Rob Arnold Interview

by Brian D. Holland.

Chimaira (derived from "Chimera," an atrocious creature in Greek mythology, primarily lion-headed with a goat’s body and a serpent’s tail; also denotes fantasy) is known for their innovative and original hardcore metal sound. The name suits them remarkably well, because as the beast is assorted, so is their sound. Difficult to pin down as to actual sub-genre, their combination of strong vocal muscle, dual guitar attack and sonic crunch, keyboards and infinitesimally aloof electronic effects, is better described as ‘metallurgic’ than with a specific classification. Their assorted metal sound is potent and intimidating, yet diverse and exciting, and the songs are artistically spiced with interesting melodies.

The success of the Cleveland-based sextet, consisting of singer/screamer Mark Hunter, guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick, and electronic whiz Chris Spicuzza, began with the release of This Present Darkness, in 2000. The independently-released EP went on to sell more than 10,000 copies, spawning keen interest at Roadrunner records. The band’s first release for Roadrunner, 2001’s Pass Out of Existence, was 14 original songs of brutal metal angst. Its ability to capture electronic and nu-metal fans from an extreme perspective rendered it successful in the broad metal market.

The band released two more CDs before calling it quits with Roadrunner, The Impossibility of Reason, in 2003, and the self-titled Chimaira, in 2005. The year 2006 was a defining moment for the current lineup, a rebirth of sorts. Signing with Ferret brought about a necessary change in scenery, allowing them to do things their way. Also, the reacquisition of their friend and former drummer, Andols, was the icing on the cake for the psyche the members shared during the production of the latest album.

Resurrection represents that crossroads. Not only does the title describe the resurgence the band experienced because of the fresh changes and adjustments, it’s also a benchmark album for other reasons as well. The members of Chimaira have matured into solid metal performers and experienced musicians, and Resurrection is proof of that. As guitarist Rob Arnold says, "Some of the riffs (on Resurrection) are more complex, the drumming and everything, but it all came natural through experience." That experience and complexity paid off. Resurrection debuted at number 42 on the Billboard charts, selling 16,000 copies the first week, no doubt an amazing feat for an extreme metal band.

Below is my conversation with Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold that took place on April 14, 2007.

Listen to a song by Chimaira from the CD, Resurrection

The new album, "Resurrection," has a lot of intense guitar playing on it. A song that sticks out is ‘Six’. I love the theatrics behind it, and I like the way that the acoustic and the lead guitar sort of play the melody along with the spoken voice. That’s quite innovative.

Rob Arnold: Thanks. I like that, too. That part didn’t really come together until Mark (Hunter) added the spoken word stuff over it. I remember playing him that riff, maybe like a year ago. I remember him saying right away, "You know what? I want to do that with my voice, too." But we didn’t have a part done or anything. When we started putting together the whole intro, with the bass, I’d had all that together. I came into the studio like a day later, after we had laid it down. I heard the spoken word stuff, and it occurred to me, "Oh yeah. You talked about wanting to do that. It sounds awesome." Chris (Spicuzza) put that Arabian-like female singing on there, making it kind of creepy.

I like a metal band that’s diverse when it comes to mixing the screaming with actual melodic vocals, the guitar doing the same, filling the whole range of rhythm and lead. It always helps to have a keyboard player and electronics guy as well.

RA: It helps. It adds a lot of layers, especially in the live show.

I bet it takes the band in directions you wouldn’t ordinarily go.

RA: Absolutely. And I think it separates us, in a sense, from a lot of metal bands, even in our genre. We do have that electronic element and the keyboards. From the beginning of the band, we said that we wanted to stand apart by having that. There are certainly bands out there with keyboards and stuff, but in our particular genre, we’re kind of the only one right now that’s doing that.

What are Chris’ actual duties as an electronics specialist?

RA: Well, he does all the sampling stuff, the electronics, and the keyboards. He’s also a backup vocalist. He backs up Mark during the live shows, and he made his debut on this album ... well, actually it was the last record. But you hear a lot more of his presence on this record. All of the real backups you hear live he actually did on the record. Beyond that, too, he’s also a computer genius. He does all our website stuff, merchandise, and things like that. He’s real hands on with creativity.

I noticed a lot of weird things happening on the records, like metal pings and stuff.

RA: Yeah. He does a lot of that stuff, like accenting snare hits with something that sounds like a hammer hitting an anvil, and different drums sounds and things. He searches out movies and sound banks from songs and reverses stuff. I don’t even know how he does it, you know.

Talk about Chimaira. How’d the band start? I realize members have come and gone.

