Unsung Melody - Carnival of Madness 2013: Adrenalize, Carnival of Madness and Hellpop. An interview with Chris Howorth from In This Moment

Blood is an album that has delivered two terrific singles thus far for In This Moment. They just began their trek on the Carnival Of Madness tour with tour mates Shinedown, Papa Roach, Skillet, and We As Human. With a song that I feel is going to be their biggest single yet, Whore, the band is following up Carnival Of Madness is a headlining jaunt called the Hellpop Tour. I’ll be covering the sold-out show tomorrow in Cincinnati, so be sure and check back for photos and a full review in the next few days. In This Moment is set to finally become a juggernaut of a rock band. If you enjoy the heavier side of things, pick up a copy of Blood. You can thank me later.

Listen to the entire Chris Howorth interview below:
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Today I’m welcoming Chris Howorth back to the Unsung Melody family. Chris is the guitarist of In This Moment. First off, thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.

No problem man. Thanks for having me.

Anytime, anytime. I want to start by saying you guys have been on quite the ride for this album, which is of course titled Blood. New management, new album, new members. Are you exhausted yet?

Are we exhausted yet? I mean no. It seems like it’s been going longer than most of our album cycles. We’re tired, but everything is still fresh. We feel like that things keep happening with this new album and it’s still selling. Everything is just picking up and that keeps us energized.

Blood was the first single and it did quite well. Adrenalize is out now and that will be out there, I’m assuming for the Carnival of Madness tour. Has the reaction that song been what you expected for this song or has it been even more?

Well, we knew it was going to be something different and interesting. It’s definitely exceeded our expectations at this point. Just because, no matter how much you think you expect something, you never expect something to be that successful. I don’t think. Maybe certain people know like that’s going to be a hit and I know it 100%. We said that when we first heard the song, but we weren’t sure. We’re so excited about it. It’s one of those songs too that everyone seems to get. Even people that don’t like it, they can’t help but to have it stuck in their head. It’s simple and easy to get. The live reaction is amazing. That song is one of our most, it is our most popular song right now and people are most excited to hear that out of all the songs in our set. It’s pretty cool.

Tell me a bit about making that video. Maria’s heels looked massively uncomfortable. No, I’m kidding. Who did you guys work with and where was the video shot?

Adrenalize was the same guy that we used for Blood. We did it with a guy named Robert Kley. Who is more known for his fashion videos that he does for models. He’s a photographer and a video guy. He shoots a lot of fashion stuff, high fashion stuff. Maria had found him when searching around on the internet and loved his work. We got him to do the Blood video and that was a successful video, so it’s kind of a no-brainer to have him do Adrenalize as well. We did it in an old hospital here in Los Angeles, called Linda Vista. It’s like a haunted old hospital. It was just a really cool experience.

Carnival of Madness has a very different vibe this year. Kind of opposite ends of the spectrum with you guys and Skillet on the bill. I personally think it’s brilliant, but what’s your take on the lineup?

For us, it’s different just because we’re still kind of new in this radio world. Skillet is a big radio, not Skillet, Shinedown is a big radio band. So is Papa Roach and Skillet, all of these bands have a lot of commercial success. For us, we’re just starting to break into that, so I think it’s really, really cool. We did a tour with Shinedown last year that went really well. Their fans don’t know who we are and we’re kind of different and weird to them, but that’s a good thing. Because I think the reaction was, who the heck is this band. Then people were interested to go buy our CD’s from watching us. I think it’s a really awesome lineup and having us on it brings this darker kind of element to the lineup. I think it’s cool. We’re really excited for it.

In the past, Maria has known to make an appearance with Shinedown in the past. Can we expect any surprises this time around?

Right now, I don’t even know for sure if anything like that is happening. There has been talk of it. I will tell you that. Her and Brent have discussed possibly doing something together, but I don’t know what the deal is. I guess it’s going to be a surprise to all of us.

