ENJOY THIS EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT from the all-new January/February 2013 issue of Revolver magazine featuring Asking Alexandria on the cover. Check out the link below to get an exclusive Asking Alexandria EP!
ASKING ALEXANDRIA are poised to be metal’s next big thing. That is, if the band’s “Terror Twins” DANNY WORSNOP and BEN BRUCE don’t drink, drug, f**K, and fight themselves to death first.
By Jon Wiederhorn | Photos by Travis Shinn
Moments after stumbling out of a hotel bed in which two lingerie-clad strippers still rest, Asking Alexandria guitarist Ben Bruce grabs a large, empty bottle of Jim Beam and smashes it into a dresser mirror. Then he grabs a full bottle of whisky and starts his hair-of-the-dog morning drinking routine. Another day, another opportunity to meet oblivion.
Later that afternoon, Bruce, vocalist Danny Worsnop, guitarist Cameron Liddell, bassist Sam Bettley, and drummer James Cassells meet up in the famed Viper Room in Los Angeles to down shots and drink beers with porn star Belladonna. Everyone’s in good spirits until Worsnop accidentally knocks over a beer, which spills onto a clean-cut frat boy in a Boston Red Sox cap. Words are exchanged, then shoving ensues. No sooner does a full-fledged fight begin than Worsnop cracks the jock over the head with a bottle. As the dude slumps to the ground, the rest of Asking Alexandria kick and stomp him while their song “Reckless & Relentless” blasts in the background.
The scenario is the first of three vignettes in the band’s 2012 longform video “Through Sin and Self Destruction.” The hedonism and violence depicted in the mini-movie might seem like mere hyperbole coming from most modern metal bands—an illustration of how tough, dangerous, and off the rails they fantasize themselves to be. Asking Alexandria’s real-life antics, however, make “Through Sin and Self Destruction” look like a Pixar movie.
[[ Click HERE to get an exclusive Asking Alexandria EP! ]]
Since they burst out of the U.K., the now-L.A.-based band members have blazed a path of destruction littered with near-fatal overdoses, inebriated shows, outrageous sex acts, and trashed hotel rooms. They’ve gotten into bloody fistfights with one another, nearly broken up the band multiple times, and been busted by their girlfriends for cheating.
Bruce’s girl eventually forgave his indiscretions and the two are now engaged. Worsnop wasn’t so lucky. “I was with her for two years and she put up with a lot from me,” the singer sighs. “I guess things reach a point where you can’t put up with them anymore. And it’s left me really empty and been one of the things that has helped destroy me.”
Before his significant other dumped him, Worsnop actually seemed to headed in the right direction. He finally quit drinking six months ago and vowed to be more dedicated to her and the band. But clean living didn’t suit the singer, who substituted drugs for alcohol. While Asking Alexandria were completing their new and third full-length album, Worsnop pulled a disappearing act and spent nearly a week on a coke bender. He shut off his cell phone and checked into a hotel. Neither his management nor his label were able to pin him down as he blew off five scheduled interviews with Revolver. Finally, after a close friend located him, Worsnop was quarantined in the house of the president of his label and encouraged to get clean. Though he appears straight when we finally get the chance to talk with him, it’s unclear how long he can remain in control.
“It’s too early to tell,” he admits during a confessional, sometimes frightening conversation. “It’s not like I go looking for it all the time, but it always seems to find me. And if it’s there, I’ll end up doing it.”
[[ Click HERE to get an exclusive Asking Alexandria EP! ]]
By Alison Richter
This month, Asking Alexandra began headlining the fourth annual Monster Energy Outbreak Festival.
The dates bring to a close the band’s 2012 tour, finalizing well over a year and a half on the road behind their most recent album and sophomore full-length disc, Reckless and Relentless.
Asking Alexandra is Danny Worsnop, vocals; Ben Bruce, guitar/vocals; Cameron Liddell, guitar; Sam Bettley, bass; and James Cassells, drums. Prior to a soundcheck from somewhere on the road, founding member Ben Bruce phoned in to talk about being half of the group’s guitar team.
REVOLVER: Have you always played in two-guitar bands and always as lead guitarist?
Yes, I have, actually. I was always lead and I used to play a lot more solos with my other bands. That’s not the sound that Asking Alexandria is known to produce, and I like what we’re playing now. When I made this band, we juggled the idea of having three guitarists. I picked Danny as a guitarist, not a singer, and then I met Cam and I liked him so much I just wanted him in the band, so fuck it, let’s have three guitarists, but then we ended up making Danny the singer.