RA: Pretty much from the beginning we all kind of formed one super group. Even though we didn’t know it, or weren’t saying it at the time. We all played in local bands. I played with Andy, our drummer, in a band. Mark and Jim played together in a band. Chris practiced in a band next door. Matt, our current guitarist, played in a band with our original guitarist, Jason. All of us would do shows around Cleveland and stuff. Just over time, as bands die and new bands form, we kind of came together and formed Chimaira. Early on, it was Mark, Jason, myself, Andy, and Chris. Jason did the family thing and left, so we got Matt, who’s been our rhythm guitarist for like six years now. Our bass player at the time went away to school. He’s kicking himself in the ass now for it, but that’s when Jim came into the picture. It’s pretty much been that lineup for about six years now, minus the drummer thing, because Andy took a two-year break and we had a couple of guys fill in there. Now he’s back, and things are better than ever.

I was going to say, a couple of the members who left for normal reasons must be wishing they stuck it out.

RA: Yup. That’s what it’s about, you know, especially in a metal band, or probably in any band. It’s about sticking it out. A lot of guys just want whatever, satisfaction or glory, too quick. Just like anything else, it’s a lot of hard work before you finally get there.

It’s strange to see extreme metal bands release albums that rate high on the Billboard charts. There’s a revival or something going on.

RA: As brutal as we are, to be number 42 on the Billboard charts, a heavy metal band from Cleveland, especially in times like now where nobody’s buying records, everybody’s downloading; that whole thing, is pretty remarkable. I think Lamb Of God were like number two or three on the charts, a brutal metal band without any clean vocals, melody, or anything like that. That’s good for metal, for everything we’ve got going on right now.

Not long ago I interviewed Unearth’s Buz McGrath. They’ve been experiencing the same success.

RA: Sure. It’s good for us guys, all three of the bands just mentioned. We’ve all been doing it eight to ten years now or whatever. It’s like a nice pat on the back, seeing our hard work get recognized a little. But it all comes with the fact that we’re older now, better players and such. Perhaps we didn’t deserve the recognition back then, but we can realize that now.

That’s a good attitude to take. What’s the metal situation like in Cleveland? I know from my own experience that, even though Massachusetts has been labeled the metal and hardcore capital of North America, it still seems underground almost everywhere.

RA: It’s the same thing. Metal and hardcore will always be underground. You guys certainly have a lot of good bands coming out of there, and always have, same with New York City. Cleveland’s kind of an outside town, but metal has always been strong here. In the mid-to-late '90s there was a huge hardcore explosion here. I was 15-19 and stuff like that. I remember going to shows, packed clubs, to see bands like Integrity, One Life Crew, Ringworm, and stuff. The whole Victory (Records) scene was going on, so shows were real big all of the time. Then, when nu-metal hit, at the millennium there, all of it kind of died out. Just recently we’ve been trying to build metal back up again. The clubs are getting full again with metal bands, and there are a lot of young bands doing it. It’s pretty good, you know. Bands get started and make names for themselves, start little fan bases and stuff. It’s a good metal town.

When did the guitar first enter the picture for you?

RA: I was in third grade, eight or nine years old, and there was a kid in my class with long hair, a guy. I remember being intrigued with that, a young kid with long hair. We started talking, and it was right around the time I had discovered Motley Crue, Skid Row, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and stuff like that. I have a sister who was a total '80s chick, so I got into all of that stuff.

Then I met this guy who had a bunch of older brothers who played guitar and stuff. I went over to his house. I had never been in a house like this. It was a complete rock ‘n’ roll house. They had a studio in the garage. The three older brothers had a band. There were drums, amps, Maiden and Van Halen pictures up everywhere, and guitar picks in the kitchen. I was overwhelmed by the whole thing. One of the guys took a guitar, and the first riff he played for me was "Panama". I was like "Wow. I’ve gotta do this." I went home that night and told my mom that I had to start taking guitar lessons. That was it. I’ve been playing since. I often wonder what he thinks about it now, that the kid he knew in third grade, Rob Arnold, is now opening for Metallica.

I know you had just touched on it already, but elaborate on your influences some more.

RA: Definitely Metallica. Kirk’s my favorite guitarist of all time, certainly James as well. The Sepultura and Megadeth guys, Dimebag, and the Slayer guys. They all definitely shaped my style from the beginning. Those are also the bands that I love and listen to today.

Were you surprised by the initial success of your debut EP, "This Present Darkness"?

RA: I wouldn’t say I was surprised because it was all part of the process. We were a young band who had just gotten signed to East Coast Empire Records. So that was huge for us. We were like twenty years old. Some guy paid to put out an EP for us. We were just totally stoked. I wouldn’t say we were surprised because we didn’t feel like we were doing enough. We’re such hard workers and we’ve had that mentality since the beginning. Just that little taste of success and we wanted more, and we wanted to do more. We were taking it all in and wanted to do more with it. Then we got signed to Roadrunner.

What brought about the departure from Roadrunner?

