You were in the UK for a few dates, so how was it ?
It was amazing. Like the best dates ever. It was pretty much sold out every night so it was awsome.

You haven't been in Europe for a long time. But you're only gonna play one show in France. Do you intend to come here more in the futur ?
Yeah. I mean I don't know why we haven't been here more often. It's kind of weird you know. It's our third tour for this record in the UK. They really haven't send us anywhere else but in the UK. But we're definatly excited to be back here.

You just did a video for " Bloodwork ". Where did you get the idea for this kind of funny video ?
That was pretty much the director who found that. We had lilke a bunch of people that wanted to do this video, but everyone had pretty much the same type of music video that every metal bands does. We pretty much wanted to take it more like Blink 182 videos. You know to make something different, more funny. Because I just can't stand seeing the same video over and over. So it was fun you know. Some people liked it, some people hated it, but I just don't care. It was fun to do it, you know, to do something different.

Can we talk a little bit about your next album. We've seen on your website that you already have new materiel for it. How is it going so far ?
Yeah, so far we got a 5 songs for the next album. Two are totally done. One will be playing tonight. And we got three that are half way done. Before coming over here we were in the middle of writing the next record. But when they asked us to come here and do a headlining tour we couldn't miss it. So we took our boys from Twelve Tribes and here we go. But yeah, the new album is going good, just kind of slow.

So you do you have any idea yet when you're gonna start recording it ?
We were supposed to be entering the studio in June. That's what the record label wants. But I don't think we're gonna be in there probably until July or August.

About your drums, can you talk about your musical background ? When did you start playing drums….
Oh men. Well I am 30 now. I started playing drums when I was 15 or something like that. I was always between skateboarding and drums. I got sponsor at that time for skating. That was all I did for pretty much my whole life you know. But living in Alaska there wasn't so much skatebording I could do for a living so I should have moved to California. But I didn't, so I started playing drums more. Just took it from there. And ended up in this band. That's the first band I've ever been in. I'm in this band for 7 or 8 years. That's the only band I've been with.

On your last album, when we listen to your drums parts, we get the feeling that you have spend lot's of time writing them. They are very creative.
Yeah. For the first album, we recorded it and I hated it. And even now it can't stand it. It's the worst piece of shit album like ever ! (big smile). When anyone asked me to play a song of this album, I'm like "Oh my God, never !" I mean, the producers were really cool, but it was the wrong time for us. We got signed at the wrong time. The songs that we already have written were like 5 years old. And they wanted to use those. Us, we wanted to write new songs but they wanted us to record those ones. But then for the next album Mick wrote the guitar parts, I kind of helped him arrange them. And then for 2 months straight before we even entered the studio I played with the click track, without anyone in the room except the guitar in my headphones. So I just practised and came out with many different parts. I really liked busting my ass on that album. I'm glad that a lot of people liked it.

Do you have any plans on realising a DVD ?
Oh men, I would love to. We have some of the funniest home video stuff you could possibly have. I mean the only people that does music DVD's right, are Pantera. Because it's more giving the fans a thing to see instead of just live performance. Fans can go to your shows and see your shows. I don't want to put just us playing live, who gives a shit about that ? Most people wanna see what is it like being backstage, what is it like hanging out at home with the band and stuff. So if we made one I will be pretty much us hanging out and doing what we do. You know, day to day thing. I like some of the DVD's that have been out yet, but I just don't like seeing bands live on DVD when I already have been to their shows. I just wanna see what really happens. Chimaira did a pretty good one. But yeah, we definatly wanna make one, but it just takes time, we don't know if Roadrunner will put it out, and plus we're lazy so... We have all the footage, we have like 300 tapes. It's just the matter of hearing someone to go through with it. And putting all together. But I'm sure we'll do it sometime.

As a drummer, who influenced you the most ?
Right now, I'm a huge Travis Barker (Blink 182) fan. Stewart Copeland from The Police was probably my all time favorite drummer. Shane from Twelve Tribes is awesome. Aandy, from Candiria. Our 2 bands, Twelve Tribes and us went on tour with Candiria. Have you ever seen them live ? Probably one of the all time best drummer you'll ever see. He's amazing. He influences me a lot.

You seem to be really close to the guys from Twelve Tribes. You sure must be happy to be on tour with them ?
Oh yeah. It's pretty much like you meet some bands on the road and you become total fan, you keep in contact. It's just cool that we got to take them out on this tour you know. Ever since the first time we met them it's like we've become all brothers. And that's cool. If Killswitch could be here that would make a compplete best thing, because we're all best friends. That would have been awsome.

