Twelve Tribes Interview

Room Thirteen catch up with Andrew Corpus of Twelve Tribes to get back to basics and discuss all things band related.

R13: How are you doing today? Are you looking forward to the gig tonight?
TT: I'm good. This venue is huge!

R13: What time's your soundcheck?
TT: Killswitch have theirs at 4pm, I think ours is about 7pm tonight.

R13: So...Records. How many, and when?
TT: We have 2 CDs out which were released on Eulogy records in the states. Our CD was released over here on Goodlife, but that was a long time ago now.

R13: How long have Twelve Tribes been together for? Have you had many lineup changes since you began?
TT: We've been together since 1997 and we've had an incredible amount of line up changes! Only Adam and I have been here for the course of the band.

R13: Why do you think you've had so many line up changes...Is it because people simply had other things to do, or was it more of a clash of ideas?
TT: People had other things to do but there have been clashes in writing and in personality. At the time, when we first started this, we were doing really well. We were practising, doing the tours... We had a good distribution. When it because time to focus- to really write, they just weren't there. They didn't want to put the work in. We were trying to find the right people to work with us so we could do what we wanted to do with our records.

R13: How do you write material for the band? Do you write as a group or is one person chief writer?
TT: Kevin and Adam do the majority of the writing, but we all change and rearrange sometimes. We all have a say in the music.

R13: So you're pretty much happy with this arrangement then?
TT: Yeah, I'm happy with it. I trust both those guys...a lot. I respect them as musicians and as writers.

R13: Are you doing any other dates in the UK after this tour?
TT: It's our first time in the UK so after this we're going home. We're back with 36 Crazyfists on April 3rd.

R13: What size venues do you play over in the US and who do you play with?
TT: The size really depends on who we're on tour with. We’ve toured with 36 Crazyfists and Kittie... they're about the same size venues as here. We were on tour after that with Soulfly and Ill Nino.

R13: How are you doing compared to friends in other bands?
TT: It was interesting when we started- our first tour ever was with Poison The Well and it was their first tour as well. Our first tours were with bands like Poison The Well, Every Time I Die and Blood Has Been Shed... Bands who are now playing 1000 capacity venues in the US. We played to 20... 50 people and if we had 100 people we'd be hugging because it was incredible. All those bands took off but we were having so many problems with our line up. It almost felt like I was being held back in 4th grade whilst all my friends went to high school.

R13: What's your luckiest break so far?
TT: The big one would have to be our manager Howard... We’ve known him for 8 years. I mean, we've known him a long time and he's helped us to get onto the label we're on now over in the states. Once we started touring we made him our manager. He's done a lot for us... He got us on this tour and he got us on the 36 Crazyfists tour later this year. He's a great guy. I mean, completely- he was helping us before he was making money out of it and he's always been our friend.

R13: Are you considering any festivals in the UK this year? I could see you fitting in at Download...
TT: That's something that has been brought up, yes.

R13: Download in particular or..?
TT: I don't know any in particular- I'm not that familiar with UK festivals!

R13: Have you played any over in the US?
TT: We've played the Hellfest... Played there several times. It's funny, with the US, people will put all these bands on at a show, they'll call it a festival, charge double and it will be super chaotic. They're not really as good over there as they are here... there's the Ozzfest and Warped Tour but we've not really done anything like that.

R13: What kind of things are you hoping to achieve in 05 seeing as you've got the whole year ready and waiting for you!
TT: Tour! We're gonna tour, but we write on a digital 8-track we take with us on the road so we can constantly write. When we go home after six weeks we have two weeks off. During that time we'll rehearse.