WRIF Virtual Rock Room with In This Moment
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00:00Thank you so much for watching Riff TV. Now this interview is obviously with video, but I don't
00:05interview everybody on Zoom. That's why I put it on my Talkin' Rock with Meltdown podcast. We talk
00:10to rock artists from all over the genre. So check out Talkin' Rock with Meltdown wherever you get
00:15your podcasts. And now to today's video interview. Well, good to see you guys. A lot of exciting
00:22things happening in this moment, isn't there? Yes, there is. Nice to see you. Thank you for
00:27having us. Yeah. First of all, I just want to clarify what's going on with you guys as far as
00:32the shows here in Detroit, because I'm a little bit confused. I have to be honest. I've searched
00:36around and searched around. So Einstein Kills is playing with Metallica on November 12th here in
00:42Detroit. You guys are supposed to, on one thing I saw you guys are playing here, but then on another
00:46thing I saw you guys aren't playing here. And then are you guys playing here with Motionless and White
00:49in October? So, or don't you know either? I don't have, I have no. Motionless in October with Motionless.
00:56No, I have no idea what's going on with that. It could be though, that they're playing their
01:01show with Metallica and on those dates on this tour with them, we have off shows somewhere else. Yeah.
01:07Usually, but I don't really know right now. Yeah, I think on the Einstein tour, there's
01:12that tour with them and us, there's a few shows where they're with Metallica and we're doing one-offs
01:17with us, Avatar, and New Year's Day. So it could be something like that, but we don't have the
01:24itinerary in front of us. Yeah. By the way, the Kiss of Death tour is what you're talking about.
01:29And for a rock fan, this is like all of our nightmares come true on this tour, isn't it?
01:36I love that. Yeah. We think that what a beautiful, theatrical, cool, special night it's going to be
01:42for people and us. I'm just really excited for this tour. Now, I wanted to ask you, Maria, and I'll
01:48ask you too, Chris, what was the thing that triggered you as far as theatrical rock when
01:56you were growing up? Well, I mean, I've always loved, like Chris loves Kiss. Yeah. He said
02:05he was going to ask me. He literally goes, he likes Kiss. I don't know. She loves Marilyn Manson
02:12and that kind of 90s and those theatrics. Circus of May and the circus in general, not anymore
02:20because of the animals, but yeah, just anything theatrical and over the top. And I always thought
02:25Kiss was so cool too. I mean, when you were, I was little, yeah, Madonna and like whoever,
02:31you know. So when we did the Blood album, something like our whole band kind of almost broke up and
02:37our manager dropped us and all this crazy stuff happened. And it was kind of like this rebirth
02:41for in this moment. And when we started fresh is when we started kind of bringing that world to
02:47life and there was no turning back. Yeah. It's funny because guys, my age, I'm in my fifties now
02:52and it's like, you know, Alison and Frank Bello and all these guys are, it's all about Kiss when they
02:57were growing up. Right. And I liked Kiss as well, but I'll never forget watching Alice Cooper in 1984
03:02and MTV doing a live show from right here in Detroit. At the time I grew up in Buffalo. I wasn't even here
03:07yet. And to me, that was like kind of a thing that made me become a theatrical rock fan.
03:13He's the founder of a lot of that stage horror and all those things and all that, like
03:17skits. And I mean, just absolutely amazing. Yeah. So you guys played here last year on Riff Fest
03:25and I was blown away by the stage show. I think that it was like, I think you guys only played about
03:29seven songs, but there's always something going on. What do you have that's, that's, that's cool and
03:35unique on these tours? Well, we're bringing a lot of new bells and whistles and yeah, you know,
03:40we're the type of band that, because it's so theatrical, we have so much going on. Like we
03:44don't play as many songs as other bands might in that same exact timeframe, but I think that we're
03:50bringing also this whole other element and this whole other show and experience, you know? So
03:55we have fire, we have all kinds of new bells and whistles. We have new music, music that's not even
04:01released yet for my new album as well. So we're bringing a lot. And then the next tour is going to
04:06be, because the album will be out when we're out on the Einstein's Kills tour, then we're going to
04:12have even brand, even more brand new songs. Yeah. By the way, Maddie and Matt from, from Ashes to
04:18New, they're my friends. And they said, this tour is going awesome. And I told them I would name drop
04:21them in the interview. So there we go. Yeah. We're grateful to have all the bands here. This is a
04:25really cool lineup. This is a, in this moment's first time doing a co-headliner in arenas. Like we've
04:31worked our whole life and talked about touring arenas and we have the headline arenas with fire
04:36and all the things. And so it's really exciting for us to be having new things happening.