You come from Alaska. Can you talk about your state, is it difficult to be a musicien there, because you're aside from the whole country ?
No, I think it's a lot better in a way. There's not so many "scenesters" as you would say, as there's not so many clicks like in L.A. for exemple. Every single bands tries to do the exact same thing. All the kids tries to dress the same and stuff. And for Twelve Tribes being from Ohio, small places like us, everything is different. There is not one band in Alaska that sound the same. Not even does the same style of music. They are so different. But they all play together.

Is there a big scene there ?
It's not a big scene. I mean, it's Alaska you know, so it's not really big. But it's a good scene. You could find some good bands there. It's definatly small but it gets good shows. The thing is that they don't often bring famous bands there to play. It's always bands like Pantera, you know really huge bands. It's not a band like Killswitch is gonna go there. I don't know why ! They should start bringing not too bigger bands, that would be a lot better.

As you were a kid, was it easy to see many shows there ?
No, and that's what sucked ! There was shows, but not necessarely the ones that I wanted to see. My first concert was Blue Öster Cult that was a good one, then I saw The Scorpions, then I saw Bon Jovi. Oh boy, that was like the worst concert I've ever seen. And then Ozzy, awsome, Pantera, Metallica on the And Justice For All tour. It's only shows like that that we were able to see you know. Huge shows. And it comes up once every 5 month or something. So it's hard for sure to see good shows when you compare to the rest of the country.

We get the feeling that a lot of american bands get very popular in Europe but not in there own country. Is this the case for 36 ?
Oh, we suck in America. We are not big in America at all. I think we have sold a little more like 40 000 records or something there. So we're just kind of the average band there you know. And then we come to the Europe and UK where we've sold, I don't know really, maybe 30 000 there. So that's good over there ! That allows us to come over there and play headlines shows you know. But in the US, we're just another band. But it's just that there, there are so many bands.

We saw that you did a tour in America with Walls of Jericho which was the headline, and you were very far on the bill.
Oh yeah, that was a crazy tour. That was probably the worst tour that we've been on. It was nuts. All the bands were so cool, but it was a hardcore tour and we're not a hardcore band. So those kids would just stand there while we were playing and didn't move at all. Whatever we could do, it was not working. So sometimes we get on the wrong bill you know. And it's not that fun.

Walls of Jericho played in our hometown Lyon a couple of month ago. You seem to be more popular here than them so it was striking to see you on this American tour with them, but so far from the headline.
Yeah. That tour, I don't really remember how we got on that tour. We got on this tour, and right after that we got on the Machine Head tour, which was a really big one. So I don't know, really. It's weird. But anyway, it's a great band. Did you saw Walls of Jericho ? She's pretty bad ass though. She's nuts. We saw here do some crazy stuff. It's amazing to see her on stage, she's amazing. Just pure energy !

I was gonna ask you which band you prefer to tour with, but I guess your answer will be Twelve Tribes ? Am I right ?
Yeah for sure ! I'll say Twelve Tribes, Canderia, Killswitch Engage. Oh men I'm missing some. But that will be any of the bands that we've toured with. Any bands that we've toured with, we became best friends with them. We're really a laid back band. Eventhough we're on the headline we don't act so. When we go on tour with some headline bands, really big bands, they often got that rock star attitude which is a bad thing but they are the headline so. For us, it's not like that, our dressing room is your dressing room, eat whatever you want. You know what I mean we're just laid back. It's not about anything but having fun with everyone you know.

Do you have any planes for this summer to play festivals ?
No. We wanted to but we're gonna be making the record. That's the one thing that our manager really wanted us to finished it right before the summer so that we could be on some summer festivals. But I don't think that we're gonna have enough time to finished it until then.

Last year you were at the Download Festival. How was it ?
Yeah. That was the most amazing thing. Oh my God ! The Download festival blows away anything that I have ever seen in my life. It was so amazing. It was so weird walking around backstage. You saw so many people there. Like Metallica just walked by. You almost like freaked out. And you don't want to be a gig, shaking seeing all those people, but you feel like being a kid in a candy store. There was so many bands that I grew up listening to. Simply amazing. And being able to stand on the side of the stage and seing all that was really cool. I think that's pretty much the best festival I've ever made.

What's your favorite word ? That would probably be "Fuck".
What's your least favorite word ? Money.
What turns you on, creativelly, spiritualy and emotionally ? Music, turns me on in every different way.
What turns you off ? Fat girls that wear half-shirts ! (big old lough)
What's your favorite curse word ? We'll go with a different one, I'll say "Cunt" !
That's not really a curse word but I use it a lot.
What sound or noise do you love ? Ocean.
What sound or noise do you hate ? Airplanes, for sure.
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt ? Professionnel skateborder.
What profession other than your own would you not like to attempt ? That's a tough one. Maybe a job where you have to check guy stuff, like a doctor or something. That I would never be able to do !
If heaven exist what would you like God say to you when you arrive at the pearly gates ? Come on, grab a beer ! (big lough)

Interview Da Chief et Tataye
Translation Tataye