Mind Noise Network
Interview with Ryan from SOiL:
If you're unfamiliar with SOiL I'm not entirely sure what you've been doing for the past 17 years. Hits such as Halo and Breaking Me Down have given these guys a global audience and we caught up with vocalist Ryan McCombs in Nottingham before the final date of their UK tour.
Thanks for taking the time to talk to us before your set, firstly, how's the tour gone so far?
Oh it's been great. We started over in Europe and the shows over there that we expected to be good ended up being great and the shows we were questioning ended up being really good to. Then we came over here and we know it's always great to tour over here so yeah, it's been a really good run. The whole package really brings something. I mean you've got (hed) p.e, American Head Charge and ourselves and even the opening band Wolfborne. I think this is their first tour, they're really good guys and have got some good songs. So the tours gone really well.
What would you say is the best venue or crowd you've had in the UK on this tour?
London was friggin' stupid. I mean that in a good way. It was the first time in my career that I went down to the pit and had to get dragged out and I wanted to be. I think security saw the terror in my eyes and got me out of there. Manchester was great, but we've had a lot of great shows.
It's been a long run of shows for you too, what has it been 12 shows just in the UK?
Yeah I think so. We've had three days off since we came over to Europe it's been a blinding blur.
Has it been intense?
Yeah, you really start forgetting about things until you get home and you start remembering stuff that's happened.
As this is the last show on the run, have you got any special plans?
I dunno. The end of tour hijinks usually happen on stage and you never hear about it until it's happening and then you've just got to kind of roll with it.
Has anything happened out of the ordinary on this tour so far?
We've got almost 30 people on this tour between the four bands and the crew so there's something stupid going on every night.
Away from this tour, do you have any stand out bands that you've toured with?
Oh I don't know, it's been a long 18 years. We've toured with a lot of great bands. I mean we've shared a stage, whether it was a festival or a tour, with pretty much every band that's out there over the years. It would probably be easier to pick the jerks, but even then I really can't think of anybody. It's been a blessing to do this for a living. Just the fact that people would take time out of their lives to give us a job to do is pretty friggin' amazing, so it's hard to ever get upset about anything.
Well yeah, I suppose a lot of bands don't make it past the first couple of years, let alone almost two decades.
That's right yeah, we're that old. We're that old and that stubborn!
Is there a band left on the SOiL 'bucket list'?
For me personally it's Black Label Society. We've done festivals and they've been there, but we've never been out on a proper, you know, SOiL/BLS tour. That would be really cool.
Well they're going pretty strong at the moment so you never know.
Well Zak I am blessed with being able to call a friend and I think we would just have a really good time, it'd be a fun ride.
Are there any plans after the end of this tour?
Well we're dropping the third single from the Whole album soon and we've been talking to the booking agent recently. We're hoping to hit some territories that we've never hit before as well some places that we haven't hit in a long time and we're talking about when next year we'll be coming back here (to the UK).
That's good then, we like "when" not if. With things like Spotify and other streaming services is that making it easier or harder for you guys?
It's much harder to make a buck that's for sure. You see it in your wallets real quick. People just aren't buying CDs like they used to. I'm not crying about it, it is what it is. But the fact of the matter is, no one is buying the music like they used to and at the end of the day when you produce something, whether it's a car or a candle or a song, if no one buys it, you don't stay employed. It's that simple. You don't see a lot of new bands coming up like you did in the early 2000's because what few labels are left are only really signing old codgers like ourselves who they know can sell x amount of copies. So you see it hurting in many levels.
We've seen a lot of small bands just giving away their music.
There's a few stages that a band goes through, to begin with you just want to get your music out there, but when it becomes your job you need to make a penny or you need to find another job. At the end of the day, I can't keep the lights on if I'm not getting paid. The kids like lights on when they're doing their homework, selfish really.
Brilliant, well lets hope you get to keep doing this job. Well, that's all from me. Thanks again for taking the time to talk to us.
Ah, thanks very much. Perfect timing too, it's dinner time.
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