Speaking of touring. After Carnival of Madness, you guys will be headlining Hellpop. Since it’s a new tour, what can you tell me about that tour and what will set it apart from others?

Hellpop is something that we kind of came up with. It’s a name that we came up with to describe our sound. What kind of band we are. It was kind of a joke at first when somebody brought it up. Then we were like, “Wait a minute. That is really cool.” It’s the dark side of pop with hooks and melodies, but also with dark energy and heaviness, blood, guts, gore. It’s got everything mixed all together. So, we thought it’d be a great idea for our first headlining tour with this record. We wanted to have a bill that was going to be diverse. Not just all certain kinds of stuff. Which is what Hellpop is all about. Diversity. Different things. So that’s why we’ve got the lineup that we have. We think Motionless in White is a great theatrical, heavy band that’s really hot right now. Then having Kyng on there, like a Sabbath kind of a different type of band. Adds another element to it. We’re also going to have, the whole theme of it is kind of a Carnival type, crazy vibe. We just wanted to get bands that have that element to them. That unpredictable weirdness with a lot of theatrics and show. I think it’s going to be cool. People are going to see a great show, all night long on the Hellpoop tour.

I was excited that Kyng is on that tour. Pepe Clark is one of the best drummers out there right now. He’s a beast. He’s awesome.

Yeah. They’re a great band. That’s why we wanted them. We want good bands that’s different and diverse.

For me, the biggest song on the record is Whore. Can we finally expect to see that as a single leading into Hellpop?

Yes. (laughter) That is the next single, we just don’t know. We’re still working on how we’re getting it out there. We’re in a weird spot in our career right now. We’re just trying to figure out what’s happening, but that is the next single and we all feel like that is our biggest song. Right when we did it, when we were making the record, it was like Blood and Whore were the top songs. I feel like Whore is really special and Maria and I have high hopes for it. We’re carefully trying to figure out the best way to get it out there and release it. We don’t want to just release it half-assed, we want to do it the right way. It’s coming though and we agree.

I want to ask about a moment from this years Rock On The Range. Maria came out and sang with Device. She was Lita to David’s Ozzy. I heard David told some fans that, that performance was a one time thing. Tell me a bit about that moment and what it meant to the band.

It means a lot to the band. Maria and I have been partners since we started this band. We started out as just two geeks trying to do it and Maria has come a long way and became a force in music. She’s kind of become her own thing. Our band has come a long way as well. Anything that she does, that’s musical, she’s representing In This Moment. Like the Brent from Shinedown thing that you brought up, the Device thing was a really very awesome, special thing. Getting to sing with David, who’s such a successful, influential artist himself, with a huge career. With him inviting her up to sing in front of the Rock On The Range audience, it’s epic and it means a lot to all of us. I was standing on the side of the stage watching here, just like a proud papa. So, so happy. She was so nervous about it before going out there. Her and I had gone over the song over, and over, and over, and over. Making sure she knew all the right words and the right parts to sing and everything. So it was a huge moment man. The band feels really, really proud of Maria anytime that anything like that happens. It’s really cool.

Alright, I always try to end on a random question. Maria has her blog and Facebook page called Maria Brinks Wonderland. I was curious, that if you were to add one of your band members as a character to the original story of Alice In Wonderland, who would you pick and what would their character be?

Wow. Like a brand new character?

Yeah. It’s kind of a personality thing. Who would you choose to add into that and what would their personality trait be? It’s kind of a wild story and the characters live up to their names.

Oh man. I don’t even know what I would say. It would probably be me. I would have to pick myself to be the character and I would probably be some kind of oafish type guy following Maria around, telling her what not to do. (laughter) Alice being Maria of course. I don’t know if that’s the right answer or not, but that’s my answer.

There’s no wrong answers man. It’s all good. (laughter) I appreciate your time Chris. The site and myself, wish you and the band nothing but the best. Hopefully, we can get caught up at a show sometime soon.

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In This Moment – Adrenalize: