Interview With Cancer Bats Vocalist Liam Cormier
March 9th, 2009 by Stephanie Stevens
The place: New Hampshire. The event: Bullet For my Valentine headlining tour. The surprise: Canada’s very own CANCER BATS. That was my first experience with the band that makes a whirlwind chaotic adventure onstage. These guys came out guns blazing to open up the show and just blew me away. The atmosphere of punk styling with frantic antics of rock n roll rebellion is the best way to describe this band.
HAIL DESTROYER the bands sophomore album brings to life an edgier, much heavier, and finely tuned collection of songs. With so many directions to their music it’s hard to really narrow down the feeling and attitude of the disc. But if you want that laid back, fun, sexy vibe with some punk and beer drinking elements then the band and the music is what you are looking for.
I was bummed when the guys couldn’t play Providence, RI but lead vocalist Liam Cormier was rad enough to answer all my lovely questions as he was snowed in, in the lovely state of Massachusetts.
SO TONIGHTS SHOW IN PROVIDENCE GOT CANCELLED DUE TO THE WEATHER. THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN YOUR FIRST TIME IN RHODE ISLAND ARE YOU THINKING OR HOPING YOU WILL MAKE THIS DATE UP EVEN IF ITS NOT ON CHAOS?
Yeah I was super bummed that the show didn’t happen. We had heard so many good things about shows in RI and that tonight would have been rad. We will for sure be trying to come back as soon as possible.
THE ROCKSTAR TASTE OF CHAOS SHOWS HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SUCCESS FOR BANDS AND GOOD EXPOSURE. PLUS I THINK KEVIN REALLY RELATES TO BANDS AND IN HELPING THEM. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU TO BE ON THIS TOUR?
DID YOU IN THE BEGINNING OF THE TOUR OR EVEN NOW HAVE TO WIN OVER CROWDS AND HOW MUCH PRESSURE DOES THAT GIVE YOU OR DOES IT NOT EVEN PHASE YOU?
I think that’s the biggest thing for us being on this tour is getting to play in front of a new bunch of kids. From talking to kids after we play it seems like 90% of them have never seen us live and have just found out about the band but the response each night is always really positive, which is great for us to play for this many new people in every city.
LIVE IT’S ALWAYS A HIGH ENERGY PERFORMANCE GIVEN BY THE BAND. WAS THAT AREA IN THE BEGINNING OF YOUR FORMATION SOMETHING YOU NEVER WANTED TO LOSE THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER?
We’ve always wanted to be a really strong live band and to try and give each show everything we have. Big or small, we will go off regardless and put just as much into. I think it helps too that we’re just genuinely stoked on what we’re doing, where nothing we do is forced to put on a show. We move around because we’re stoked and that what playing this music makes us want to do.
COMING FROM CANADA WHAT IS THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE FROM THE STATES VS CANADA ON A MUSIC SCENE VIBE?
I think in Canada the biggest difference is because we don’t have as many big shows coming to town as often as so many cities in the US. When a good tour does come everyone gets excited and wants to make the effort to come out and have a good time, because you’re not sure when the next tour like this is going to come along.
I SEE YOU WORKED WITH SILVERSTEIN ON THE NEW RECORD. AND TIM FROM RISE AGAINST WORKED ON YOUR ALBUM. LOOKING AT BOTH SPECTRUMS WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF GUEST APPEARANCES ON ALBUMS?
I would say the biggest thing for me is seeing how other singers work and learning from that. When I sang on the new Silverstein record we worked at getting my phrasing of each line to match perfectly with what Shane was singing. It was something I had never tried before and took a bit of getting used to. But in the end it sounded so rad that it made all of the takes worth while in order to get it to sound so good. It’s a trick that I definitely want to try on our next record when doing collaborations to see how it sounds for us.
HAIL DESTROYER CAME OUT IN 2008 ON METAL BLADE. WHAT INTRIGUED YOU TO RELEASE THE DISC ON THIS LABEL AND DO YOU FEEL YOU FIT IN GOOD WITH OTHER BANDS ON THE LABEL OR DO YOU LIKE BEING THE OUT OF THE ORDINARY BAND?
