Former 7 Angels 7 Plagues and current Misery Signals bassist Kyle Johnson kindly spent some time talking to the amazing Drew Ailes in early October.

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Um, I worked earlier on, came home, played a little online poker, won a little bit of money...

He was doing it professionally or whatever?

[laughs] That's crazy, man. If you've got the talent for it there's definitely money to be made.

Nice.

I just kind of work odd-jobs with my dad when I'm off tour. We just do like, construction work. Building decks and shit. It's okay. I've been doing it for years and years. Like I said, whenever I'm not on the road and need some extra money. I started when I was like, 14 or 15, just kind of working during the summers and stuff. Whenever I had the chance.

It was kind of low-key, actually. Nobody really knew about it until the day of the show and it went really well. He was practicing for a couple of weeks before we came out, just going over the lyrics and listening to the CD constantly. We actually showed up the day of the show, practiced with him three or four times through the set, and he caught on really quick. I would say it was a success. We wouldn't have bothered but it was the biggest show on the tour in Orange County. So we kind of figured it'd be worthwhile.

Yeah. Our singer flew home for a wedding so he couldn't be there.

He actually ended up missing two dates but then he flew back in.

Eh, it was good and bad, really. As far as how well we did on the tour, it was kind of bad. We didn't go over very well with Madball's crowd. It was weird. We've been on tour for the whole year and done all kinds of tours, but it just felt like we didn't have much of a draw this tour. Either kids were burnt out on seeing us up to this point, or kids were just like, "ah, they're on tour so much, I'll just see them next time," because we were sort of the odd band out on the bill. Which is weird. We're a fairly heavy band but we were the least heavy band.

Yeah, it is. Like, when we went out with Strapping Young Lad earlier this year, that was the main point of that. To sort of reach out to their audience to see how it went over. Which, honestly, that tour went better for us than the Madball tour did, which is weird because Madball's still a hardcore band so they play in front of hardcore kids.

It was totally like that. It was a lot older of a crowd than we're used to playing in front of. We'd have our four or five fifteen year old kids right up front, totally digging what we're doing, but besides that it was actually an older crowd. Overall, I'm not saying it was a terrible tour, but at the same time it wasn't great. It was just kind of an average tour. Another thing about the tour was that all the people on the tour were awesome. Especially Madball, getting to know those dudes was super cool. We'd known Walls of Jericho beforehand, so we knew them to an extent, so getting to know the Madball and Full Blown Chaos dudes was pretty awesome. Good dudes.

[laughs] Oh, they're absolutely the nicest dudes in the world. I don't know if I've ever toured with a nicer band. I went into it thinking, "oh, shit, I wonder if these dudes are going to hate us." They were actually the most genuine and down-to-earth guys on the whole tour. It was a cool surprise.

Oh yeah, dude. No problem. [laughs]

Yeah. Um. It was fucking...it was fucking terrible. I hated it. I probably hated it more than any other tour I've ever done, in any band. It was a mixture of things. The people...well, I don't want to...ah, fuck it. I don't even care. I don't care if their fan-base likes our band. People who listen to that band...

Fucking worst people in the world, man. It's like...the weirdest and most close-minded people I've ever met.

And it's not like they even draw that many people. When we did that tour, I think between us and Premonitions Of War, we were probably pulling more people than Six Feet Under was. By the time they went on, they had their forty or fifty diehard fans and that was it. Everybody else took off.

Well yeah, they were cool back then, like, when Cannibal Corpse changed. And I think that's kind of what drew us to the tour — that's how we got of tricked into it. We were like, "oh, ex-Cannibal Corpse..."

Yeah, exactly. Last I heard, they did really well. But that obviously isn't the case anymore.

For the most part, yeah. A couple of their crew members were decent, but as far as the band members, they didn't really talk to us or hang out with us. They spent most of their time on the bus.

Chris Barnes is a total pussy, and I can tell you a story about that if you want.

I don't know if you've heard rumors or what, but the last two shows of that tour...I mean, this is more to show how much those dudes suck rather than the hilariousness of the story — but the last two shows of that tour, the promoter actually did both the shows and he ended up bailing at the last minute, leaving it in someone else's hands. So, obviously, there wasn't enough kids that came out to the show to cover expenses, because they had a pretty ridiculous guarantee. So everybody got shorted on the last two shows, but what actually ended up happening is that Six Feet Under ended up taking all the money and not paying the support bands.

Yeah, for the last two shows of the tour.