RA: Early on, it was the greatest thing that could’ve happened to us. We actually got signed to Roadrunner Records. Bands we grew up listening to were on that label. It was huge for us. But as the years went on we realized that, especially when a band like Nickelback hit the scene, Roadrunner just turned their direction to ‘if you’re not creating radio hits, then you’re at the bottom of the totem pole’. They have such a large roster that we were just like a Deicide to them, you know, just a metal band on the label. They didn’t really give us the opportunity to grow the way we needed to. There were certainly a lot of great people there, but if the higher-ups don’t care about you, there’s nothing the people underneath them can do for you. The people who were in charge of us for day-to-day things, their hands were tied. They weren’t able to say yes to our ideas. They weren’t able to offer us anymore than basically putting our CDs on the shelves. If you put a product on the shelves without any advertising, relying on just word of mouth, that’s not the best way to support a product.

The sound and success of "Resurrection" is testimony that an atmosphere of freedom existed when the band went to Ferret.

RA: Absolutely. With our last record, the self-titled one, things were looking worse than ever towards the end of touring it. It was like the lowest point for us. It was due to our miserable relationship with Roadrunner, and we weren’t getting along with our drummer, Kevin Talley, at the time. Just out of the blue, after months of negotiation, we finally got released from Roadrunner. Simultaneously, we found out that Andy wanted to come back to the band. So we did the old switcheroo with Andy and Kevin.

All of a sudden, the family was back. The vibe was back. We had just gotten signed to Ferret. They signed us instantly without hearing a demo. They were just ready to put out whatever Chimaira record we were going to make. That was motivation for us, and we were happy to get Andols back. We had a fresh state of mind. We did the two things we needed to do for our band to continue, and that was to get away from Roadrunner and to get Andy back. That’s the Resurrection.

"Resurrection" has been considered your heaviest and most musically technical album to date. Did more effort go into the making of it, as opposed to previous endeavors?

RA: I wouldn’t say consciously more effort, but I think a lot of things contributed to it. One, we’re better players than we were on our last record, just as we were better players on it than the one before that. Just in experience. I’m finding, now that I’m a better player than I was ten years ago, obviously, you know experience counts. Experience to write good songs and to make notes sound good. Anybody can play someone else’s riff, but can you make it sound good? Can you make it sound like the player who created it? That’s the kind of stuff we’re starting to feel, so, just playing together for so long, seeing what’s going on, and being in touch with our creativeness, we were able to put that together seamlessly almost. It was real natural for us. We knew we wanted to be badass. We didn’t care what anyone would think of it. Of course, we wanted everyone to like it, but there was no pressure, and nobody said we had to write heavy songs, light songs, that they have to be this long or short, nothing like that. We just had to make our best record possible. We tried to write riffs and parts we could bang our heads to, ones that we thought sounded good. Just that spontaneity and the high vibe of the band, everybody being stoked, made things float naturally and sound good. Things just kind of happened. We had a lot of fun making the record, but it was also the most challenging for us because of the difficulty in the parts. Some of the riffs are more complex, the drumming and everything, but it all came natural through experience.

What’s your formula for recording guitar? Do you play loud in the studio?

RA: Not necessarily. We were in a new studio this time. We were down in Florida at Audiohammer Studios. We set up the cabs and miced them in a completely different room. We recorded the guitars in the control room, so we’re basically just hearing the miced signal through whatever speakers come up next to the computer. It’s a normal and comfortable volume. There are those times when you need to get some good feedback and things like that. We’d take the guitar into the other room and stand in front of the amp to get the natural feedback. But for the most part, it’s just comfortable, playing in the control room while sitting on the couch just jamming it out.

Do you play regularly in any certain key range?

RA: We’re tuned to Drop C. We’ve been using it for three records now. Our first record was done on 7-strings in Drop A. After that, we thought, enough with these things, and we went to the six-strings and tuned up a little. It’s so much more clarity and power to the attack. But pretty much most of our stuff is based in C rudimentary. The solos, honestly, sometimes I can’t even tell you what I’m playing. It’s just what happens to sound good to me.

The solos are in Drop C as well?

RA: The guitar is tuned that way. As we’re playing the solos, yeah. But, in terms of keys and things like that, I honestly don’t even think about what key the riff is in.

You play by ear basically.

RA: Yeah. I just play what sounds good. Usually I’ll whistle things out first and translate the notes to the guitar.

Do you improvise much onstage, or does it all go down as recorded?

RA: There’s definitely some improvisation, certainly in-between songs. We’ll play little things to set the mood, and if there’s some girls around we’ll play like strip club music. In the songs, depending upon the mood of it, or how into it the crowd is, you do some extra harmonics here and there, or a big dive bomb where I normally wouldn’t. That’s if the crowd is really feeding on it and stuff. So yeah, there’s definitely improv here and there.

One point the metal guys I’ve spoken with seem to agree on is their opinion on metal music by genre definition. Most pay no attention to category or sub-genre names. In other words, their particular metal is just their brand of metal. Do you adhere to that opinion?

