CHIMAIRA Guitarist Talks About New Drummer, Upcoming Album

CHIMAIRA guitarist Matt DeVries recently spoke to the U.K.'s Live 4 Metal about the group's tour with MACHINE HEAD, their new drummer, Kevin Talley (ex-MISERY INDEX) and their upcoming DVD, among other topics. Several excerpts from the interview follow:

Live 4 Metal: The big recent news is the addition of new drummer Kevin Talley (DYING FETUS, MISERY INDEX) to the lineup. Why did Ricky Evensand leave?

Matt DeVries: "It's kinda funny because when we chose Ricky, Kevin was our second choice, and the reason we chose Ricky is because we toured with SOILWORK twice and he was playing with SOILWORK. We're like, 'OK, this guy's awesome, an awesome drummer…' We already got to know him. It was pretty much good timing. He wanted to quit, and we're like, 'Perfect we need a drummer.' We thought if this doesn't work out, then we definitely need Kevin, but at the same time we already know this guy so we went with him. You live and you learn. The main reason for his departure was when he flew back to Sweden he had to renew his visa, and there were a lot of issues with that financially and what-not. He couldn't get it done in time for this tour, so we gotta do what we gotta do. It was on good terms. He understood everything and he was like, 'Cool, you guys do what you gotta do and I'll stay here and do my thing.' So we called Kevin up and said, 'Listen buddy, what are you doing?' and he was like, 'I’ll be there tomorrow!' So it was perfect."

Live 4 Metal: So you already knew him?

Matt DeVries: "We knew him from meeting him every time we played around the D.C. area. He'd come out to shows and we got to know him. He was recommended by Kerry King [SLAYER] because that was the first person we called. We knew that they had tried out every drummer on the planet. Kerry said, 'I'll tell you what, Kevin's the dude, hands down!' He came, we got to know him, he's a good dude, and nothing was uncomfortable with having him with us or playing-wise. I think he adds to it. He's more in the game; he's 150 percent every day, just totally into it. He hits hard, he's fast, his feet are sick! He's got the chops, so we're stoked. We couldn't be happier. We'll never stop no matter what happens."

Live 4 Metal: As far as the next album is concerned, any plans to do anything like "Implements of Destruction", the 12-minute instrumental opus that’s on "The Impossibility of Reason"?

Matt DeVries: "I don't know. That kind of instrumental thing came from always loving bands that did it. Bands weren’t doing it anymore, so we said, 'Fuck it, let's do it.' I don’t know if there's going to be another instrumental or another 18-minute song [laughs]. No, we'll see where it takes us. I wouldn't mind doing it again; I love writing instrumentals."

Live 4 Metal: Are you writing on the road at all or is it mainly when you get home?

Matt DeVries: "A little bit. We got all the gear where we could kind of record in a mini-studio or whatever, but we found that we tour so much and we’re with each other so much and there are so many distractions that it's just hard to write on the road. Me and Rob [Arnold, lead guitarist] will get together and do some riffs here and there, like rough skeletons of songs, but we figured we'd go back to writing with all six of us in our rehearsal space. It's just a better idea in general. There's no distractions whatsoever. Just lock the door, turn off the phone, and just do it."

Live 4 Metal: Do you have a general sense of what we might expect from the album? Will it be just as heavy?

Matt DeVries: "As far as the album goes, I think it'll be heavier. I promise you it'll be heavier if me and Rob have anything to do with it. It's just going to be more of a diverse album. I think it’s going to be more metal. I think it'll go along the same lines as the last record, but better. I don't know how to describe 'better,' but…[laughs]. It'll definitely be heavier."

Read Matt DeVries' entire interview with Live 4 Metal at this location.