Interview – Awake At Last | Kryptonite Music Magazine

Our next featured band, Awake At Last, hails from Dover, Delaware. Known for their extremely energetic and electric live performances, this 4-piece consists of Vincent Torres (vocals/ guitar), Eric Blackway (lead guitar), Bryan Mills (drums,) and Tyler Greene (bass). Awake At Last is a versatile melodic rock band with an ass-kicking presence. Common themes among their lyrics include self-determination, committing to your dreams and remaining true to yourself. The band has played Warped Tour twice, Heart of Texas Rockfest (associated with South by Southwest Music Festival), and many other tours along the east coast. Pop, hardcore, metal, and electronica all influence the band and create their signature sound. They’re visiting Cleveland at the end of the month so I sent them some fill in the blanks.

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The pickiest eater is…. Probably Bryan. He tends to make it a point to be very healthy and smart with all of his eating. Though Eric and Bryan are both Vegetarian. Vince and Tyler will eat pretty much anything.

The most OCD member is…. This is a two way battle between Tyler and Bryan. Tyler handles a lot of the art concepts and helps a lot with the pre production in which he is very detail oriented and has a very specific way of doing things. He also tends to be the one who is cleaning the bus constantly and organizing everything to make life easier. Bryan is much more OCD on his technicalities with his drum parts and making sure they are exactly how he intended them to be. Tyler would probably win but they both have OCD tendencies.

We met each other…. We’ve all known each other for years. Vincent and Eric have been playing together for about ten years in different projects. Although within those ten years Eric had also been a part of a separate project with Bryan. Tyler played in other bands that played shows with all of the different projects but didn’t start playing with us until 2013. Bryan joined the band in late 2012 right before the release of Mansion Of Memories Tyler joined the band afterwards. Vincent and Eric formed the band in 2011.

For fun we like to…. We all do different things for fun but when we’re in a group and we’re out and about we like going to high traffic areas like malls and stuff to meet different people and promote the band accordingly. We also like hanging out around bonfires and throwing friendly hangouts where we can chill with friends and fans in a less show oriented level. Aside from that we all love practical jokes and messing with each other. Keeps things fun on tours and stuff.

We knew we’d become a band when…. Vincent and Eric were playing in bands long before Awake At Last was formed but after taking some time apart when Vincent moved to Philly it was reuniting and just jamming a few ideas that brought about the spark that became Awake At Last. We struggled in the beginning with a few member changes but after locking in with Bryan we knew that the foundation was where it needed to be and it was the introduction of Tyler that completed the rhythm section and made every thing click. We’ve been playing as much as we can ever since.

The first song we wrote was…. The first song we wrote was “Answers” which was released on our self-titled debut album simply called Awake At Last. In a sense it really laid down the groundwork for the strong melody driven high passion style of music that we’ve nurtured and transformed all the way through our most recent E.P. King Of The World. It had a strong positive vibe and we knew that was what we wanted to portray with our music from then on.

Our sound is best described as…. Our music has been called so many things and this is the question most bands will always have trouble answering. I guess the best way to describe it is high energy vocal and guitar driven Rock and Roll with a hint of Theatrics reminiscent of older styles of music we are all inspired by.

One thing we want you to remember while listening to our music is…. That we as a band are primarily trying to drive home the positives and the feelings that come with standing for what you believe in and chasing a dream even when it seems like all the odds are stacked against you. As a band in this era of music it’s not the same as it was back in the 70s or 80s when bands just got their big breaks and soared from there. It all about perseverance and persistence and really building your band from the ground up and nurturing it and learning the hard lessons. We pour everything we have into making this happen and if you listen closely and feel even a fraction of that “You can do it.” Message we try to send out than we couldn’t ask for anything more.

We’re currently listening to…. All of the band members in this band have very different music tastes when it comes to listening. Every thing from high technical metal like Dillinger Escape Plan, to older influences like Stevie Ray Vaugn, and Carlos Santana, into some of the newer bands that are rising up like Get Scared, A Skylit Drive, Palisades, and Crown The Empire. We tend to listen to all sorts of music and don’t really go through phases where we’re only focused on one particular band or style. We all have very different influences which helps us create what we feel is a very fresh sound for our own band.

The new music video is…. As of right now we haven’t released a music video, but it is something that is most definitely on the to do list and something we can’t wait to get into. We’re in a process now where we’re listening to our songs and trying to figure out which one will be the best song to put a video out for to really portray what we are and what we want to accomplish as a band. It’s something we’re extremely excited to do and we can’t wait to share it with you guys once we hammer out all of the details.

Our new album is different because…. King Of The World is different because after being a band for three years and growing and changing the way we all have individually we were able to really come together on the songs and experiment with the theatrics we had always wanted to incorporate but never really had the resources to do so. It’s heavy and light at the same time and each song sort of has it’s own little signature and sound that tell their own story. Somehow they also tell a story together about loving and fighting for something and sometimes losing but knowing that no matter how bad things can get or how scared you may be to even face dreams or circumstances when they reveal themselves that if you look within yourself you can conquer all that fear and reflect on the amazing story of your life. That’s why we decided to call it King Of The World… it doesn’t mean that you rule everything like a “King” it’s more about capturing the battles that people fight everyday to finally get to a place where they feel like they have earned something by conquering said challenges so they rule over their own world in a sense. We don’t want it to feel like we’re just trying to appeal to Men though by using the term “King,” it’s just Vincent’s depiction of the message that everyone should be able to pick up on and roll with.