Chimaira interview with Matt DeVries

by Adam Warner – 2006

 

First off, you guys have been touring for quite a while, you’ve passed through the Twin Cities 4 times in the past year and a half, and on this current tour which wraps up in Europe in April, is it break time after that or do you have something more planned?
Uhm, well, we’ve been real proud of this record so we’ve been trying to tour on it as much as possible. It’s looking like we’re going to do this tour into Europe and Austrailia. But that’s all that’s booked right now, so we might go home and write a record but if something comes up we might do that too, so at the very most we’ll be touring until probably end of the summer if anything does happen like that.

What’s the worst things about being on the road for a long stretch of time?
Living on the bus with 10 other dudes *laughs*. I mean, you learn to adapt and hide away in your bunk and what not, but ya know its just like a family and we’ve been together for so long I see them even more than my own family. But at the same time its cool because you’ve got your friends on the road, ya know, being on the road with your family and stuff like that. So, I don’t know, I guess that’d probably be the main thing to get over.

What do you think are the best things?
Best things? Doing what I love for a living, know what I mean? Being on stage every night is what I wanna do and not taking it for granted, having fun every single night. That’s what it’s all about, being on stage playing music.

Since you joined in 2002, do you feel you have met all of the goals that you had hoped for when you first came on board?
Yes, and then at the same time you keep making more, so no, know what I mean, so you keep making more goals. But yeah, initially, being in a band and doing what I love is the main goal that I’ve always wanted to do.

Were you a self-taught guitarist or did you have formal training when you were young?
When I first started, I took some classes and everything else we played were at different vocational and high school for classic and theory, but besides that it was a lot of friends that taught me.

I know you have a lot of tattoos, but how does it make you feel when you do a signing or your playing on stage and you see a fan with a band logo or emblam actually tattooed on them?
That’s just badass! I mean there is so many Chimaira tattoos out there and I’m still impressed, like someone will put something WE created on their body forever, it’s so awesome. We’ve been seeing it for years but its still… every single one I’m like WOW.

Have you had any situations that you can speak on, where a fan did or said something that made you feel creeped out or threatened by them?
Not really creeped out, well I mean, definitely creeped out… not really frightening *laughs* Uhm, the first story that comes to mind is, there was a… well it didn’t really creep me out, well, it kinda did, but there was a fan… hopefully he won’t be reading this… but there was a fan in Germany who came up to Mark [Hunter] and he’s like ‘Hey Mark, I have this tattoo’ and he shows it to him and it was not only [Mark’s] signature but his portrait too. That kinda freaked me out, I mean that’s dedication. And Mark’s like ‘wow, uhm, let me take a picture’ *laughs* But you have fanatics and you just learn to appreciate it, you know, kids will come up and talk to you and as long as their themselves and keep cool, its aright. But sometimes they’re kinda crazy and drunk and wild, which is fine too, but it can be overwhelming sometimes.

Do you feel like you’re a rock star yet or are you just Matt from Cleveland?
I’m just Matt from Cleveland. Ya know, I have friends from back home who are all ‘hey, you’re a rock star’ and I just don’t like that term. I just play in a band, I think rock stars are people Slash, now that’s a rock star.

With respect to all the touring, do you ever get confused about where your even at? Aside from having a manager who says ‘we’re here’, do you have any tricks that kind of help to keep track of where your at?
The back of our laminate *laughs*, that’s about it. Luckily we have all of the dates on the back of our laminates at all times. Days, cities, ya know, there all pulled together.

Well thanks very much for your time.
Thanks a lot.