decided we wanted to do something in music again,Robo knew exactly what he wanted and thought he couldn’t pull it off without Joe in the band. Ivan comes along right after Joe. Angel came on board in early2010 after the conversation between us came up about singers… We needed one, he was one… and thus he was canonized, for lack of a better word. Jay was brought in by Angel not long after that, they had been in other bands beforehand and he just plain worked out, no need to put it to a vote. Jay was one of us from day one.
Sanaz: You guys do a lot of Live shows and that has grabbed a ton of attention... How would you describe the band when live and your fan base?
Biting Saints: Playing live for us is all about the energy and fun we put into it. We feed off the crowd and try to give them something to remember each and every time. We want a Biting Saints show to be and experience. It’s work but it’s fun and its high intensity and raw and it’s what we love to do.
Sanaz: I see that you guys have a lot of designs and a lot of promo stuff, where does all that come from?
Biting Saints: The ideas themselves we all come up with and shoot with each other but the actual work is done by Angel and Jay, we’re lucky that we have two actual graphic artists/designer sin the band which saves a lot of money. Anything we come up with they can do, and it’s usually very dark. They also don’t mind helping other bands with their artwork as well as designing cloths for Hard rider nyc which has been kind enough to endorse us and support us. We handle all of our own artwork from graphics to video editing etc.
Sanaz:Tell me about the changes in the band from when you guys started not too long ago?
Biting Saints: It’s changed a lot actually. The tuning is nothing like it was at the beginning; the song structures have become more and more complex. We’re typical musicians in that sense. We just can’t settle for good enough. We have grown up as musicians and it has been very beneficial in our creative abilities. You will hear the differences between songs like 3am or extinction agenda versus our newer songs like prayer for a modern age. Tuning to D#. That opened up a whole new world of using more than JUST root fifth power chords. We then started challenging ourselves to write better, a lil different yet familiar. It's all about growth and brother ship amongst us and it doesn’t hurt that everyone is extremely talented in their craft.
Sanaz: Who did you work with on your video "Morbis Mentis”? And what do you have in mind for the next one?
Biting Saints: That was our friend, Miss Bianca "Peterpan" Smit. She is an amazing director and visionary. She can take something as simple as a setting and make it intriguing. We were very fortunate to have cross paths with her. Our next video, which Bianca is also doing, is for the song "A Prayer For The Modern Age". From what we understand, it’s going to be a more involved video, with a story line and such. God help us, though, cuz we can't act.
Sanaz: As a NY based band, what club or venue is on top of your list as far as Metal shows goes?
Biting Saints: There are so many to mention. We personally love Crash Mansion, and there was one place that was great called Ace of Clubs. Unfortunately, NY saw it fitting to shut it down. NYC is changing, and bands like us need to change it back. But there are still places like the knitting factory, trash bar, Webster hall, bar east and others that still play our music.
Sanaz: Being such a new band and working your butts off, where would you like to see yourself in the near future? And what are the major goals of the band?
Biting Saints: We see us as being effective. We use that word a lot because it means a lot. I think if you make the decision to be a serious, working musician, you automatically dedicate yourself. We want to build the fan base, start reaching out the other states. We are actually planning to play a lot out of state this summer, from New Jersey to Pennsylvania, Boston, Florida and possible LA at the end of August or September If we can afford it. At the end of the day we want music to be our lives and a career, to be able to support ourselves and families with our passion would be amazing.
Sanaz:What do you guys find yourselves writing about in your songs?
Biting Saints: It depends on who you ask. We tend to focus on the dark side of the human experience in as much detail as we can. We like to really have double meanings or ideas that make the listener decide what the song is saying to them. It's personal experience. Although we speak on a personal level we as a unit write about current events, people, pretty much the ugly side of humanity. The instrumentals are all about experiments and the feelings we have at that time.
Sanaz: Where did you come up with the name "Biting Saints"?
Biting Saints:It actually comes from a conversation I had with an old co-worker of mine. we were on about "incorruptible" saints, the kind they prop up in oblong boxes and have people line up to pay tribute to, or whatever they do... this dude tells me about this guy who gets on line and waits his turn to say his prayer. the guy waiting on line gets on all fours, kisses this saints feet and in one motion, bites off the smallest toe on the the saints foot I guess with the intention of taking a piece of a saint unto himself or something. Security takes back the toe, reattaches it to the saint and move on like nothing ever happened.So we kinda mused for a minute, my co-worker says "that just goes to show you, real sicko's in this world" and I replied "yeah, you can’t just go around biting saints like that..." and that was that... we were Biting Saints.
Official website www.bitingsaints.com
Reverbnation website www.reverbnation.com/bitingsaints
EPK http://www.reverbnation.com/c./rpk/109301?access_code=cc5ec36828eb21bda71a&auto_play=true
Bands youtube channel www.youtube.com/bitingsaints
Bands official Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000907639886
Band Myspace www.myspace.com/bittingsaints
