Heavy Frequency: How did you come across Prosthetic Records? What did it take to get in the door?

Stevie Cruz: I think originally it was a mix between John Pettibone, the singer of Himsa, and Lamb of God. He was into the band way before Prosthetic. They were self-financed tours. He had seen the group on the Coalesce tour. He had his ear to the ground at all times. Marshall was friends with the guitar player of Lamb of God. Those guys came around when we were doing the 1336 stuff. They were really excited about it. I did not believe them, ‘cause it was like, “Yeah right, you guys are…” Then I was just like, “If you guys are into this, pass it onto someone who can put it out.” And they did, it was awesome. The guys at Prosthetic said they had kept an eye on us and had been checking us out for a while. What really did it, though, was those guys putting a bug in their ear and bugging them about it.

HF: Did you do a lot of footwork to get the contract? Did you go to them or did they come to you?

Cruz: We were not trying to persuade them specifically to sign us. We wanted them to be sure about it. It was a matter of passing on the music we were working on, and they were really into it. One of the guys flew out to watch us play at El Torreon with Himsa and he really dug it.

HF: Prosthetic is an independent label, correct?

Cruz: The owner of the label is EJ Johannsen. It is an Indie label with distribution and major label ties. It is distributed by BMG and Sony, but it is about as independent as any other Indie label. Prosthetic is even more independent than Trustkill or Ferret now. Those guys are getting crazy distro, getting bigger. I see that guy on Trustkill doing his own commercials – “We’re an independent label.” – Yeah, right, dude.

Cory White: EJ has commercials too, though, remember.

Cruz: EJ and our label looks a lot more metal than the other label owners.

HF: Did you have any other offers before joining the Prosthetic label?

White: Abacus was super down in the beginning. They tried to sign the band, but we got more stuff from Prosthetic.

Cruz: Prosthetic seemed like a more solid deal. We had been on tour with Radiation 4, and that band was fantastic. The record Abacus put out was unbelievable but they did not support it whatsoever. They totally dropped the ball on that. It made me think, “Man, I don’t know about Abacus.” They were still trying to figure out their identity and figure out what they wanted to do, and Prosthetic already knew what they wanted to do. It was kind of cool that on Prosthetic that we would stick out. We like being the odd man out on that label. They were interested in working with something different at the time, and it seemed like an interesting combo.

Marshall Kilpatric: We are still kind of the odd man out on Prosthetic, compared to the other artists. There are a lot of true metal bands. Himsa in particular is really good at what they do, super-straight metal, grinding stuff.

Cruz: Most bands on Prosthetic are traditional metal or hardcore bands, or they mix metal and hardcore in a traditional way. On The Sureness [of Sleepwalking, 2005] there are the major elements of metal and hardcore, but mixed with a lot of rock ‘n’ roll and put together in a not-so-standard format. It is not very traditional sounding. The vocals are, but they are probably the most traditional, old school standard thing about it. Musically, it is all over the place, in a real subtle way that I do not see in any other bands on the label. Maybe that Yakuza band that just came out, and Kylesa has their own thing.

HF: What were you looking for in a label? What were your expectations of Prosthetic?

Kilpatric: Distribution. We were hoping that they would market and promote our record. It would already be put out, and you would be able to get it, people would know about it.

White: We needed to have attention from the label. With Abacus and Relapse, you could sign to one of those labels and get lost in the shuffle because they have so many bands on the label. Prosthetic is signing lots of bands now, four or five since we signed, but at the time there were only like 10.

HF: Did Prosthetic meet those criteria?

Kilpatric: The roster has definitely doubled in the past year or year and a half. But we got a lot of attention from the label, and we were pretty much considered the priority for the year. We definitely got the push from April till the end of the year.

White: We got tons of ads in magazines, hosted Metal Asylum on Fuse, did WSOU…

Kilpatric: Sirius Satellite Network, Hard Drive, commercials, two videos…

Kilpatric: We have to work as much if not more than what the label will do for us just to maintain and keep it out there.

White: All that we were just talking about, distro, promotion, [depends on] the amount of bands on the label. That way you do not get lost in the shuffle of 15 releases.

Kilpatric: We knew we could write a record like we wanted to write and not have to worry about it.

