Kiss or Kill is the debut effort by California-based EndeverafteR. It features a fresh mix of Sleaze Rock and Classic Glam swagger. Lead singer Michael Grant spoke with Metal Express Radio about the band and image.
Metal Express Radio:
You just finished a tour with Trapt and Fuel.
Michael Grant:
Yes, a whopping 2 and a half, three month tour. It’s a feeling of accomplishment. Everything went quasi-smooth. All in all … I’ll give it four out of five stars.
MER:
Kiss or Kill came out at the end of October. How long did it take to record?
MG:
About a year. We recorded the first half of the album … 12 songs, before we went on tour with Poison in the summer of 2006, and then we recorded the other six songs after that … right after the tour. We were at a different place at that point. We knew what we wanted to bring forth and what we wanted to have heard … so we wanted to take the experience from the Poison tour, so we had a lot more to say and a lot more to show for it.
MER:
Do you consider Endeverafter a Glam band?
MG:
I don’t, but … whatever. People are going to see it however they’re going to see it. I don’t really put any label specifically on it – I think we’re a straight up Rock n’ Roll band. We do have Glam influences … and glamorous ideals. We look good on stage. It’s not like we wear costumes on stage. If you see us on stage, we wear the same kind of shit on the street … it’s not a front. I guess because we’re pretty, people like to say we’re Glam.
MER:
I don’t think so. It has more to do with your guitar tone and your song lyrics. That’s why people think you’re Glam. You can go ahead and call yourself pretty. Does that bother you to be pretty?
MG:
No … it comes up a lot. You can’t get buy on looks alone. Nelson proved that!
MER:
Wow. That was a little harsh.
MG:
I’m just kidding. It’s a joke.
MER:
You’re going to perform on the Motley Cruise.
MG:
It was sort of out of the blue. I think the powers that be … after we went on tour with Poison/Cinderella … the whole 80s genre is a small little circuit. It’s not like there was a ton of bands that were successful that are still playing and I think, you know, our CD is going to spread throughout that community. They [cruise organizers] caught wind of us and invited us on the cruise. We were never gonna decline that … getting the chance to play with some people you really look up to – and bands you really enjoy – and it’s on a cruise ship for crying out loud!
MER:
Do you know how many times you’ll get to play when you’re on the boat?
MG:
What I’ve heard … is three sets a day. Maybe once on different stages? We’re not really sure how it all works.
MER:
Kiss or Kill is on Razor & Tie. How did that relationship form?
MG:
Basically I was shopping the album around, hopping label to label, major to major and Razor & Tie had a lot of enthusiasm. Tons of tons of enthusiasm about the project and really driven to take it somewhere. That was a kind of passion the other labels didn’t have. Razor & Tie, they keep pulling through in the clutches, getting us tons of publicity and really pushing the album, pushing us to radio and getting us opportunities that we otherwise wouldn’t have. I was skeptical going into … going from a major [Sony] to an indie … but it turned out for the better.
MER:
Was it your childhood dream to be a Rockstar?
MG:
I don’t know. I had a bunch of different dreams … this is definitely the most fruitful one. I thought I was going to be a basketball player. Wrong!
MER:
Are you struggling to live as a musician?
MG:
I’m completely struggling right now. But I’m in a band with my best friends. We’re a great Rock ‘n’ Roll band.
MER:
How did EndeverafteR come together?
MG:
I was playing in a Hardcore act in Sacramento. Everyone – when I was trying to form EndeverafteR – wanted to play emo so I would try to find like-minded people … which was impossible. I ended up playing in bands I wasn’t happy in. One of those was bands featured Chris Reid, my guitarist … he worked at a [design] magazine. I read an article, we later became best friends. I started dating his girl and her brother happened to play bass. We had another drummer at the time. He was on a different wavelength than us – but we continued to play. I wanted the core of this band to be more about the music and not looks. My favorite era of Mötley Crüe is Shout at the Devil, which was definitely Glam, but it worked for them. We just take whatever we’re influenced by and take it to our own direction. Anyway, we got a new drummer (Eric Humbert) … he was the drum tech for Fall Out Boy. Right before the Poison tour is when we decided to kick out our old drummer. Six days before the tour. We were auditioning drummers that could learn our set in a few days. Eric flew out from Chicago … we went into the studio and the moment he sat down behind the kit, we started jamming some Led Zeppelin. He knew every song perfect and was really solid. We were supposed to audition 11 or 12 other dudes, but after him I didn’t even want to see anyone else. We all went on the Poison tour … and now here we are.
MER:
Finally, tell fans about your band name.
MG:
We were all thinking about combinations of words, play on words, and what not. We wanted to think of a word that meant “the end of forever.” We came up with EndeverafteR.
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