I find that our band doesn’t really fit in any where. We don’t really stick to any particular style of metal, punk or hardcore, which in some ways is awesome because I think we can fit in with so many genres but at the same time it’s hard for us to be placed with anyone else. That all being said I love the staff at Metal Blade because give our lack of genre they have been working super hard trying to figure out where we do fit in and pushing us to everyone who might be interested. I can’t enough good things about them and how they’ve helped us in the US.
WHAT PROGRESSION MUSICALLY DO YOU FEEL THE BAND ACHIEVED ON THIS CURRENT DISC?
I feel like overall with the new album we have able to represent how heavy of a live band we actually are. From the first record until now I felt like all of us had beefed up what we do in terms of our perspective craft. Scott had stepped up so much on guitar, Mike had become such a stronger drummer and my voice had become so much stronger from the amount of touring we had done in between the two albums.
ARE YOU WORKING ON ANYTHING NEW AS WE SPEAK AND IF SO WHAT DIFFERENT AVENUES WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXPERIEMENT WITH AS A VOCALIST?
We have been working on new songs and are trying to have something finished for early 2010. For myself vocally I really just want to try and push my self even further than I had with Hail Destroyer. I think I’ve realized my voice can do a lot more than I had thought so now trying to write with that in mind this time around. I also really want to try and step up the lyrical game for this next record and try and have some really different themes for songs. That’s the plan, fingers crossed I can pull it off.
HOW PERSONAL DO YOU TEND TO DELVE INTO YOUR LYRICS? I ONLY ASK BECAUSE I SAW THE NEW VIDEO FOR DEATHSMARCH AND YOU SEEM TO BE VERY ZONED INTO WHAT YOU WERE SINGING!!!
I’ve got a pretty intense look going on haha I try to make all of the songs as personal as possible. I feel like I could never write about something that I hadn’t directly gone through, especially to have those emotions come through when singing about it. The one thing I do find is that the more personal I make a song, like Sorceress or Regret the more I will have people come up and comment to me how much they feel they have in common with the song, and how it really represents what they were feeling as well. I think that is awesome whenever I hear that. To me how someone would identify with something very personal to myself and have the same feelings from that song is great, for those people to know that they aren’t alone in any of those situations they’ve faced before and maybe they get the same sense of release from the song as I do. It makes me want to really dig deep and write about even more personal things for the next record.
YOUR MUSIC IS VERY VERSATILE. DOES BEING CATERGOIZED BY THE PRESS AND MUSIC FANS AFFECT YOU IN ANYWAY OR TEND TO PUT PRESSURE ON YOUR NEXT ENDEAVERS OR THE WAY YOU ARE PRECEIVED?
I wouldn’t say so at all. I like hearing what people think of what we do and hearing ways that they would try to describe our band. A long time ago someone said our band was “whiskey metal” which I thought was pretty funny and I say all the time, Canadian Whiskey Metal.
ONE THING THAT INSPIRES YOU EVERY DAY TO KEEP BEING AN ARTIST?
The one thing that really pushes me to keep doing this and working just as hard is all of my amazing friends who are in bands or art or whatever, doing what they love and trying to do it as best they can. Not for financial gain but for the pure sense that they love what they do. That is exactly why I love being in this band and the scene we are in, with all sorts of amazing people.
WHAT HAS INSPIRED THE BAND TO KEEP DOING THIS AS A CAREER?
From early on for us seeing our friends bands like AlexisonFire, ComeBack Kid, Silverstein and so many others doing well and having those guys pushing us to be in a fulltime band and showing us how we could really do this and make it work. AOF took us on tour for 3 months straight in Canada, America and all of Europe and basically showed us the ropes of life on tour. From there we just never stopped and I can’t thank those guys enough.
WHAT DOES BEING A FRONTMAN MEAN TO YOU AND WHAT MAKES A GOOD FRONT PERSON?
I think being a front man to me means that I have to set off the vibe. All I want to do every night is get the biggest party started and make sure we all have the best time. When everyone is sweating with smiles on their faces I know it’s a job well done.
SUM UP CANCER BATS IN 3 WORDS?
Mega Sweet Bros
LAST COMMENTS?
You should tell your mom you love her everyday.
