We caught up with the American Stoner Metal band, Karma to Burn at Sonisphere this year and chatted with drummer, Rob Oswald(RO), and were later joined by guitarist, Will Mecum(WM).

R13: Hi mate, you want to introduce yourself to the readers?
RO: What's going on, my name is Rob, I play drums in Karma to Burn, hallo.

R13: This is your first Sonisphere and you're headlining the Jagermeister Stage, how does it feel to be back on the live circuit and headlining?
RO: It's good. It's a little strange headlining a stage, but it's good.

R13: You have a long history. You were signed with Roadrunner Records, but then parted ways. What happened there?
RO: Uhm, not to get into a big deal, but they had different plans for the band, than we had. So we had kind of like a falling out and went our separate ways. We wanted to do instrumentals at the time, and they wanted us to have vocals at the time. That wasn't in our plans, so we parted ways. It just didn't work out. Saying it in a nice way.
R13: That was a few years ago, right? Did you keep on performing or did you go into a hiatus?
RO: Yeah, yeah that was like 1997 I guess. We ended up working with labels doing what we wanted to do.

R13: Ok, lets park that. Are you doing any other festivals here or in Europe on this tour?
RO: Yeah, we are doing this one today. I believe we are doing two tomorrow, one in Belgium and one in Germany.
R13: In one day?
RO: Yeah, we started the tour that way. We played three shows in the first 24 hours of the tour. So, two in one day is not a lot. We had the last two days off, so I'm dying to play, and this is our only UK show on this tour.

R13: Tell us about the wasp swarm at Download last year. Were you guys aware of that?
RO: You know what, not at first. I could see people moving, but I really couldn't see what was going on. Then once I realised what was going on it was like pretty amazing. It was kind of cool. I think we are the only band it has happened for. That story has followed us all around the world. I guess it's from the bass.

R13: How do you find the British audience compared to the audience back home?
RO: People over here seem to be more into it and here for the music, as opposed to back home. I'm not bashing back home, but a lot of times people will go to see if there are any girls there and things like that. You know, they're texting on their phones or whatever. Speaking for myself, I feel more home here than in the States. It's more welcoming here. It feels more that I'm around my family.

(Joined by guitarist, Will Mecum)

R13: Your style has been described as Desert Rock, which is a new sub-genre to me.
WM: It's kind of strange as none of us grew up near a desert at all.

R13: You have recently released "Appalachian Incantation". How was it received?
WM: Well, I have no idea.
RO: We have die-hard fans and friends that bought it, but we really don't know.
WM: Our mums bought a lot of copies.

R13: Is there a new album coming soon?
WM: Well, it's a nice thought. We're kind of on the way. We're writing material, but right now we've been touring so much that there's hardly any time to write material. We have a couple of new songs that we play in the set every night. Hopefully that will turn into a new album.

R13: Well guys, good luck with your show tonight. Unfortunately I won't be able to review it due to clashes, but I'm sure you'll have a good one.
Both: Thanks man.

Karma to Burn headlined the Jagermeister Stage at Sonisphere on Friday night.