Loudside.com managed to catch up with All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte on their recent tour supporting Bullet For My Valentine. Phil took a few minutes to sit down with us to discuss the tour, the phenomenal success of their current record 'The Fall of Ideals', and the bands plans for the rest of this year. Here's what Phil had to say:

Loudside.com: So how exactly were you guys added to this tour? Was it a corporate thing, or were you guys hand picked by Bullet....?

Phil: The Bullet guys have said to us that they were really excited about us being part of the tour. They're into the record and stuff like that. And I mean, it'd be great to think that Bullet heard us and said 'Oh I wanna tour with them', but I know that our manager knows their manager, so it could have been our manager just calling their manager and saying 'Hey'. And our agent also knows their agent as well. Anytime a tour is put together, it's more than just a band saying 'I wanna tour with this band'. It's a team of people, usually a manager, an agent, and label people involved, and they're all working toward the same goal. So really it's more than just one individual saying to the bands 'we want you to come on tour with us' and the other band saying yes, ya know. There's all kinds of other stuff involved. But I mean, it's been really cool, and we're really lucky to be a part of this. It's a really big tour and we're really excited.

Loudside.com: Cool. Now being that this tour has a pretty varied line up, how has the crowd response been for you guys?

Phil: AMAZING! Absolutely Amazing! I don't wanna sound like I'm trying to say that we're stealing the show, cause we're not, it's definitely Bullet's tour, but people are coming out in full force to see All That Remains. Every night, save I think two that we've played, there's been an ATR chant before we play. And when we do 'This Calling' or we do 'Not Alone', I just hold out the mic and people sing and I don't have to do anything. So it's been great. It's been a great tour for us because it gets us in front of much larger audiences than we normally would play in these kind of markets. I mean, the cap here is like 1,500 which is like twice what we played.....we played to about 700 at Slim's (S.F.). So everything's much bigger, ya know. But they're still great shows!

Loudside.com: Ok. Now the last time I had the opportunity to sit down with you was at Ozzfest last year, which was prior to the record's release. Since then, the record has sold VERY well, you've had a single land on a Major Motion Picture soundtrack, and you've also had a single that ended up on the video game 'Guitar Hero'. What's you're reaction to all that?

Phil: To be flat out honest with you, every time that something happened like that, I was like 'Oh Cool'. And then kinda you know, 'ok'. And now to see what it all meant......because at the time we didn't really know what was gonna happen with 'Guitar Hero', and we didn't really know how big 'Saw' was gonna be. And both of them were really really great for us, but again, it's more than just one thing. So whether it be the tours that we've done, or the promotion that we've gotten, or the things that we've been fortunate enough to be a part of, it's all those things combined. So as you get little things, you're like 'Cool'. 'Cool'. 'Cool'. 'Holy Shit!! look what happened because of all the little things!' ya know. And now we're kind of at that point where it's like, I mean our records almost a year old, and it's still selling the same amount that it was selling in September of last year every week. And it's gone up the past like two weeks every week, so we're just like 'Woah!' ya know. It feels more like we're kinda starting to have to hold on as opposed to push the cart foward, so it's really exciting.

Loudside.com: Right on. Now since the release of the record, you guys have pretty much been touring in support of it with no real extensive time off. In the midst of the touring schedule, have you guys worked on writing at all for a new record?

