I recently caught up with Jordan Mancino from As I Lay Dying, a band hailing from sunny San Diego, California, during their CD release show for their recently released album “Shadows Are Security” on June 24 th in their hometown. The following is an interview where Jordan speaks his mind on touring, As I Lay Dying's new album, and his opinion on the growing hardcore community.

The Music Appraisal: This show was originally scheduled for June 17th; why was it moved to the 24th?
Jordan Mancino: Well, when we booked it we were trying to make sure we weren't going to book it on graduation day, you know for high schoolers, and apparently on the 17 th there were several high schools graduating. So that age group is obviously one of our core audiences and we wanted to make sure that everyone who wanted to come out could come out so we decided to move it back a week.

TMA: Yeah, I was kind of disappointed Himsa wasn't playing.
Jordan: Yeah, I totally know what you mean. When we changed the date it totally messed with the line up we had so they weren't able to make it out. But Eighteen Visions was able to play, and No Innocent Victim came out too so it worked out in the end.

TMA: Speaking of shows, your next big tour is doing Ozzfest, how do you guys feel about being a part of a major tour like that?
Jordan: It's crazy, man. I'm super excited about it. Obviously, we've done awesome tours in the past like Killswitch last year, Shadows Fall in the summer, and our own tours here and there. But it's going to be one of the biggest tours we've ever done up until this point so it's going to be pretty exciting since we've got an amazing spot, and we don't have to rotate since we're one of the headliners on the side stage, so it's a perfect spot for us, and our new record is coming out and it's just awesome promotion for us.

TMA: You guys have played festivals before; do you prefer playing intimate club settings or festival shows like Ozzfest?
Jordan: Um, I'd like to say festivals but I like playing clubs because it's just so much more mellow. With festivals it's just madness. We were in Europe and we just played Download Fest and a couple German festivals, really big festivals, and it's just so chaotic and there are so many bands going on, and the schedule is just crazy, and your time on stage is just super tight and you're trying to get on and off at the right times, so it can be pretty stressful.

TMA: The songs you play during your set are also pretty restricted too.
Jordan: Oh yeah, definitely. But I think Ozzfest is a lot different from other festivals that we've played because it's really organized, you know there's not like a thousand bands going on at the same time, and it's the same bands going on at the same times everyday so everyone knows what they're doing and it should go pretty smooth.

TMA: Alright, on to the first single from “Shadows Are Security.” Why did you guys choose “Confined” as the first single?
Jordan: We just felt that it was a good representation of the album. Obviously, our new album is in the same style as our last one, except I think the songs are ten times better as far as structure and sound go, and we just felt that “Confined” was the song that we wanted to start with and tell everybody “Hey, this is what we're doing.” So it just seemed like a good way to represent the album as a whole with that one song to our audience.

TMA: I just recently saw the music video for “Confined.” What was the concept behind the music video “Confined?”
Jordan: The concept didn't really come out as clearly as we had wanted it to, but basically it's a boy who is just drawing stuff on the ground, you know different things, and it was supposed to seem pretty ambiguous as to what he was drawing. He was just basically going through his life and drawing down things that meant a lot to him and then at the end the rain just washes it all away. Like the chorus of the song goes “…this is meaningless” and “how quickly [I] forget” and that song is just about the things in this world that we forget are meaningless. You know, everything in the world, what we do, it doesn't matter in the end. What matters is what happens in the after-life, but it doesn't necessarily say that what we do on this world doesn't mean anything, I mean, obviously how we spend our time here is very important, but all that matters in the end is the end.

TMA: What was it like being drenched with cold water over and over again?
Jordan: Oh my gosh, man! It was seriously the worst night of my life. I remember my brother was watching the video the other day on the internet and it just made me cold watching it. We did the shoot in the middle of the night, and there was so much water, we were all completely soaked, and there was a huge fan blowing on us. It was just so cold and it was so hard to play, and I was trying as hard as I could for like six hours straight. I was just freezing and my muscles were tightening up and it was just tough. For me it was bad, because I'm in the center so I'm in every shot so I was in the rain the most out of anyone else so I was just dying by the end.