[laughs] Well, they just dealt with the promoter and told him to give them the money and they'd take care of the other bands. Total bullshit. So that being the case, the last show, which happened in Atlanta, the same thing happened. We were just like, "this is fucking bullshit, this can't happen again. You have to pay us for tonite and reimburse us from yesterday." And they were just like, "well, I don't know man. Enough money was made for our guarantee. I don't know what to tell you." So there was kind of a lot of tension between everyone and it was just uneasy. We weren't really going to do anything about it, though. But apparently later that evening, someone had thrown a brick through their window for some reason or another. Chris Barnes called their booking agent saying that he knew that we did it and that next time we came down to Tampa that he was going to come down to our show and beat all of our asses. The closest anything ever came was one of their guitarists came up to us and never even said a word to us. So I mean, the point of the story is that Chris Barnes is a pussy.

Touring plans as of now are....are nothing. Madball was the final tour on this tour cycle. We're actually going to start writing the new record this fall and hopefully get into the studio by February. March at the latest.

There's a couple of people right now. It's an unofficial thing. We kind of just have one dude that we're looking into and if somebody else pops up we might approach him and see what he's about. But as it goes now, we have somebody in mind.

No, no. Nothing against Devin, it was an amazing experience working with him. We're all definitely happy with how the record came out. But we're looking for a new sound. We don't want to write the same record over again. We're just kind of reaching out. And who knows, maybe we'll go back to Devin for our third record, but for now we kind of want to experiment.

All I can say for sure is that we want to kind of approach it a little more straightforward. We're a fairly technical band as far as time-signatures and multiple parts in songs, and I guess what we're trying to get away from is exactly that. Just not...being so all over the place, you know what I'm saying? We have songs that have part, after part, after part, without any parts repeating, and I guess we just want to try and approach it where maybe it's a little easier to understand, I guess. With our last record, on it's first listen, it doesn't grab you. A lot of our fanbase just kind of gave us a second chance. It's something that I think honestly grows on you a lot and you pick up on things that you didn't hear the first time.

I know, that's something that we definitely want to work on with the new record. Just something that's a little more catchy the first time around to maybe win over a bigger fanbase but still keep our style and still keep it crazy at the same time. There's definitely no plans of any drastic changes, but that would be the main thing we're going to try to focus on for this record.

He's definitely not how he portrays himself on stage. I mean, he is, to an extent, kind of crazy, but it's more normal shit like anybody. He's honestly super down-to-earth, super easy to work with, really, really, nice — again, one of the nicest people I've ever met or ever worked with, really. So I would have to say, no, that he's not as crazy as people think he is.

Actually, the main reason is that our singer has been friends with him for years and years. Probably ten or twelve years. So we just kind of had an in. He knew all the SYL dudes and had for a long time, and he knew that Devin produced records. After listening to 'Natural Born Chaos' by Soilwork, that was the main thing that sealed it for us. We were all just into that recording. We were also just into the idea of working with somebody who was going to really produce our record. The overproduction of what he does kind of brought us into working with him. You're obviously a fan, so you know, he produces the fuck out of anything that he does, really.

Everything he records sounds like it was recorded in an operahouse. I'm totally happy with what he did for our record. He gave us a sound that we could've never achieved anywhere else, and for that, I definitely appreciate the fact that he took the time to work with us.

I think for the most part, we've exceeded any expectations. They are definitely hardcore fans of 7 Angels, 7 Plagues that haven't really caught on, because it is different to an extent. But I think anybody who was really into 7A7P has moved past that and gotten into Misery Signals as well. There's enough similarity to where it would spark some interest in both bands.

Well, really, what caused that was this kid who we don't even know, one of his friends had cancer and he got in touch with us asking if we'd be interested in playing a benefit show, because his friend kind of requested us if it was a possibility. So we agreed. We talked to everybody and everybody was into the idea with the exception of the drummer. I'll get that out of the way right now. He's the only one that isn't involved. And I don't want him to look like a shitty dude, it's more a choice that was made by three of the five of us, I guess you could say. Just because there's kind of bad blood and the only way we wanted to do it was if we could get somebody else to play drums. So that aside, we agreed to do the show with four out of five original members. So the kid ended up passing away a month later, so now it's just kind of come down to....we made the commitment and we want to play the show. Any money that we make, we're going to donate to the kid's family and to charities that they want to put the money towards. So we're like, "fuck it, we're doing this show, we never did any last shows in Milwaukee," so we decided to do two last shows in Milwaukee as well. It's just going to be a weekend. Friday is in Binghamton, New York, Saturday and Sunday are both in Milwaukee.

And then after that, it's done for good.

Oh yeah, we used to always do that.

[laughs] Wait, I think I might have been there.

Yeah, Andy.

Yeah, he's really a great guy. He really is. I was there with another guy from Misery Signals, too.

Yeah, I think I remember.

Yeah, that guy sucked.

[laughs] Yeah!

