Loudside.com caught up with All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte during the band's second night in San Francisco, during their stint as direct support to As I Lay Dying on the 'Oceans Between Us' Tour. Phil gave us the latest on the band and the tour, how it felt to finally get the setback plagued dvd released, being nominated for a Boston Music Award, and what's in store for All That Remains in 2008.....

Loudside.com: So tell me how this tour's been treating you guys.

Phil: (Yawns) Sorry, San Francisco's always a rough night, so when you have two in a row, you get alot of yawns and stuff. The tour's been really awesome. As I Lay Dying are really good dudes, we've toured with them before. The guys in Haste The Day and Through The Eyes are cool, and people are showing up at the shows, and sometimes kids will buy t-shirts, so it's cool. And kids sing along and jump around, and they seem like they're pumped, so I mean, what more can you ask for ya know?

Loudside.com: Cool. Now from what you notice amongst the crowd, had there been any issues of problems between the more death metal crowd, and the metalcore crowd?

Phil: I mean, there's not really a heavy death metal draw for this tour. I mean As I Lay Dying is a heavy band, and we're a heavy band, and specifically Through The Eyes Of The Dead is probably the heaviest. But I mean, Through The Eyes Of The Dead is still kind of just getting started out too, ya know. So it's like As I Lay Dying and us and Haste The Day have spent considerable time on the road, and really have put alot of work into our bands. So really most of the people that are coming out are fans of As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, and Haste The Day, moreso than Through The Eyes Of The Dead. Most of these kids that are coming out are being exposed to Through The Eyes Of The Dead for the first time ya know, which is the whole point of doing a support tour.

Loudside.com: Now you guys just recently released your first dvd. After all the mishaps and setbacks, how did it feel to finally get it done and released?

Phil: It was a relief. I mean it was in the works for so friggin long dude. It took forever. Everything got screwed up all the time. There must have been, like fifty things that prevented the dvd from coming out, or getting shot, or the show happening that we were gonna shoot it at. So you know, it's cool, and it's awesome that it's finally done. But I mean, we got a dvd out now, and it's kind of like, 'Ok, we got a dvd out now.' Ya know, like 'Ok, Cool.' It's not one of those things that I spend alot of time thinking about. We got a dvd out, those were the shows, and that's how we were those nights, and hopefully people like it. Ya know, so cool.

Loudside.com: Ok. Now on that end, I wanted to ask about the production level and the quality of it. Is it something that the band financed, or did the label take care of that?

Phil: No, the label took care of that. I mean, nowadays band's really don't finance.....like we finance the tour. We don't take tour support to go and rent the bus and stuff like that, and the label does the advertising for it. Cause really, ya know, the label wants to go ahead and make sure that people are showing up and buying cd's, because that's what the label does. We just wanna come out and play some shows, and have people come out and maybe buy a shirt. Other than that, we're happy. So ya know, let the label worry about that crap. They want us to do a dvd, ok, let's set some cameras up, and we'll play a show that we were gonna play anyway and get it on film, ya know. It's pretty much something that we leave in the label's hands.

Loudside.com: Cool. I was just asking because I remember back when Sepultura released their first home video, and being that they were a smaller band at the time, the quality was really top notch at the time, or comparable to other bigger bands. And that's how I felt about this one. I mean you guys are getting bigger.....obviously. But just compared to other dvd's I've seen recently....

Phil: Well the company that did the actual shooting, like I specifically mention because they did stuff like the Sounds Of The Underground dvd, and the Killswitch dvd, and I think they did the Lamb of God dvd, I'm not sure. But they have a really high quality look to them. And nowadays it's like, you mention Sepultura, probably twelve to thirteen years ago you're talking about....I mean really, the technology available today, makes having a high quality dvd far easier. And really now it's not even so much about the quality of the film, or the quality of the recording. It's about the talent of the people that put it together. Because when anybody that has a mac, and can spend a couple hundred or a thousand dollars on a program, or that knows someone that can get them a program......get them vinyl cut pro, and put together a really nice quality looking video, or dvd, whatever. So really, it is a testament to how good the people at High Roller are, than the amount of money that we spent, ya know.

Loudside.com: Now, you guys also re-released your debut album 'Behind Silence And Solitude'. And I know that it was repackaged with new artwork, but were any of the songs re-recorded or remastered?

Phil: Nope. We re-did "Follow" for the Japanese version of 'The Fall Of Ideals', but everything on the first record is the same, I believe. I mean, they might have remastered it, but that's about the size of it. There wasn't a remix, and we didn't go in and redo anything. It was just a matter of "hey, you know what, let's get it back out into circulation", because places had stopped carrying it because it was so old. So it was just a matter of getting it back into the stores. So people could actually get to it again.

Loudside.com: And the repackaging?

