By Rod Whitfield
Elias Soriano, frontman and founding member of long running American rock/metal act NONPOINT joined us recently from the frigid north of the USA, to speak about their upcoming appearance at Soundwave Festival, where he and his band will be experiencing a massive contrast in temperatures compared with what he is experiencing right now.
“I’m in Michigan, in the Northern mid-west of The States, very very cold!” he shivers, “it’s 19 degrees right now.”
Of course, he is talking farenheit, which translates to around seven below freezing in celsius.
“It sucks on every level, more than you could probably understand,” he complains in tongue in cheek fashion.
“But I’m actually really lucky,” he goes on, “I’m doing that and ‘Shiprocked’ (a rock and metal cruise that runs out of Miami, Florida), so I’m going to be in very tropical areas, so hopefully this winter will pass quickly.”
It will be the band’s second appearance on the Soundwave Festival tour, having played the festival back in 2011, and Elias has very fond memories of the way they were treated and what our country has to offer.
“Just the people, and the food,” he says, “the food and the drinks and all that good stuff, it’s definitely a fun time. They certainly take care of you,” he states, referring to the organisers of Soundwave, “AJ is a great host, and the Soundwave crew, the catering and everything is really amazing.”
He is not certain if the band will be playing any ‘Sidewave’ shows while they are out, but he is happy either way.
“Hopefully,” he responds, “I believe that they’re going to let us know relatively soon, but if not, we get more opportunity to sight-see.”
The band recently released no less than their tenth album, and this of course makes devising a 20 to 40 minute festival set excessively difficult.
“(It causes) a lot of complaints!” He laughs, “I don’t think people realise man, we have a hundred and thirty plus, just released songs, let alone other stuff we haven’t released. It’s hard to pick 10. They only let us do 10, it’s not our fault! (the fans) are like ‘aww man, you only played 30 minutes!’, and I’m like ‘I didn’t make the rules man, I’d play for three hours if they let us!’. All we can do is put our best foot forward, and play ones that we think people will want. Play a few newer ones, and get people familiar with that, as much as the older stuff.”
And do those complaints come from within the band as well? “Yeah, all the time, they’re wankers!” He exclaims, making a reasonable fist of an Aussie accent.
One thing the band will always be motivated about is getting out and meeting the fans face to face. “For the last 15 years that we’ve been a band, we’ve always gone out to the merch table,” he states, “every single night, it’s something that we’re known for.”
After Soundwave, most of the rest of 2015 looks like being a pretty endless road jaunt for NONPOINT, with maybe a little time set aside for working on a new record. “Just a lot of touring,” he announces, “a lot of frequent flyer points, hopefully no ebola!
“We’ll just be doing a lot of touring,” he repeats, “we’re just going to tour the record, and then I would probably say around summertime/falltime we’ll be looking to start writing again, I’m already getting the itch, so we’ll see what happens.”
