BAND: Madina Lake
INTERVIEWER: Michelle Cruz (Michelle@bandvibe.com)
INTERVIEWEE: Mateo Camargo (guitars/programming), Matthew Leone (bass)
DATE OF INTERVIEW: 05.06.07

BAND MEMBERS:
Nathan Leone – Vocals
Mateo Camargo – Guitars, Programming
Matthew Leone – Bass
Dan Torelli – Drums

BV: State your name and role in the band.
Matthew: I’m Matthew and I play bass.
Mateo: I’m Mateo and I play guitar.

BV: What’s it feel like to get a slot in Bamboozle alongside all these other great bands? Matthew: It’s incredible. It’s kind of like a launching pad for all the new bands in this genre. If you’re able to get a spot here, it’s almost like you kind of graduate into this world. It’s really cool to be associated with these bands… Furthermore, all these bands tour together for the rest of the year, so by the time you get to Bamboozle, you know like… everybody. It’s like a big reunion! It’s awesome.

BV: You guys played yesterday too, right? Which line-up do you prefer, today’s or yesterday’s?
Mateo: Um… I would have to say yesterday’s, because our best friends from The Audition were playing right afterwards, so we got to hang out with them and it was awesome. But we still haven’t played today, so it might be amazing.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s gonna be awesome. Yesterday, there were like, a trillion people out there and there was just a really good vibe. It was the first day, so everyone was really excited and everybody was not hung over yet, you know what I mean? Haha! So, yesterday’s, at this point, but yeah, today can maybe beat it.

BV: You’re performing, or have performed, at some pretty big festivals, including ones in the UK and Japan, and Bamboozle, of course… how do those compare to just regular touring?
Matthew: It’s vastly different! When you play those festivals, it’s very nerve-racking. You don’t get to sound check, everything is rushed, and here is just like, 50 bands’ worth of gear all over the place. It’s really stressful and overwhelming, but the crowds are SO big that it’s like surreal and great in one regard. But we also like the small intimate shows where there’s time to set up, put on the show you want, and then meet everybody and hang out. They’re both good for different reasons.

BV: You guys just formed 2 years ago. What made you decide to start a band anyway?
Mateo: Well, the drummer and me met each other, and we knew each other for a while… then we met these guys and we just became best of friends. We were both in different bands that we were kind of bored of. We were restricted artistically; we weren’t doing exactly what we wanted to do, and we just started fantasizing with these guys about the ideal band we would be in. It wouldn’t care about anything but just making art and music, and just expressing ourselves however we wanted. Then one day we just realized that it was stupid to talk about it so much and not do it, so we did it!

BV: Soon after forming the band, you guys were signed onto a major record label known for bands like Cradle of Filth, Nickelback, and Slipknot! That’s a pretty big deal… how’d you guys manage to impress them?
Matthew: Roadrunner is one of these labels that’s not really a typical major label. It’s a label that’s been around for 25 years and they’ve been profitable for 25 years, because everybody who works there is really accurate about these things – about every record they put out. So it’s a vastly different vibe compared to a major label where they kind of throw something on the radio, and if it works, it works, you know? Roadrunner is totally different, so we don’t feel like we just went into this giant major label. We feel like we kind of signed into an indie. I love it.
Mateo: It’s like, Roadrunner is a label that has the power of a major label, but it makes you feel like it’s an indie… we know the president, he knows our name, we pretty much know I think 90 percent of the staff on a first name basis. In a major label like Columbia Records, you never get to meet the president, you don’t know half the staff, and you’re just another little grain of salt in this big label. So it’s like the best of both worlds to me.

BV: How does it feel to finally have your debut album, From Them, Through Us, To You, released?
Matthew: Fantastic. We finished it like, a year ago… almost exactly a year ago… so we’ve been touring on it ever since, but it hadn’t come out yet. We toured for a year just waiting for it to come out, and now it feels like we finally gave birth to something, haha. So yeah, it’s awesome. Now we can play the songs and people would know it and sing along.

BV: What was it like working with Mark Trombino?
Mateo: It was awesome. For all of us, it was a dream come true. For me, personally, I had the pleasure of being in touch with him for like, a year, before the band, just because I’m an engineer too, so I admire his work. But he’s worked with some of our favorite bands, like Jimmy Eat World and Finch, and we’re hugely influenced by those bands. He was the perfect producer for the project, and on top of that, he was just a great guy… he made the record sounds great. It was unbelievable. It was a dream come true.

BV: Who produced the web episodes on roadrunnerrecords.com and your myspace profile?
Matthew: We did that. Actually, Mateo and I did it. We would drive around and we came up with this whole concept – the band is actually a story that we wrote. So, he and I would just drive around the country on tour and we would camp. When we had days off we would camp in a specific place, and we would think about our vision of Madina Lake and how it would be. We’d come up with all these things, and he’d edit them together. We’re going to keep making them, and as the story unfolds we’re going to keep putting content up on there.

