- Deal With It

- Anchor

- Bitter End

- Awaken Demons

- Restraint

- Self Torture

- The Guilt Show

- Countdown Records

- Concrete Block

- The Secret

- At Half Mast

- Angelica Mariner

- Justice

- Run With The Hunted

- Ritual

- Killing The Dream

- L.e.a.r.n.

- Linha De Frente

- Outbreak

- Panic

- Death Is Not Glamorous VS Stolen Bikes Ride Faster

- Underdog

- Betrayed

- Doomriders

- Black Friday '29

- No Innocent Victim

- Dead Stop

- To Kill VS Slowmotion Apocalypse

- Justice

- Trial

- Another Breath

- Gonna Fall Hard VS Ed

- The Secret VS The Setup

- Good Clean Fun

- Converge

- Bones Brigade

- Donny Brook

- Strength Approach

- Purification

- The Difference VS The Miracle

- Terror

- Cataract

- Over My Dead Body

- Internal Affairs

- Inked In Blood

- Some Kind Of Hate

- New Found Glory

- Die!

- Agnostic Front

- Coalesce

- No Warning

- Shai Hulud

- Death Threat

- Champion

- Hatebreed

- Subzero

- The Promise

- The Beautiful Mistake

- Beloved

- Nodes Of Ranvier

- Comeback Kid

- Bleeding Through

- Sick Of It All

- Every Time I Die

- Give Up The Ghost

- The Dillinger Escape Plan

- Strike Anywhere

- The Hope Conspiracy

- Coheed & Cambria

- Thursday

- Stretch Arm Strong

- Himsa

Rob: Hi guys, how are you? How is your new van? Did you paid it by yourself of Solid State gave you a couple of bucks?

Dusty: Hey Rob... we’re doing great man... we’re just glad to be home to take a breather for a couple of weeks in between tours. The new van is holding up nicely... no problems yet (knock on wood for good luck). We were lucky enough to have Solid State front us some cash for the van. We were in a big bind, and they pulled through and helped us get going as soon as we could.

Rob: Well, i’ve been in Belgium @ the Riot Fest2k3: what happened? I drove 1000 miles by myself just to see you ad Zao live! It has been such a bad surprise to notice you not playing! I’m startin to think that the booker just used your name to get more people in J.. so what’s the truth about?

Dusty: Well Adina had really wanted us to play the fest, and I think that there was just a lot of miscommunications between both of us about travel arrangements and such. It’s a big hassle for American bands to travel abroad to play simply because of all the merchandising issues, equipment transport/rentals, and just the overall cost of accommodations such as flights and stuff. We really hope we didn’t disappoint too many people in Belgium, and I’m super sorry that you drove so far to us and Zao and we weren’t there. We’re trying our hardest to find a good time to come over to Europe.

Rob: oops i forgot: who is Beloved? Names and roles in the band.

Dusty: Well I’m Dusty and I play guitar. Josh sings and plays guitar, Matt plays guitar too, Johnny plays bass, and Joe screams and plays the drums.

Rob: I’ve read in the cd boklet that there are 3 guitar players... Its true you use 3 guitars live or you did it just in studio?

Dusty: We definitely use three guitars live. It’s been that way for a few years now. Josh used to sing only, and when our first guitarist left, he started playing along with just to do it. When Matt joined, we just kept three guitars because of all the doors it opens up musically.

Rob: Did you have some endorsement deal or you play just what you have? Which “brand” do you use? And what’s about the guitars/amps you dream for?

Dusty: Right now I’ve got an artist deal with Gibson guitars. I’ve always been in love with them, and actually just got a new Les Paul Classic today from them. They’re great people and make beautiful guitars. Josh and I play marshall amps and cabs, Matt plays ESP guitars and Mesa Amps, and Johnny uses Fender basses and Ampeg amps. Joe uses Pearl drums. As far as dream guitars and stuff, I’d love another Les Paul like the one I just got today…I’m so in love with it. I really like my marshall amp too. Another cab would be nice to go with it though! I love talking about guitar equipment... I’d talk all day about it if you’d let me.

Rob: how did you join Solid State? Please tell us the story... I remember you have to be on Takehold or something... how is the deal with them? How is working with them?

Dusty: You’re kinda right on that one Rob. We were in the process of signing a deal with Takehold when Tooth and Nail bought the label from Chad (Johnson, owner of takehold). So we were put over to Solid State. That was about two years ago.

Rob: Are you satisfied about your label?

Dusty: The label is great. There’s so many great people there. Different bands have different views, but for the most part, things are going great with the label. I mean granted, I’d love to be able to move onto bigger things if the opportunity ever arises, but I have no hard feelings towards Solid State at all.

Rob: I had feedbacks about you taking part of the “fight” jesse smith-T&N in some forums.
He used hard talks about brandon ad about the bad job of the label on them: what do you think about?

Dusty : Jesse Smith is a really awesome guy, and I’m glad to call him my friend. I’ve had talks with Jesse about the label and stuff, and like I said, everyone’s dealt with the label in different fashions. Jesse had a bad run with Brandon due to a lot of contractual stuff that he was bound with. I don’t know too much detail about it really…I hate that Jesse has such a bad taste in his mouth about everything, but I’m sure he has proper reason for it. Record contracts are tricky, and its hard (especially when signing one at age 18, like Jesse did), to know what goes on in them. I mean personally, there are things now that I’m much more aware, that I wasn’t two years ago when I signed. Had I known then what I know now, I would’ve pushed harder for some changes in our contract. I don’t feel like I’ve been “raped” by Brandon Ebel or anything. He’s a business man; a very smart one. He does his job, and I do mine. Next question..haha.

