Cancer Bats

Canada’s “Cancer Bats” have been causing a ruckus in their homeland since their inception in 2004. For the uninitiated, their mix of punk, metal and straight up southern rock is something that you NEED to hear.

Even though he’s right in the middle of a huge tour with Bleeding Through, vocalist Liam was able to spare a few minutes to chat with us…

“Cancer Bats” interview

by Cameron Chambers 

Interview conducted on

Monday June 4^th w/

Liam (Vocals) 

Canada’s

and straight up southern rock is something that you NEED to hear.  

Even though he’s

was able to spare a few minutes to chat with us…

Hey man, thanks heaps for talking

to us today. 

That’s cool man, thanks heaps

for doing this. 

You guys are part of a pretty

big tour at the moment, how’s it all been going? 

It’s been awesome so far man.

We’ve bro’d down super hard with all the bands. We actually knew

The End and Risky Business before we went on this tour so that was always

going to be cool. This was the first time we’d met Bleeding Through

and they’ve been amazing man. Seriously some of the nicest dudes we’ve

met. 

That’s sounds awesome man. 

Yeah, the only thing that sucks

is that the tour isn’t long enough! 

You know that Jona (from Bleeding

Through) is originally from Australia? 

Yeah, Jona’s a wicked dude.

I didn’t actually know too much about Prom Queen, like, I’d heard

of them but hadn’t really heard their music but he definitely shreds

in Bleeding Through. 

Not a lot of kids in Australia

came together? 

Well, the band started around

3 years ago. Scott and I had both been playing in metal bands and we

got talking and were saying how we wanted to started a band for fun,

you know what I mean? Something that was a bit more rock n roll and

hardcore. 

So yeah, Scott and I were interested

in just doing a fun project and I guess we picked up lots of momentum

really quickly and just took every opportunity that came our way. 

Around the same time we started

Cancer Bats Scott’s last band broke up, I wasn’t really doing anything

musically so I had nothing else going on in my life and we were just

like, let’s fucking kill it and do this full time. 

We had a couple of member’s

changes to make us a more serious team. Don’t get me wrong, our drummer

was great but we needed someone who was down for touring full time so

we got Mike, who played drums for this hardcore band Figure Four. 

That’s sweet, Figure Four

were an awesome band. 

Yeah man, it’s funny you should

say that because we just grabbed their bassist as well!  

Our original bassist had to choose

between the band and touring full time and his graphic design company

and yeah, the band lost out. There’s no beef or anything like that

though man, his design company is amazing and they still handle all

our merch designs and shit like that. 

So it worked out really well because

Bailey (ex Figure Four bassist) doesn’t like working either, so he

fit in perfectly! 

I was going to mention the

artwork for your record because it’s fucking rad! 

Thanks heaps man.  

Andrew handled the entire layout

and this girl Alex did all the illustration. She’s amazing, it literally

took her an hour. We were like “hey Alex, we need some ideas for our

CD booklet” and she was like “oh, ok, I’ll do a picture of a girl

giving birth to a ship” and yeah, that was pretty much it.  

It’s just so fucking rad to

be surrounded by so many talented people.

Your bio says that yourself

– what prompted the change in sound and direction for you guys? 

Well, Scott was in a really serious

metal band and I guess it made him want to do something that was more

straight forward. We’ve always loved rock n roll and at that time,

we’d been digging bands like These Arms Are Snakes, The Bronx and

Every Time I Die. 

I was in the same boat and wanted

to do something that wasn’t about being technical, something more

basic you know? I wanted something with more groove to it, so it really

hammered home those parts. 

Scott had always been a huge fan

of bands like Entombed, Pantera, Down and other stuff like that, so

we had the same sort of idea and was just like, we should do a band! 

We wanted to make sure we included

stuff like Bad Brains and Black Flag, you know, the stuff we grew up

on, but yeah, it originally started as something fun to do. I actually

started on drums so it was just me and Scott rocking out! 

Were you surprised at the attention

– so early in the band’s life? 

