Interview Interrogation: Red Sun Rising (USA)

So whilst Hard Rock / Post-Grunge / Metal outfit Red Sun Rising are in the midst of their US / Canada tour, GMA decided to catch them off guard on route 66 and interrogate them by the wayside.
Not only are they touring, but there latest single 'Emotionless' is now out for your listening pleasures.
So here is how the interrogation went, suffice to say it was less horrific than interrogations undertaken at Guantánamo Bay.

"I do think that everything is cyclical and the time may be now for a revolution for these types of (metal & rock) music"

Guys you have a huge US tour ahead of you, how will you prepare for this? Can you give us a background report on how bands in the USA deal with touring?

"Well at this stage of the game touring changes from day to day and week to week. Budgets are up and down because we are a new band. So on some runs we can afford to be a little more comfortable and some we have to penny pinch. This could mean the difference between a bus, RV or a van. That sort of inconsistency can be really tough when it comes to being organized which becomes frustrating. It's one thing to live out of a suitcase but when it's 24 degrees and snowing and your suitcase lives in the trailer it just makes a simple task a lot of work. Thankfully we are coming up on the warmer months."


How long can UK / EU fans wait before you reach our side of the Atlantic? 

"It is getting to be about that time isn't it? We are definitely actively pursuing opportunities to get there and we cannot wait to play there. So my answer would be as soon as possible."


Please give us the low down behind your phrase 'we are thread'?

"Thread was sort of an 'anti-genre' genre that we created. And in many interviews because we are a new band we are asked what our influences are and how we would describe our sound. We realize that our influences were a wide variety of genres, styles and from different eras. Anywhere from The Beatles to Soundgarden. So we like to take a little bit from all of these influences and thread them together to create our sound which focuses heavily on the melodies, structures and thought provoking lyrics of the songs. The core of the song we call it. We feel these ingredients have been missing in modern rock. So we didn't want to just be a rock band or a metal band we wanted to be our own thing which is Thread. Thread it represents the fact that we do not put a label or a limit on our songwriting we just write songs that we love the sound of no matter what genre it may fall in."


What challenges do US rock / metal bands tend to face these days? Have you had any yourselves?

"I think the challenge right now for a rock or metal band is that rock and metal music have both been kind of suppressed for the past 15 to 20 years. There hasn't been a big movement for rock or metal since really the grunge era in my opinion. However we see in other countries that are music is sometimes appreciate it more and we don't know why that is yet because we have not played in those countries. But I do think that everything is cyclical and the time may be now for a revolution for these types of music. Can only hope that we are on the forefront of that. But I think us not writing for the genre but rather just writing good songs will help break the stale rock airwaves of the US."

On your forthcoming tour, will there be any cities you will be playing at for the first time? Do you suffer from jet-lag touring the country?

"Yes actually we have never played Orlando and we get to play Earth Day birthday which is a festival that we are looking forward to playing. Of course when you think of Florida you always think of vacations and tropical weather but being able to play outdoors at a festival in these types of environments is much better than any vacation you could ever take. We have been pouring pretty extensively in the US so there are a lot of cities that we have already played that we are repeating but that doesn't make it any less exciting. There'll always be new faces."


How has the American media reacted to your new single and debut album? Have you had any international reception?

"It's really cool to watch the growth of the band because we had our first single go to number one. So basically many people were kind of blind-sided by that because they had never heard of us. So of course that put more pressure on the second single because people wanted to see what we could follow that up with. Thankfully in our case we believe that the second single was the right choice and has been received very well, even better than the first one. Yes we have seen definite growth internationally via social media and we think the second single which is Emotionless is even gaining more traction internationally, making it even more and exciting to get overseas."


What plans have you got for the rest of the year? Do you have any hello's or thank you's to send out?

"Nothing like to thank all the fans and keep supporting us and spreading the word about us because we are seeing the shows grow and we are seeing more people sing the songs back to us and that is such a surreal feeling that could never get old. And for the rest of the year we plan to continue to tour on our record however we are continuously writing new music so I am sure we will be back in the studio no later than early 2017."


Finally, how heated do the American elections get out there?

"They can usually get pretty heated especially with social media. I used to be a little more active in speaking my voice but now I just voted and exercise my rights as an American citizen and keep my opinions to myself because I realize that it's really not worth arguing with someone about it because you are very unlikely going to change their mind. But let's just say this election has been sort of a joke here."


https://www.facebook.com/redsunrisingmusic