Tonight, the Machine Shop in Flint is going to be rocking when nu metal bands Love and Death and Thousand Foot Krutch take the stage.
Love and Death came together as a re-branding of Brian "Head" Welch's (Korn) solo-project last year and released their debut album, Between Here and Lost, in January.
Yesterday, I spoke to drummer Dan Johnson, who has been with Love and Death since its inception.
The band was getting ready for their show in Toledo and looking forward to heading out to the Machine Shop tonight, "The Machine Shop is a great venue. It rocks!" Johnson shared.
He says that the tour has been going really well and that they are a great fit with Thousand Foot Krutch who they had already toured with before, "We've known them for awhile so it has just worked out."
As for his favorite place to play, Johnson says that in the U.S. it would have to be Las Vegas because, "I am a huge Vegas person. You know, I live on the West Coast. In the world I'd probably have to say the Netherlands. I like Europe. We played New Zealand. That was amazing too."
After this tour wraps up, Love and Death will be playing some summer festivals including Rock On the Range.
They also have some dates coming up with In This Moment before heading overseas to play some shows with Korn and Bullet For My Valentine.
When asked about how he feels about the constant comparisons with Korn, Johnson says that it doesn't bother him that he feels Love and Death's music is, "Everything you love about old Korn but with a new twist. It's mixed with bands like Red and Breaking Benjamin and stuff like that. It's got good hard rock, good grooves and heavy riffs. You really can't go wrong."
He says that the band is not working on any new music at the moment, "We're just gonna tour the heck out of this album. Maybe next year we'll get back and try to do something. It took us long enough to get this album out! [laughs] Since 2008! It's like Chinese Democracy!"
He says that he had the easiest job when it came to putting Between Here and Lost together, "I just flew to Nashville and I would say total time to do a track was maybe five days. It was really awesome. We had Jasen Rauch from Red who has produced a bunch of bands. He was really fun to work with especially for a drummer because he's got a drummer's ear. Yeah we recorded out there and it was a great time. We had a blast making that album."
On Between Here and Lost Love and Death does a surprising cover of Devo's "Whip It" and Johnson says he was scared when he first thought about it, "It was Head's idea at first. Honestly when he first talked about that I was terrified. I thought he wanted to do the original version and make it all disco-like. I was thinking this guy is crazy! Then he showed us what he was thinking and it actually made sense. I love the music. We always joke around that we wished they could have used that music for the original song. That song has really grown on me."
With the release of the album and the touring, Johnson says that you can see their fan base growing and progressing which is what he says it is all about.
As for how the band gets along while out on tour and how it is touring with 17 year old lead guitarist, J.R. Bareis, Johnson shared, "It's good. We're a family, you know they're my bros. J.R. may be young but he has a old soul. He plays like an adult. We hated him for the first couple of years. [laughs] We hated on him good and now he fits in great. You wouldn't even be able to tell his age. He's a great kid and we all look out for him."
Johnson says that playing music is something that he's wanted to do since the moment when as a kid he saw the video for Pantera's "Five Minutes Alone" for the first time, "The snake-skin boots, the sticks on fire and all that. I was like that's what I want to do!"
He says that he would be dead without music but if he had to choose another career option he would probably be a truck driver because then he could still travel the country.
As for what Johnson would like to achieve over the next couple of years, he explained that, "Music-wise I would like to see our stuff chart in the mainstream market. The thing is I would like our band to move more towards the secular charts. I want us out there with the big boys because we can hang with them."
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