04:41Now you just talked about the record Godmo drops on October 27th. So I'll just throw it out to both
04:46of you guys. Tell us a little bit about the record. Of course the first singles are already out, but
04:50tell us, tell us about this album. Well, it's different from all of our other albums in a lot of
04:56ways. One way is the fact that instead of getting off of a tour and having like three months
05:01to get it together and go into the studio and make a new one, we had, you know, several
05:06years to do it. And we used a different producer. We use Kane Churko instead of his father, Kevin.
05:13And Kevin has done all of our records except for one. So he's done seven in this moment album.
05:18No, six in this moment albums. Kane's done this newest one. And it honestly, working with
05:23him brought a whole new level of intensity to the project. And the change kind of, and the
05:29time we had to make it kind of made us a little bit more, I don't know, powerful and aggressive.
05:33And the whole thing has an intensity to it. That's, that's different for us. Cause it was
05:37a whole fresh new vibe. The whole thing.
05:40Now was the, uh, the, the song, the purge, you guys had that kind of kicking around since
05:43the pandemic. Is that right?
05:45We had the music kicking around and she had her, she had an idea of what she was going to
05:49do vocally on it, you know, since for months and months. Um, and you know, once we got
05:55to the studio and just kind of.
05:57But we didn't know the purge, we use a vocal melody.
06:00You had the scat of the verses though. Not, you know, she had that going in. She's, I didn't
06:06hear any of her stuff until the day we got to Las Vegas. Yes. And I played her four songs
06:11and she was scatting like, well, yeah, I had like little melody things in my head, but
06:14I hadn't laid anything down.
06:15Yeah. That just means she's spitting like gibberish, but you can tell, oh, that's going
06:19to be awesome.
06:20Yeah.
06:21Now, now Maria, I mean, you know, this might be an obvious question, but when you're, when
06:24you're writing a song, are you thinking about the stage? Are you thinking about a video or
06:29just writing a song?
06:30In the beginning, it's just about the music, you know, it's like making a cake and there's
06:34like the different layers and you have to start with like the foundation and the music is
06:38the most part, important part as far as like creating that real foundation. Cause you can do all
06:43these bells and whistles and all these extra little things, but if the music sucks and
06:47there's no foundation, it's not going to resonate. Right. So it really is about first focusing
06:53on that music as the bottom and the core and the foundation, making sure that moves you
06:58and that if somebody is closing their eyes and they can't even see anything, it's not about
07:02what anyone looks like or any stage props or anything at all. The music has to give them
07:07emotions and feelings and maybe give a little goose bump or a little this and that. Like you
07:13have to start from there. So, but I do, as soon as I know that's sick and it starts, I start dreaming
07:19about, you better believe the minute it sounds good to the speaker. She's like, Oh yeah, we're
07:23going to do that. She starts like thinking of new, exciting things that we could do. And I'm always
07:28separately just trying to find inspiration and be inspired on different levels. So I might know
07:34there's a certain visual that I want to bring to life on a new tour, but I might not know where
07:39and when and how, and all that, except for fire. We are using fire now and there's just
07:43no turning back and we are obsessed. Nothing compares to having that fire go off on stage.
07:49So we love it. Now, how much of the video treatment do you do, or do you leave it up to somebody
07:54else? Or do you kind of give them a little bit of, uh, you know, a little bit of direction
07:57or do you do it all? Um, well, I have, um, been directing with Robert Clay, um, all of our music
08:05videos for like the last over 10 years straight. And so I've always been very involved with very
08:10everything. But recently we found this new director that we've had our eye on named Jensen. He's been
08:16working with falling in reverse ice nine kills, but a few other bands and this guy's videos are
08:21next level and just bringing things to life. And I just kept thinking we should work with this guy.