Yeah man, I definitely was, but

at the same time, we were really proud of what we were doing. There

weren’t really a lot of bands doing what we were doing at that time.

Cursed was pretty much the only band in the area that similar to us

so it was pretty different at the time. 

We had friends in full time bands,

bands like Alexisonfire who were saying, “you guys should go on tour”

and we were like “yeah, well I hate working” so why not, you know!? 

I guess all it really took was

some more popular bands to push us to take the next step, you know,

to take a risk on us and take us out on tour. 

I mean the guys in Alexisonfire

are amazing, they took us on our first huge tour for almost 3 months.

It was great because they didn’t just take us as friends (which is

obviously cool) but they took us out because they believed in our band.

It was just so amazing of those guys! 

 Man, Alexisonfire

dudes. 

Dude, that new (ish) record rules

and when we toured with them I was blown away every single night. Great

band and good dudes too! 

Birthing The Giant is the first

near future? 

We want to get down as soon as

possible man. There are a few things to sort out first though.  

We actually need to write another

record here in Canada. The record has been out for almost a year back

home and only like, 2 weeks in Australia, so we need to sort that out

first. 

The plan is to take summer off

to write, then do another tour or 2 and THEN record the album. We are

definitely aiming to hit Australia at the end of 2007 or the start of

2008. 

Would that be opening for a

bigger band or doing your own shows? 

Man, I’d rather be playing small

hardcore shows. That’d be a great way to do a first tour of a country.

You know, playing in 200 capacity rooms. Don’t get me wrong, touring

with a bigger band would be great fun but I do miss playing smaller

shows. 

Have Canada always had this

of musical explosion? 

Canada has always had so many

diverse bands. We’ve had so many bands that have started, or help

start genres. Bands like Chokehold, Left For Dead and The Swarm etc…

spawned such a great hardcore scene. 

Then we had bands like Grade,

who sparked bands such as Alexisonfire and Silverstein. I think both

those bands would agree that Grade paved the way! 

Don’t forget Cursed man! 

Yeah bro, Cursed almost broke

up so I’m siked that their new record is actually happening!  

But yeah, our hardcore scene has

bands like Cursed, Mi Amore, Fucked Up and Career Suicide. Just so many

great bands! 

Even the indie scene has awesome

bands like The Constantines and Lady Hawk, it’s just awesome! 

Dude, Mi Amore is such a cool

knows who that band is, ha ha. 

That’s awesome that you know

who that band is man! They are amazing! 

The operator said we’ve got

for you. 

That’s cool man. Just get through

as many as you can. 

George from Alexisonfire

weeks ago – care to elaborate on that? 

We just take it there man, no

matter where we are. If there are 5 kids or 500 kids we definitely just

turn it up, get loud, get dirty, you know. Heaps of headbanging! It

just comes down to the fact that the 4 of us love playing these songs. 

Even if no one in the crowd was

siked I wouldn’t care, because I’m still having the time of my life

on stage so yeah, we just fucking kill it! 

What’s the most memorable

tour that you guys have been part of so far? 

Every single tour we do is different

and fun and amazing. Just the act of doing this is so awesome! 

Specifically though, the Rise

Against tour in Europe was incredible. The Bleeding Through tour at

the moment, I mean, they’re both different settings, but so fucken

fun so it doesn’t even matter. 

Maybe I’m just too posi for

my own good to answer this question, ha ha. 

If you could pick any 3 bands

to tour with, who would it be and why? 

Converge, Norma Jean and Murder

City Devils. That’s pretty easy because they’re my three favourite

bands. 

Funny you should say that,

my friend’s band was named after that record In Name & Blood. 

That’s awesome, I’d love to

see those guys play! 

They

broke up recently… 

Ha ha, that sucks! 

That pretty wraps it up man,

anything else you’d like to add? 

Thanks for doing this man and

hopefully we can get down there and see you at a show. 

Look forward to it bro 

For more info on Cancer

Bats check out 

www.cancerbats.com