For the past two years fans have been eagerly anticipating Spineshank's follow-up to "The Height Of Callousness." Now finally after 21-months of hard work in the studio Spineshank; (Jonny Santos; Rob Garcia; Tommy Decker & Mike Sarkisyan); are ready to deliver the goods with the release of "Self Destructive Pattern" on Roadrunner Records. With tracks such as "Violent Mood Swings," "Consumed (Obsessive Compulsive)," "Vself Destructive Pattern," "Tear Me Down" and "Dead To Me" it is quite clear that the boys had more than a few issues to get off your chests.

While the album is certainly fierce, "Self Destructive Pattern" shows a subtle evolution within their sound. They show a bit more range and diversity as they slowly wean away from their nu-metal beginnings and towards more of a heavy rock vibe. Tracks such as "Forgotten," "Fallback" and "Smothered" offer more of a melodic vibe in the vein of Stone Sour and The Foo Fighters. Perfect for the radio cross-over.

Die-hard fans need not worry, the Shank of old is here too with a flurry of heavy-hitting, kick-ass tracks such as "Slavery," and "Falls Apart" that will get you riled up and ripping holes in the sheet-rock with your forehead.

I caught up with guitarist Mike Sarkisyan and we talked about their new album and why they took so long to get it out.

DS: Dude, I've been listening to your new album and it rocks, man.

SARKISYAN: Thanks, man.

DS: Fan have been waiting years for this record and now they pushed back the release date. What's going on?

SARKISYAN: Yeah, only the US release date got pushed back to September 9th

DS: Why, what happened?

SARKISYAN: They did it just to set everything up better. You know, we wanted to tour for at least a solid month before the new record comes out. The video is done now (for "Smothered") and that should start to get some airplay and we just wanted to make sure that everything goes smooth and everything is in line.

DS: Cool.But, you guys must be going crazy and must be so stoked to get this album out there after all this time.

SARKISYAN: Yeah, and the funny thing is that the record was completely done in April.

DS: Really? In April?

SARKISYAN: Yeah, completely done. We started recording last October, so it's almost to the point were we're like, "Just get the fucking thing out already." But, I do realize that when we made the record we took our time to just make sure that everything's right and I think that the label is gist doing the same thing. They're making sure that when it comes out it gets the proper support that it needs.

DS: Right on.It's like a catch-22. You want to get it out there so bad and you know that you're fans want it.

SARKISYAN: Exactly, I feel so bad because I know that those kids have been waiting for this record for years to come out now and now it's pushed back for another month. Holy shit. I hope that in the end I hope it's gonna be good. We're also working it out so that the U.S. version will be a little different from the European version.

DS: That's cool.How's that gonna work?

SARKISYAN: Well, I don't really wanna talk about it too much, so.But, we want to give a little bit more because we made everyone wait for so long.we' re all about giving back to the kids.

DS: 21 months in the studio.

SARKISYAN: Yeah, a ridiculous amount of time.

DS: You guys must have had a bunch of tedious moments in the studio. It must have gotten hot at times.

SARKISYAN: I think it was always hot.That's what I think. There was never a dull moment. I think that all that work in the studio paid off. I don't care about what I have to go through to get from Point A to Point B as long as when I get to Point B I have a product that I'm proud of and that I like. Then it's cool, ya know.

DS: Right, so the destination is worth the journey no matter how long or hard it was.

SARKISYAN: Exactly, and in this case it was definitely worth it. DS: I imagine that you guys wrote and recorded a to9n of songs within that 21-month time span. SARKISYAN: Yeah, but we're so anal about things that.Take "Violent Mood Swings" for example, we had half the song done and we were trying to finish the rest and we couldn't find the right part and we just stepped back from it and put it aside for like two months and then came back to it. And we did that until the right vibe and the right parts were achieved.

DS: It's good to go back to it with a fresh mind.

SARKISYAN: Yeah, because when you go back to it 2 months later you think things that you didn't think of two months before. You hear it differently and get better ideas, new ideas, and different ideas.

DS: Was there pressure for you guys to try and top "The Height Of Callousness?"

SARKISYAN: It wasn't really a conscious thing. As far as the pressure things goes, I'd say right from the get-go, from day one of making this record in September of 2001, we knew we had to make a better record than "he Height Of Callousness" and we had to push things more and we had to expand and grow. I was not interested in making the same record again, I'd rather quit the band then do that.

DS: Sure, as an artist you want to evolve and mature.

SARKISYAN: Exactly, just to keep things fresh for us. Basically the main goal was to go out there and make a better, more complete, different record than what we had made in the past.

DS: How would you say you have evolved musically within the past two years?

