Texas Sized Heart- Rob Garza of Shattered Sun


Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada

Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada

The past year for South Texas metallers Shattered Sun has been anything but dull. Being one of the hardest working bands has landed them onto the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival’s side stage this past summer. They have been out touring behind their debut album Hope Within Hatred (out now via Victory Records).

Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada

Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada

They had just completed their first “real” tour supporting Testament and Exodus across North America, and unlike their previous DIY style tours supporting club sized acts, they learned quickly the wrong and right ways of surviving on the road.

“The last one we were with (Testament/Exodus) – that was a real get up and go,” explained drummer Rob Garza. “We were still learning and now we’re way more focused and way more on time. We’re trying not to get on anyone’s bad side especially we don’t mess up too much,” he said, about the quick learning curve.

Testament frontman Chuck Billy is no stranger to the Shattered Sun camp, as he is one of their co-managers from Breaking Bands LLC and has been mentoring the guys over the past year.

[We’re] basically learning how to do things the right way. When we first got on the Testament and Exodus tour with them this past April, we were all fan boys over Testament and Exodus, but then Chuck’s biggest role in the band is as a mentor. He could just say ‘just relax…we’re all here as a team. We’re all family on this tour and every tour you’re gonna be on. These are your peers,’ “ he said.

“We’ve got him to calm us down the fan boys in us. Also outdoing each show – we had a decent show yesterday. Today we did better so basically we keep on pushing so we put on a better show every day.”

Joseph Guajardo of Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada.

Joseph Guajardo of Shattered Sun. Photo Credit: Kevin Estrada.

Already from the Mayhem Fest they have gone from performing in from a largely older crowd to a younger demographic that leans towards the newer style of bands featured on the Victory Records side stage.

The guys and myself were talking about that yesterday. Even the bands that were on tour – no disrespect to Testament and Exodus – they’re more of our age group. You go with the Testament and Exodus and it’s strictly that thrasher crowd. There’s nothing wrong with that. On this one, you have that all around, different genres of music collectively. It’s a different feel. We like it. We’re digging it.

While the band’s sound comes from the heavier side of metal and their band name is a modified version of an Unearth tune, Garza spoke about their range of influences that helped shape their overall sound.

“When we first started jamming, our guitarist Daniel [Trejo] named our band after an Unearth song ‘Shattered By The Sun.’ So he was really into Unearth and still is to this day. We all are,” he said.

We try to stick with melodic metal and keep it thrashy, and we’re all fans of other genres as well. One of my favorite drummers and bands of all time is the Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. I try to incorporate as much groove into our thrash beats. It’s a combination of a lot of stuff. It’s like ‘I was listening to this today. I want to try to see how this would sound on this song.’

On this album, we tried to cover all grounds because where we’re from, everyone in our area is real biased. We’re not heavy enough for the hardcore kids or we’re not soft enough for the older crowd. We just wanted to make a CD and just bring as much of everything in. We get known as bands that plays a lot of different kinds of music. We just try to throw it into one thing so we try to cover everyone’s demographic on that one.

Henry Garza of Shattered Sun

Henry Garza of Shattered Sun

Being on the road, Garza and the Shattered Sun members have experienced many different things but also being from a small Texas town, they also found new and unusual things.

I believe it was on the last tour, we were in South Carolina and they were selling roasted peanuts. It looked weird, just there in a jar staying warm. Just small things like that that freak us out. But we Google what it is and say ‘uh ok…let’s try it out.’

What I wanted to do when we were in Canada, I wanted to go to McDonalds and see if they had the Royale With Cheese. I didn’t get a chance to do that. I’m trying to cram a bunch of different things into my demographic right now.

Plus the rare time off of the road has given them time to enhance their road home known as their van. While they have accepted the fact that they will be calling it home for the next year, they have slowly made moderations to it.

This time we’ve actually built a bunk in our van. ‘OK what can we do differently?’ We’ll probably try to put another bunk in there, a shoe rack, because right now everybody’s shoes are thrown all over the place. We even have our inverter so we routed our power strips so we can charge our phones in the back. We’re learning tour by tour.

soulfly soilwork decapitated shattered sun tour

All of the touring experience has now landed them an upcoming North American tour supporting metal heavyweights Soulfly, Soilwork and Decapitated. Garza himself is excited about the upcoming tour but has his eyes on meeting another drumming idol.

I’m actually really pumped because one of my favorite drummers is Dirk Verbeuren from Soilwork. On our last tour, we had Gene Hoglan and Tom Hunting, and on this tour we’ve got Paul Bostaph and Vinnie Paul, and the next tour I’m going to have Dirk Verbeuren. To be on the same tours as these great drummers is amazing. I’m looking forward to picking that guy’s brain. Getting to tour with Soulfly – those guys are legendary. We all grew up listening to them.

Learning from past mistakes, Garza admits he is trying his hardest not to have a Wayne and Garth’s ‘I’m Not Worthy’ moment on this upcoming tour.

