During the Black Crusade tour in Amsterdam, Lukie and I had the opportunity to speak to the two guitar players from Shadows Fall before the show. When we were waiting for the guys to show up we got the message that we only could speak to Jonathan Donais, because Matthew Bachand went to visit his girlfriend. It didn�t matter that much, because we had a hilarious conversation with Jon.

First of all; can you introduce yourself to our readers?

�Yeah, I�m Jon from Shadows Fall.�

Is the band still about drinking beer, having fun and throwing up on windows?

�Yeah, that was me. Unfortunately that was me. That was one fucking bad night in England. The story behind it was that we were drinking something I haven�t had before and the guys told me that when I drink enough of it and you throw up it looks just like blood. Back in the hotel room we watched out the window and saw a window below us which was left open. At that moment I stuck my fingers down my throat and once I did I couldn�t stop. The night after we played at the MetalHammer Awards and I couldn�t stop throwing up. I was lying in the bathroom the whole day.�

So now you never drink it again?

 
Is their something crazy happened yet during this tour, or the last time you were in Amsterdam, supporting Slipknot?

�And then I woke up� somewhere��

Are you enjoying this tour so far?

�Ow yeah! It�s amazing! The venues are huge, it cool to play places like this one.�

Are you also filming backstage footage during this tour?

�We just talked about it the other day, because some funny shit has happened. The only problem with us is that we get too drunk and then we are not motivated enough to grab the camera.�

Do you still sell home-made t-shirts, just as on your DVD The Art Of Touring?

�No, but we almost had to do it the other day, because we sold out on all our large and extra large t-shirts.�

Something more serious now: Do you still get nervous before you get on stage?

�Yes, you never know what is going to happen. I�m not really nervous about the crowd reactions or something, but I�m more nervous whether my gear will break down. It�s always during the biggest shows that something goes wrong. For example: When we played with Slipknot in a big arena in LA and all important people from the record label were present the whole guitar backline got down during our first song.�

How did the crowd respond to that?

�To be honest, I really don�t know. I was just hiding behind my amplifier.�

Why did you start playing guitar in the first place?

�Pretty much because of MTV and seeing all those amazing bands playing music, such as Bon Jovi and Skidrow�

At this point we were talking about playing air guitar while watching MTV, doing construction videos and playing the shredneck. The shredneck is just as a neck of a real guitar and with it you can practice almost everywhere. It keeps your fingers going. Furthermore we discussed temptations during the recording process.

I heard your rehearsal room is above a strip club, is this true?

�Yes, it is true. It�s above a strip club and it�s a nice place.�

The video for 'Redemption' has been nominated as Best Metal Video of 2007. Do you like making videos? Do you come up with ideas yourselves?

�I like making music, but I don�t like shooting videos. Just faking a show the entire day and they don�t let us drink so� My favourite video is �Destroyer Of Senses�, because it was filmed in a small club at home where we al used to hang out. It was a video with us and all our friends and it was done cheap, but it still looks amazing.�

Shadows Fall�s song "Stupid Crazy" is on the soundtrack of "Resident Evil: Extinction". I assume the song title doesn�t have anything to do with the movie?

�I has nothing to do with the movie. We just hadn�t have a song title for this one though and I was like: Stupid crazy yo! And the we found out that they had written it down and kept it that way, but without the �yo�.�

This was actually a question for Matt, but I can also ask it to you. I read an interview in which he said that his hair was very important to him and that he couldn�t understand why Brian (vocals) had such long dreadlocks, how is that for you?

�Did he really say that?! I�m really going to mess with him because of this! If you look at any of us you know that our hair is not important to us. There are a lot bands which are still metal, but it's like they�re cool because they used their sisters make-up and have �cool� haircuts. It�s weird, because it�s almost like the 80�s again.�

Machine Head, Trivium, DragonForce or Arch Enemy?

�Ow shit man.. They�re all awesome! But I have a soft spot for Machine Head. I can remember that I was 15 when I got Burn My Eyes and that was what we as band wanted to sound like. Machine Head was also my first band I witnessed live, so... In person they�re all awesome! Partying with Phil Demmel every night, a fucking maniac! There are no clashing egos or whatsoever!

That was the final question then. Do you have something to add to this interview, something to say to our readers maybe?

 �Uhm� please buy our CD��

I think they will get the message.

�I�ll hope so, hahah!�

We wished him good luck on stage and after that we left with a big smile on our faces. We had a great time talking to Jon and he also was laughing half of the time. It was a fun thing for both Lukie and myself to have our first interview with a member of Shadows Fall.