Alive and kicking

AK: Nonpoint is playing and supporting Disturbed Saturday, May 21st in Milwaukee.  Is this the only support date the band is doing with Disturbed?

 

KM: Yeah, it actually came in at the tail end of the tour we were doing.  We’re out on a headlining run right now and we were just ending near them and they had a slot open.  People called people and got us on and it just kind of worked out that way. 

 

AK: Nonpoint is always back in Wisconsin!  The band has played WJJO Band Camp in Madison, Milwaukee for Summerfest, and the group even recorded your album, “Miracle”, in Racine.  Do you consider the state a ‘home away from home’?

 

KM: In a lot of ways, yes.  We didn’t even plan it like that.  We are received very well and I don’t think it has to do anything with the music having a different effect by any means in that area.  People in the Midwest are way more in tune with this style of music as far as with supporting it, showing love for it, and spreading the word.  Especially from our personal experiences, we feel that it’s way more of a community vibe.  People go out in droves together and the community loves the vibe that rock music has.  It’s part of their lifestyle.  We’ve always been really fortunate when we come through there and Madison is absolutely if not top one then definitely one of our top two places to play.  They’re always asking us back and we’re happy to oblige. 

 

AK:  It is a very loyal fan base I have to say.  I saw that back on the 8th of May, the band recorded a live DVD in your hometown.  Can you share with me a few details about what was recorded?

 

KM: We thrive off people coming up to us and saying the last show you guys did here was awesome but this one was even better.  We always have people coming up to us and we progress with the band naturally.  You’re going to make progressions no matter what you do.  It’s a part of becoming successful in any venture you take on.  The DVD’s that we’ve done and the stuff we’ve done live in the past were where we were at, at the time.  The band has ideas and as we grow we capitalize on those ideas.  We’re lucky to have a lot of contact with our fans so we know what they like and they’re happy to tell us.  We take those suggestions and ventures to heart and integrate those into what we’re doing.  This DVD this time around has better production and we did promotions a couple different ways.  We did a contest where you could actually get on stage during the acoustic portion of the DVD.  There was a bunch of people on stage with us during that portion of the DVD!  So, we try to switch it up and make it a little more interesting than what we’ve done prior to that.  We never want to come across as stale or boring or anything like that. 

 

AK: Since you brought up doing an acoustic song, on your albums, “Cut The Cord”, and “Icon”, the band had a few of your classics performed acoustically.  Is that a plan for the future to add acoustic songs to your live shows?  I know the band did some acoustic songs last year at Summerfest in Milwaukee.

 

KM: We’ve always kind of done that depending on the size of the show.   One of the things that holds us back is the show length and the actual time we have to play on stage.  It’s hard to fit that stuff in when you’re limited.  Generally, with radio shows and festivals we’re in one of the later slots but we’re not towards the end.  So, we have 40 to 50 minutes.  It’s not something you want to bring the crowd down with.  On rare occasions when we have the ability to put it all out there we definitely consider doing the acoustic stuff.  We would have time to do it on the road during headlining shows on a nightly basis but the problem with that is our show is so energy intensive that we cant consistently do that.  We can’t do that long of a show every single night.  If we had to do a two hour show every night on the road we’d last two weeks because we’d be beat to hell.  So, we try to find that happy balance and it also makes it that more special when we do save the acoustic stuff for those occasions.  I feel like it helps it shine a bit more than if we over saturated it on a nightly basis. 

 

AK:  For many years, the band has been a touring machine.  Do you have any plans for this summer?  I’m guessing a few radio shows and possibly festivals.  Is the band going to do another headlining tour?  What’s the game plan.

 

KM: You pretty much nailed it right on the head!  We all personally have stuff going on at home that we’re trying to balance out while touring.  We do have a few strategic tour dates for the radio shows that we’re doing and there are a couple bike fests we’re looking into right now.  We all have stuff to take care of that are necessities.  We’re lucky enough where we can have that time to say we need to take time off and we’re available on these days so let’s play then.  It played out really well for us. 

 

Nonpoint will be back in Wisconsin on August 13th in Twin Lakes for the WIIL Fest at Shadow Hill Ranch.