Nonpoint has become an entity unto themselves, they continue to delve into their brand of rock music and expand their creativity with each album. The newest album Miracle is yet another example of how they continually fine-tune their music and this in turn keeps a loyal and ever expanding fan-base. The members that make up this intense rock outfit are; Elias Soriano on vocals, Zach Broderick on guitar, Ken 'BASTARD' MacMillan on bass, and Robb Rivera on the drums. This year they will be playing the Main Stage on the Ozzfest tour. It isn't the first time playing the fest but this time it's a little bit different. MacMillan says, "Oh yeah, Zach was saying yesterday... Holy crap! It’s just starting to settle in now, what it is we’re actually doing. We started off ten years ago in 2001 and we were on the second stage playing at 11:00 AM in the morning. Now we’re on the Main Stage playing at five in the afternoon and everything has come full circle. It really makes you appreciate where you’re at."
Ken ‘BASTARD’ MacMillan has been with Nonpoint since the beginning and he fills us in on how he got his start in music and all things Nonpoint.
How did you first get into music and what drew you to play the bass?
It was a long time ago... Well basically, I didn’t ever really plan to be in music, it just kind of happened. I had a bass given to me by our neighbors and the very next week a friend of mine said he was putting together a band. He asked if I played an instrument and I was like yeah I play bass guitar (laughs). I showed up to practice all nervous and stuff because I knew I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing. I felt a lot better once I realized that none of them did either. It was back in highschool and its just grown into this beast.
Nonpoint was formed in 97?
Yeah, we got together and it was a culmination of two other bands that we were all in. I just kinda did it for fun at first, sort of a side project and it ended up taking off.
So before Nonpoint took off did you have any other career plans?
Oh yeah, I was really into visual arts and graphic art and stuff like that. I was already in the works of getting my college years set up, I was basically figuring out what college I was going to go to. I never took music seriously enough to think that I was going to make any money at it. It was always just a hobby and something cool to do till we actually got approached by management. Then I was like holy crap, this could actually do something and we did it!
Do you ever get a chance to do anything with visual or graphic art?
I gave it up for a bit, I actually fell out of school because of a family incident. I focused primarily on music for years. Probably about seven years ago I started doing artwork again and I’ve actually done quite a few of the band's CDs and most of the t-shirts up to the current date. I did it just as an outlet and that carried over into other stuff for commercial businesses and for other friends bands and things like that. Its really paid off, I have a chance to be out here and had a lot of spare time to up my skills, I couldn’t be in a better situation personally.
Where does the name Nonpoint come from?
It was actually the name of a an old thrash song by a band called Believer. Rob used to listen to them and they had a song that was called "Nonpoint" and it was based off of a certain type of pollution. He thought it had a really cool ring to it, so we went with that. There’s a lot of stories we tell people just to mess with them. We’ve kind of become Nonpoint, it didn’t really have a personality before then. It is what it is and it describes us.
How do you think that Nonpoint has evolved as a band from the beginning till now?
If anything I think we’ve grown more resilient in our old age (laughs). As far as the genre we came up through and the other bands we’ve gone on tour with we’re definitely considered veterans of what it is we do. We learn how to make it work and how to survive. It turned out not to be the easiest lifestyle that we could of picked. There’s a lot more downs than ups in the industry that we’ve learned to navigate. It’s made us… I guess more interesting people (laughs), if I can keep it as general as possible. I think we’ve grown to appreciate where it is we’re at and we do more so than when we first got into it.
What do you think has been one of your best career moments?
There’s been so many of those instances, we were just over in the UK and we did the Download Festival where we met Billy Idol and his family. It was so weird to see this iconic dude just hanging out with his sister and his nieces and he couldn’t of been nicer. It’s really cool to see somebody you grew up listening to. There’s been so many instances in our career that we’ve met people that we’ve grown up with. It’s pretty much all been the same thing, they’ve all been just really cool. I mean there’s been a couple when you’re like ah man… that was kind of a let down. On the other end of that, I have to say some of the coolest moments are when people come up to us and give us personal stories about how our music helps them get through times. Just a couple days ago I had a guy come up to me and tell me that he and his friend came up throught the ranks of the military and they would always come to Nonpoint shows together. They made a pledge to themselves that they would always go together and then they ended up in the military and his friend kind of fell off and ended up committing suicide. This was his first show without his friend there and he said that our music helped keep the kid alive as long as it did. It really kind of blows you away. There’s so many stories like that throughout the years that we’ve left that much of an impression on people in a positive way. That’s really when you realize, holy crap! You’re doing something more that just playing music, you’re really impacting people’s lives. To be able to do that in this day and age and to have a connection with people like that is a powerful thing. I’ve said many a times, when I leave this world I won’t have any regrets because I know I have made that kind of an impression on people.
Hey Detroit! Roadtrip to Chicago for Ozzfest! Make sure not to miss Nonpoint on the Main Stage. For more info on Nonpoint visit http://nonpoint.com
Ozzfest - 8/17, 12pm - First Midwest Bank Ampitheatre - 19100 S. Ridgeland - Tinley Park, IL - 708-614-1616 - http://www.ozzfest.com - $19.50 - $155.00 - Click Here For Tickets
Full U.S. Tour Schedule:
8/14 San Bernardino, CA San Manuel Amphitheater
8/17 Tinley Park, IL First Midwest Bank Amp.
8/19 Pittsburgh, PA First Niagara Pavilion
8/21 Hartford, CT Comcast Theater
8/22 Camden, NJ Susquehanna
8/24 Boston, MA Comcast Center
Nonpoint - Miracle from RocketScience on Vimeo.
"Miracle"
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