RA: I do. I think we’re a heavy metal band.

First and foremost.

RA: Yeah, definitely. There’s all the metal core, this and that, and everything. We just think we’re a heavy metal band, and we’re also proud of the fact that we can say we’ve established ourselves as that. We’ve been around long enough now where we have our own sound. People can’t say Chimaira sounds just like that band anymore. Now it’s, "That band sounds like Chimaira." That’s an awesome achievement for us.

What do you like to do when not playing guitar? Do you have any hobbies that would amaze fans?

RA: No, nothing that would amaze fans, unless people think chilling out and watching TV and movies is amazing. The band takes up so much of our day, even when not on tour. I’ve been on the phone talking business since nine this morning. We’re either rehearsing, ordering things, or setting up this and that. It’s just non-stop. The little time we do have off is spent sleeping or just kicking it. Everybody’s got their home lives and things like that.

Supposedly, you’re to be married in 2007.

RA: It’ll be a month from today (May 2007)

Congratulations!

RA: Thank you. It’s coming down to crunch time. [Laughing]

What music are you listening to these days, besides Chimaira of course?

RA: I love this band, Decapitated. They’re a young death-metal band from Poland. They’re totally brutal. I’m not listening to a lot of new stuff right now. It’s pretty much the same stuff. When I’m driving my car I’ll put on Pantera or something like that.

How serious do fans take metal bands and their lyrics, whether good or sinister, positive or negative?

RA: I don’t know. I mean, everybody’s different. I really don’t know how to answer that. Me personally, I love a band like Deicide, but I’m Catholic, raised Catholic, go to Church every Sunday, stuff like that. Even though Glen Benton is singing about Satanism in its purest form, I don’t take it seriously. I just think it sounds cool because I like what’s going on. I never think, well, maybe I should destroy this Bible or anything. I just don’t take it seriously.

Does frequent touring take its toll sometimes?

RA: Sure, especially now that I’m older. When I was younger, all I wanted to do was tour. Now that I’ve got a girl and a place, it’s just comfortable being home. Now it’s harder to get out there and be away from home for six weeks at a time, living in a tour bus with twelve other guys, you know. But I don’t even want to be complaining. I’m completely grateful to have the opportunity. It’s just a little harder now that I’m a little older.

There’s talk going around about the chicks known as the metal twins, Megan and Stacy. They dance onstage sometimes?

RA: Megan and Stacy, yeah, we’re good friends with them. They’re good girls. They’re mainly around that area there; Boston, Rhode Island, Jersey and New York. They’re always up and around there. They’ll ride with us for a couple of days and just hang out. Nobody’s doing them or anything; they just hang out. That’s why I say they’re good girls.

Let’s talk about your gear. I think you’re playing ESP guitars and a Yamaha acoustic.

RA: Yup. For the acoustic stuff I have this nice Yamaha nylon (nylon-string), even though the new DVD has a clip of me playing an Ovation or something like that. I have this Yamaha that I love, and also a Yamaha 12-string. Everything else is ESP. I’ve got two beautiful Customs that I had done last year. Those are my mains.

The Rob Arnold signature model?

RA: They are, but they’re not available to buy. They were handmade for me, completely to my specifications. It’s based on the M model, like the standard Kirk Hammett. A lot of guitars look like that, but ESP calls it the M model. I’ve got a natural satin finish on the neck, ebony fretboard, custom inlays. I have just one 81 (pickup) in the bridge position, no other pickup. I have just one knob, a volume in the tone position. It’s a nice light alder. Having something that’s made for you, I can tell just by looking at it that whoever made it really put some time into it. It’s immaculate. They play great, and they’re my babies.

I’m running two Peavey 6505s into (Mesa) Boogie cabinets. Right now I’m going with a Boss Chromatic Tuner into an old Boss Chorus pedal, into a Zakk Wylde Wah, into a Digitech Whammy, into a Boss DD-2 Delay, I think, and into another Digitech Whammy. I use two of them. I then go into an ISP Decimator, which is my noise gate. I also have some new stuff that I haven’t tried out yet. I’ve got a new Digitech Wah pedal and a new Digitech Chorus. I’ve been looking for a new wah sound and a new chorus sound. Paul, from Digitech, hooked me up, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try them out yet.

Do you have anything to say to the fans?

RA: Just pick up the new record. Tell your buddies about us, and tell them to tell their buddies about us. Come out to the shows. You won’t be disappointed.

Resurrection Track Listing
1. Resurrection
2. Pleasure in Pain
3. Worthless
4. Six
5. No Reason to Live
6. Killing the Beast
7. The Flame
8. End It All
9. Black Heart
10. Needle
11. Empire

Ferret Records 2007

Related Links
Chimaira
Chimaira World
Resurrection on Amazon

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