Interviews

Bleeding Through

Interview with Brian Leppke on Jan 16, 2007 by Archive Bot

I’ve got a soft spot for crushing yet catchy metalcore. There’s something about a throaty, tough-guy verse followed by an uplifting and melodic chorus that sits well with me…and a good breakdown doesn’t hurt things either. One of my favorite live metalcore bands is Trustkill’s Bleeding Through. I had seen them twice before trekking to Chicago’s House of Blues on December 3rd to catch the second show of a two night stand the band was playing with Senses Fail and Saosin. I sat down with guitarist Brian Leppke and discuss the band’s latest record, The Truth, as well as the over saturation of the independent music scene and the influences that drive Bleeding Through’s music.
 
By: Ian Lashbrook
 
Wanna go ahead and introduce yourself and what you do?
 
Brian Leppke: I’m Brian, I play guitar for Bleeding Through.
 
How’s the tour been going so far, you’re on tour with Senses Fail and Saosin…
 
B: It’s been really good. Surprisingly, it’s been one of the best tours we’ve ever done. I mean, we do metalcore and hardcore tours all the time and it’s still cool doin’ that but we wanna do something different, play in front of different kids who have never heard us before and kind of play with different bands who sound different from what we’re used to.
 
Has the reaction been pretty good to you guys?
 
B: Yeah, it’s been really good.
 
Cool. So you’re playin’ two nights in Chicago; how was last night’s show?
 
B: Man, last night was amazing, it was probably the best show of tour.
 
Do you guys prefer metalcore and hardcore tours or do you prefer something like this, where the bill is pretty varied?
 
B: I like varied bills, just to mix up the music. I mean, it could be anything, from black metal to death metal to hardcore and Senses Fail and Saosin. I think shows these days are so segregated and it gets kinda boring to see the same breakdown over and over again, ya know?
 
I was wondering, with The Truth debuting as high as it did on Billboard and all the attention and press you guys have been getting…there seems to be a lot of movement within the metal community to kind of jump ship from smaller labels and head to majors…has there been any talk of that with you guys?
 
B: Umm, there’s been some slight interest from bigger labels but…we still have one more record with Trustkill and, I mean…I don’t know…I can’t really say right now cause we haven’t gotten an offer but, I mean it depends; if it’s good for the band we’ll do it as long as it doesn’t change what we wanna do. If it’s good for the band we’ll do it. I don’t think it’s as big of a deal these days to be on a major label as it was five or six years ago.
 
What do you think of the metal community now, with records debuting in the charts and all the popularity, versus when you guys started out?
 
B: When we started out, it was way more underground. Now, with the evolution of the internet and Myspace, anybody can start a band and have 50,000 friends, you know? Nobody really has to work as hard as we used to. When we started, we toured our asses off. We toured all year for like three years straight. Now you can just post your music online and be big instantly, which is cool, I guess. It’s a good vehicle for music but, at the same time, I think it’s become oversaturated.
 
Well yeah. I remember seeing you guys for the first time at Hellfest a few years back and I couldn’t even get close; there were 10,000 kids watching a show…
 
B: It’s seems that these days, kids don’t take bands to heart as much as they used to because everything is so easily accessible. “Ohh, there’s this band…ohh, there’s this band and this band,” it’s so easily accessible. Kids don’t really have favorite bands anymore; they change from week to week or month to month.
 
So true. How was workin’ with Rob Caggiano on the new record?
 
B: It was great.
 
How was it different from working on the This is Love, This is Murderous record?
 
B: Well, with The Truth, we actually had time to write it. This is Love…we had two weeks to write it, two weeks to record it, so it was very rushed and I think it shows on that record. With The Truth, we really had time to sit down and do what we wanted to do. We’re all fairly happy with it. I mean, anyone, if you ask for their opinion of the record, they’ll always have problems with it; you always think that you can do better. But working with Rob was awesome. He did the A Life Once Lost record before ours and Cradle of Filth and they both turned out really cool. His production, it’s not overproduced, it doesn’t sound like a Whitesnake album or something, it sounds raw and dirty but clean at the same time.
 
Did you go into the studio with any set ideas? Things that you wanted to change in the sound from This is Love… or were guys pretty much runnin’ on the same wavelength as before?
 
B: We kinda concentrated on songs this time as opposed to cool parts; actually writing songs and song structure, that was the main thing…making shorter songs. We wanna be more to the point and less all over the place.
 
What’s your writing process like when you are writing?
 
B: Usually me and Brandan and Scott will all write riffs and put like two or three parts together and come to practice and jam ‘em out and they turn into songs. It always starts from a riff though. I just recently got Cubase and Reason for my computer, so I map drums and write songs on my computer all the time.
 
I was curious about the song “Line in the Sand.” It seemed like that song was a pretty big departure for you guys. Is there a story behind that or was that just something you guys really wanted to do on this record?
 
B: We just really wanted to do that. I mean, we all listen to metal and we all grew up on metal but we all listen to other stuff as well, like Morrissey and Alkaline Trio and pussy stuff, ya know? So we wanted to do a song that was like that and see what it would sound like if we did a song like that…I think it turned out pretty good for our first time doin’ it.
 
Oh yeah, it’s one of my favorite songs on the record cause it completely caught me off-guard…
 
B: Yeah, and it’s thrown in the middle of all these crazy songs.
 
Yeah, it’s almost like a break…
 
B: Yeah.
 
You get a song like that, in the middle of a record…but it seems like most bands do instrumentals but you guys put together an actual song.
 
B: I think it’s cool when albums are really pissed and all fast all the way through but sometimes it gets boring and…I always like to change it up a bit.
 
You said you grew up on metal. What do you cite as your influences? What are you listenin’ to now?
 
B: Uhh…Metallica, Testament, Slayer, Crowbar, Pantera…I still listen to them now and I listened to them when I was thirteen. Those are the main influences for me, guitar wise. A lot of old crust-punk bands, too…Conflict, Tragedy, This Year’s Gone…I don’t know.
 
Is there anyone in today’s scene that impresses you?
 
B: I like Mastodon a lot. The new Mastodon’s awesome. There are a lot of bands I could care less for but, I mean…that’s the band I’m listenin’ to right now, Mastodon. They have a sound that’s just so different…it’s awesome.
 
What’s on the horizon for you guys in the New Year?
 
B: Yeah, we’ve got this tour, then we take a month off. Starting in February, we’re doing a world tour. We’re doing Brazil, Europe, UK, Alaska, Hawaii…
 
Is that gonna be your headlining tour?
 
B: Yeah. In Europe we’re doin’ a tour with Caliban. It’s like a co-headlining thing. After that, I think we’re gonna do Warped Tour in the summer, maybe? And after that, we’re just gonna write a new record.
 
What do you personally see in the future for the band?
 
B: I mean, it’s always a goal to get more fans, to get more people into your band. As far as musically, just keep progressing and not let anyone else interrupt the music. Yeah…keep truckin’.
 
Any last words you want included?
 
B: I just wanna thank everybody that’s been with us through the years and all our new fans and everybody that has supported us. Thank you.
 
www.bleedingthrough.com
www.myspace.com/bleedingthrough
 
I’d like to thank Brian for his time, Judy at Warm Fuzzy for setting up the interview, and Jonas for meeting me at the show and taking care of things.