08:26And I showed it to Chris and he was like, I, Oh my God. Yes. He's amazing. So we, I still wrote
08:32the story treatment. I have to always, I can't, I don't have people write stuff for me. You know,
08:37nobody writes music for me or lyrics or tells me how I'm going to do a photo shoot or it's just not
08:43who I am. So I had to come up with a story and then he was beautiful. He loved the idea. He had
08:48ideas. We worked together. Amazing. And I loved him directing this video. I loved not worrying about
08:54anything. He was a plus his whole team. We want to do the next video with them. Like this guy's
09:00really amazing. Yeah. The video is a killer. Let's get back to the, uh, the record here, October 27th,
09:06I guess I dropped. So, uh, tell me a little bit more about the record. Uh, is there any covers on this album?
09:13Yeah. Yeah. There's one cover on the album. Yep. I wish I, I wish I had my list here. I don't have
09:19my list. Anyways, go on. I'm sorry. We'll tell you it's a Bjork cover. Army of me. Yeah. Okay. Is
09:27there any collaborations with special guests like you've done in the past? Yeah. We have one
09:31collaboration with Spencer from Einstein. Yep. I'm going to play that song on the next. Yep. We have a
09:37song with ice with Spencer coming out and it's perfect timing because it's going to be released
09:41right before the tour hits. So we'll probably do it on the tour together. Yeah. Uh, tell me the
09:47typical like vibe of the whole record. It's, um, it's, it's very visceral. I mean, we came out of
09:56the pandemic and the, just the three years and all these building up things in us. So it's a little
10:01darker than we normally maybe tend to be. I like to always kind of have some inspirational moments
10:07and things like that. And there's some of that in there, but it is a lot of purging kind of a lot
10:11of built up like, uh, things that have, you know, I guess we felt trapped for three years and just so
10:18many, so many things going on and everybody at each other's throat. So there is a lot of kind of a
10:23visceral releasing in there. Let's say heavier and there's heavier. Yeah. It's heavier than we
10:29normally do. There's different time signatures that we've ever done and a lot new experimental things.
10:34And, um, I'm excited for it. I really am. I think people are going to like it.
10:39Is this all stuff? Like you say, it's heavier and different time change. It's all stuff that
10:42you kind of go in with that in your mind, or is it just kind of, uh, organically happen?
10:47Well, we knew we wanted to do kind of off. I was telling, I love all that off time signature stuff.
10:52Like I'm obsessed with how people take two parts and bring it to the one parts go in one way.
10:58And then this other part comes in, but it really doesn't go with this part. And then all of a sudden
11:02they all start going together. And so I kept telling him, I really wanted to start bringing
11:06in a lot of this. He loves all that. He's like, hell yeah. And we just started creating,
11:12it was a really natural flow for us. Like we've bumped heads before in the past. And, um, in this
11:19moment really does wind up always having it sound because of us two collaborating. If it was just me,
11:24it'd be very one way. If it was just Chris, it'd be very one way in this moment is in this moment
11:29because of like how we collide, but we were just flowing on this one. We were, I was so impressed
11:36with every single thing he was bringing to the table. He was loving what I was bringing to the
11:40table. There was no fighting. There was no, it was just like flow like a river. We were calling it
11:45because it was beautiful. Is that usually the case? Or are you guys usually like kind of at each other's
11:51throat or just, is there a little bit of friction going on in this time? Just kind of came out.
11:54Uh, we're best friends, business partners, basically brother and sister. We talk every day
12:01and we're both fire signs and we are passionate people. We never fight in our personal life,
12:08right? Friendship. We never fight with our friendship very rarely ever, but we're both very
12:14passionate with business and things. So we tend our music. So we might bump heads sometimes people
12:19just know if me and him start getting, they just all leave us alone. Let us figure it out.
