Asking Alexandria Interview At SXSW

One of the best parts of going to SXSW is getting to see great bands we have interview and seen in the past, like Asking Alexandria.

Asking Alexandria had a lot of trouble getting out to SXSW. They were supposed to come in on the Morning Show on Thursday, but called before the interview to tell us they were having car trouble and couldn't make it. This actually ended up working out for us because we weren't even on air for the majority of the show that day. Luckily, we were all able to meet up later in the afternoon that day.

Ben discussed with us the labeling of his band as metal/metalcore/screamo saying he thinks all the names are bull****. They are a rock and roll band and are just a heavy rock band. The name Asking Alexandria was the name of the band that Ben came up with when he was living in Dubai and just decided to keep it. When asked why, he said because all band names are already terrible. He even gave examples of band names he didn't think were all that great, "Slipknot? Terrible." Which, I am still wondering what exactly Slipknot means.

The new Asking Alexandria album, "From Death To Destiny," has audio in the beginning of the first song, where you hear lead singer Danny Warsnop drunk, getting into arguments with the audience. The entire thing sounds very real and raw, which made me wonder why exactly the band decided to put that particular piece into the song and the album in the first place. That is the first thing that you hear when you listen to them.

My question to Ben was why would you want that on the album?

"That's because my alcoholic frontman decided to turn up to a show completely obliterated, couldn't stand, couldn't speak, did manage to punch a few people in the crowd and kiss a few women before passing out. And instead of getting an encore, we got, 'You drunk piece of ***,' chanted at us by a few hundred, maybe a thousand people. Quite embarrassing, we were all quite drunk, but not to that point. So uh, I had to save face and apologize and said, don't worry we're sending him to rehab, that was a lie. We didn't send him to rehab but it bought us some time. We wanted it to be a part of the record because rather than shy away from our mistakes, that's a big part of our career, that happened and we've learned from it and we've grown from it. It's just kind of like, eft you we're still here, we know we f***** up, we know we f***** up and we haven't stopped  trying and thank you for supporting us."

 

Ben then talked to us about the rock star lifestyle of hard partying and alcohol, we even got his drinks of preference! Ladies, we even got the living situation in case you were wondering who needs a bed to crash in! Check out the interview below!

Here's the video for their newest single, "Break Down The Walls," that you can hear on KLAQ!