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With the impending release of Shadows Inside, Miss May I frontman, Levi Benton feels that his band have finally made the leap from being on the fringes of success as a metal band and is looking forward to further enhancing that with what he believes is the band’s most comprehensive release yet.
“It’s our sixth record and our first with Sharptone / Nuclear Blast,” he enthused, “and we’re really excited. It’s our first time with international support, which I think will be a really big deal for us and it’s also the first record we have done with two producers; which is pretty weird, but it turned out awesome! We took a lot of time off for this record – the new label gave us a lot of time. They weren’t breathing down our neck with a schedule at all and with that, we wanted to make a record that was over-the-top and put us into that headline spot where we want to be in as a band. Nuclear Blast wanted us to use a local producer on the album and he was great and for the instruments we wanted to use the same person who did our last record, so with both of them, it was definitely a headache and it was like pulling your hair out and sounding really crazy at the beginning, but we did the whole record over email and satellite – because the guys were in Michigan, and I was in Ohio – and we just wanted to bring as many people on to the record as we could.
“Our biggest goal with the album was just to write a headlining record,” he continued. “Not that our last record was bad, but we just wanted to go out of our way to make people’s heads turn and go above and beyond. We knew we needed something that turns people’s heads and that’s why it came out sounding like it did.”
Shadows Inside is an introspective record, with Benton saying the band put a lot of thought into the title.
“The whole record is really about the past and trials and tribulations that you go through in your life and the changes we have been through over time both individually and as a band. The title, ‘Shadows Inside’, is a reflection obviously on shadows being something that is behind everyone, and we feel like everyone has a past – whether it is positive or negative, there is always a past with everyone. And that’s what we wanted the record and the title to be about. We actually had all of the sounds done first and the whole record was finished then we went back and set the title. It was stuck in our heads the whole time that we wanted it to be the one. We spent a couple of weeks messing around with other titles but we decided this was the best.”
Benton also believes that his songwriting has improved over time and that these days he thinks more about the effect his lyrics have on others as opposed to just himself.
“It means a lot to have people relate to my lyrics,” he affirmed. “I think I’m getting better at writing lyrics that people can relate to the older I get. I used to really be outside the box and just really have not technically selfish lyrics but from a very, I guess, unique to one person type of lyric where you just had to go along with the journey but the older I get the more I feel like I’m getting better at making my lyrics less vague and so people can actually come along for the journey as well.”
Miss May I are entering their tenth year as a band, with Benton admitting it snuck up on even them.
“It’s been an awesome journey,” he surmised. “It’s been really crazy because I don’t think any of us felt we were gonna be a band this long. We hadn’t even thought about the ten-year thing until the press started ringing up a couple of months ago (laughs). We were like, ‘Oh, shit,’ but we’re still the youngest band on tour sometimes. We’re still only 24, 25, 26, but all we know is this band. It definitely is weird. The journey has had its ups and downs but we’re all in it for the same reason; we all want the same goal and I think that’s what’s important and really special.
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When they formed while still at high school, Benton says there were no delusions of grandeur, just a common love of music that was yet to be defined.
“We just really wanted to have a good time at the start,” he recalled. “I honestly thought we were gonna do one record and maybe sell 10,000 copies and tour that one record once and then everyone go their separate ways, and go to college, and do normal person things and everything sort of got really crazy really fast and it’s been crazy ever since (laughs). The original vision was just to go on a couple of tours and see the U.S – not even the world – and have some fun, play some sweaty shows and that was it. We started touring in 2009 – which is eight years ago – and we’ve been doing it ever since (laughs).”
Going on tour straight from high school sounds like every teenager’s dream, but Benton says the reality of the situation forced the band members to grow up quickly.
“Oh, my God, yeah,” he laughed. “It was crazy! On tour there’s no mum or there’s no one to do your laundry for you, or make your food or help you when you’re down or clean up after you, and that really makes you grow up fast but we were all pretty much best friends and we could all help each other out along the way. We were only talking about this recently about growing up on the road and I even learnt how to shave my face on tour! We have learnt pretty much everything on the road, it’s wild.”
Over time, comes confidence and Benton firmly believes that Miss May I finally has the belief and confidence in themselves and their music to go to the next level in music.
“We’re all better musicians now,” he stressed, “because we’ve been doing it for so long and we’re better songwriters, but I think the biggest change with us is we’ve found our sound. We know who we are and we have found our identity so we know what we are good at. I think we have only just now figured that out over the last couple of records so now that is figured out and we don’t have to stress about it we can focus on taking it to the next level and not only having the Miss May I sound but also making the shows as crazy and great as the sound is. You can’t really focus on having a great show if you’re still trying to find your sound and yourself but now that we’ve found that we’re ready to move to that next level. It’s the same as Parkway Drive. They never really had crazy production or crazy anything, they were just a band but then they found their new sound and now they’re just focusing on crazy live shows. It’s a case of okay, this is where we are. Put the nail in the coffin, this is it.
No matter how long you have been in the music industry, Benton strongly believes that you are still learning and the best way to further your career and better yourself is to watch and listen to your peers.
“Oh, man, that’s everything,” he affirmed. “We’ve learned so much from every band we’ve played with. I remember with Killswitch Engage and Trivium we learnt how to be better performers and we thought we were already great (laughs), but until we went on tour with them we didn’t realize how much we had to step up our performances and play better. You see how they do things and then you tour with bands like Avenged Sevenfold and Korn, and you learn how everything runs behind the scenes and how the production is and how they really bring the show to life. You learn so much from different bands and I think we’re a band that really studies that and takes it to heart. We just really want to succeed and take everything to the next level as a band. We soak up as much as we can.”
Written by Kris Peters
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