TMA: I read somewhere that you guys would have to run to heating fans in between takes.
Jordan: Yeah, we had these three huge heaters and after every shot we would just run over there and try to warm up, dry off the water, and then they'd call your name and then you'd say “Dang it!” but then you'd have to go back in and do it all over again. I still think the performance part came out really good in the end, so it was worth it.

TMA: How did you guys come up with the name “Shadows Are Security” for this new album?
Jordan: It's just one of Tim's lyrics and I don't like to speak for him. I mean, I totally agree with what he has to say, but I don't want to speak up in behalf of Tim's lyrics because he wrote them, so I like to leave that to him. Obviously, I know what he writes and what he's saying is important to him and the band, but as for specific meanings of specific phrases I'll leave to him because I don't want to misquote him.

TMA: I noticed there's a good amount of guest appearances on this album with Dan Weyandt of Zao, Jason Moody of No Innocent Victim, and Tommy Garcia of Please Mr. Gravedigger. How did those guest appearances influence the sound of this album?
Jordan: It was more so like we listened to a lot of bands growing up like Zao and No Innocent Victim, and there are a lot of our friends who are in bands now, who were all friends with us when we were going to San Diego hardcore shows. We decided we didn't want to get some famous person to throw on the record, but instead put people on who are really good friends of ours, like Matt from Throwdown did some vocals on there, and just people that are really good friends that share the same core values that we do.

TMA: I noticed you guys were really good friends with Please Mr. Gravedigger and a couple of their members used to be in your band, so I was wondering if you guys would ever guest appear on one of their upcoming albums?
Jordan: I don't know, I mean, Tommy singing in our songs is a lot different from Tim singing in their songs, because their music is just so rock ‘n roll, but you never know it could happen.

TMA: Your new album sounds more metal than your previous albums. Since you guys have strong roots in the hardcore community, do you feel as if you've begun to distance yourself from that community?
Jordan: Not at all, I don't necessarily think that the music behind hardcore, you know, the way it has been done in the beginning and changed in the US, I don't think hardcore has anything to really do with that. Hardcore to me is the attitude, and the whole do it yourself attitude and how everyone is in this together, the kids at the show and us, we're all in this together to make hardcore a great thing and a positive thing, and that's what I think hardcore is really about. Obviously, we have breakdowns and stuff like that, but that's not what really makes us partly a hardcore band, it's our attitude towards the hardcore community that matters. Any hardcore band would agree with that because there are so many different genres of hardcore, so I think it's all about the attitude.

TMA: You guys played a few songs from your new album way before you even started recording the album. What were the crowd's reactions to these new songs?
Jordan: They were good! It's funny, because one of the songs that we originally started playing live from the new record, I enjoyed playing it live and I think we got a better reaction to the live version than we did on the version that came out on the CD. You know, a lot of our music we write, obviously, to play live and they seem to have so much more energy live just because of the emotion and intensity of playing live.

TMA: Did you use the crowd's input to tweak the song a bit?
Jordan: Yeah, I mean, we always look for crowd reactions to the songs we play live. Like there are certain songs we don't necessarily play live, not because we think they're bad songs, it's just that they don't necessarily come out the right way when we play them live. So we try to stick to the songs that get the best crowd reactions so the kids will love our live shows.

TMA: Your previous albums have had a smaller budget than “Shadows.” How did you guys take advantage of the increased production budget?
Jordan: Obviously, mixing was a big part of the album's production, so we spent a lot of our money on mixing, because really, every band that's recorded an album will tell you that it's all about mixing. Like recording the tracks are all important, but when it comes down to it, it really depends on who's mixing the record. Andy Sneed, the guy who mixed ours, did a great job and that's kind of where most of our money went. Obviously, we got to spend a little more time in the studio so we weren't as rushed as we were before.

TMA: I noticed that the past albums from you guys have all been produced by members of your band. Do you think you guys might hire a producer the next time around to work on your next album?
Jordan: You know, I think we're going to see when we get there. With this record we tried to get a producer to come and work with us on this last one, but time wise it just didn't work out. I think having a producer would be something we might look into in the future depending on how we're feeling at that point, when it's time for us to go in and record. I mean, it's one thing to get a producer, but you also have to make sure you get the right producer.

TMA: Well, those were all the questions I had. Thanks a lot for the interview opportunity.
Jordan: Yeah, for sure man.