SARKISYAN: Well, the record really shows it, the way we evolved. I think one of the main differences between "Height Of Callousness" and "Self Destructive Pattern" is that it's essentially the same band with the same mind set except that we tried new things. "Height Of Callousness" was more compact it was 37 minutes of just kicking your ass. This record is more bigger and more open. I guess how to put it is to say that this record has more dynamics.

DS: Definitely. You guys are stretching out more.

SARKISYAN: Right..

DS: What would you say is the overall vibe of this record?

SARKISYAN: Well, it's not one-dimensional. There's a lot of vibes on this record. We have songs like "Violent Mood Swings" to songs like "Forgotten" and it's like one end of the spectrum to the other and that's one thing that was kind of conscious. We wanted to make a record that covers all the bases. But at the same time it's all coming form the same band, it's not like a compellation record where it's like a mellow song then a heavy song. Everything kinda ties in together.

DS: What is your favorite track on this record?

SARKISYAN: Jesus Christ, that's like asking a mother who her favorite kid is.you know, it changes. "Violent Mood Swings" was definitely one of them. That was one of my favorite ones to record and play, it's a total package. They're all close to me, you know, but it does change every week. I'll think of something new to do to a song or something and it'll be like, "Oh, I like this song better now." But, to be honest, I can't just pick one song as my favorite and 'be all end all' of the whole thing.

DS: Cool. Now lets talk a bit about the first single "Smothered."

SARKISYAN: Well, the way the song came about was basically me and Tommy (Decker), we just went in there and had fun with it. We just wanted to write a song. Most of the time we have ideas and stuff and we'd go to the studio and talk about what kind of song we want to write and how to arrange it and stuff like that. But, with this one, it was different. We just went in there and said, "lets just write a song.whatever." It was like whatever comes out, lets just do it, lets try that approach. So we started jamming and I used some ideas that I had from the night before and Tommy had his ideas and next thing we knew the song just came out and it kind of wrote itself pretty quick.

DS: Sometimes magic happens, right.

SARKISYAN: Yeah, and that's exactly what happened. The song just came about and Roadrunner was jumping for joy over it. They thought it was really, really good and this and that and we were like, "dude, it's just a song." I mean, it just came about and most of the time the really good songs are the ones that just come out. The ones that don't have too much thought in them, I guess [laughs].

DS: Yeah, they just sort of flow out from a mystical place or something.

SARKISYAN: Yeah and of course we dissected it and fuckin' ripped it up, but.

DS: Now, judging from the albums title "Self Destructive Pattern" along with tracks such as "Violent Mood Swings," "Consumed (Obsessive Compulsive)," "Tear Me Down" and "Dead To Me" it would seem that you guys have some issues to get off your chests as well.

SARKISYAN: Totally...The whole vibe on the record is basically taking the mental state, like when you're loosing your mind, you know. It could come from anywhere or anything and I don't want to make it like we have a black cloud over our heads or anything like that, but it definitely has that vibe. It deals with a lot of mental sickness like Obsessive compulsion and self-destructive behavior and things that make you destroy yourself.

DS: It must be extremely therapeutic to vent these things through music, man.

SARKISYAN: Oh yeah, yeah, if it wasn't for this.but it's so overdone now a days. It's like every band coming out it getting things off their chest and in all reality that's how it is, man.

DS: I saw you guys live a few times and it is always a heavy-duty assault. Great shit. Now, how would you describe your show to someone who hasn't seen you guys live yet?

SARKISYAN: They'll have a good time and they'll see a band full of energy whose gonna get up there and rock it. We're just having a good time doing it and that's about it. I just want those kids to walk away saying, "wow, they' re a fuckin' great band," and if that doesn't happen then I haven't done my job.

DS: Do you guys have any pre-show rituals or anything like that?

SARKISYAN: Naaa, we don't do any of that pretentious shit. We just kick each other's ass.we beat the fuck out of each other before we go on [laughs].

DS: What goes through your mind the second before you take the stage?

SARKISYAN: "Don't fall! Don't fall! Don't fall!" [Laughs] I have a rule that I don't drink before I play, I am completely 100% sober on stage everyday. Off stage is another story, but.

DS: I guess you learned the hard way not to play drunk, huh?

SARKISYAN: Yeah.[Laughs] It's just better for me. I can concentrate better and I can be more energetic that way and not be all dehydrated or drained or any of that.

DS: At this stage of the game, three albums into your career, ton of tours under your belts, kicking ass for years.what is the goal right now for Spineshank?

SARKISYAN: Well, right now obviously we want to take this record to new people and expand and at the same time keep out integrity. That means a lot to us.Our core fans mean a lot to us and we want them to be proud of us and at the same time we want to welcome new fans in a s well.

www.spineshank.com

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