Adestria – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

The Book of Adestria

Originally published: 03/30/12

Now signed to Artery Recordings, Adestria from San Diego recently unleashed Chapters, their debut magnum opus for the label.  A powerful collection of metallic hardcore anthems destined to gain the band a good deal of attention.  This is an interview I conducted with vocalist Matt Anderson in 2012 with a photo from the Cobalt Cafe I took in 2013.  Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Adestria, and how long the band has been together.
I’m Matt and I am the vocalist for Adestria. We’ve been a band for about 4 years.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there? Do you have any local bands you could recommend?
Adestria is based out of San Diego, which is flooded with metalcore bands right now. It forces all these local bands to become something special in order to stand out amongst the rest. I feel some of the bands that are pulling away from the pack there are Lion I Am, To Each His Own, and Oh Guardian.

How did you wind up signing to Artery Recordings?
We signed up with Artery for management first. They had heard about how well we were doing in our home town so they took an interest. Once with the Artery Foundation, they began shopping us to many different labels, however Artery Recordings was the best fit. It’s a group of people that actually care about the music and bands that they release rather than just trying to make a buck. It’s more of a family and that’s exactly what we wanted.

Is there any story or concept behind the CD title Chapters?
Chapters‘ concept is that each song is related somehow to a book. We really liked the idea of a running theme throughout the album. I draw a lot of my inspiration for lyrics from different books and poems, so I thought why try to hide it, let’s embrace it.

Select two songs from Chapters and what inspired the lyrics.
One of our favorite songs to play live is the 1st track off of Chapters, called Compromised. I wrote it about a friend that I saw giving up on her dreams in order to become what she thought society wanted her to be. Rather than continue with her love of art, she thought she needed to give it up and settle down, because it was expected. Another song that lyrically stands out is More Than You Know. This song I actually took a back seat on lyrically. Our guitarist Russell wrote it about the pain and frustration of seeing his mom battle and eventually lose the fight to cancer. It is easily the most heartfelt song on the entire record.

How did Telle from The Word Alive become involved with the recording process and what was it like working with him? Have you ever performed the song with Telle live?
Telle singing on Whiskey For The Soul kind of fell into our lap. We have known In Fear and Faith for a while and they have a strong relationship with Telle, considering he used to be their vocalist. As he was recording his guest vocals for InFaFs Symphonies album, someone suggested he lend his talent to ours as well. We all agreed it was a great idea and Telle loved the concept.

Since you will be touring with In Fear And Faith, do you think you’ll be performing Scarlet Letter live with Scott Barnes?
It is very possible that we may get Scott out there for some guest vocals. We can’t guarantee it’ll be a nightly occurrence, but it will be a special treat when it happens.

What is a live Adestria show like for those of us who have yet to see you?
We have always prided ourselves on our live show. Our mentality is that anyone can sound good on a cd and eventually even the best albums will be replaced, but the thing that stands out in kids’ minds are live shows. We put every ounce of energy we have into our stage performance. We just want everyone watching to have fun, and we’ve been known to whatever it takes to make that happen. We know that it’s hard to be that first kid that starts moving at a show when it’s a relatively new or unknown band, so I’ve been known to occasionally get down in the crowd and start the movement myself haha.

Any strange or scary road stories you could share?
We’ve really only been on 2 tours so far, so we don’t have many crazy stories yet. We plan to make some on the soundrink tour.

Have you ever played any of the Warped Tour dates? If so, what was the experience like?
We’ve never played Warped but it’s always been a dream of ours. Maybe 2013?

What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most after hearing your music for the very first time?
Essentially when someone hears the record for the first time, we want the thought to be “damn, I need to see them live”. Other than that, we want listeners to take something positive from the album. The lyrics and music attempt to be uplifting and somewhat of a soundtrack to getting past the bullsh*t in your way, and it’s our way of saying take the reins to your own life and be proactive.

Any final words of wisdom?
No matter what your passion is in life, stick with it. Being in the band for us has been very challenging at times, and we’ve made a lot of sacrifices and plan on making many more, but we wouldn’t change a thing. It’s worth it, because we get to do what we love, and we encourage kids to do the same.

(Interview and Cobalt Cafe photo by Ken Morton)

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