Darkness Inside is:
Ben Harl - vocals
Matt Huckstep - bass
John Esparza - drums
Corey Dickson - guitar
Adam Thompson - guitar
BOOTLEG METAL: So let’s get things started with the name. Who came up
with the name and what’s behind it?
DARKNESS INSIDE: I don’t remember which one
of us came up with the name. We threw around several ideas, and Darkness Inside
was the one that we felt represented our message the best.
BOOTLEG METAL: Where is the band from?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We are from Central IL.
BOOTLEG METAL: Is this the
original line up and how did you guys find yourselves in the same band ?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We actually started out as a 4 piece, with our
vocalist (Ben Harl) also playing guitar. But after a year or so we decided to
find another guitar player (Adam Thompson) to lighten the load for him. It also
helped us gain more energy on stage.
Our original
drummer (Chris Morrison) left after about two years with us, but on really good
terms. We’re still really good friends with him. And that’s when John Esparza
joined in.
BOOTLEG METAL: How long has (the
band) been around and how long after your first rehearsal was it before the
first show?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We’ve been playing together for a little over
three years. It took about 3 months of rehearsal and writing before we played
our first show.
BOOTLEG METAL: Does everyone
contribute to the writing process or does someone generally write the lyrics
and/or music?
DARKNESS INSIDE: The writing process is pretty open. Everyone in
the band will bring ideas and riffs in and we write together. We feel that this
“Democratic” writing process helps us come up with some really interesting
songs and it also helps all of us to feel like we have a hand in the creation
of the music.
Most of the
lyrics are written by Ben, but Matt Huckstep (Bassist) has assisted in the
lyric writing on a couple of songs.
BOOTLEG METAL: What are your
songs about? Fact? Fiction? Personal
experiences?
DARKNESS INSIDE: A lot of the music we write has a darker tone to
it. We write from the heart and from a lot of life experiences, and we really
ty to concentrate on sharing this with anyone and everyone who may be
interested. Just because life may get you down from time to time doesn’t mean
that you can’t find a way to turn the negative into a positive. We hope that
our message will help others who struggle with the same issues we do.
BOOTLEG METAL: What genre do
you feel (the band) fit’s in the best and what influenced your writing to get
you there?
DARKNESS INSIDE: That’s a really difficult question to answer!
We’re kind of all over the map with our writing style. If I had to put us into
a single category, I’d probably select straight up Hard Rock. But we do have
some pretty heavy songs, as well as almost exclusively acoustic, so we do dip
into other genres quite often.
We have 3
albums, all with varying genres, which allows us to kind of tailor make our live
sets to match almost any other band we play with. If we’re playing with lighter
bands we can play mostly our lighter songs. If we’re playing with metal bands
we can play a heavier set. It makes it kind of nice to have those options
available.
BOOTLEG METAL: I checked out your videos and "Darkness Inside
You" stood out for me. Great tune. Any story behind the song?
DARKNESS INSIDE: This
song was inspired by a book our vocalist Ben read, called “You” by Caroline
Kepnes. It’s about a serial killer that falls in love with a woman who
frequents his bookstore, and he eventually dates her, traps her, and kills her.
It’s all about obsession, and what kinds of dark roads that obsession will lead
you down.
Since the song was inspired by that, we
thought may as well shoot a music video in the same vein!
We shot the video ourselves, and had our
friends at Heroic Age Studios edit it for us.
We had a blast making this video! It’s all
shot in first person, similar to a first person shooter style video game. BOOTLEG METAL: No happy ending to that one huh? Very cool, yeah man, nice job.
BOOTLEG METAL: What was your
latest gig?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We just played
a biker rally in Decatur, IL. A lot of fun, that one!!
BOOTLEG METAL: Where have you played live this year?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We haven’t played much this year. We wrote 3
albums in three years, and have played too many shows to count in the last few
years. So, we decided to take the first 4 months of 2017 off to catch up on our
personal lives.