What was it about Cameron that made you want to hire him?
Just the fact that we can harmonize licks and stuff. It broadens what you can do and what you can play. Not so much in the studio, because you can layer things, but live it adds a much fuller sound. A lot of bands have one guitar onstage and it sounds like there’s something missing and so much more could be added to the song. Especially playing metal, you need to harmonize your riffs. It’s just the way of the world.
Cameron listened to much heavier music than I did, as did James, so I didn’t really know much about chugging rhythms or breakdowns or whatever you want to call them. It was a sound I was interested in when I started this band, but I honestly had no idea about them. I’d not been introduced to them before, and Cameron had a good knowledge of them. He’s good at rhythm guitar, he introduced that style to me and it worked with what I was writing.
What makes him a good rhythm guitarist?
The fact that he doesn’t care and doesn’t want to be lead guitarist. He has no desire to play lead. He concentrates on rhythm and he doesn’t have that egotistical manner of, “Why do you play lead? I want to play lead,” which leads a lot of guitarists to digress. He’s completely happy doing what he’s doing and I think that’s what makes him such an excellent rhythm guitarist. He enjoys it.
How are your styles similar and different and how do you make those elements work to your advantage in this band?
He introduced me to a whole new world of metal that I wasn’t accustomed to. I learned a lot from Cameron just by listening to bands that he listened to. I think he learned a lot from me as well. When we started the band we listened to completely different music and different sounds.
We exchanged CDs and views and thoughts and mashed the two together amongst other influences. That’s what makes us work so well together — the fact that we sat down, just the two of us, and showed each other our styles. That has made it really easy to work with each other now.
How do you continue challenging each other?
When I’m writing, I don’t normally write with the lads. I write on my own what comes into my head and then bring it to the guys. I always have the frame of mind that the last album was the best that we could have done at the time, and so the next one has to be way better because we must have gotten better as musicians. I know we’re way tighter as a group because we play together all the time. Technically, we don’t challenge each other in terms of how fast can you play or how many sweeps can you fit into a song. It’s more a case of we challenge each other in how to make our songs better and make the next album better than the last one.
Is guitar your only instrument?
Guitar is my main instrument. I used to play a lot more piano when I was younger, a little bit of drums, bass, I sing. I wanted to learn the saxophone, but my sister took that up. And I learned the recorder when I was in school — because you had to. I can still play “Three Blind Mice” and “Hot Cross Buns.” It’s the same three notes — it’s awesome. Piano was my first instrument. I took piano for about three years before I picked up guitar, or maybe longer than that, because my grandmother is a pianist, so I played around on it and then I started taking lessons in school. I started learning guitar when I was 13. I still play piano when I can.
Do you primarily play electric guitar?
I’m working on a solo album right now that has a lot of acoustic guitar on it. That’s honest, that’s true! We have one acoustic song that was written as a rock song, but as a band we do a lot of radio appearances and play acoustically, and I like playing that way. It’s refreshing. It’s a nice sound to hear after shit-tons of distortion on an electric guitar.
This album, I just started writing it and should be releasing it sometime next year. It’s more rock and laid back than Asking Alexandria, just open chords and vocals. It’s nice. I’m not expecting it to get huge and sell millions; I’m just doing it as a different outlet to express myself in a different way. If I don’t do it, I get worried that some of that might come out in an Asking Alexandria album and that wouldn’t be good! I’m just doing it for fun, really.
Read more of Ben Bruce’s interview here.
— Alison Richter
Alison Richter interviews artists, producers, engineers and other music industry professionals for print and online publications. Read more of her interviews right here.
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Asking Alexandria have revealed that they are currently writing material for a new album. A series of tweets by the band members has broken the news in the past couple of days.
One such tweet form guitarist Ben Bruce states: “Working on the new @AfuckingA shit today….fucking stoked….hope you are ready.”
While drummer James Cassells tweeted, “Writing for the new @AfuckingA album today, about to hit the studio and demo some heavy shit!”
Metalcore group Asking Alexandria have just released a remix album titled Stepped Up and Scratched, featuring an infusion of electronic music, courtesy of a host of renowned DJs. The band has also been busy opening for Guns N’ Roses, as well as touring with Avenged Sevenfold, Hollywood Undead, and the Black Veil Brides. We caught up with guitarist Ben Bruce recently to get the details on the remix album, what it was like opening for GN’R, and the band’s appearance on new get-fit reality series The Warrior Show.
