Still Remains

With a rapidly increasing profile in the US and Europe, Still Remains are here to show Australian audiences what the fuss is all about.

In between Soundwave appearances, vocalist TJ Miller answered the following questions for us…

Interview w/ TJ Miller (Vocals)

of Still Remains (USA)

By Cameron Chambers

Hey TJ, how are you today?

Yeah, I’m alright man, yourself?

I’m good mate.

How’s your first visit down under treating you?

Very well thank you!

As well as Soundwave you’ve

go last night in Melbourne?

They’ve been great… last night

was off the hook.

How do the Australian

crowds compare to audiences back home?

They’ve definitely been a bit

different, especially for the club shows. The club shows haven’t been

sold out though so that could be why. We haven’t actually played any

of the Soundwave dates yet.

What caused that?

A lot of stupid airline bullshit!

We were help up in Chicago and one of our flights landed late and it

screwed everything up. Some of our luggage was lost and actually destroyed

and then we all got food poisoning.

We’ve been through hell to get

here and we’ve missed those two shows but we’re just stoked to be

here now.

Are there any

bands on the festival that you’ve been excited to watch as a fan?

We’re really good friends with Envy On The Coast and I’m a legitimate big fan of their music,

so I’m looking forward to seeing them. Saosin are another one…

they are my number one band to see!

A lot of bands start out with

world tour was a possibility?

No way dude, ha ha. Not when you’re

sitting in our guitarist’s, parent’s basement writing songs. You’re

just goofing around in your home town. You always dream and hope for

something like that but it’s not a reality.

The band’s sound has become

your original fan base?

I honestly couldn’t tell you…

I really don’t know. We’ve had some great success internationally

with the new album, which is heavier in places but more melodic as well.

We still play a lot of shows and there are more kids than ever coming

out and singing along.

Steve Evetts oversaw the recording

of “The Serpent”. What made you want to work with him?

Steve Evetts brings out a band’s natural sound and he’s able to capture that

on record. He’s done a lot… he’s done all of The Dillinger

Escape Plan’s stuff, he did the Satisfaction… record

for Hatebreed and the latest Story Of The Year album as well, so he works all over the musical spectrum.

He really captures an almost live

sound and I really wanted to do a record where it actually sounded like

us. I think The Serpent really sounds similar to us live.

As you said,Steve has

with someone else?

I’m not sure. I hadn’t really

thought about that. It definitely would’ve been different and I’m

sure more effects would have been used, more studio tricks and things

like that. A lot of things with Steve… he doesn’t use auto

tune so he challenges you to play really solidly and sing right on.

He’s like a coach and that’s what this band needed.

Following the release of

to a heavier sounding band?

Yeah definitely! One thing that

did help was having bands like Killswitch Engage and As I

Lay Dying playing as well, so we lucked out.

Has the changes to your sound

or is this something you’ve always been working towards?

You know what? Every band goes

through members. We’ve gone through members and there are bands that

are way more successful than we are who’ve gone through even more

members than we have.

The core still exists and is on

fire, so the same people that wrote the songs when we started are still

here and still writing songs. It hasn’t played a huge difference.

Even if it was still the original line up the band definitely would

have evolved.

Bands such as yourselves and

think kids over there respond so well to this style of music?

Kids over there like music in

general. They’re more legitimately excited and more appreciative than

the fans in the States, and I’m not trying to offend the kids in the

States, but there are so many bands in the US! So when a band gets a

chance to go abroad and play to fans that aren’t as used to seeing

so many bands, they just respect it a lot more.

Once you finish up in Australia,

what have you guys got planned?

We go home for about a week and

then we go to Central America for four days with Haste The Day.

Then we go home for a week before embarking on our headlining tour for The Serpent in the US.

Who else is going to be involved

with that?

Gwen Stacy will be the

main support and then there’s Secret And

Whisper who are a new Tooth And Nail band and then you’ll

have Catherine who are on Rise Records opening up.

What’s been your most memorable

Still Remains show to date?

Probably in Japan at the Loud

Park festival… that was a good one. We played for twenty two and

a half thousand people and it was just incredible! Being in Japan is

a surreal experience in itself… its other worldly.

What were your top 3 records

of 2007?

This is normally easy for me and

I’ve got my manager sitting here mocking me coz he knows what I’m

going to say, ha ha.

The last Queens Of The Stone

Age record was my favourite from last year but I’m trying to think

of others. The HIM record was absolutely incredible… it was

such a different spin for the band! Lastly, Nine Inch Nails with The Year Zero.

If Still Remains could take

any 3 bands on tour, who would it be and why?

Iron Maiden because they’d

be a great support band for us… just kidding. Any three bands on tour?

Let’s see… I’m not good at these, ha ha.

We’d take Trivium out…

just kidding. Like I said earlier, I’m really stoked on Envy OnThe Coast. They have an incredible amount of talent and we were

actually thinking of having them on our headlining tour but it didn’t

work… but having them would be incredible.

It’d be cool to tour with The Acacia Strain. They are my favourite hardcore band. I’m not

really into a lot of really heavy music but I think they’re really

great. Who else? We’d like to go on tour with Comeback Kid

because they put on a great show every night! They’ve got so much

energy!

That wraps it up TJ, any shout

outs or plugs you want to get out there?

Nope, ha ha

Awesome, thanks for your time.

For more info check out www.stillremains.com or www.myspace.com/stillremains