Albums of Purgatory Interview Into Darkness' Rev & St James

AoP: Firstly, whats the band up to?

StJames - Right now our main focus is writing. We spent most of 2001 recording "Universal Disbelief System" and the beginning of this year playing and promoting it. We all have a lot of ideas that there hasn't been time to work on yet, so we're making time for that now.

Rev - We're reinforcing our roots locally with shows, while we work on new material. 

AoP: How would you describe the Into Darkness sound?

StJames - "Diverse" is something I hear from people often. We basically have a heavy sound, but we tend to delve into a lot of different styles.

Rev - I leave it to the listener to judge that. I'm involved, so my opinion isnt valid. Ask someone who's heard us. Then again, I've heard some really strange comparisons from listeners though, so perhaps you should judge it yourself.

AoP: How did Into Darkness start in the late 90s?

StJames - Rev agreed to help me out with some song ideas I'd be recording at home. We worked on a few songs and really clicked... it all fell into place from there.

Rev - Auditions followed shortly after. We went through allot of people to get where we are at today with our line-up. We're picky mutherfuckers, but it was worth it in the end.

AoP: Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

StJames - It was a battle of the bands at the Wreck Room, on a Thursday night... a typical shitty first gig. But a lot of people came out in spite of work/school the next morning, and we won... so it ended up being a good night.

Rev - Wreck Room in NJ. I remember being impressed with the turn out. Some bands start out playing to the 5 or 6 people at first. We've been pretty blessed from the start.

AoP: Where have been your favourite places to play?

StJames - I love being on the road, there's a little extra excitement you don't get playing in your own area. Being at home has it's advantages too though, seeing the same people coming back over and over... a lot of them have become friends. Every venue has it's charms and also it's problems. I will say this though, the gigs we expect to be disappointed by tend to be some of the best.

Rev - Kathedral, Toronto. It was my first time performing outside of the United States, which was an even bigger thrill considering I had never traveled outside of the country previously. For it to be because of the band, made it all the more memorable.

AoP: What are your favourite Into Darkness tracks?

StJames - I have my favorites, but the ones I'm really excited about are the songs we're writing now.

Rev - Overall, I'm happy with our whole body of work, but probably the new songs we havent performed yet. I think we're exploring new ground, and it's certainly more collaborative. I'm sure it's also partly because we havent played them a million times yet either!

AoP: What are your favourite all time songs?

StJames - There's too many to list, and it really depends on my mood. 

Rev - It's a toss-up between the Britney Spears Pepsi song and Barney's "I Love You" theme. Come on! I could figure out the meaning of life faster than listing that!

AoP: What was the first record you bought?

StJames - Run-DMC, Raising Hell.

Rev - Stevie Nicks, Bella Donna.
Give me a break, I was young and horny damn it!

AoP: What would be your dream band line-up?

StJames - I've never really thought about that. I'm really happy with this band. I'd like to experiment more with sampling and programing... so I guess bringing someone to do that into this band would be my "dream line-up."

Rev - John, Paul, George, Ringo(during the Sgt. Pepper's era), with Charles Manson included. Maybe throw in Dimebag Darrel to kick it up a notch.

AoP: What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

StJames - Lately I've been avoided thinking about anything like that. That kind of thinking can lead to trying to write to fit what's current, and that's not what we're about.

Rev - I think that metal has explored every direction possible. Theres allot of great talent out there. What the mainstream seems to embrace is a different thing altogether. I hope that once we start improving the groundwork of these new directions, instead of finding new ones, perhaps the mainstream will adopt it more.
Granted, If it aint broke, dont fix it. But more importantly...If it aint fixed, dont go and break it up more!

AoP: Do you have any funny stories you can share with us about the band?

StJames - There's a lot... we've been threatened with litigation by The Gideons International, there was an article in a local paper about the damage our street team did here in NJ, I'm sure Rev can think of more... and tell them better.

Rev - I know there's allot of funny shit caught on tape on our home video, like stealing baby jesus's off peoples lawns around X-mas, and the strippers with the double-sided dildo incident. (You'll have to check it out for yourself!)  Getting threatened by the Gideons was also certainly interesting. One time we had a gig in Brooklyn, NY, and I jokingly said Pete Steele from Type-o-Negative was the special guest. He ended up coming to see us play that night, so everyone thought I was serious to begin with.

AoP: and finally, what do you see in the future for Into Darkness?

StJames - We've toured through out the East Coast and Canada and we're looking to go back and revisit places we've been, and hit new areas. We get a lot of emails from fans in areas we haven't played yet asking when we will, so getting to those places and playing for them will be the focus when we're ready to hit the road again. We're also working on new songs, new merch, new things for the stage show.

Rev - Bigger, better, louder, further...etc...Progress, thats all I hope for.