[i]This interview was taken on Sunday the 25th of April 2004, before the show in Musis Sacrum, Arnhem (The Netherlands) Interview by Ren� Willemse. Photo�s taken by Ren� Willemse and Tibor Kuijs (Metalrage.com)[/i] [img]https://upload.metalrage.com/ant2 (Custom).JPG[/img] [b]Hi Ant, how are you doing?[/b] - Good. [b]How was the Groezrock festival for you?[/b] - Really good. There was a lot of people there, we got a good response from the crowd. It was our first real time in Europe. We came once before, a long time ago. But that was really small, DIY-style. It was 1999. [img]https://upload.metalrage.com/eric (Custom).JPG[/img] [b]A question about the tour. Why was it reduced to only four dates?[/b] - A couple of shows in the middle started getting cancelled. So instead of playing a bunch of shows and then waiting around for a week, and then playing more shows, we decided to just cut it and then come back in June. [b]Anthony you just recorded a solo hip hop CD. How did that come about and how far are you planning to take it? [/b]- It was something I did just for fun in my house. E. Town Concrete always has been about hip hop and rock and since a lot of the new E. Town stuff is more just straight ahead hard stuff I had some extra lyrics so I decided to record it. [img]https://upload.metalrage.com/etown_band1 (Custom).JPG[/img] [b]I read you are currently writing songs for a new album; what can we expect?[/b] - Definitely more heavy! Right now we have eight songs finished. It�s more raw and aggressive type of stuff. �The Renaissance� had some more commercial songs on it but live we always ended up playing the more heavy songs, so on this one were going to have songs that will be good to play live. [b]On a recent show in New Jersey you played some songs of the old demo�s. Will you ever re-record those songs or put them on a CD as bonus tracks?[/b] - Yeah, that�s something we all thought about. Sometimes when we practice, we say �Yeah let�s re-do that song on an album�. We might. They are still some good songs and nobody really heard of them. Maybe one day we�ll put them on CD. Somehow we�ll get people to hear them. [b]What is the planning for E. town Concrete in the year to come?[/b] - Right now we�re going home for a month until we come back here. Maybe we�ll finish off more songs and try to get a full album, and try to figure out how and when we�re going to record it. Once that�s out we�ll start playing shows to support that, we�ll be back over here. [img]https://upload.metalrage.com/DSCN0534_Small.jpg[/img] [b]You have done collaborations with Jamey Jasta, Christian from Ill Nino, Fury of Five and even Anthrax. Are there any other artists you would like to collaborate with?[/b] - Those all came about because we�re friends of those guys, it just happened. (Teddy now brings up King Gordon) -You know King Gordon? [b]No.[/b] - He�s a rapper from New Jersey. Lil� John would be cool too. No but seriously, we�re friends with a lot of bands so you never know. [b]On your albums you have piano and acoustic guitars on a few tracks, how do you deal with that live? [/b] - Well, sometimes we bring the keyboard. But when we�re playing a real shitty club they don�t have the capabilities to hook everything up. Plus there is only four of us on stage so it�s hard to get everything going. In the studio it�s different, anyone can do it. But live Dave will play the music translated to guitar. [b]The line �if you�re not with us, you�re against us� in Battle Lines is a quote of president Bush. [/b] - No! (protesting heavily) We�re not pro-Bush, you know. It�s just a saying that a lot of people say. [b]Do you feel you got the recognition you hoped for when you look back on the release of �The Renaissance�?[/b] - Nah. We definitely gained more status. We had more promotion with things like MTV. But we didn�t really blow up like what we all hoped for. Apart from that the whole rap-rock thing isn�t doing us any good. Americans are very trendy. Right now metal and emo is very hot, and if you�re not that, you�re not cool. That maybe prevented us from getting as big as we would have hoped for. In Europe it�s different, they just like what they like. But we still made a lot of progress with our last album, gained fans everywhere and increased our profile. [b]You once released a DVD with Agents of Man and NJ Bloodline. Do you have plans for another one?[/b] - With that DVD we didn�t really expect someone to see it. But a lot of people have it now. Looking back I wish we didn�t do it because I don�t think it was good. Maybe we�ll do one in the future but then we will do it good. [img]https://upload.metalrage.com/etown_band2 (Custom).JPG[/img] [b]All right final question: I am already convinced, but can you tell the readers in one sentence why they should check out your music?[/b] - Because we rock. [b]Thanks for the interview man.[/b] - Thank you. Interview by Ren� Willemse