Yeah, definitely.

No, we haven't really gotten the chance to, lately.

You should, it's a good time.

Yeah, it's hard to find a hotel that's shaped like that one.

Was there anything else about the 7 Angels shows that you specifically wanted to know?

There is talks of Kill The Slavemaster doing a reunion for that. I don't know if you're familiar with them or not. With Andy Hurley, now of Fall Out Boy, on drums.

He's doing really good things with his band now, as I'm sure you've seen.

[laughs] Is there really? Wow, I didn't even know that.

Holy shit, that's hilarious.

To 7 Inches, 7 Plagues? [laughs] Fuck, I don't even know how to answer that question, honestly.

I listen to a lot of old shit, like classic rock. As far as new bands go that I've been listening to a lot, I've been listening to that new Fall Out Boy a lot. It's actually a really good album. I'm not totally into that style of music, but for what it is, it's definitely at the top of the list. I mean, it's cheesy as fuck, but it's catchy. If you're into that kind of shit. And I don't know, bands like...the new Fischerspooner, I've been into that lately.

Have you heard the last record?

...the only good song on it.

The rest of the record was just basically pointless. It's really just the quality of "Emerge", but for the full album. It's incredible. The whole album is amazing. It's not completely like that song, it's kind of a little bit different. It's a little...I guess it's still dancey, obviously, but I guess it's a little happier, I guess you could say. I've also been listening to the new Every Time I Die. That's definitely grown on me. It took a couple listens, but that's definitely up there. I don't know what else. Just shit that's come out this year...bands like the new Hot Hot Heat, I'm kind of into. It's all just things that I guess you wouldn't expect from somebody that's in a band like Misery Signals. None of it's really that heavy. And that's how it is with a lot of us.

Yeah, that's what it is. I was into heavy stuff more when I was young, but now that I've been in heavy bands for five or six years; not that I've grown out of it. I still definitely appreciate it and every now and then a band will come along and impress me, but it's a lot harder to be impressed by heavy music these days.

Yeah, definitely Since By Man. They're doing a lot of cool things now. But Milwaukee's kind of died down as far as well-known bands. Endthisday broke up, 7 Angels broke up...most of the bands that really had done anything don't really exist anymore.

No, I haven't actually.

[laughs] Oh fuck. Dude, honestly I'd have to say....well, would the fastball definitely hit you in the face.

It's going to be fast.

I'd probably pick the fastball. Honestly, it's just one shot versus possibly being killed. I guess you could die either way.

I'd rather risk maybe a broken jaw over broken limbs, and you know, being beaten to death. And it depends on where the fastball hits you. Like, in the fucking head? Then you're probably gonna die.

No, there's not. At the same time, like, getting caught in bed, there's still the chance you could escape or run away.

That's true. But I just don't really see that being the case. I pretty much just see that dude picking you up by the back of your neck and just...doing what he wants.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

[Laughs] Wait. Robert Palmer. Wait, I don't...uh...

Oh man.

Yeah, I don't really know. I don't think I really have an answer for that.

No, I have no idea. I'm totally in the dark on that one. It's an interesting question, though.

Triple H, because our drummer looks like him, kind of. He's been told by more than one person that he looks like Triple H. Obviously not the size, but the facial features.

That, I don't know. I don't know a whole lot about wrestling, personally.

Yeah, yeah. Me too. Like Audre The Giant, Hulk Hogan, and The Ultimate Warrior.

Back when wrestling was awesome? And you were young enough to think wrestling was real?

Yeah, totally.

Is there any way you could, uh...

...put pictures in interviews?

Dude, if you could do a picture of that with our drummer's face —

Who I would crush?

Hmm. These fucking questions.

Yes, they're important. I hate a lot of things, which is why I can't understand why I can't think of anything.

Yeah, I was thinking about saying that. Let me think. I guess I'll just make it sports related and try to offend my other band members.

Right now, kind of. I'm a huge Packers fan, though. So, I don't know. It's not really that funny or clever, but I'll have to pick the Chicago Bears, an obvious rival.

Especially Mike Ditka. Everybody. The whole works. Especially Mike Ditka.

One thing I wish I knew five years ago was how to play poker back then as how I can play now. Because five years ago, poker wasn't nearly as big as it is now. Everybody that was professional back then actually won on a regular basis and there wasn't 6,000 entries into the World Series of Poker, with 80% of them being amateurs.

Yeah, I guess I'm more obsessed with the idea of gambling more than actually doing it.

We talked about our future plans, our worst tours, and I got to talk about poker. I think that's pretty much covered. You talked about the 7 Angels reunion show, which I wanted to talk about, so I'm pretty sure you've covered everything. Thanks a lot for the interview.