What’s up guys? Well it’s good to be home. It was quite a long tour and towards the end the weather wasn’t pleasant by any means. Taking your drums apart in the freezing cold is just about the last thing I want to do, but hey, comes with the job I guess. Overall things were really cool. There were a lot of good shows along the way and for me it was important to really get comfortable with the feel of Arsis right away. I mean it was very last minute for me, I think I had 4-5 days to learn the songs and 2 days of rehearsal with the band, then off we went. I like working under pressure but that was pretty tight. After a few days on tour though things really started to come together and by the end the band sounded great. I think the songs really took on a new personality with the addition of my drumming and back up vocals. I look forward to learning more Arsis material and preparing for the next tour.
The fans were really cool considering it wasn’t really promoted as an Arsis tour. I think overall we had great responses. Old fans came out to support and I think we earned a bunch of new fans along the way. People don’t know what to expect when we step on stage but once those triggers start pumping through the PA they know what’s up. Our music just seemed to send a surge of energy into a lot of the crowds, so thanks everyone that came out to support Arsis. I’m pretty sure we’re going out again near the end of March for a short tour to the California Metal Fest and back. We’re going to want some time off though to start writing the next album which I’m really excited about. As much as I enjoy playing older Arsis material it’s still my interpretation of someone else’s drumming. The new stuff is going to be faster and more technical, from a drum stand point anyways. So I can’t wait to start tackling that.
For this tour my drum set changed quite a bit. I added another upper mounted snare drum and by doing so had to rearrange my entire cymbal set up. It took a little while to get used to but now it feels like home. Check out the pictures to give you an idea of what I sit behind every night. I look forward to hitting the road again and hope to see a lot of you guys out there.
Thanks, Darren
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