Phil: Well that was Mike D. We like Mike D's work, and so were just like 'Yo, do us up a cool cover'. We kind of wanted to keep the same feel of the first one, to kind of have the same kind of colors. To have kind of the same look and kinda the same feel, but we're just like take this as the inspiration and do something creative with it.

Loudside.com: Cool. Now so far you guys have shot videos for This Calling, The Air That I Breathe, and Not Alone. Is that going to be it for this album, or is there going to possibly be another one?

Phil: Well we might put the live version of 'Six'.....we might send that to MTV next year or something. Right now you can get a live version of 'Six' on youtube and on the internet, and stuff like that. So I mean, we won't actually produce another video, but I'm sure that they'll do a little extra push for 'Six', because that's probably the second most popular song off the record. Ya know, Guitar Hero's done AMAZING things for that song, ya know. So yeah, we'll see...

Loudside.com: Okay. Also recently you guys were nominated for the Boston Music Awards, along with a few of your peers from the Massachusetts metal scene. How did it strike you to be nominated for something like that?

Phil: It's cool. I mean, again, it's like we're not one of those bands that's like 'Hey what award did we win'. Right now I mean......we're very much a working kind of band ya know. It's not like we're thinking about being the top dog. We're thinking that 'you know what, we're lucky we get to play music for a living'. And we're lucky that people come out to the shows, and we're lucky that people don't boo at us anymore, ya know. We play a show, and unless it's a SMALL town on a weird night, there's gonna be two, three, four or five hundred people there, ya know. And that right there is better than any award that anyone's ever gonna give me (laughing), you know what I mean? We did a headliner in September, and the smallest show was in Bend, Oregon. And there was like, two hundred people? And ya know, when you can put two hundred to two hundred and fifty people, or something like that.....when you can pull two hundred and fifty people in Bend, Oregon, probably on a Tuesday or something like that. If you can do that, you win! (Laughing). No matter what the Boston Music Awards think. It's cool that they like our stuff, and I appreciate the fact that we're nominated, but I mean, it's not a competition. This is what I do for a living. Awards and accolades are great, but there's alot of great bands out there that write great music and tour all the time and make alot of money.....that have NEVER been nominated for an award. Or probably will never get an award, but they write great songs, and people come out to see them, and they have a good time when they play, and that's all that really matters. It's not about winning, because you can't "win" at being in a band. (Laughing)

Loudside.com: (Laughing) Ok. Now 'ATR Live'.....I know the audio is available through iTunes, but is it going to see a physical release?

Phil: Uh no, we won't do like an actual release. Or at least I don't think so. I mean, who knows what the label's gonna wanna do. I mean they could say Hey we wanna do this or we wanna do that. And it's something we'll talk about when there's something to talk about. But, for the most part, once people start downloading stuff, it spreads like wildfire. I'm so over people thinking......people that are like "Oh stop music downloads". It's like dude, you are fighting the wrong battle at the wrong time, ya know. It's like seriously, you're not gonna go ahead and win this war. Or you're not gonna change it. This is the future. This is the way it's gonna be. It's not about trying to shape something differently, or save an industry. Labels need to come up with new ways to be record labels. Because it's changing.....it just is. And trying to fight it, you're only wasting your time and energy trying to fight it, when you should be trying to find ways to be a viable company for a generation or from here out.....people are gonna be thinking "I don't really need the cd unless I really love the band". There's always gonna be cd sales, because there's always gonna be people that are gonna say "I love this band and I wanna support them. I want to own their records. I want that sense of ownership, and I want that physical thing in my hands." But when you've got so much music out there, really it's like people don't even download albums anymore. They download songs. It's like "I like this song, I like this song, and I like that song, and I'll take those" and everything's a la cart, ya know. Which to be honest with you, I think it's great. It's like, I personally don't download albums. If I like a song, I'll go to iTunes and I'll......I mean I'm a Mac dude. I got an iPhone, I got a Mac, and I love Mac products. So like I just go and I'll buy the fifteen dollar card, or twenty-five dollar card when I'm at Wal Green's picking up soda, ya know. Plug it in, and it's easy that way, and I get what I want. I don't get a bunch of stuff I don't want. So anyone that is thinking they're gonna stop music downloading and stuff.......*nods head*

Loudside.com: (laughing) Ok, now what's the status on any new material? I know you guys have had almost no real time off on this touring cycle, but I'm sure you guys have had some ideas.....