Cruz: Prosthetic does not have the “Prosthetic sound,” where kids expect your band to sound like X band if you are on Ferret or Trustkill or Victory. You are supposed to sound a certain way. Prosthetic does not have that at all. Kids kind of expect you to be pretty f***ing metal, but Prosthetic is not hip or trendy and that was a key thing for us going with them because all that is going to pass. We want to keep on the up-and-up and not get locked in with all the flavors of the week going on, and make a pretty long career out of this as much as we can.

HF: Who pays for everything? How much of the cost of band life does Prosthetic cover? How has label backing affected the dynamic of the band?

Kilpatric: They kind of got us on the Warped Tour. They put a lot of money into it.

Cruz: It is always going to be a combination of the two, the label and the band. We are not one of those bands that make a video for a song, put out ads and people instantly buy it up. You have to work for it.

White: We are unable to break that down for you. They spend hella money on s***, but so do we. Some money is recoupable income, and some is not. We get various advances for whatever if we need money, some we have to pay back and some we don’t. By no means do they just give you money to go on tour.

Kilpatric: We do not claim tour support.

Cruz: They do not pay our rent… Every band works differently.

White: They pay all recording, distro, et cetera. Other than that, we do not ask for money for anything unless it is super important. Otherwise we just owe them a bunch of money.

Kilpatric: In times of need, like we needed a new van and trailer last year, it was necessary to ask for support.

White: We make all our money from t-shirts, door money.

Kilpatric: It is safe to say that bands make no money off the record.

HF: Who are some of your label mates? Have you had much direct interaction with the others on the label?

White: We toured with Himsa, Acacia Strain, did off shows with half the label, Reflux, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Kylesa, Byzantine

HF: How did you last album, With the Sureness of Sleepwalking, sell? Any other notable success or failure surrounding the album?

Kilpatric: It’s still selling.

Cruz: It is a success to us because we made a record we really wanted to make. Every time we tour, every show, no matter how big of a city or what A-market, B-market, whatever, there is always a certain amount of kids who are totally into it and get off on that record. That is very successful. Being unsuccessful, or not unsuccessful – a lot of kids turn away from it, do not get off on it – I call that success as well.

HF: The Esoteric has faced numerous challenges this year, despite the obvious measures of success with the album, videos, label signing etc. How did you get through it? What held it together?

Kilpatric: We went on tour and stayed out, and never came home.

Cruz: We tried not to dwell on it too much. We tried to live in the moment, doing what we really want to do. What got us through it was being based out of Lawrence and the whole community aspect. Kids in Kansas City, the hardcore scene, really, everyone involved was amazingly compassionate. Everybody’s help is what got us through it.

HF: When did the fire take place that burned down the Esoteric house? How did it happen?

Cruz: It was Feb. 22 at 3 a.m. Marshall was sleeping. Cruz came home. The final say from the fire department was that the cause was undetermined. Nobody is liable unless we hire an independent investigator and spend more to get less. It was not worth it. Looking back at it now it really irks me – how come they did not say anything about the fire alarms? There was not one in there. If there was, it would have been manageable. Apparently the fire had been raging at a certain area in the basement for a period of time. We took photos. They wanted to link it to an electrical fire, but never did. I smelled something really weird. I thought something was burning or some incense or something. It was kind of sweet. Nothing happened in the kitchen. I go in the kitchen, and there is a doorway that is closed. I look through the doorway and there are flames. It did not look that bad or look as crazy as it actually was. I grabbed a towel to open the door – everything came out. Smoke, flames crawling up the walls from the back draft. It was the wrong thing to do – if there is fire, do not open the door – and added a ton of oxygen to the fire. The fire scaled up the wall, going toward Marshall’s room in the attic loft. I was screaming for him to come down. We were running out as it was going up. We were outside watching it go. Immediately you want to run in and grab something.

Kilpatric: You think back now and think to grab keys, clothes, wallet, shut the door. As you are running out, you don’t think of any of that. As soon as you have a rational thought to do any of that, it is too late. Most of our gear ended up flooded. The basement area really did not burn too much. They [the fire department] pumped so much water into the house and into the area the fire was suspected of starting, it erased their point of origin.

