Interviews

Full Blown Chaos

Interview with Ray Mazzola on Aug 2, 2008 by

 Full Blown Chaos is a New York hardcore band that has been around for a long time. Originally signed to Stillborn Records, the band recently inked a deal with Ferret and released Heavy Lies the Crown. I was able to catch up with lead singer Ray Mazzola on a recent tour.

By: Wade Rice

Can you introduce yourself and what you do in the band?

Ray Mazzola: I'm Ray, vocalist for Full Blown Chaos.

I think I understand the meaning behind the title for you new album, Heavy Lies the Crown, but could explain exactly what it means?

RM: There are many different meanings behind the album. A lot of people ask me about the title because they think it's a knock at someone, meaning someone having a heavy responsibility by being a band that is well known. People can think it means that, but for us it means the sacrifice that we make. There are a lot of sacrifices that we make and a lot of perpetual stuff that we have to keep moving with, otherwise we would fall right down and sink. With Heavy Lies the Crown there are a lot of sacrifices and burdens that you have to make to be at the point where we are right now in music. A lot of bands come up real quick, you know they blow up real quick, and then they fade. The name of this game is longevity and a lot of people don't realize that. We're at a point right now that it's not like a plateau, but like we're not dropping and we're not going higher. We're putting in the sacrifices that are needed to stay where we are. So Heavy Lies the Crown means the sacrifices and the work that we have to make and put into our music to be where we are. For example, we tour two to three hundred days out of the year, a lot of bands aren't willing to make those kinds of sacrifices. You know that just want to blow up, be on a bus and get girls, money, trucks or whatever.

So it's like a responsibility you make?

RM: It's a responsibility that we make to ourselves, but more importantly it's a responsibility that we make to our fans. People come to see you that want to be able to talk to you and have a relationship with you. It's like a give and a take.

You guys have been on tons of different tours with tons of different bands; are there any bands that you haven't had the chance to play with that you would like to tour with?

RM: Testament. We all love hardcore, we all love metal, we all have our influences. Testament is just one of those bands that we all agree on. We'd love to do a Slayer tour, being able to see Slayer every night, which would be absolutely awesome. I'd like to do a tour with Biohazard again because that was one of the best tours we ever did. They were great; we had so much fun every night. I'd love to tour with Slipknot again, we've done that before and that was huge. They had great people and I'd like to be able to do that.

You guys recently left Stillborn Records and signed on to Ferret Records. Was there a reason for that?

RM: We kind of out-grew Stillborn. That's where we got our foot hold, which is wear Jamie helped us out all the way. He's a busy guy; he had so much on his plate. Stillborn wasn't even in his top 5 priorities, so whenever we needed something it was like "Hey, this is what has to be done." I'm not trying to call the dude out, the dude is an icon. You know he puts thirty hours in a twenty-four hour work day. For me to make a phone call and for him to pick up, it's a big deal. He just wore himself thin, he had a lot of stuff going on and Stillborn wasn't a priority at the moment and we needed more attention as a band. We grew as much as we could on our own and we just needed a label back, we needed support. I still love the guy to death. Anytime Jamie needs anything, like he wants us to take out one of his bands, do this, do that - awesome, let's do it. We've toured with Hatebreed probably more than any band has. If you add up all the dates that we did, we did thirteen Hatebreed tours. You put all of those dates together, you get probably about a year's worth. It was just the right choice. We had every label knocking on the door - Century Media, Metal Blade - and Ferret was the best. We know them, they're fans of the bands, and that's how it works. We'd rather go somewhere where we're familiar with the people. They're awesome.

If you guys weren't touring or writing in a band, what would you be doing?

RM: I have my master's degree in Fine Art Photography, so I've got tons of stuff to fall back on. I still have my mechanic's license for carpentry and for floor laying. I've done just about every job possible. When we're off tour, we write music and look for odd jobs. I look for photo shoots and write music for other bands. Or we tour with other bands, like tour manager or tech. The other guys, I don't know. I know me, I've got a ton of shit to fall back on. So even when this is done, I'm still going to keep going.

This tour is a pretty diverse line-up. It goes all over the place: metal, grind, hardcore. Do you guys want to get on these more diverse tours?

RM: If you breed in pedigrees, you're basically breeding in a weakness. It's like dogs - when you look at breeds, they all have their lines of diseases and defects, but if you make a mutt, you have two different breeds. You instantly make the animal stronger, because you get the strengths from both animals. Same thing with us - we do hardcore, metal, death metal, and grind tours. You're inviting in other genres, other kids, your playing in front of different crowds. We've done Ozzfest, we've done all the big tours. In about three years we've done a little bit over a thousand shows. We did 317 one year, we did 312 another, another year we did 318. This is the first year that we're not going to break 300 because we took a break and did a new record. A ton of kids that have never heard us, never seen us is awesome. It gives you something to work for; we're trying to get those kids on our team. A lot of these kids are new to the game - they've only been into hardcore for 2 or 3 months. They're just coming into it, so it's awesome fresh ears. That's the way our band wants to be received in order to keep going.