Deep down we have, but then it’s like be cool. On the outside, we’ve got to play it cool. On the inside, I’m crying a little bit.

He admits there is one stop on the upcoming tour he has his eye on.

I’m just waiting until we get to Milwaukee so I can say ‘it’s pronounced Mil-WAKEY’, from Alice Cooper on Wayne’s World Part 1.

By Rei Nishimoto


Miss May I – Talks Mayhem vs Warped


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The members of Miss May I have spent this past summer promoting their upcoming album Deathless (Rise Records) on the Vans Warped Tour, giving the crowd a taste of new music. While the previous summer had also taken part on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival to promote their previous album Rise of the Lion, both frontman Levi Benton and bassist Ryan Neff both shared their experiences on both tours and how they each view the differences between the audiences who are seeing their band.

“I think age is obviously one piece, but when you divide the crowd by age, the genre that they like changes a lot as well,” says Neff, explaining the differences between the two festival demographics. “You won’t find DJ stuff at Mayhem, where as here they’re younger kids. There’s a lot more people discovering new music at Warped Tour than at Mayhem.

If you show up as an Avenged Sevenfold fan and with an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, you leave with a couple more on your shoulder and you might pick up a few new bands. But here, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to learn about five new bands before you leave.”

There’s so many more bands. There’s five times more bands. It’s crazy,” added Benton, about the Warped Tour experience.

While being on the Warped Tour, they have easily become the modern metal act playing amongst the roster of acts ranging from singer-songwriter acts to metalcore to electronic acts to hip hop (and even some pop punk, believe it or not).

That’s the best part about this tour, especially from our point of view watching,” said Benton. “You can see people watching a ska band or a punk band from afar and see them walk by and sort of stop and listen. That’s awesome. We get a lot of people that aren’t metal fans and they leave Warped Tour as a metal fan. That’s one of the best feelings ever. I remember when I was a metal fan and I got into metal bands and was like ‘that’s cool we could be the band for you.’

Mayhem’s not like that. Everyone comes there and it’s like ‘I’m metal and I’m ready for the pit.’

Neff explained that despite it being Miss May I’s third time on this tour, age turnover with the constant changes within the scene helps attract new fans who are unfamiliar with them. He has found that the open mindedness of the attendees on this tour has worked in their favor into winning over new fans.

With it being there’s a turnover in the fan base at this tour, it’s always the same age kids. It’s obvious you don’t stay the same age forever so for it to be 14 or 15 years old kids to be at this tour every year, you’ve got to have a complete new group of kids every year. So a band like us who haven’t done this tour in three years, there’s a good chance that a third or more of the people who buy tickets today have never heard of our band. That’s why it’s such a beneficial tour for bands to hop on because with the turnover and the new group of fans every year, there are so many people who are going to hear about you for the first time, just because you are on the tour.

By Rei Nishimoto


Feed Her To The Sharks Talk Australia


feed her to the sharks 2

Feed Her To The Sharks are the newest face to come out of the growing Australian heavy music scene, spending this past summer on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival across North America on the Victory Records side stage, promoting their latest release Fortitude.

With a band name like Feed Her To The Sharks, it does give off an Australian vibe to it in an odd way. Band guitarist Kim Choo talked about his home country of Australia and playing partial tour guide about their growing heavy music scene.

It’s been a while since a core band from Melbourne has actually toured internationally. I think the last one that I can remember might be The Red Shore or someone like that,” he said.

There’s some awesome music from Australia. We’re just lucky to be friends with a lot of the guys. The Thy Art Is Murder guys have been helping us out a lot on our tour in Europe with them and now at Mayhem. There must be something in the water down there but we love playing heavy music down there. It shows with all of the awesome bands that are coming out.

Feed Her To The Sharks at Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2015 - Albuquerque, NM (via Facebook)

Feed Her To The Sharks at Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2015 – Albuquerque, NM (via Facebook)

Their first taste of playing a festival came in 2013 when they took part on Warped Tour Australia. “We played with some awesome bands – Parkway Drive, The Amity Affliction,” he said.

It was so hot that day. I know some of these Mayhem dates are going to be really hot. Everyone had red faces and sunburnt. Warped Tour was a really great show. We were the first band on in the morning and there were people lining up to get in. They were stoked. It was a good show.

While a slew of Australian bands have found their way onto the world stage recently, Choo shared one band who he felt could be one of the next good finds there. “There’s a cool band that’s local from our hometown called Atlantic. They’re sort of like metalcore sort of stuff – a pretty fresh approach so check them out if you get a chance. We had them on an album launch show back at home. They’re super hard workers. It’s awesome hanging out with them. They’re really cool dudes.

Lastly, Choo made a suggestion for those looking for shark related activities to do in Australia. Being that sharks have been found around Australia, Feed Her To The Sharks would be the people who would know where to find the real thing.

If you go down to Adelaide, there’s a place called Port Lincoln and you can go shark cage diving with the Great Whites in there. It’s mental. If you ever get to visit, do so.

By Rei Nishimoto