12:23Chris, would you say this record's a little bit more, more, I guess maybe I'm reading between
12:28the lines a little more proggy than the last records? Uh, it definitely is. Um, and heavier
12:34and just more, there's more riffs kind of, but in a way that works with the song, you know,
12:41I don't know. I think the time that we had to, to make it the unintentional time with the pandemic
12:47and everything made it so that it's just better because the pressure of having to just come up
12:52with a bunch of new stuff on the spot, you know, it made me check out a lot on some of the previous
12:57albums on just, you know, the, the feeling of creativity, whereas this one, it all felt more
13:03flowy, like she said, you know? And I love the fact that it's coming out on October 27th. Now,
13:08Chris, where'd you grow up? I grew up in Topeka, Kansas. Okay. So Marie, I grew up in New York,
13:13like, like you did. And we get the four seasons and once like school starts, it becomes to,
13:19it starts to become like Halloween mode. Yeah. We love Halloween too. I'm already excited for
13:25Halloween. I'm like, it's turning full. I mean, October is the best. Everybody loves Halloween,
13:30right? Right. Well, I was going to say, it's a, it's a perfect time for you guys to go out on tour.
13:34You guys can't not tour in the fall, right? It's true. We're just, we're all Halloween band.
13:39The temperature is good too. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you guys got some gigs
13:45now. You guys playing outdoor gigs or these inside theaters? We have a few on this tour and
13:48some of these places have been hot, man. Yeah. Like here overheating and everything. Yeah. It's
13:55crazy. Yeah. I can imagine. And I really like it. Like here in Detroit right now, it's, it's pretty
13:59warm out right now, but there's been a couple of nights where it's gotten down in the fifties and
14:02that starts to bring you like the Halloween mode. That's what's up. I love it. You know, speaking of
14:08that, um, you know, I'm a big horror movie fan. Obviously you guys are, have you guys seen any
14:12good ones lately? Like the, the evil dead, or I just saw the insidious, the red door. I thought
14:17that was pretty good. I just watched that new evil dead. Cause it just came out, I think on HBO or
14:22something like that. It was pretty intense. Yeah. Yeah. It was awesome. Yeah, for sure. I liked that
14:27movie barbarian. It just came out to that. Have you seen that? That thing is. Yeah. That one takes
14:32place in Detroit. Perfect. Yeah. And a little town called Brightmoor, which is kind of a rundown
14:39area just outside of Detroit. And I don't know if they filled it, filmed it here, but that was
14:44pretty good. What else have you seen? Oh gosh. X and bell. And I haven't been seeing anything
14:50recent recently though. Yeah. Since we've been on tour and in pre-production, we haven't really
14:56been to the movies yet. Yeah. People are going to the movies right now and we're here.
15:00Oh, is that right? Yeah. I just saw the preview for the new Saw movie comes out and it takes
15:06place between the first and second one, I guess. And it's supposed to be longer and gruesomer
15:10than the first Saw movies. Oh gosh. Maybe they'll be able to bring it back with that.
15:16Yeah. Right. I mean, how much does that kind of stuff play into, well, not so much your music,
15:22but like, you know, you're the visual part of what you guys do.
15:24Yeah. It's so funny because certain horror, I just really can't watch and don't watch. It'll
15:30get in my head too much. I'm OCD, which is an obsessive compulsive disorder. So if I watch
15:35something, it can get into my head. And if it gets in my head the wrong way, it'll become like a tick
15:41and I'll fixate. So I have to be careful on certain things that I watch, which people don't expect from
15:47me because we do, we are like this Gothic band and this and this sort of things, but some dark
15:52stuff I can fully watch. Like I can watch Black Mirror and I like American Horror Story and I love
15:58alien stuff and sci-fi and a lot of that. But if it's like super torturous or like crazy long rape
16:06scenes or crazy stuff, like I just can't watch it. It's too much for me, but it just depends on the
16:11movie. For the dudes, you know, the, the makeup is I think more like inspired by like kiss, I would
16:17say for, at least for Randy and I, but the blood, you know, on the cross and stuff like that, we,
16:22you know, we just like to do have fun and it is like calorie almost every single day, you know,
16:27because we have an hour getting ready and putting blood on your face. You know, it's,
16:33it's definitely cool. Yeah. You know, some guys like the, you know, obviously the Slipknot guys have
16:38the masks and, you know, kissed at all the makeup and stuff. Do you feel that transformation before
16:42you're getting ready to go on stage when you put all your gear on? Absolutely. It feels completely
16:47transformed. Everyone feels that. And, you know, and you're normally just yourself, but you're
16:51literally putting on this like persona and this costume to go out and be something else for the
16:56time that you're doing it, you know, because it's, if it was just a regular band and we went out there
17:01and played and, you know, it'd be different, but we're, you know, in a show kind of being a character
17:06and playing our music. So. Yeah. I don't even want to be me up there at all. It's like this other
17:11parts of myself and these other personalities, which I love, which I do. That's why I love to
17:16become different characters for the different songs and to be able to transform and come alive
17:22in these different ways. I'm ready to completely mask up. I don't even want to show my face anymore.