You mentioned that you guys have been on Ozzfest, Sounds of the Underground and touring with Hatebreed. Hatebreed has huge exposure across the country. Is there anything that you guys would like to do to be like Hatebreed, like have that kind of exposure?

RM: Everybody wants to be able to get to that level. I think if we achieved that level, I would go about things differently then the way Jamie has done, just because he let a lot of things get to him in my opinion. I love the guy to death. I would just make more time to take a step back and put emphasis on myself. There are a lot of times where during the day I'm by myself, I have quiet time. I don't talk to anybody, I turn my phone off and I just sit and I think about what I'm doing. You need to reflect and have personal time. Being that he's flying here, flying there, he doesn't have time for himself. When you don't make time for yourself, it might sound stupid, but you miss yourself. Your inviting depression into you, you're inviting all of these mental ailments. You have to keep your body going; you have to think, you have to read, you have to learn everyday. If you're doing the same routine, it can affect you. We do the same routine (on tour), but I make sure there's something different. I would love to be that big, but I would try to touch other people. I would definitely put myself out there a little more than I've seen from him.

I saw you guys about 2 years ago in Fredericksburg, VA at Show of the Summer. Do you remember that?

RM: Yeah.

You did the wall of death there and that is something that I know you like to do at your shows. Where did you guys decide to do that?

RM: Sick of It All started the wall of death close to 20 years ago. There's a lot of bands that call it there own; Lamb of God does it. We were going to do it on Ozzfest but A Life Once Lost was doing it. There are a lot of bands that do it. Hatebreed has done them. It's just something that's fun. When the crowd and the time are right, let's do it. We were literally in Europe a week ago and we played this festival in Belgium and there were maybe 8,000-9,000 people. We were one of the headliners - us, Raised Fist and Entombed. I didn't have to say anything - the kids did two walls of death in one song. It was awesome, kids were just so into it. It was the right crowd and the right vibe. So Sick of It All invented it, we got there permission to keep doing it, so it's all them.

What were some of the best shows you guys have ever played?

RM: Wow, well you know everyday on Ozzfest was a great day, just being able to play in front of that many people. It's not even the bigger shows always. When there is a lot of crowd participation and it sounds good. We've done shows in Texas, shows in Kansas where it's just one of those shows that's just like "Whoa." The vibe was just good. Like that day in Fredericksburg, that was a great show. They're one of the best all of the time; it's more frequent then not. It's kind of hard to pick one out, because there are a lot of really good shows. I would have to say like a lot of the festivals that we've done like Groezrock Festival in Belgium last April. We got to play in front of about 15,000 people at 12:30 in the afternoon and it was intense, absolutely insane. If you YouTube it you can find it, some of the set. It was out of control, just so good. Being able to perform in front of that many people, you get a rush. There have been a lot of good shows, more good then bad.

You guys are from New York City, which is a huge hardcore capital. Was that an early influence for you guys?

RM: For Mike and Jeff, the brothers, the guitarist and the drummer, they were more metal influenced, like Metallica, Slayer, and Testament. For me, it's like a lot more hardcore being from Brooklyn. I grew up listening to Judge, Warzone, Sick of It All, Biohazard, Agnostic Front, and Madball. I had all of those bands as like a pillow to come up with. You can tell in our music that influence. There has only been one band that sounds like they're from New York that isn't from New York, like they'll try to have the style but it doesn't quite work. No Turning Back from Holland, they sound like they're from New York. Otherwise, you can't fake it. You know a band's from Boston because of the way they sound, same goes for the O.C. All of those bands have a certain sound.

You have a very personal connection with your lyrics. Is that something that you've always been like?

RM: Yeah, I constantly write, like everyday I write at least a paragraph. I write a lot of fiction, and non-fiction, but I put more non-fiction into my music. Everything's real life. If you go through any album and you read it, it reads like a story, because that's everything that I had gone through up until that record. This past record that we just came out with, Heavy Lies the Crown, I can literally put names on each song. Like I've gotten MySpace messages like "Hey I picked up the new record and I read some of the stuff on there, and it's kind of like things you said to me." I'm like "Yep. Like you said, that's about you." I incorporate everything that I experience into my lyrics because I know I'm not the only one. So doing that makes it more personal. Everybody has something to relate to, whether it's positive or negative, you're not alone. I get tons of e-mails and I put my number up online purposely so that kids call me. If you have an issue, let's get to it, I'm a licensed reverend so I'm allowed to do it. I'm available to everybody. You never know - when I need help, I'm looking for someone to help me. If someone needs help, and I can do it, I can always make the time to help. What I go through is the same thing that they go through.

Thank you to War Fuzzy Publicity for setting up the interview and Ray for talking to me and being a really easy-going guy.

http://www.myspace.com/fullblownchaos

http://www.ferretstyle.com/