Phil: Umm, Oli's got a lot of stuff. I haven't had the chance to sit down with a guitar, since we wrote 'The Fall Of Ideals'. Mike's got some stuff, and we've done alot of talking. And we feel like the next record that we write is very very important for the band, so we're all talking and making sure that we're all on the same page with what we wanna do. And even more than that, we're on the same page with what we DON'T wanna do. We're kinda fortunate in that we know alot of bands that are pretty big, and we've been able to watch the rise, the plateau, and sometimes the fall of bands that we're somewhat close with. And each time.....I'm kind of a nerd, so I'll sit there and I'm like 'Well why didn't this band keep going?' 'Why did this band level off?' And try to not repeat mistakes. And alot of times those mistakes are just losing what their core audience loved, by changing. And we want to progress, but we don't want to be a different band. We wanna sound like All That Remains. We're so happy with the way 'The Fall Of Ideals' came out. And I mean, I don't feel like it would be a bad thing to put out 'The Fall Of Ideals II', but at the same time, as a band we've got so many more options now than we had even with the last record. I mean, Jason as a drummer is an amazing drummer, and he's extremely creative. Shannon's very technically skilled, and he comes up with cool beats and stuff. But Jason's been playing alot longer, and Jason's much more schooled than him and much more....I don't know, he just has much more to him. He's got more knowledge about drums and stuff. So we're all really excited to have Jason, someone who can talk our own language, because Oli's got a degree, Mike's taking lessons, I'm taking lessons. I go to a vocal coach. I mean, we all work on our craft, we all practice what we do. And so we're all kind of excited to have someone that's kind of in the same mindset, where it's more than just 'my instrument'. It's about writing songs, and being able to communicate with eachother and craft something good. So we don't wanna overdo anything, but at the same time we wanna be able to do what we did on the last record and really cover alot of ground, and still feel comfortable that it's us, ya know what I mean. That's kind of a long winded way of saying it I guess. (laughs)

Loudside.com: (laughing) And a quick question on that....I know that Shannon basically abruptly left....

Phil: Twice...(laughs)

Loudside.com: How did Jason get in touch with you guys, or was it vice versa?

Phil: Well, Jason, being in Diecast, he's from Massachusetts. And it's one of those situations where me and Jason probably have played ten or twenty shows together before All That Remains even started, or whatever. I mean, Diecast would be playing a show, and one of my old bands, or Shadows Fall, or we'd be there, or All That Remains or whatever. And so, we knew eachother, we'd played shows together, and it was just a matter of I knew he wasn't in Diecast anymore and I gave him a call. The first time I called him was the first time Shannon quit, and he had just quit Diecast maybe a few months before, and he wasn't ready to come back to playing drums. He's stopped playing drums completely. He'd pretty much put everything away and said 'I really need to take a break from this.' And so I called him, and he wasn't ready so we got Colin Conway to fill in for a tour, and that's when Shannon called back and was like 'Hey, I screwed up, blah, blah, blah, take me back', and we said 'Ok.' Comes back in, and does Ozzfest and Dragonforce, and he quits again. So we call Tim (Yeung, Divine Heresy), and Tim fills in. But Tim being the touring musician that he is, he's kind of expensive. And so we needed to get a full time drummer, and so I gave Jason a call in November, and I was like 'Hey, what's going on, what are you doing?'. Because he came out and he hung out with us, and he met us the first time we talked to him, before we left to do the tour with Colin. And so I was just like, 'I know we've been in touch a little bit, and I just wanna know what's going on, see how you're doing. We still need a drummer and the offers still on the table.' And he was like, 'well let me come on down and I'll try out and we'll see.' And from then on, he was our guy, ya know. And he fits in the band so well. All That Remains is kind of like the Island of Misfit Toys when it comes to people. The members are really kind of weird, and we're just like five people that got together, that like to play metal, and we're not pretentious, we're really kinda like blue collar dudes. And to have Jason come in, he was a little bit......I mean we're all kinda nerdy too. Me, Oli and Jason have all played Dungeons & Dragons at some point in our life. So to have him come in, and he fits right in....it's really exciting, and we're really happy.

Loudside.com: Cool. Now getting back to the current success of 'The Fall Of Ideals', it's sold approximately 75,000 copies so far.....

Phil: It's actually at 93,000 now.....(laughing) [The record has now sold over 100,00+ copies to date - Ed.]

Loudside.com: (laughing) This is all in spite of the availability of free downloads and stuff that can be accessed on the internet. With that in mind, what's your stance on illegal downloads?

