SHREDnews

By Jay Rowland

Jay Rowland: I wanted to start out by asking how you got started in music.

Pat Seals: We all kinda grew up playing in the local bands and church youth groups. The band got started in winter 2002. I was actually the last one to join. There were two bass players previous to me. Up to that point we all had been in local bands around the town and they all kinda dissolved and what we have now is Flyleaf.

Jay: What are your personal and the bands musical inspirations?

Pat: As a band we all have very varied tastes. As a band we all like Foo Fighters, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. The list goes on. My personal inspiration would be Deftones. It was my favorite band when I was in high school and that made me really wanna do this. I like The Pogues a lot and Tom Waits.

Jay: Since 2005’s self titled release it’s been kind of a whirl wind. How’s that felt for you guys?

Pat: It’s not been that long of a time. Six or seven years and its felt like fifteen years crammed into that time. I saw a documentary on the Beatles and they said they recorded like thirteen albums in seven years. I was like, “Oh well, we only got two out of our seven years.” (Laughs)

Jay: How do you think the band has grown between the self titled and Momento Mori?

Pat: I guess we have grown a little bit musically. We aren’t virtuosos or anything, but we have grown. I guess we have matured as people and gotten to be more like adults. We are more world wise.

Jay: The new album seems to sound similar to the self titled album and then about half way the sound sort of changes up to something different. Is that something that was planned or did it come about on its own?

Pat: It definitely just kinda happened like that. The song Again was written about three years ago. My dad said that was the one that sounded the most like the first record. It was pointed out that it is a good transition for the listener who is aware of the first record. They hear this and the boiling water gets turned up slowly instead of shocking you.

Jay: How would you describe the writing process and inspiration behind Momento Mori?

Pat: I would describe it as organic. The songs really wrote themselves. We didn’t sit down and say, “We wanna write these kinda songs for this record.” Some were written in a hurry and some were written over a period of years. We had enough time to let the songs breathe and grow into what they should be.

Jay: Let’s talk about the bonus disc included with the expanded version of Momento Mori. What made you guys decide to include those songs on the bonus disc?

Pat: At the behest of our record company. They told us they wanted a bonus disc. They asked us to give them our demo songs we had laying around. A lot of those songs maybe didn’t turn out the way we planned. A couple of those songs we really wanted on the album. We just had too many songs. Those songs didn’t all receive the final steps.

Jay: It looks like you guys have a really busy schedule up ahead of you. What do you guys do to wind down on the road?

Pat: While we’re on tour some of us play video games. Jared, our guitarist loves video games. We walk around town on our days off. We just kinda sit around and be vegetables. We read books and watch TV. We just do what normal people do after work.

Jay: Do you play video games then?

Pat: Not really. My friend got me to play Call Of Duty one time. I enjoyed it, but I’m terrible at video games. I feel real guilty too when I play and realize the things I could have done instead of play video games. I could have read a book or built a house. (Laughs)

Jay: Any good tour stories?

Pat: I always seem to forget these stories after I tell my parents. They are like the black hole for my stories. Prank days are pretty funny. At the end of a tour sometimes bands will prank each other and do something funny on the last show. As a result no body really focuses on the last show because it’s all a big battle of trying to avoid each other’s pranks. One time we pulled a prank on Cold. Sameer came out on stage wearing a bald cap and stood next to Scooter.

Jay: Do you guys have any plans for Warped Tour in 2010?

Pat: Not at this point. I personally have never been on Warped Tour. I think it would be all right. I’ve heard it’s pretty rough. I heard it was like a concentration camp for bands. (Laughs)

Jay: For people that want to meet the band. Do you guys do meet and greets after the shows?

Pat: Yes. We used to do signings after the shows. Now we do a lot of radio meet and greets where it’s just like twenty people or so. A lot of times we will hang out outside the bus for a while to say thank you to people.

Jay: Anything else you would like to say?

Pat: Chasm and Missing off Momento Mori are going to come out pretty soon as singles (Probably in the New Year). So be looking out for those and the videos to go along with them.