Phil: Yeah, we're gonna scramble and write another one. We'll be home after this tour, for December and January. And we're hoping that we can get a whole record put together in a month, which is a little ambitious. But we did it with 'The Fall Of Ideals'.....we did almost the exact same thing. We had one song written.....we had written "This Calling" before we did the Arch Enemy tour, a year before 'The Fall Of Ideals' came out. We supported Arch Enemy and we played "This Calling" on that support tour. And then we went home and we spent December, January, and February writing the record. And this time we get Decemer and January, and then we're gonna do a headliner in February. But after February, we get another month before we get ready to go into the studio in April. So it's gonna be kind of the same thing. We got a bunch of riffs and stuff, and we'll get home and get together a bunch of times a week, and we'll cram and we'll hammer out some songs. Alot of people think...or well, I don't know that alot of people think it, but I get the impression that people think that it's some grandiose process. And it's like no, we just get together and we've got some riffs, and we just talk about it, ya know. And you kind of just hammer it out. We know what we wanna do as a band. We know what we want our band to sound like, and we know what we want our songs to be like. And really it's just a matter of taking all the parts and just smashing em together, and making everybody happy.

Loudside.com: I mean I think people get that impression from bands like Metallica that take 'x' amount of years, and maybe it IS a grandiose process for them. But I think personally if you guys are more of a working band, then it's just a working process....

Phil: Yeah, exactly. It's like ya know.....and again, any band that is that kind of a working band......it's like we don't have the luxury of being able to say "Ok, we're gonna take the studio for this year" ya know. If I could be like "Ok, just block off from January 1 until we get done..." ya know, I probably would think that it was some kind of grand process too. "Do you know how much money I'm spending on this??" Of Course this is a grand project!" Like running for president or something....ya know? (laughing). But we're just gonna get home and be like, you guys wanna write some music, let's go, ya know. Cool. It's just a simple thing for us. This is just how we do it.

Loudside.com: Now at the same time, I mean, not that you've had the opportunity, but don't you think in that time frame you might overthink things?

Phil: If you spend too much time, yeah you could. And that's something that I try really hard not to do. And I think that we haven't had the opportunity to do it. Cause alot of times we're scramblin.....like the song 'We Stand' on the record, I was writing lyrics the day before I sang them. THE DAY BEFORE.....I mean I was at home the night before thinking 'Man I gotta get up in the morning and sing this song', cause it was supposed to be an instrumental. And everyone in the band was like, nah man, this song's good, write something man, just do something, put something together. And I was like.....Fuckin...ok? So I go home, and you know, kind of whip up "We Stand" that evening, cause.....well I had to. And that's kind of the way alot of stuff goes. It's like, we like this, we like this, but we can't figure out what to go in here. Well, fuckin what key is it.....here try that. Ok you like it, there you go....ya know.

Loudside.com: Ok...now what exactly are the band's plans after the holidays? I know you're taking some time off, but what's in store for All That Remains in 2008?

Phil: Well, ok let's see......Write, Headline, Write, Record...Mix and Master. That will probably take us right up to the end of May. June we'll be, hopefully we'll go over to Europe and do some festivals, or at least that's what we're trying to do. Umm, we're really hoping to play Download, but we'll see what happens. Then July and August, we're hoping to do one of the big summer tours.....maybe do something on Ozzfest, or do something with Warped Tour or Sounds Of The Underground....ya know. Just something. I mean there are alot of big tours out there, and we're at a point in our career where we really really would want to be a part of that. We don't wanna spend the summer at home. We just spent the last summer at home, and we had such a good time on Ozzfest and stuff like that, and it would be really cool to go out and do that again. Those tours are really really fun.....so yeah, that's about it. That will take us through next year, and then we'll go to Europe again I'm sure in the fall....maybe we'll go to Japan. It'd be cool to go to Mexico sometime next year. We went to Mexico for the first time last year. So lots of touring, that's what we do, ya know. There's not gonna be a time......in the next year or year and a half where All That Remains is gonna take a couple of months off. I mean, if we take three months off, it's three months off to write. But not three months to do nothing but dick around, ya know (laughing). I wish.....

Loudside.com: Cool. Finally, in regards to touring, which band would you want to tour with, that's currently functioning, if you had the chance?

Phil: I'd love to tour with Slipknot. We've kind of gotten to a point where as a support band, we played alot of the big places.....two thousand seaters, twenty-five hundred seaters.....thousand seaters and stuff. And really, where we are, the next step up, as a support band, obviously not as a headliner.....we need to get on something that's playing four to five thousand seaters, ya know. Small arenas and stuff like that. It'd be AWESOME to do a support for Slipknot. We did three shows with them, with Shad, Lamb Of God and Slipknot a couple of years back, and they were awesome! I can't tell you how many kids still come up to me to this day and say "The first time I ever heard you guys was when I saw you guys with Slipknot at Hi FI Buys in Virginia....Or Atlanta. Or I saw you at blah, blah, blah in Virginia. And it would be really really awesome to do a tour with them. And we're kind of at a point now where it's a possibility, ya know. We've got enough of a touring history and stuff where if we submitted, they wouldn't laugh at us (laughing). They wouldn't chuckle and be like "Go away little boy". They'd be like,"Well ya know, maybe you can go on first". Now they might be more like, "Yeah you can go on first". And we'd be like "Alright, cool. Fuckin A......"