Phil: Umm, you know what, trying to fight something like that is pointless. That's like if you were making tapes and trying to fight cd's. It's not gonna.....I mean, again, I'm kind of a nerd, and I've got kind of an analytical mind, and it's like, if the market is changing, and what you do is changing, you need to change to satisfy the people that you're trying to sell your product to. That's basically the way it goes. The internet is such a great tool to get your music out there, and to try and not use it is just the most idiotic thing you can do. And record labels need to go ahead and figure out a way to stay viable, because they're going to go away if they don't. So I mean....I personally download alot of music, but I buy it all, because I'm lazy and I'm not gonna go on.....I don't want that bit torrent, or....I don't know enough about computers to where if I got one of those, and I downloaded something that was gonna fuck my computer up that I could fix it, is basically what it is. So give me a Mac, give me iTunes, and I'll go to Wal Greens and I'll buy a $25 card, and I'll put it in my computer and I'll download 25  songs, or I'll download a couple of cd's ya know. I got no problem paying for it. And to be honest with you, I think that most people are like that. I think that a small percentage of people will try and go to the free sites and stuff like that. But I think that most people can't be bothered with trying to keep up with the 'tech' or whatever. It's way easier to be like 'Oh, the card, the number....GIVE ME FERGILICIOUS!' ya know. (laughing all around) Seriously. So I think that downloading music is fine. And I mean, it does affect record sales and stuff like that, but.....who cares?! Ya know. We don't make any money off of records. We don't get paid from the record company, the record company hasn't paid us SHIT! I mean, we make money on the fucking kids that come out and support us, and come out to shows that wanna.......we make money off of people that wanna come and shake our hands and talk to us, and so we're kind of that available band, ya know. We're like hey ya know, come on out and have a good time. All we wanna do is get on stage and play, and hear you guys sing along and have some fun. And if that's what people wanna do, then come on out to the show and have a good time, ya know.

Loudside.com: Well, that's what I was saying in regards to.....I mean, I'm more than sure there's a percentage that will download stuff for free, but in spite of that, you guys are almost at 100,000 now....

Phil: Oh, yeah.....(laughs) Yeah, I mean, it's crazy. And to think that....I mean I can sit there and I can rattle off numbers of alot of bands, and I know our record is selling very well. And I know there are alot of bands with records that came out last year that aren't selling as many records as we are right now. And I am HUGELY Astounded by that, because alot of good records came out last year. And I'm just amazed, and it's awesome and I'm really lucky, and there's really nothing else to say about that, ya know? I mean, I can't do anything about it. As soon as the record was written, it's out of my hands, ya know. And no amount of wishing or thinking or whatever is gonna change what we wrote. And it's not really gonna change the next record that we write either. I mean, it's like we really can't let this stuff get in the way of what we do, cause then it'll fuck it up. And I've seen so many bands screw it up with some crap release piece of garbage after, ya know. And we don't wanna do that. We wanna write a good metal record, ya know!

Loudside.com: I Hope so...(laughing)

Phil: (laughing) But yeah, it's like, the industry's down, and we're still selling, and we're still going up, so it's amazing, ya know.....it's awesome! Fuckin 'A'!

Loudside.com: That kind of leads into my next question.....do you feel that downloads truly affect the smaller artist, or does it help them more in some way to get their music out there to people that otherwise might not hear it?

Phil: If you're thinking about record sales, yes, it does negatively affect record sales for smaller artists, but it doesn't negatively affect the smaller artists. I mean, if you look at a band like Job For A Cowboy. They just did a tour, and they were supporting, and all the places were selling out. And the headliner, who shall remain nameless, was keeping people in and it was a good tour for them, but the reason that people were there was for Job For A Cowboy. Job For A Cowboy got the SWEET DEAL from Metal Blade I'm sure. I mean, they're on a fixed slot on Sounds of the Underground, and they don't even have a record out yet officially, or maybe it just came out. But that is a testament to the power of the internet, and the power of having your music on the internet and having it available. Labels need to wake up, but the bands......bands and musicians shouldn't be afraid of it. Labels can be afraid of it, and that's fine with me. But bands, don't be afraid of it, ya know. Embrace it. Figure out a way to make your band stand out or whatever.....I mean, cause if you're a good band, and you write good enough songs, and people like it, word will get around. Fuck, just Myspace along will get the word around, and make the media pay attention. Make the magazines, and labels pay attention. If you're a band on Myspace and you have Five hundred thousand friends, and you have over a million listens, the labels are gonna pay fuckin attention, ya know. Make no mistake, they'll know!

Loudside.com: For sure, with Myspace and Youtube as well.

Phil: Oh Absolutely!

Loudside.com: Now, the lyrical content. I know that most times lyrics are fully open to interpretation, but obviously you have a specific idea in mind when you write them. The lyrics specifically to the song 'Indictment' have a strong anti-religious slant to them. Are they aimed at any one specific belief, or is there more of a broad scope to it?