Rob: Some time ago i was talking to Chris from Stretch Arm Strong and i asked him which bands he was listening to ad he gave me your name: how do things are going for Beloved in USA ? are you getting bigger and bigger there?

Dusty: Things are definitely on the up and up. Our record is doing really well. I’m more than pleased with it’s sales as of this point. Our shows have been getting bigger and better, and kids have been super pumped at shows, which in turn, pumps us up even more.

Rob: Lets talk about your latest full lenght: whats the original name of the producer ? its really GGGarth with 3Gs? Is there GGGarth on the ID?:)

Dusty: His name is Garth Richardson. He’s got a stutter, so the Red Hot Chili Peppers gave him the name GGGarth, pronounced like one is stuttering.

Rob: How was recording there? Where and how many days in studio u spent ad, hey, did Solid State payed everything or you contributed in some way?

Dusty: Recording was fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience. We were in Vancouver, BC in Canada for 3 weeks working on production, then mixed in Nashville with JR McNeely for a week. So about a month’s worth of work went into the record. Solid State totally payed for the record, and went above and beyond our contractual budget to get us a killer sounding cd. We tracked the album at Garth’s home, outside of Vancouver. We stayed in our own 2-story band home, complete with big-screen tv, and a kitchen. It was awesome…totally like a month long summer rock and roll camp.

Rob: I personally think that among the other bands that mix hc, screamo rock e metal you are really fresh artistically speaking but here’s the question: don’t you think that this kind of music is getting boring and less and less innovative? These days it seems that everybody want to mix screamo and melodies, just to copy and omologate to what’s trendy, don’t you think so? And most of them don’t have enough talent to give something new or at least decent : this contribute to add more confusion to whats going on out there... What do you think about that?

Dusty: I definitely agree. I hate so much music that’s going on today. Even underground rock, which is like normally a well of fresh, new music, is becoming watered down and saturated, and just overall crappy. We’ve been a band since 1999, doing the same kind of stuff we’re doing now, and it’s frustrating sometimes to hear these bands coming out and blowing up, that sound like stuff that we did three years ago, and their band is only like a year old. We’re taking some time off after summer, because Joe is getting married, and we’re going to write a new record. Musically this new record is going to blow away “Failure On.” We hope to bring a fresh feel to people, or at least a different approach.

Rob: Who inspired you the most while writing "failure on"?

Dusty: The writing process for that record was over the course of a couple of years. We wrote a lot of songs, and ditched a few. Lyrically, the record is dealing with different life situations... relationships, but not so much in the girl ditches guy type sense. It’s about moving on with you life... persevearing. It’s got a hopeful outlook, for the most part. Musically, we each bring different influences to the table... so it’s kind of just this pot full of hardcore and rock that’s just fused together somehow... ha..

Rob: What about the 7" split "misfits tribute" with "the agony scene"? Are you into Misfits a lot? Are you strong friends of TAS? Did they split or what?

Dusty: We love the Agony Scene so much. They did kinda split, but they’re reforming, and getting their stuff straight these days. While on tour with them, we had the idea to do a hot topic exclusive split each covering two misfits songs. We’re all big misfits fans, so we thought it would be fun. It turned out to be a lot more talk than actual work, and shortly after the tour, TAS just kind started falling apart... so it never really turned out...

Rob: Let’s talk about Asterik studio: i think its a pretty innovative artwork: do they also work with Poison the Well?
Are the boys @ Asterik into the scene in any other kind of way? (do they have bands, labels ??)

Dusty: Asterik is simply just a design team, who do website, print media, band logos, and other stuff like that. They’re housed in the offices of tooth and nail, and Don and Ryan Clark (did the art work for the full length, and our EP “the Running” respectively), were both in an early solid state band called Training for Utopia, and now are both in Demon Hunter.

Rob: Last question: are you comin to Italy? Do you have an European tour planned? Its really hard for us to see live any think of T&N/SS bands : The only two bands I had chance to see in Italy are stretch arm strong (for whom I’ve opened shows with my band) and mxpx

Dusty: We’ll definitely hit Europe in 2005, maybe after we record the next record. We’ll bring some new songs with us, and maybe you guys can be some of the first to hear the new jams. If we come to Europe, we’ll definitely hit Italy. We’ll travel by those canal boats... haha.

Rob: Thanx a lot for your time, what are you working on next, do you have some new songs and how they sound, what we have to expect from new material?
Take care, hope to meet you soon in my country!

Dusty: We’re just gonna tour this summer with our friends in Classic Case, the bled, between the buried and me, and glass casket, then we’re gonna take a few months off like I said for joe to get married, and we’re gonna write a record. Hopefully we’ll record it in March or so, and have it out in the summer. I don’t really know what to say about the new jams…. We’re not gonna go all Radiohead and get weird, but it’s probably gonna be a lot different. It’ll be way heavier than before, but maybe not so much hardcore, if that makes any sense..haha. Thanks for the interview Rob.

Rob