By Whitney Weiss
When Soil came into town to headline a night of
heavier music at Marquee (other bands were Headstrong, Order by
Chaos, and Skinlab), we had the chance to sit down with drummer
Tom Schofield and do a quick interview. In his words, here’s the
history of the band, the machismo behind playing despite
injuries, and why it’s really good if a DJ falls in love with
your song.
Movement: So how’s this tour going?
This tour is quite a bit different than the other tours
we’ve been on. We’ve been out with Union Underground, Ozzy
Osbourne, Rob Zombie; we were just out with Static-X and Soulfly…we’re
still a baby band.
How did the band get together?
We wanted to persue music more like what we grew up on. Shawn
was also in another band with the same-sounding music, he was
tired ofwhat he was doing, so it was natural for him to come
along. Brian, our singer,we found him on a compilation tape.
You’d mentioned Static-X, Ozzy, who has been the most fun
band to share a bill with?
Definitely the Merry Mayhem tour with us and Rob Zombie. We
were playing, what, between six and seven thousand to
twenty-thousand seat venues.
So you prefer a large arena rock show opposed to a small
club?
Uh, I wouldn’t say I prefer it, it’s cool to be closer to
your fans, but just for the sheer numbers, being with a ton of
people…
How has coming from Chicago helped and hindered your
career?
When we were starting out it was tough because everything
was based on the west coast. But with Staind, Disturbed, a
couple of other bands, there has been quite a focus on Chicago.
What was your first show like?
Our first show…Ryan had just severed off half of two of his
fingers. He had this big bandage on, we called him Mittens for
months. He wason so much codeine and drugs and stuff he said he
didn’t remember the show (laughs). That’s the major memory of
our first show.
What’s the ultimate goal you have for your music?
It’d be nice to say something like, bring about world
peace,but we just want to appeal to as many people as possible.
We just hope that people can relate to our songs. Even if it’s
just what they put on because they’ve had a bad day.
How would you describe your live show?
Id’s say it’s pretty energetic. Some people say that we even
come off a bit heavier live. What you see is what you get,
pretty much.
Would you say that grassroots promotion and word-of-mouth has
been largely responsible for your success?
I’d say yeah. We’ve gotten quite a bit of radio play for “Halo”.That
actually started with our demos. They were playing our demo
before we went and did a record, and that just kind of started
the whole thing. It snowballed…
Did “Halo” start as your single or did someone else pick it
out?
It started out with DJ Pat Lynch outta Orlando, FL,WJRR. He
just somehow got a hold of our demo through a friend and just
started spinning it…and it just took off. For months and months
we were one of the top five most-played bands in the city.
