Interview: Like Moths To Flames

MusicReview chats to Like Moths to Flames frontman Chris Roetter.

Last year, Like Moths to Flames experienced a bit of musical chairs, as Eli Ford joined the band on guitar, and Aaron Evans moved from guitar to bass. Is Aaron happy to be on bass, or was it more out of necessity than anything else? We all know that bassists are hard to find – kind of like the Holy Grail…

Chris Roetter: Yeah, it’s been pretty unfortunate, but we’ve always been prepared with a backup plan. Aaron stepped to bass duties for a few reasons. He took over some singing live and it was a lot easier for him to grasp playing bass and singing, rather than playing guitar and singing. He’s also one of the founding members of the band, so it was crucial that he remained a part of it, so I guess that’s where the necessity of it kicks in. Eli has been a great friend of the band and we’ve known from the get-go that he would have been a perfect fit for us. It just worked out for the band if Aaron moved to bass and Eli became the band’s new guitar player. I think in the end we’ve become a lot stronger of a band because of it all.

When We Don’t Exist has been out for a few months already. There has been lots of praise, and there’s been criticism. What do you think is the main lesson you’ve learned over this period?

Chris Roetter: I’ve learned to take it all with a grain of salt. People will love the band and people will hate the band. We knew going into recording that we were changing up our sound and we also knew that not everyone was going to like it. What we did and wrote was for the better of the band. We’ve all had experience in other projects, so we were well aware of the fact that we weren’t going to please everyone. With this band, we wanted to play music that pleased us.

The music video for ‘You Won’t Be Missed’ is standing at just over 900K views since its release in November. That’s pretty darn impressive. What has been the secret to securing so many views?

Chris Roetter: Honestly, we are blown away by the response. It’s awesome to think of what we went through to get the video done, to then see it online getting the attention it is. It’s a great feeling. We’ve not really done anything special, but spread it around online. We really like to utilize our social network sites to reach out to our fans.  It’s important that we make them feel involved in what the band is doing.

The S.I.N. (Strength in Numbers) Tour has begun, with LMTF hitting the road with Destroy Rebuild Until God Shows, Hit the Lights and Sparks the Rescue. We’ve been trolling the net and a lot of comments have been made that you guys are almost too heavy for the bill. What do you make of this?

Chris Roetter: I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion. I tend to overlook some of the things that people say online. What a lot of people don’t understand, is that not every tour is going to be stacked with their favourite bands. This tour is a great opportunity for us to expand our fan base.

Speaking of tours, Shane Blay of Oh, Sleeper gave a rather frank summary of what the life of a mid-level touring band in the 21st Century is like (they basically said they aren’t making any cash from albums and tours). Now, obviously at this stage of your career, you guys are still pretty fresh and new – but do you believe Shane’s sentiments to be correct?

Chris Roetter: Reading over it, I definitely agree. I think it sucks that money has to be taken from a band over things like merch rates, but I also understand that it’s something necessary to keep some of the venues going. It’s one of those things that probably won’t ever go away so I’ve learned to just deal with it.

The past year was quite a busy one for LMTF with the release of the album, video and subsequent live dates. Looking back, would you have done anything differently?

Chris Roetter: Not a thing. Our band is exactly where I want it to be. We’ve been working hard from the start and it’s great to see it all finally starting to pay off, even if it’s only a small pay off now. We are just happy to be on the road and to have the opportunity to do what we are doing. We plan to stay on the road and keep just as busy throughout the life of the band.

What’s the main focus for 2012? Is it just touring, or are their plans for a new album already?

Chris Roetter: Obviously, we will always have new music on our mind, but I think we are concentrating on touring and really spreading around the album [which] we just released. This is the first that some of our fans have heard or listened to anything that the band has put out. We want to let it settle a bit, but like I said, we do have new music on our mind and recording a new album is definitely something to happen in the future.

When We Don’t Exist is out now via Rise Records/Nuclear Blast Records.

- Sergio Pereira