Phil: It's pretty broad. I mean organized religion is a touchy subject, and it's more pointing out the negative things of Organized Religion. Because there's alot of religions and alot of religious organizations that do great things for their communities and that do great things for humanity in general. I mean, Mother Teresa didn't suck, ya know. And she was a Nun, she was a catholic. So its really more a comment on people that use religion as a......they use it as a catalyst for their political beliefs, whether it be islamic terrorists, or christians that bomb abortion clinics or whatever. Religion is not about violence and you needing to kill people because.....what God can't? Ok, so he's God but he needs YOU to go do it for him. You probably could barely tie your shoes, recently, or probably tripped and fell down the stairs recently, but God needs you to go do something for him, right? So yeah, it's about people that hide behind a religion or an organization.

Loudside.com: Now I know you guys have been working on getting a DVD together. What's the status on that?

Phil: It's coming out sometime. (smiles) It'll come out.

Loudside.com: Nothing official on that?

Phil: Nothing official on that at ALL! Oh my god....(laughing)....you know what, you can quote me on this: *Shakes Fists* Ok, that's the quote for our release date for the All That Remains DVD. (laughing)

Loudside.com: (laughing) Ok.....now after this tour, you guys have the Canadian co-headliner.....

Phil: Yeah, with Protest The Hero....

Loudside.com: After that, you have the guest spot on Sounds of the Underground....

Phil: Yeah!! With TESTAMENT!! Bay Area!

Loudside.com: And you guys also have a slot on Wacken..

Phil: Wacken, yeah.

Loudside.com: Are there any other summer dates lined up, or anything else you guys might have going on?

Phil: We'll probably do some weekends up in the northeast. Get a little bored, head up to Maine. It's nice in the summer time for a show. Umm, probably Pennsylvania kind of stuff. But we don't have anything big.....we're talking about going to Mexico for four days, which will be cool. Nothing solid yet, but there's stuff up in the air. We definitely got a headliner planned for the fall. We're talking about maybe doing a co-headliner, but we don't know. We don't have anyone in mind right now. And we got a support slot that we're also talking about too, but nothing set in stone.

Loudside.com: Now as far as those slots that you guys have, like the slot on Sounds of the Underground. How was the reaction to that?

Phil: It was cool. It's nice to be thought of, when you're not on a tour, and it's like 'Hey, putting these guys on would make it kind of special'. So it's really flattering. And also, it's a really good excuse to go hang with our friends in Gwar, Shads, Every Time I Die, Chimaira......all these bands are bands we've toured with and we're friends with, and Fucking Testament's playing! So.....

Loudside.com: And do you know the guys from Testament at all?

Phil: No. Nope. And even if I don't get to know em, and I just get to watch em......I haven't seen Testament in probably about Ten years, ya know. So, it'll be awesome!

Loudside.com: And the whole Wacken thing?

Phil: Wacken will be cool. I mean, there's still some logistics that we've gotta get straightened out and stuff, but I mean.....Forty thousand people....that's a whole fuckload of people. (laughs)

Loudside.com: Basically a small nation...

Phil: Yeah, pretty much. It's probably about as many as the town that I live in had in like 1995 I think, there was about forty thousand people.

Loudside.com: And that will be the biggest...

Phil: Biggest crowd we've ever played to, absolutely. I think right now the biggest crowd we've ever played to is about seven thousand. I think.

Loudside.com: Ok, now what are the bands plans after all the tour dates are done?

Phil: We're gonna go home.....it'll probably be around the end of November when we get done, so we'll go home for the holidays, and spend some time at home. January/February we'll get together and really buckle down and write the next record, really put it together probably. And we'll go in around March or something like that, which is pretty much the same thing we did with 'The Fall of Ideals' two years ago.

Loudside.com: So the end of this year will be the end of the touring cycle for this record?

Phil: For this one, yeah. We wanna go home and we wanna write. I mean, right now we're starting to get really really excited about the idea of doing another record. So we're just kinda, we'll get the plans figured out. We know we're pretty much ready to go ahead and finish this up, and get another record out and do it all over again.......