17:27I keep telling him, I just want it to become about the art and become about the characters.
17:32He might be retiring real soon though. Cause I told him that's album. I think I'm getting close. I
17:37mean, right now on stage, I think I only show my face for one song. So I love dressing up,
17:44becoming these characters and having this other side of me be invoked for sure.
17:49Well, obviously Maria, you're the, you're the, you know, face of the band for all intents and
17:52purposes. Chris, you must love it. I mean, you put all your stuff, I got to the movies. Nobody
17:56probably even recognize you, right?
17:57Yeah. It's, I love it, man. Yeah. I don't need to be recognized.
18:03Yeah. How often do you get recognized Maria?
18:06I mean, I do, I do. I'm pretty low key person. I'm really private, hide out a lot. I'm alone a lot.
18:13I live near the woods and just try to like, you know, go to the ocean and the woods and just hide
18:20away. But I get recognized though. Most people are pretty chill and everybody's pretty sweet though.
18:25Yeah. I suppose it probably just depends on like where you are, right? If you're, if you're just
18:29the local town, you know, and they probably won't recognize you, but if you're, if you guys are
18:33playing that town that night and you're in a movie theater and people might see you.
18:37Right. Yeah. If I'm hanging out in like Denver, we're getting recognized tons. If I'm hanging out
18:41in like a little mountain city, like, you know, Arizona, like, but no one's going to know who we are.
18:46It's like, just depends where you are, what scene you're at and things like that.
18:51I could walk through the grocery store just fine. I might get fans in the grocery store,
18:55but they're usually just chill. They'll just roll up to me with their cart and be like,
18:58you look just like Maria Brink.
19:02Do you tell them? Yes, I am. Or.
19:04Yeah, I do. I'll be like, you think so? And then I'll probably just tell them or whatever.
19:09I remember a funny story that Kid Rock bought 200 acres of land down in Nashville, outside of,
19:15you know, Nashville, Tennessee. And he's riding his ATV. The one day in the guy next door,
19:19he's got a hundred acres is cutting his grass and he walks, he rides his, his ATV up to him and says,
19:24yeah, I'm Bobby. I just bought the house here next door. And he goes, man, you look like an ugly
19:27Kid Rock. That's hilarious. I could see somebody think of that to me when I'm out and about,
19:33because, you know, you're just doing your thing. You're just going to the grocery store. You're
19:36just going to Target or whatever, you know? And so people, they don't see you in that everyday
19:41light. So they don't even, sometimes they don't think it's me. I've been told multiple,
19:46multiple times that I look like Maria Brink. So they don't think I'm me.
19:51Right. So that's hilarious.
19:54That is funny. Well, I'll tell you what, we will cut you guys loose. The Dark Horizon
19:58tour is what you guys are on now. The Kiss of Death tour is what you guys are going on
20:02after the record drops. God Mode comes out on October 27th. Anything else you guys need to
20:08plug? Anything else that you think the fans should know?
20:11No, I think that's it, man. God Mode and the Kiss of Death tour coming up.
20:15Yes. And thank you for caring. Thanks for talking with us again. And it's nice to
20:20have people care about all this and you're going to get to come to a show, you said. So we're excited
20:25for about everything.