REVOLVER Why did you decide to do a remix album now?
BEN BRUCE It’s funny, ’cause it happened three or four years ago or something. When we recorded Stand Up and Scream, which is our first album, obviously there was a lot of synthesizers and dance and trance and stuff incorporated within that album. And back then we were really, really into sort of dance music and dubstep and all that stuff and we thought, Oh, wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this whole album as sort of a dubstep, dance, trance, sort of mix kind of thing. And it just never ended up happening.
Why do you think more hard-rock and metal bands are incorporating electronic music into what they do?
Metal has a really driving sound. It’s really energetic, and if you listen to a lot of dubstep and stuff it’s got the same feel. It’s around a similar tempo, it’s just driven. In many ways, it’s just as heavy as a metal song.
Was it important for you to keep that original heaviness from the songs?
Originally, we didn’t think of doing that, but after everyone started releasing these remix albums we thought, We need to do something to stand out. And just the way it came about it is just Stand up and Scream was mainly a guitar album—guitars, vocals, drums—with a little bit of synth mixed in it. So we thought, What happens if we literally flip-flopped that, have a synth-driven album, with heavy guitars and drums and stuff playing a smaller role, but still there keeping the heavy vibe that the original album’s had.
Were you nervous about how your fans would react?
Oh, definitely. I was like This is gonna go one of two ways: It’s gonna completely flop or it’s gonna do really well, so. It seems to be doing well, it was No. 1 on the iTunes electronic chart for ages, I don’t know if it still is, but I know it was there for at least a week, which is pretty cool.
Did you know many of the producers before choosing them?
I knew a few of them. Like, we knew Big Chocolate, and we knew some of the Born of Osiris guys, who did some of the remixes. And we knew Borgore, so it was just DJs that we like. And then our record label suggested a bunch of other DJs and stuff, so we figured we’d take their word for it and see if they worked out.
Did you learn a lot working on this album that you didn’t know before?
No, it’s beyond me. I still don’t understand all that shit. People can say it’s just pushing buttons and stuff but I think it’s a lot more than that. It’s quite complicated. It’s quite difficult. There’s a lot of counter melodies and stuff that people don’t really notice that are there that goes into it. It’s kind of like rewriting a song, almost. It’s crazy.
Do you see yourself incorporating electronic elements into future albums?
Yeah, having done this, it’s sort of opened our eyes into doing an electronic style album in a different way. Before we used to go into the studio with Joey and do them in the studio, but I think for this next album we’re gonna try and incorporate some of these DJs into making our electronic sounds throughout the album, just because they’re better at it than we are, obviously.
How’s the Buried Alive Tour with Avenged Sevenfold going so far?
It’s going really, really well. A lot better than expected ’cause before we were a bit apprehensive and a bit nervous, just because Avenged Sevenfold is more of a radio rock band. I didn’t know how well we would go with their crowd. But it’s been really, really good.
You also recently opened up for Guns N’ Roses. What was that like?
That was the most terrifying thing in my life. I never get nervous before I play, but I was shitting myself before this show. There was probably about 15,000 people there, something like that. And half of them were like, What the fuck are these kids doing onstage? Why are they screaming down the mic at us and telling us to mosh and stuff? But then the other half were really open to it and really cool. So it was kind of a 50/50 thing. But even if it was 100 percent of the crowd that hated us, at the end of the day I would have still enjoyed it and taken away nothing but good things, because, Guns N’ Roses, man—they’re one of my favorite bands. How many people get to say, especially a band in our sort of genre and scene, how many bands get to say, “Yeah, we opened for Guns N’ Roses”? It’s just awesome.
What was the worst thing to come of your nervousness?
Except for two seconds before we had to go on stage, when Cam was puking in a garbage can.
Lastly, did you enjoy being on The Warrior Show, it looked intense?
Ah, yeah. It was, it was fucking horrible. He asked us to do, like, 500 squats or something with these chains round our neck. And he wasn’t really paying attention, because some people were doing different things, and some of those doing the squats were cheating. He was like, “What are you on” And they were like, “480.” And he was like, “OK, 20 more.” And I was honest, ’cause I wasn’t thinking, I was like, “I’m on 200.” And he was like, “OK, go.” And he watched me do the rest of them. And I was like, Ah, fuck. I could barely walk the next day, it sucked.