TRR:  Hi Jake.  Thanks for taking the time to be the point guy for Audio Reign during this interview.  And congratulations on the new album.  I've had the opportunity to listen to all of the songs and you guys have done a great job. 

 

AR:  Thank you and thank you for the interview opportunity.

 

TRR:  My pleasure.  Let's get this thing started and begin with a simple question.  The name, Audio Reign.  Cool name.  Where did it come from?

 

AR:  The name Audio Reign was born out of hours of punching potential band names into search engines looking for a band name that had not been taken. Because seriously, you think of two words off the top of your head and I can just about guarantee there will be a band with that name!  We knew we wanted to have “Reign” in the name somewhere, but it was finding the right name or combo of words that had not been taken by any other band.  I think at the time we were looking at names like Reign, Throne, Legion and others similar.
 

TRR:  Definitely a cool name.  Who are the players in the band?

 

AR: Jake Fleming - lead vocals, guitar // Ash Lovett - bass, backing vocals // Alek Dyrynda - lead guitar // Dieter Schoell - drums, backing vocals. 

 

TRR:  How did all of you meet?  Any crazy or interesting stories to tell?

 

AR: There’s nothing too crazy in this fairy tale.  Dieter and I met through a guy whose rehearsal rooms I was using. I was looking for a drummer and he said, “I know just the guy that would suit your style.”  We met both Alek and Ash through advertising and auditioning for positions in the band. Alek had a real heavy style yet bluesy tones to his lead playing which really appealed to us. Ash came along to audition and although he was a decent bass player, his whole rock attitude and look (similar to Duff McKagan and Kurt Cobain) won us over.

 

TRR:  How would you classify your music?  There's so many different genres these days.  What classification would you say you guys fall into?

 

AR: I think “heavy hard rock” would cover it!   We’ve been classed by many different reviewers as hard rock, metal, nu-metal, grunge etc.  You're right. There’s so many different genres and sub-genres out there these days. We don't really care what anyone wants to class us as, as long as you're loving the songs.

 

TRR:  What do you think makes your band stand out from others?

 

AR: I think with Audio Reign it's the way we write our compositions and our use of melodics in our songs.  We often get people coming up to us after a show telling us that we remind them of this band or that band, or that our songs sound like this or that song, and it’s almost never the same band. So the way I decipher that is that we actually sound like Audio Reign, and they’re just identifying with sounds and riffs of other bands that they like in our music. I think that’s pretty cool and a great compliment. 

 

TRR:  Over the past few decades, rock music has been the “red-headed step-child”, rarely even mentioned on award shows like the Grammys, etc..  Do you feel that rock is starting to climb the ladder again? 

 

AR: I definitely believe heavy music is on the rise again. There’s so many new heavy festivals being created and a slow but sure shift of numbers of youth moving towards the heavy scene. The awesome festivals like Rock AM Ring and Wacken continue to thrive and get bigger.  Will heavy music ever punch intensely into the likes of the Grammys?  Probably not in the near future, but hey, who cares, in the meantime we will grow, survive, thrive and rise from the shadows without them.

 

TRR:  Growing up, who were some of your influences, musically.

 

AR: Me personally? Oh man, this is always a hard question as there are so many influences for me and they’re ever evolving. But bands like Alter Bridge, Metallica, Stone Temple Pilots, Stone Sour, Guns N’ Roses, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, Iron Maiden, Audioslave, Pearl Jam, Skid Row, Bon Jovi… the list goes on and on.

TRR:  That's a great list you've got there.  We've had the opportunity to interview some of those bands so now it's your turn to join the list. 

 

AR:  Cool!

 

TRR:  How do you go about writing your songs?  Is it a collaborative effort between the whole band?

 

AR: Musically, we’ll generally bring together different riffs and ideas that we’ve got and see how we can make them work together, or sometimes someone will bring in a fairly complete song they've been working on and we’ll adapt it, add dynamics and Audio Reign it!  I write the lyrics to the songs. Sometimes the lyrics will be from an idea that I’ve penned already, but sometimes the lyrics will come from directly from me listening to the music we have written and letting it guide my thoughts and feelings.

 

TRR:  Speaking of collaborative, if you could get together with any band or musician to record a song together, who would that be? 

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AR: As we are already a band, I think maybe we could do a big rock duet like Seether did with Amy Lee on “Broken”, or Ozzy and Lita doing “Close My Eyes Forever”.  Hmm, do we pick someone like Lizzy Hale, Taylor Momsen or go with someone completely out of the square like Taylor Swift?

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TRR:  Taylor Swift?  All very cool.  

 

TRR:  Are there some bands you'd like to tour with?

 

AR: So, so many!  Alter Bridge, Stone Sour, Skillet, Breaking Benjamin, Shinedown, Foo Fighters, Halestorm, Slash & MKC, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Disturbed etc.  Basically any of these caliber of bands that want us to join them. You can contact us directly via our email!

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TRR:  We'll make sure to tag all of them when we publish this.  You never know who will be checking this out. 

 

AR:  Awesome!

 

TRR:  Every band I've spoken to has a show they've done that just sticks with them.  What is your most memorable show, good or bad?

 

AR: Big Day Out festival was awesome, but I think I would have to say when we supported Skillet. The crowd didn’t know us at all, but right after our first song they were in for everything we gave ‘em! It was such an awesome vibe and brilliant show. There is nothing better than playing to a massive crowd that is totally immersed in what you're doing. That's when the line between the band and the crowd is completely blurred and we are all rocking the F out as one!

 

TRR:  What would be your dream show?

 

AR: Personally, I’d love to come over and play Rock AM Ring and Wacken.
 

TRR:  What about fan contact.  What has been your craziest fan interaction?  I'm sure you have at least one crazy story. 

 

AR: I remember after our gig with Skillet, we decided to go down and personally man our merch stand. We were smashed with new fans coming up to buy our merch, get things signed and want to know where we were from and basically tell us how much they loved our show. That is pretty damn humbling, especially when we were there to support a band the likes of Skillet.

 

TRR:  Well, I guess that's a good crazy.  What’s on the table for the rest of the year?

 

AR: We are already writing new music, cause you know, when it’s coming don’t stop it! We would like to release another single and produce another music video, but time is flying past and that may be an impossible task. That’s ok though, we’re planning a huge year next year and what we don’t finish this year can just roll over into 2020.

 

TRR:  Is there anyone you’d like to give a shout out to or thank you to?

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AR: We’d like to thank TRR for this lovely interview, Firestarter Music who look after our PR, Kris Peters (our manager) who is always looking for opportunities to help us soar, and most importantly…. ALL OF YOU OUT THERE WHO BELIEVE IN US, WHO WILL NEVER GIVE UP ON US, WHO ROCK OUT TO OUR MUSIC AND WILL WAIT WHILST WE ARE RELENTLESS IN OUR MISSION TO TOUR THE WORLD SO WE CAN PLAY LIVE TO YOU PERSONALLY!  THANK YOU!

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For more information about Audio Reign, visit their website or Facebook.