20:26No, I love it because this is like really in my wheelhouse and I, and I like to consider myself
20:31creative as well. And I like to see the creativity with, with some of the stuff like bands, like what
20:35you guys bring to the table.
20:37Yeah. I love that. You appreciate that. And you're like a part, you like that part of the scene. You know,
20:41some people don't like that. So thank you for caring. And we want you to come out to the show
20:45too. I just noticed your Aussie shirt too, man. Yeah. Aussie coming down on the big throne on the
20:50on the tour. What's up? Yeah. Aussie. Um, I don't know. I don't know, you know,
20:55where you guys got your, uh, your spark for rock and roll. But when I was in seventh grade back,
21:00uh, 87 years ago, a kid told me, so you should hear this Aussie guy. And I went home and I heard
21:03crazy train and that moment changed my life. Yeah, dude. I loved Aussie my whole life too, man.
21:09Um, yeah. You guys ever had a chance to meet him? We toured with him. Yeah. Oh, you did? Okay.
21:15We did a song. We did the call me cover in his home studio at his house too. He came down there
21:21while we were tracking and told, told us some stories and stuff. Like, yeah, it's awesome.
21:25And we played a sold out, uh, Madison Square Garden show opening up for him too.
21:29Wow. That's so cool. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. You guys probably got to meet a lot of your heroes,
21:33eh? We really did. Yeah. There's a few we haven't worked, I haven't worked with, but I almost kind of
21:38don't want to. I'm like, I've met so everybody. And like, sometimes when you see all the behind
21:43the scenes and you hang out with people, it's really cool and exciting, but some of that alluring
21:48magic kind of goes away. So some of the, my, my, my people I have, I'm like, maybe I'll never want
21:53to meet them or work with them. Keep that. I'm good to keep it sacred from this point on in my life.
21:58Well, have you ever met Kiss? Uh, we've met some of the people in Kiss. I don't think I've ever
22:04actually met Paul Stanley or anything like that. I met Peter Criss and he was super, super, super
22:08nice. Yeah. And Ace was nice. Like his, he loved Ozzy and Kiss when he was growing up big time.
22:16Yeah. That's why when we got to work with Bob Halford, it was like, you know, a dream.
22:21Yeah. Rob Halford. So nice. And then, uh, I've had a chance to meet a lot of my heroes growing up in,
22:26uh, one of them I just wrote about because it was, I think it was his birthday or something. It was
22:29Ronnie James deal. I only met him once. I'll never forget. It was like one of the greatest
22:32experiences I've ever had. I never got to meet him, man, but I've seen like a video of all his
22:37stuff. He's such a nice guy and an awesome singer. Yeah. But I thought about them when you said
22:42something about the magic and then, you know, it's like, that's what, that was his thing.
22:45Actually signed some of my stuff to melt down magic. Yeah. And it's, if you have a good experience
22:51with them, it can stay just as sweet, you know, but you, you know, you just don't want to get
22:56anything at the wrong time. And they're mean to you're like, no, I've loved you for so long.
23:02That's why I try to always be so kind when I meet people or they catch me in the grocery store or
23:06whatever. Cause you know, I don't want to ruin anything magical that somebody has their idea.
23:12We've had a ruin for us for certain people. Some people. Yeah. Like you're, you're like,
23:16I'm not a band. And then you meet them and you're like, Oh, or you're like, you know, yeah,
23:20they were like one of your favorite bands. Maybe they're not nice when you first meet them.
23:22And all of a sudden you're like, Oh man. Well, Lizzie Hale told me a story that Dio told her. Now
23:28obviously you guys know Lizzie, but, uh, uh, he said Dio told her, and this makes total sense
23:32that you're going to meet a lot of people. You're never going to remember their faces or their names
23:35or where you met them, but they're always going to remember meeting you. So you gotta be nice to
23:38them. Yeah. I like that. Well, we could share rockstar stories all day long, but I've taken up
23:44enough of your time. Uh, the new record comes out on October 27th and a safe travels. We'll see you
23:49here in Detroit. Awesome. Thanks for having us, bro. Bye.