INTO ETERNITY Guitarist Talks About 'Timeless Winter' Video Shoot

Dan Barkasi of HMAS.org recently conducted an interview with INTO ETERNITY guitarist Tim Roth. A couple of excerpts follow:

HMAS.org: How have the additions of Steve Bolognese (drums) and Justin Bender (guitar) impacted INTO ETERNITY?

Tim Roth: Awesome! It was cool that they did the DESTRUCTION tour, because I think it taught them about touring, and then they learned kind of what to do on stage. And who moves where; it's like a tap dance. Now, they're doing really good. I think they've learned more aggression. Like, Justin's headbanging, and Steve's got these fast double-kicks. So, it's going to be cool. They're awesome!

HMAS.org: How did the shoot for the video for "Timeless Winter" go?

Tim Roth: Videos always suck. You do the same song for; we were there for 12 hours, or ten hours at the shoot. So you just do your parts over and over and over again as a whole band, and then you go into individual shots. But I mean, as soon as we saw the final thing, it's worth it, because the video turned out really good. It's really fast-cut, slow motion and snow. It's really cool.

HMAS.org: While we're on the topic of videos, the clip for "Severe Emotional Distress" was a rather powerful video for an equally powerful song. Where did the inspiration for this video originate?

Tim Roth: I was watching a TV show about these girls that were cutting themselves, which I thought was interesting. And then they went to this psychologist and stuff, and he said, "Clearly this is a sign of severe emotional distress." And then he went on. The rest of the stuff, I wasn't even listening to what he said! I was grabbing my pen and paper, I'm like, "Severe emotional distress, perfect!" (Laughs)

HMAS.org: (Laughs) There you go!

Tim Roth: So then, the song just wrote itself. It was pretty easy from there on. Then I just wrote the lyrics out. It was cool!

HMAS.org: Your series of guitar lessons on YouTube was a great idea, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. What encouraged you to do something like that?

Tim Roth: (Laughs) Yeah! It wasn't me! It was my A&R rep, Steve Joh. Before the "Scattering" album was dropped, he said, "You want to film yourself, and then we'll release these instructional videos before the album's even released, and you can play these licks." But the problem is, I'm not a guitar teacher and I've never taught lessons in my life. I just go by strings and frets. So, I said, "I'll do that, but I'm just going to do it my own way, because that's the only way I know how to do it." So, I just set up a little camera; filmed everything. But I still had to figure out to edit the stuff. My PC had this movie maker, whatever it's called. So I put all the videos in there, spliced them together, and did it myself. It took a while to do, though! But I did it, and I did it for the label, just to help the band hopefully get a bit of a buzz. And it worked! Then it started winning some YouTube awards and stuff. And now, kids at every single show say, "I saw your lessons!" Every single show — there's not one show that goes by! So, the label was right again, damn it! (Laughs)

Read the entire interview at this location.