of criticism by a lot of metalheads. How do you respond to the criticism that your band is just riding a trend?
CG: Well when Suicide Silence first came out...there wasn’t one other band doing it. When things first started out, we would play hardcore shows (because no metal tours really came through our area) and we weren’t accepted into the "scene." We busted our asses to play as many shows as possible and in time it just got huge. Now it feels like everyone is either hating on this style of music or jumping on “the trend” themselves. We know how our band got started, and it was long before bands were getting big on Myspace.com.
DF: Do you have any message for any of those old school metalheads who might be skeptical of a bunch of younger guys playing death metal?
CG: Yes, none of us are trying to be old school, but we all know where we came from. We know our roots musically. We naturally developed a common interest in writing the style of music you’ve heard from us.
DF: Kind of on the same note, what would you say is the biggest misconception people have about your band?
CG: That we owe all of our success to Myspace and the internet. Sure it has helped, but we were playing shows before we ever had a Myspace page. We would play live, film videos of our set, spread them around, play more shows, etc. We’ve worked hard to build a career around music and we plan to keep it up.
DF: How has Suicide Silence's sound changed since the band was started in 2002? How do you see it evolving in the future?
CG: It’s gotten heavier and more intense since the early days and it’s just going to get heavier in the future, haha...simple as that.
DF: If you guys could cover one non-metal song and put it on a Suicide Silence CD what would it be?
CG: Haha, I’m sure everyone has their own opinion on that, but mine would be a cover a popular modern day song that everyone would know. Perhaps something from Panic at the Disco or Fall Out Boy.