Grade's first release, the Grade / Believe split, was released in 1994. When did Grade actually form?

Probably late 93 / early 94. We formed out of the ashes of another band. It was basically the same lineup, minus our bass player. We released a demo after that and then about half a year later was the Grade / Believe split.

Do you still have the same lineup now?

No. We've actually have had a huge lineup change in the last little while. We've had revolving drummers over the years and I guess halfway through the "Under the Radar" record and touring, Greg, who was with us the entire time, quit. And then just about a week and a half ago, our other guitar player who's been with us for 8 years quit. It was a shock. We understood why Greg was going to quit, but when Sean quit a week ago, it was shocking because he's been with us for 8 years.

Did you begin Grade with a particular sound in mind or did you just go with the flow?

We just kind of did what we were doing. When we first started, it was more undirected and mindless metal, with a little bit of personality in there on some of the songs. It just slowly developed after that. There was no intention. At that time we were just really into hardcore and lots of metal so that's what we were playing.

Have you ever received criticism from fans about how Grade's musical style has changed from album to album?

Not really. Every once in a while, we'll get "this is my favorite CD". It's never been a good or a bad thing. It's usually just a personal opinion. Anyone who's ever said anything to us, it's just usually just been "whatever" anyway.

How did the tour with the Mad Caddies and The Groovie Ghoulies come about? That was a strange lineup.

(laughs). I don't know. We had just finished a three-week tour with Cave In and The Explosion. We ended up on the West Coast somewhere. I think somewhere along the lines, someone asked us to do the tour... I think it was the Mad Caddies manager... because they were coming through Canada. I guess it was because it was our home country and they wanted to get our crowd or something. It was a really weird tour. Both us and The Groovie Ghoulies didn't know what to expect. We had met them once prior when we played with them in Indianapolis.

Did their crowd like you guys?

Well, it was our crowd. They didn't really draw anybody, so it didn't really matter. (laughs). They had their pockets of people, but for the most part, they didn't really draw.

Of all the cities that you've played, where's your favorite and why?

I've actually gotten asked this question quite a bit lately. It's actually hard to answer because say you play Boston or Seattle two times in a row... the first time might be incredible and the second time might be horrible. I think every show that we play is special. I guess if we had to have favorite cities to play, mine would be Boston, New York, Seattle, Denver, LA, Las Vegas, anywhere in Texas, all of Florida. So many places. Half of Europe is amazing. Montreal is amazing, Toronto is amazing, Vancouver is amazing. It's all fun. If it wasn't fun, we wouldn't be doing it, right?

What made you cover Van Halen? Are they your favorite 80's band?

Well, they're not really an 80's band, per say. They're just one of those bands we grew up on. A majority of the band is pretty old, I'm 29. So it's just something we grew up on. Iron Maiden, Van Halen and Motley Crue, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Black Flag... we grew up on all of that. We love that band. Of course, only up until David Lee Roth left. I thought they sucked with Sammy Hagar. They just had a really rock n roll feel to them and we were just joking around and just recorded it. It was more of a fun thing than anything else. It was a big fight between "Panama" and an Iron Maiden song. Eventually we will do an Iron Maiden song as well.

Did you write "A Year in the Past" with the intention of making it a 'single' or were you just trying to go in new directions?

That song was a total and utter mistake. It sucks. The song was written a few days before we went into the studio because we were practicing rapidly to get our record done at that time. The album itself was kind of incohesive and random and that song just came out of nowhere. Our guitar player was joking with it and we just started playing it. The first time I ever really sang it was when I was actually in the studio. I can't stand the way it turned out. The way I sang it was terrible.

I don't think it's that bad.

A lot of people do like it. I guess, from a personal view, it's not where I wanted to be. It's not where I wanted the band to be. Unfortunately, MTV grabbed onto it and a lot of radio station grabbed onto it. And we ended up redoing it because we wanted to make it better. And when we re-recorded it, it ended up becoming even softer and crappier. The vocals are definitely better on the second version, but the overall feeling of it became a total misrepresentation of what direction we're trying to go in and what direction we've always been in. It threw our audience and/or us into a weird position. We've never played that song live ever.

Has anyone ever asked you to?

Recently, they have. Before they didn't really care. It's very strange. A lot of it could be that the video stations got a hold of it and a lot of these people know that as the first Grade song they'd ever heard that got them into us.

I think it's easier for the general public to latch on to more simplistic, poppy songs.

They definitely do. That was the first time we had ever written anything like that. Usually, our songs are far more complex and far more aggressive. Who knows? We just do what we feel like doing at the moment. Sometimes you regret things, sometimes you don't.

Do you think there are any groundbreaking, up-and-coming bands out there that people should be aware of?

Groundbreaking? I guess it really depends on what position you're in. A lot of people that I talk to don't know about certain types of music. A lot of people that don't know about a lot of metal bands. You don't even necessarily have to be up-and-coming. I think there are so many bands out there already that people need to discover. I think there are bands that need to be noticed by different sets of people. The Locust needs to be noticed on so many different levels. I think Cradle of Filth need to be noticed. The Pixies need to be noticed. Even though they've been broken up for so many years, people don't realize the impact they've had on the emo scene. Weezer and The Get Up Kids are totally influenced by The Pixies. The album "Grace" by Jeff Buckley is the ultimate record. Any person that is into emotion and the best sound ever should be listening to that record. A lot of people are stuck within their genres. There shouldn't be any barriers.

Who came up with the artwork for the new CD, "Headfirst Straight to Hell"? It's really different from anything previous.

The concept itself was developed by Kevin Luellen (sp?), the guy who illustrated it. The original idea was brought up by me and the band. I was saying that I wanted to take a big step forward. We've always done the artwork ourselves and I wasn't happy with that. I wanted something that would be fantastic and would illustrate my lyrical content. Me and Matt did the art direction for the album. We talked to Kevin and he came up with this great idea. He's the most incredible illustrator.

How do you think fans will react to the new album?

Hopefully good. It seems, so far, that people are really enjoying it. It's a lot more driving. It's weird. People tell us different things. One person will tell us "this record is so heavy" and then the next person tells us "this is the most melodic record you've ever done". And we're like "what?!". It's strange that people can tell you different opinions on the same song. It's quite wonderful that we can actually do that. Because it is both heavy and melodic, but people latch onto different vibes from it. I think we've really challenged our listeners and ourselves with this record. The album is so driving and straightforward. It has so many different melodies coming out of everywhere, but it's still heavy. You have to sit down and listen to it like twenty times before you understand what's going on sometimes. I think a lot of people are really happy with the direction we've taken because a lot of people thought we were goign to become a poppy emo band. We were never like that and we will never be like that.

What does the future hold for Grade? Any tour plans?

Yea. First, we're doing our fourth video and the first one for the new record with this great director who's done videos for Alice in Chains and won MTV awards. He's from Canada and he'll be working with us. A few random shows in September. Then we go on tour with the Murder City Devils in October for two and a half weeks. Then, we are going to go up the East and West coasts by ourselves, up into Canada and tour across Canada until mid-November. A few days off then we leave for Japan, Australia and New Zealand in early December. Then we take three weeks off and back into Europe in January and finally back in the US in February.

Top 5 Albums of All-Time?

Jeff Buckley - "Grace"
Black Sabbath - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
My Bloody Valentine - "Loveless"
Dinosaur Jr. - "You're Living All Over Me"
Toss up between Husker Du and The Smiths

Anything last comments?

I don't know. Check our record out. (laughs).