AS I LAY DYING Guitarist: 'My Beliefs Don't Have Anything To Do With How I Play Guitar'

Emma Changose of Northern Arizona News recently conducted an interview with guitarist Nick Hipa of San Diego, California metallers AS I LAY DYING. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Northern Arizona News: So, this month is actually the band's 10-year anniversary, correct?

Nick: Yeah, well like, this whole year is like a 10-year anniversary of the band. Maybe it is this month in particular that is more of a specific date.

Northern Arizona News: How have you celebrated?

Nick: Well, we haven't really made any official announcements yet or anything, but we did record a couple songs in the beginning of January with the intent of them being on some sort of EP that commemorates the longevity of the band up until this point. So, I don't know if that means we are going to put out a ten-year EP sometime soon, but it makes the most sense for us to do it for that. But that's just all in the works for right now; nothing for sure yet.

Northern Arizona News: How does your religion influence your music?

Nick: It has nothing to do with my playing or music, at least for me. I'm just a guitar player like any other dude who is in a pop-rock band or a black metal band. I play guitar because I love it and I love music. My beliefs don't have anything to do with how I play guitar.

Northern Arizona News: Do you guys ever get criticized by your fans for being Christians, but using symbols such as skulls and death in many of your logos and merchandise?

Nick: Um, no, not really. I think sometimes the media wants to focus more on the Christian aspect of the band, when we concentrate more on just the fact that we are a normal band who plays shows just like everyone else. I feel like for most fans of heavy metal music, it just fits. I don't want to say that we are just doing what we are supposed to be doing, but I think the imagery is a pretty accurate visual description of the band. It just fits.

Northern Arizona News: AS I LAY DYING has accomplished a lot - Grammy nominations, playing in huge tours like Ozzfest, and touring internationally - is there anything you haven't done yet that you would really like to do?

Nick: You know, I think I would just like to go to even more countries than we've already been to. We've been so lucky and fortunate to travel to parts of the world that I thought I would never get to see, and if we can just keep on doing that and expanding on that, I would be stoked. Or even going back to some of those places [that we've been to before]. Like, we've never done China or Africa yet. Just being able to go to some of those places would be exciting for me. And then, aside from that, a METALLICA tour. They're one of the only bands that we haven't toured with yet. Maybe we can put that on the list of things that would be awesome for us to do.

Read the entire interview from Northern Arizona News.