IN THIS MOMENT Guitarist On Touring With Bigger Bands, Going More Melodic

Jessica Thornsby of Leeds Music Scene recently conducted an interview with IN THIS MOMENT guitarist Chris Howorth. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Leeds Music Scene: You've just released your second album, "The Dream". I've heard the phrase "dreamland concept" and "Alice in Wonderland theme" batted around a lot in regards to it. What's the story behind that?

Chris: We just decided that theme really fit the album title and the imagery would work well with everything we were doing on "The Dream"; it all fits together like a movie or something like that.

Leeds Music Scene: Do you feel "The Dream" is a concept album? Or is the "dreamland concept" reflected more in the accompanying artwork and packaging, and promotional photos, than in the songs themselves? "The Dream"'s lyrical content seems to focus more on love and loss than anything else...

Chris: "The Dream" is definitely not a concept album, the "Alice In Wonderland" theme is just to make the whole thing tie together, it's a theme, the album has a dreamy vibe, and touches on all kinds of topics lyrically.

Leeds Music Scene: You've toured with some giants of the rock world — OZZY OSBOURNE, ROB ZOMBIE and MEGADETH. How do IN THIS MOMENT go down with that crowd? Have you ever had a really negative crowd reaction, or do you usually win over the sceptical?

Chris: We've been very fortunate in the fact that we were able to do really well in front of a lot of different crowds. MEGADETH was probably the most challenging tour we've done to date; the crowd so badly wanted to hate us (girl in a dress and all) but by the third song, we had them interested in us. That's one thing about IN THIS MOMENT; we are able to play in front of metal and rock crowds, even alternative, and we seem to be able to get people interested no matter what style music they like.

Leeds Music Scene: Three years after forming, IN THIS MOMENT performed to a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden, as support for OZZY OSBOURNE. Do you ever feel like IN THIS MOMENT are getting too big, too quickly?

Chris: It is definitely humbling to play Madison Square Garden on your first album opening for Ozzy, but we are just going where the wind takes us, we are doing what we do, playing our music and touring is what we do. We don't feel like we are getting too big too quick. We don't even think about those things, we are still a baby band, we are just trying to get as many people as we can to hear our music.

Leeds Music Scene: Your new album, "The Dream", features a lot more clean vocals than your debut, "Beautiful Tragedy". Was this a conscious decision, or have you always wanted to try out a more melodic sound?

Chris: The only rule we had going into "The Dream" album was to try and write the best songs we could and to focus less on trying to impress everyone with our riffage and just make the best song; if a riff fit then we use it, if not then we would try something else. And vocally, Maria just wanted to sing more so she did.

Leeds Music Scene: How has the newer, less metalcore-orientated material been received by longer-standing fans? Do you think people who loved "Beautiful Tragedy" miss all the screaming?

Chris: The response to "The Dream" has been great; IN THIS MOMENT fans love it because it's us and it's from the heart. Some people who just like the screaming might be a bit bummed but there is still something for everyone on "The Dream".

Leeds Music Scene: IN THIS MOMENT is represented by Mercenary Management, which is headed up by OZZY OSBOURNE bassist Rob "Blasko" Nicholson. Is it true that Blasko contacted you after checking out your MySpace and liking what he heard? That must have been pretty mind-blowing!

Chris: Yes, that's pretty much how it happened; we were stoked to hear from Blasko. MySpace opened us up to lots of labels and managers and big things, we were getting contacted by some other managers and labels too, but Blasko made the most sense and really believed in the band and what we were doing. He is like the sixth member of ITM.

Read the entire interview from Leeds Music Scene.