After releasing their debut album Southern California rock band Firing All Cylinders has been gaining some serious momentum in the local scene. They’ve already been named the number one unsigned band by Sunset Island Music. By the Barricade caught up with Firing All Cylinders at Hold It Down For The Underground Fest to find out more about their new album and their future plans. Find out all about this energetic metal band in the transcripts below!
Rix Boker – Lead vocalist/rhythm guitar
Cameron Hamilton – Drums
Daniel “Kurly” Lucero – lead guitar
Brandon Hill – Bass
Your debut album is finally out through Sirian Records. What was pre-production like?
Brandon Hill: A lot of polishing. We wanted our album to have just as much energy and live sound as possible.
I hear a lot awesome guitar solos throughout the album. Do you build around a guitar riff?
Daniel Lucero: When we are rehearsing and something comes out accidently we write around that. All of our ideas are always on the table so we put them together and see where we go from there.
Rix Boker: We wrote most of the album spontaneous. Kurly would play a riff and we would all add to that and put our own spin on it.
Cameron Hamilton: We usually start off with the guitars before I put drums to it.
Brandon Hill: Originally Cameron hated “Bounce House” but once we hit the studio with it he loved it.
Rix Boker: Now it’s his favorite song and we play it to kick off every show.
Can you tell me a little more about the album artwork?
Cameron Hamilton: The album artwork was basically taking pics of a bunch of engine parts we found in Rix’s dad’s auto shop. Found some cylinders, a flywheel I think it was. Some bullets and the skull of course. With a little editing thrown in there, we came up with what you see.
Rix Boker :Matt Upton photographed all the pieces then somehow put them together, and the skull is a Halloween mask from Phelan Fear Farm haunted house. The haunted house is a charity event all of us volunteer at in October and we grew up in garages so that’s the tie in with the album cover.
Brandon Hill: We all wanted something bad ass that would catch people’s eye and Matthew Upton worked his magic to put them all together in the most creative way possible and created the final product we have today.
Last time I interviewed Firing All Cylinders you premiered “Earthquake” and that didn’t make it onto the album. Do you already have plans for a sophomore release?
Brandon Hill: Yes. We are currently working on a second album. Rix and I have been working on some new tracks that will be very different from anything we have put out before.
Rix Boker: We have three songs finished but it’s a work in progress.
Rix Boker: We are always in the studio but you can’t rush this kind of music. If you rush it, it’ll sound rushed on the album
Did you learn anything from your first release that you plan on incorporating into your next release?
Cameron Hamilton: We put more of an emphasis on structure. Our new songs are a lot heavier and faster. We want to blow our old tracks out of the water but keep with the roots that we started with. We released our first album really quick so we plan on spending more time exploring the studio and see what else we can throw onto it.
Cameron and Brandon, I head in an interview with Soundcrave Magazine that you love more modern metal. Does that compete with the rest of the band’s favorites?
Daniel Lucero: It makes a good balance. We’ll take old school riffs and mix with new age sound.
Brandon Hill: It helps us develop our core sound.
Does Firing All Cylinders have plans for a tour in the near future?
Rix Boker: We can’t say much, but we have plans for a major US tour.
Firing All Cylinders was named the number one unsigned band by Sunset Island Music. What other national competitions are you setting your sites on?
Cameron Hamilton: The other national competition were setting our sites on is to be the grand champion band of Warped Tour. We’re in first place to play Pomona but to be the band that takes it all would be amazing.
“Bounce House” is the first track on your album. I see a lot of those at kids’ parties nowadays. Can you describe a perfect childhood birthday (real or imagined)?
Brandon Hill: My idea of the perfect birthday party as a kid would be a realistic laser tag battle on Mars with all of my friends, going against the Storm Troopers from Star Wars (we’d totally kick their Ass , they never land a shot XD) It would be as they say, a flawless victory smile emoticon
Rix Boker: Disneyland at night with only a flashlight lol. That would be cool!
Cameron Hamilton: A perfect childhood birthday would have; your favorite band playing live, a bounce house, a pool, Family, friends, Ice cream cake. Since I’m old enough, I’d want to have beer and exotic dancers everywhere!
Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers of By the Barricade?
Rix Boker: Thanks for reading and supporting Firing All Cylinders! It means the world to us.
Brandon Hill: We have our fans to thank for everything! I don’t know where we would be, but without them we would be nowhere.
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