However, we’ve
recently started to rehearse again, and we’ll be back out hitting it hard in
the last half of 2017!
BOOTLEG METAL:
Is there a favorite cover that always finds it’s way on your set list and is
there a story behind it?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We haven’t played any covers to date. We’ve
talked about it on several occasions, but we can’t ever decide what to do!
And we write
extremely fast, so we usually just end up working on our own stuff and any
potential covers get pushed to the back burner.
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there a
past show that stands out from the rest?
DARKNESS INSIDE: That’s hard to say. We’ve had some really good
opportunities to open for some great national acts. But we’ve also played some
intimate local shows for our friends and family.
I think every
show we’ve played had some really good memories associated with it, so it’s
hard to put one above another.
BOOTLEG METAL: So what’s in
the works for (the band)?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We’ll be working on our next music video during
the summer months, and we plan to release it around late July. Besides that
it’ll just me shows and more shows! We really love playing live! BOOTLEG METAL: Nice, "Live The Lie"? Keep me posted.
BOOTLEG METAL: What are your
thoughts on your local music scene?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Our local scene was pretty dead for the last
several years. It’s tough out there for original rockers.
But, recently
that has changed. There have been some really good bands like Ashland and
Mammoth Cannon that have gotten some notice in our area, and the original music
scene is really starting to revive itself. It’s great to see!
DARKNESS INSIDE: Our most recent album dropped in December of
2016. It’s called indoctriNATION, and you can pick it up on Amazon, i-Tunes, CD
Baby, and pretty much everywhere else. Or come out to a show and we’ll get you
a hard copy!!
BOOTLEG METAL: Do you have merchandise
for sale?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Absolutely! T-shirts, stickers, etc….
BOOTLEG METAL: Where can you
be found online?
That is our official site. And you’ll find links there to our official FB page, our
music videos, and our music!
BOOTLEG METAL: As far as
videos, sites, merch, ect. Are you guys more of a DIY band or do you hire out?
DARKNESS INSIDE: We pretty much have our hands in every aspect of
our band. Our ex drummer does all of our merch for us at his print shop, and we
have a local film studio we worked with on our first two music videos.
Our vocalist
Ben owns his own music studio (Dark Soul Studios) and he and the guitarist Adam
also run Dark Soul Entertainment, which is a film and music entertainment
company.
We try to be
as self sufficient as we can….
BOOTLEG METAL: Do you have or
are you looking for a label/manager?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Right now most of what we do is through Dark Soul
Entertainment, but we’d love to work with any labels or management that could
help us achieve our dreams!
BOOTLEG METAL:
One question I like to ask. What song (if any) by another artist do you wish
you wrote?
DARKNESS INSIDE: I don’t know if I have a good answer for that
one. I can tell you a few musicians I wish I had a chance to work with:
Corey Taylor, Dimebag
Darrell, Mike Portnoy. Of course
there are many others, but these are a few that stand out presently
BOOTLEG METAL: Is there
another artist or band that is totally not your genre that you listen to?
Adele. That
chick can sing…
BOOTLEG METAL: If you could pick, past or present, would there be a dream collaborator (artist/producer) you would like to work with?
BOOTLEG METAL: If you could pick, past or present, would there be a dream collaborator (artist/producer) you would like to work with?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Another tough one.
I’d probably
have to say Ross Robinson and/or Rick Rubin. What these guys did with
Slipknot……damn…..
I’d also love
to work with Avenged Sevenfold. These guys are constantly pushing the envelope
on creativity.
BOOTLEG METAL: How do you
think downloading music whether legal or illegal affected the music community?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Times change. It’s definitely hurt the artists.
But music isn’t going anywhere. We’ll always find a way….
BOOTLEG METAL: Thanks for
taking the time to talk with us and answering the questions. Is there anything
you’d like to add?
DARKNESS INSIDE: Don’t
forget to give us a like on FB! click here