BV: I heard you and your brother were on Fear Factor! Wish I could’ve caught that episode. What did the cow guts taste like?
Matthew: Yeah! You can’t really explain it. It was like, think of it this way… you have experienced a whole spectrum of flavors, but this is a brand new flavor that you never imagined existed. It is the most horrific thing in the world. Yeah, it’s bad.

BV: If I were to visit Chicago tonight, where would you recommend I go?
Matthew: Interesting. The Museum of Science and Industry, I would say. Um… then go shopping at Belmont Army Surplus store.
Mateo: Yeah, yeah, yeah – Belmont Army Surplus for sure.
Matthew: Reckless Records… it’s a cool records shop. Then, um… Navy Pier.
Mateo: Yeah, Navy Pier. Man! I’m struggling! I can’t believe it. Haha! I love Chicago, I just can’t think of anything.
Matthew: Go to the beach! Oh, the Oak Street Beachstro. It’s a restaurant; it’s awesome!
Mateo: I would say… you know that place we used to go? That little beach –
Matthew: Yeah! Oak Street Beachstro – that’s it. Best thing ever. Oak Street Beachstro.
Mateo: That’s what it’s called?
Matthew: Yeah, like “bistro” but “beach”-stro. Very clever, haha.
BV: Okay, I’ll be sure to check those places out!

BV: Since forming Madina Lake, how have your lives changed?
Matthew: Well, imagine living a normal life, like everybody else, and then… like, we don’t live like humans now! Humans… they colonize, they settle, they form communities, they stay in one place. We are at a different place every single night. So, away from family and friends – that’s hard, but we get to travel the world and meet people doing what we love to do. So it’s like, give it or take it.
Mateo: It’s like gypsies. Like, you get your CD, you camp out and you do your thing, you know… then you’re off to the next place.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s almost like a little barbaric. And you realize what basic things in life you value.
Mateo: Cold water!
Matthew: Yeah, exactly!
Mateo: And a toilet. But it’s awesome; it’s the best experience in the world. I had never been outside of Colombia, and now I’ve been in the United States, the UK, Scotland, you know, all these places… Wales, Canada… I would’ve never been to these places. We’ve been to pretty much every state in the United States at least five times. Met thousands and thousands of cool people. It’s unbelievable.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s really cool. You should try it!

BV: So Adalia's disappearence still remains a mystery… who do you think really cause Adalia's disappearance?
Matthew: Oh, I know, I know the answer to that!
BV: Oh, you do?!
Matthew: Oh, yeah, and you’ll be able to figure it out too. The book is gonna come out in a couple of weeks, and we have clues hidden everywhere to figure it out. So, yeah, you guys will be able to figure it out soon, but it’s not what you expect!

BV: What exactly is “Don’t Call Us Emo”?
Mateo: That’s a competition that AOL created in which a lot of bands… well, a bunch of bands are in there, and if you win you get a performance in AOL Breakers, which is like a super high exposure gig. But I mean, I don’t know what the connotation of the name brings, because we don’t consider ourselves an emo band. We actually despise the genre and want nothing associated with it. We think that the music industry is at the worst state it’s ever been, and like… for real, don’t call us emo! Haha.
Matthew: Yeah, it’s a funny thing because if you think about it, some of the biggest bands in the world, like The Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, or Red Hot Chili Peppers… when they first broke out, they were always labeled to alternative or grunge or whatever, but those bands that I mentioned aren’t any one of those things! You know what I mean? Like, whenever you come out, whatever’s hot right now, that’s what you’re considered.
Mateo: And a testament to that is that those three bands that you mentioned are still relevant to this day. Any of those bands could make a tour and sell out arenas. It’s because they’re not following a trend, they’re not following what’s cool, they’re just playing music because they love it, and that’s what we do. We don’t really care about what trend is hot right now, what haircuts are cool; we just don’t care. We go into the rehearsal spot and we write ideas that we love, the music that we love. For example, when we made our record, the label didn’t even go once to the studio; we were just by ourselves having fun.
Matthew: Yeah, they just sent us out there and were like, “Go make a record”, and we were like, are you sure?! They let us do whatever we wanted to do. It was awesome.

BV: If you weren’t in a rock band, what would you be doing right now?
Matthew: I would be sailing around the Sandwich Islands watching penguins.
BV: Sounds fun.
Matthew: Yeah!
Mateo: I think I’d be producing records. That’s what I’d try to do – just be a producer. Grab baby bands that have good ideas and sort of polish their ideas.

BV: Any last words for the readers of Bandvibe?
Mateo: Just thank you guys so much for your interest in us and um… we hope you like it!
Matthew: We love you! Thanks for the interview.

For more official information on Madina Lake, please log onto:
http://madinalake.com/
http://www.myspace.com/madinalake
http://www.wheresadalia.com

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