Kilpatric: That was a year ago. Marked by being out for a solid year of touring. We left five or six days after that.

White: Thankfully a 10-day tour was booked.

Cruz: It was like, how bad do you want to do what you really want to do? Either full blown, or say f*** it and give up. It was kind of awesome just to be put in a situation that made you choose.

White: If it was at a time when our record wasn’t done, the band wasn’t sign, and we did not have a 10-day tour booked, then the house burned down right before we go… We either go or don’t go. If the record had not been done, it would have been a slow recovery. It was not like, “Let’s plan a tour in five days.” The tour was happening before the house burned down. Everything was ready to happen so it was like, \"gotta go.\" We just went and never came back to get a new place.

Kilpatric: This artist at Blue Collar made a poster. He drew this poster of a burning house with a guy holding a book of matches for our upcoming tour. It was a weird premonition. He made it that week before the house burned down.

Cruz: It burned Marshall’s room, the whole top of the house. My room was burned in spots, the basement in spots. Not every single thing got burned. What wasn’t burned was water logged and flooded. The only thing I was able to salvage was my iPod. I lost my turntables, my mixer. My albums melted. On my iPod, the package melted around it. I chipped it all off and turned it on.

HF: How did you recover?

Cruz: We did not have insurance.

Kilpatric: Getting endorsements and sponsors helped initiate that.

White: We got a lot of stuff back free or cheap. We played some shows, got some money and re-bought the gear. Nodes of Ranvier let us use their gear – that was cool.

Kilpatric: My drums were miraculously salvaged. The drums I am playing tonight are the same drums thanks to Custom Drum.

HF: Many people came together to donate or raise money to get the band on your feet again. What kind of support did you see come in? How much money was raised?

Kilpatric: Community, friends, family, promoters, everybody we know, strangers, other artists, touring bands…

HF: How did it feel to play your own benefit show? When was that/where/who did you play that?

White: Two back-to-back benefit shows. It was unbelievable. The benefit show was a month later, after the tour and before another tour.

HF: With recent label success, should fans expect any major changes with The Esoteric in the future? Will the music take a different direction?

Cruz: Always expect change with The Esoteric. The only consistent thing going on with this band since the first time I saw them – they opened for Neurosis before I was in the band – is that it keeps morphing. It was amazing, totally brutal, grindcore death metal for lack of better words. They played in my basement with a different vocalist, but it was more like super abrasive death metal with breakdowns before there was such a thing as a breakdown. Everything we have done is constantly evolving and changing.

Kilpatric: The next thing anyone will see is a new record.

White: The change in the music has nothing to do with the label or kids being into us. We are super glad the label supports us and kids are into it, but we do not write songs immediately when we do what we do. Everyone does it for themselves first, then the icing on the cake is that the people are feeling it as well. Obviously that is what we want, but we shoot to satisfy ourselves. I do not think we would be satisfied unless we were switching it up and trying things out.

HF: Who did you tour with this year? How did it go?

HF: I understand that you had to drop a few dates off of the tour at the last minute. What happened?

Cruz: Bear Vs. Shark was awesome, so it was unfortunate.

Kilpatric: We have to watch out for our best interests.

Cruz: The last one we did had Scarlet, Calico System, Fight Paris. We actually added one date. It was 50 dates, a lot of dates. It was awesome. A national, full U.S. tour.

HF: How is it possible to maintain a “real life” back home with the pressing nature of the touring lifestyle? Do you think it is possible to have a “normal life” when in a touring band?

Kilpatric: Week one and a half. You’re seeing it right now. [The Bottleneck, Lawrence, Ks.]

Cruz: It is not often we play shows and get to have our boy running sound in a place. These guys have been playing since high school. It is awesome to have a really extensive sound check. We never get to do that. On the last tour we just set up and played. A lot of the dates are in VFW halls, and all we have is vocal PA. We are down with that, we have been doing it forever. It is just awesome to play the Bottleneck.

Cruz: A big misconception of the label thing is that just because a label signs you, you are going to get huge. Like Victory signing Hawthorne Heights. The last band we were on tour with, Calico System, just before the Hawthorne Heights thing, were opening up for Calico System in a VFW hall last year. Half the time playing VFW halls supporting bands who sold more records.

