Interview by Stephan Becker- February 2008
1. As most of our readers won't know anything – or at least a lot - about SENATE please tell us a bit about the band, its history and its members.
Matt-The band's been together for about 4 years- it started out as something to do for fun, but we started to become a really solid band, and gain popularity so we
started to take it more seriously. Hudson and I have been in bands together since we were teenagers, and we met Jay through an ex-bandmate.
Pat emailed us about doing session drums and eventuallly joined the band, and Colin we found on the internet.
2. The technical abilities on “The Great Northern Scenekill” seem to be very high. When did you all start playing and how often do you jam?
Matt-We've all been playing since we were teens but we don't jam very often actually. Pat lives about 9 hrs away in Quebec and the rest of us are in the Toronto area. We have
to work very hard on our own to remain sharp, and we take turns driving out to where Pat lives in Quebec, or he'll come down here before tours or recordings and we'll jam
like fucking crazy for a weekend, kind of like studying last minute for exams in college haha. We realize we could be a machine if we jammed like
most other bands, but at least we never get sick of each other haha.
3. You decided to record and distribute the CD completely on your own. How did you manage and finance that? Especially as you also worked with bigger names like Tue Madsen (Mastering).
Matt-We just worked our asses off...noone helped us, so we figured we'd better do everything we could to achieve what we wanted out of this record, and its paid off...this record wasn't supposed to
make us famous, or send us around the world on big tours, it was an indie, self-financed album that we hoped would put us on the map, give us something to sell at shows and help
us to start to build a fanbase...its done so much more than we dreamed it would in the sense that people review us, or refer to us on a critical level with big budget signed bands almost like they
don't realize the difference- We spent 10 grand on producing our record and some the bands we're compared with spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.
4. The intro of the CD is not the common stuff what you get and what you expect at the beginning of a metal-CD. How did you get the idea for this intro and why did you choose it?
Matt-Really? we all grew up with all these classic thrash records having acoustic or classical intros and we thought we should have one as well because we are so generic haha...the intro
was actually supposed to mesh in with the opening song 'Victorious Hatred' but it got messed up in the mastering and just sort of sits there at the beginning of the record- we're actually
pretty annoyed by it at this point.
5. There's not a single quiet moment on this disc. It's just fast, brutal, aggressive and kind of weird (in a positive way), but still melodic. The whole disc is very professional and all the songs are on
a very high level. (Though my top-favourite is “Victorious Hatred”. Maybe the best song in the extreme metal genre since “Angel Of Death”.) Where do you see musical influences and in which way
do you compose songs?
Matt-Well first off, thank you for that compliment! We have lots of influences ranging from old school thrash like Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Testament to early Swedish, British and Florida death metal
like Entombed, Death, Carcass, Napalm Death, etc...we're into alot of progressive black metal bands like Emperor, Satyricon, Dissection, Borknagar, Enslaved etc.. we also love alot of contemporary
stuff as well.
As for how we compose songs Jay (Siebert) and I spend zillions of hours on my computer putting together arrangements...he'll have a bunch of riffs or progressions and I'll throw in what i
have that fits or vice versa and I'll program drums for them. We spend alot of time putting together the arrangements and really beat them to death before the band starts rehearsing the ideas.
We are very critical of ourselves and it pays off. We rarely jam on ideas.
6. I think one can find a lot of different influences in your music, but not yet Pantera really. How did it come you named it “The Great Northern Scenekill”?
Matt-Well to pay tribute to Dimebag, for starters, and because we come from one of the worst metal scenes in Canada the play on words seemed appropriate. Alot of people loved
the title and others hated it- we didn't give a fuck either way.
7. As far as I followed your path since I wrote that review on “TGNS” I think you only got good and great reviews. Hopefully you've sold enough records to get some money back to go on recording etc.
(though it is hard these days…even with a record company.) Are you satisfied with sales? Did you get any label offers by now?
Matt-We're never satisfied with anything haha...we have a long way to go and we feel that we're just creeping out the front door on our way. We've talked to lots of record companies and management
but we haven't found the right ones for us yet, although we are always looking to add to our team of people we trust moving forward.
8. I understood that you are in discussions about touring to get the name spread. Any offers? And what are you looking for exactly?
Matt-Well we've tried to get on many tours and very few have worked out. We're not teenagers who can throw away our jobs and lives to travel around the world losing thousands of dollars
and begging to sleep over at fan's houses after the shows. Two guys in the band have young daughters and everyone's got responsibilities so for us we have to take our business
as seriously as our music and make smart decisions. Sometimes its difficult to do because we want to succeed so badly but we have to temper our enthusiasm with a little common
sense.
9. What does Canada mean to you? And what does Canada mean to you thinking of the words “True Canadian Metal” in your CD-inlet?
Matt-We are very proud Canadians, we love hockey and beer, and being blue collar working class dudes, and we appreciate the fact that the world looks at our country in a positive way, as good people
and peacekeepers not warmongers. We're also happy that the world has an eye on Canadian metal right now because its been a long time coming.
10. Which goals and/or dreams would you love to reach with Senate?
Matt-We want to create great metal, and to be able to see the world and play for all the people that care about our band. If this ever became a career option that would be awesome
but we love doing what we do regardless.
11. Anything you would like to add?
Matt-Just a big thank you to everyone that supports us, and to keep an eye out as we're writing new tunes right now and we hope to have some new stuff for people to hear by early Spring!