Canadian hardcore rockers Cancer Bats are keeping busy, especially frontman Liam Cormier, but he still had time for a chat about their fourth album Dead Set on Living, the logistics of touring and all good things in-between.

The band approached their 2012 record aggressively to demonstrate their perception of themselves. “I think for us, we’re always just trying to portray how heavy we are live on the records and I think for any hardcore band it can definitely be a struggle to capture that energy,” explains Cormier, “It’s harder in a more static studio setting compared to being onstage head-banging and spitting on each other you know,” the frontman letting out a hearty laugh.

The crazy Canadians also had DevilDriver frontman Dez Fafara to feature on album track ‘Bastards’, “we met earlier that year through touring and it started with him just being a fan of the band,” details Cormier, “we heard that he loved the stuff on Bears [Mayors, Scraps & Bones of 2010] and heard it was like his pre-party record. We then got in touch with Dez and toured with DevilDriver for about a month through North America so we become really close friends.”

“So when it came to writing that song and knowing someone like Dez, we were like ‘yeah this is a heavier song – we need him to be vocally brutal’,” says the singer. “So I asked him and he was like ‘yeah when I get home from Europe I’ll definitely do it.’” explains the singer, “he made his own verse and I kind of liked that he put his own perspective on things.”

In addition to Cancer Bats’ hectic touring schedule, Cormier has been busy fronting a recently established ‘supergroup’ called Axewound. The band mostly features British band members including Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck on guitar and backup vocals, another of Cormier’s personal acquaintances: “We became good friends and we’ve played a bunch of shows since. We toured Australia with them which was definitely an awesome hangout too.”

Having already shared two songs from their upcoming album, currently floating around social media, Axewound also played their first shows in the UK; where fans were able to hear some more of the material. “There’s like YouTube videos popping up of our first four shows so I think that slowly people are finding out about us which I think is cool,” concurs Cormier.

“The fans are responding well,” he continues, “though saying like ‘oh cool you guys have formed some crazy metal band!’ I think for us it’s just cool to have something where we’re playing live and having fun – there’s no real pressure or expectations its just five guys headbanging,” his words punctuated by another throaty laugh.

With his main act though, Cancer Bats recorded a cover of Beastie Boys’ Sabotage a number of years ago and have been playing the track live recently at their shows in acknowledgement to the late Adam Yaunch. “Yeah we’ve definitely made a point of playing it every night,” confirms the frontman, “it’s a real important thing for us because the Beastie Boys were such a huge band for all of us, so when we found out that news we were all really bummed about it.”

“We were in Paris just starting this tour so we’ve been playing Sabotage every single night and sending it out to Adam. We started doing the cover in 2009 when Adam was originally diagnosed with the illness so at this point we just want to play it all the time,” Cancer Bats even hope to one day perform the track with the Beastie Boys in a collective tribute to the fallen MCA.

Ever the patriot, Cormier also promoted some Canadian hardcore talent, “there are definitely a lot of rad hardcore bands coming out of Canada right now,” he states proudly.  “Alex (Despised Icon) has formed new band called Obey the Brave. They have a new record coming out at the end of the summer. There’s some cool younger bands coming out as well; there’s a band called Exalt that’s emerging which is really cool as well. I’m all about supporting the younger talent.”

In conclusion, Cormier also expressed his excitement for the Cancer Bats’ upcoming Australian tour, beginning next month. “It’s definitely going to be a party – with the fact that we only have three shows, we’re going to be going as hard as we can and pack in as many jams as possible. In those three days we’ll definitely have a lot of road miles under our belts so we’ll try play as long as possible to make up for the fact that we don’t get to go to Australia that often.”

This was before the bittersweet news that their Australian tour would be rescheduled, postponing their shows due to personal reasons. The Toronto-bred hardcore act wil instead be performing at all five major capital cities as part of Soundwave Festival 2013. With Cancer Bats confirming that ticketholders for the Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne shows will find their tickets will still be valid for some rescheduled SideWaves shows.

Still a band of and for the fans, Cancer Bats and Cormier have already ‘made up for the fact that they don’t get to Australia that often.’

You can read more about the Cancer Bats rescheduled shows and Soundwave 2013 appearance here.

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