Thomas Giles, frontman for prog metal leaders Between The Buried And Me, has had a busy time over the past few months.
His band just released a live CD/DVD set called Live At The Fidelitorium and Thomas himself just released his second solo album, Modern Noise, which is again a departure musically from what he is generally known for. A mix of alternatives styles, Modern Noise finds Thomas looking inward on being a dad, fear of death and near tragic experiences on the road.
Thomas wrote the record while on the road with his band. “I think I wrote it in 3-4 months, most of it I wrote, I wrote it pretty quickly, I wrote almost the whole record on the road with Between The Buried And Me so even though I was getting the ideas together those 4 months, I really only grinded on it only for a month or two. My schedule every day was wake up on the road, eat breakfast and start working on me record. I really enjoyed it, having that schedule. I really felt like I was at work every day. I would just start writing every morning and whatever happened, happened.”
The album’s first video is for the track Siphon The Bad Blood which he says is about his fear of death. “I think everybody that knows me, knows that’s something I struggle with.” As for the rest of the album, “ I really went song by song, what really fits the song. knew I really wanted to write a song for my son, so that’s on the record,” referring to the oddly titled lkcvjvhljbvjΓëÑ╦£Γêå╦Ünnnjmkjijm, which came from his son typing on his keyboard. “Most of the lyrics are very personal. It’s kind of an eclectic group of songs musically and lyrically.”
There is also a track called M3, which is about a harrowing experience the band had while on tour. “We were on tour with Periphery in Europe and we were all asleep in the middle of the night and basically our bus caught on fire and we just woke up to our driver telling us to run out. The bus was full of smoke and we all ran out and climbed up this wet hill because it was pouring rain and we were all in our underwear and freezing and we just watched our bus burn. Luckily, the fire department got their pretty fast and got it out. We were very very fortunate. It was frightening.”
As for his band Between The Buried And Me, “We are finishing up with the skeletons of all the songs, we still have a lot of work to do. We always record before we record, so there’s a lot that goes into it. It’s sounding really cool. It’s gonna be out next year. It’s a very different record for us, not as heavy but still very Between The Buried And Me. I think not everybody is gonna know what to expect which is how we like it and hopefully how our fans like it.”
Roie Avin is the Editor of The Prog Report website.