Sometimes it is 30 kids, sometimes 500 kids, it depends on where you are. A lot of places only have a VFW type venue, but they are really fun, usually big and all ages. Other times it is places like the Bottleneck. Small towns a lot of times do not have it. We are spoiled in Lawrence and Kansas City with lots of markets and towns. Or some towns just do not support it. Like Wichita, it is a huge city with tons of people, but it never supported the youth culture, they do not care and it never will. We are down to play good shows, good sound systems, totally down to play VFW halls packed with 400 kids right in your face. That is fun. That is punk rock. It is an important right of passage.

White: In our late 20s playing places like that, you remember being 14, going to shows like that. Those shows changed my entire life, probably. You are doing that for some young kid, you just have to remind yourselves.

HF: How much time do you guys get to spend at home?

White: We are on tour seven and a half, maybe eight, months of the year. Things are a little bit slower right now because we are writing a new record. As soon as we record it, in May or June, we are out of here. This year is almost half over. We are shooting to release in September or October.

Cruz: Summer is the longest break ever. We are working more because we are going to be writing and recording a new record.

HF: How do you make the band work long distance when one member lives halfway across the country?

White: We go on tour, then, say we have a two-week-long break. Marshall goes to Denver. Steve goes to KC. We stay here and do not talk to each other. Two days before the tour, everyone meets, we practice two times and that is our pattern. We have been doing it all year, except for this break, where we have regularly scheduled practices in order to write s***. Usually it is, “What does the calendar look like?” We have this much time off, everyone takes off, then everyone comes back, meets, and leaves.

HF: Does the name “The Esoteric” have any direct correlation with or representation of messages the band portrays, or was it simply an arbitrary word selected for a band name?

Cruz: It is definitely not an arbitrary word. It represents what the band is about and has been about, where the band came from and what we still maintain. At the same time, it is weird now because we have a video on MTV2, and that is not very “esoteric.”

White: Metal in general is an esoteric style of music. If you really think about it, the masses – there are close to 7 or 8 billion people in the world – how many people in the world like metal? Less than half, even less than that. It does not mean that millions of people in the world do not like metal. It could be that 2 billion people in the world like metal, and that is far from the majority. Anything that is not the majority is esoteric. It is made for a select type of people.

Cruz: Bands, movies, visual artists, writers, anybody who has inspired the group individually or as a band I would consider esoteric. Whatever information, if there is any kind of message, it is definitely something that is not widely accepted or known by the masses.

HF: Few bands from the Midwest have had the opportunity to record a music video, much less two that receive airplay on MTV2. For which songs did you release videos?

Cruz: We did videos for “Ram-Faced Boy” and “Your New Burden,” both directed by Matt Bass, and produced by Stephen Johnson at Factory Features.

HF: Who came up with the concepts for the videos? Did the band have a voice in the creative aspect of it?

Cruz: Matt. We love Matt. We all hang out and talk to him and when we are around each other. He lives in LA, and we have been out there so much. If he lived here, we would hang out and go to the bar, and we do that in LA every time we are there. If we are going to do a video, he e-mails us various ideas. He is really open to the band and really gets what we are about. He has super awesome ideas, and he is interested in what you think, how you feel.

HF: What is in the future for the Esoteric in 2006?

Cruz: A new record with 10-ish songs, probably a September or October release. I think, no pun intended, that Sureness was slept on by a lot of kids. It is going to be one of those records that catches on later. It still is. Slowly but surely more and more kids are picking up on it and being like, “Whoa, how did I miss that?” The new video for “Your New Burden,” which I would say is probably one of the more accessible songs on the record, that is going to draw not just metal and hardcore kids, but kids who like rock, emo, whatever they like. 2006 is going to be a really interesting year. People will keep discovering this new record, and then be blown away by the next one. Then we will tour the hell out of the next record.

The Esoteric entered the studio in May to begin recording their second release on Prosthetic Records, Subverter. The band is recording the record at Black Lodge Recording in Eudora, Kan. as well as at an undisclosed location in Kansas City with Producer/Engineer Paul Malinowski (Shiner, Open Hand, Season to Risk). The record will include songs such as “Our Exquisite Corpse,” “Destroy She Said,” and “You are the Execution.”