Shazam Meets…Madina Lake & Kasiuss
On a balmy UK summer evening in August, Chords in Pool played host to a staggering line up of heavy alternative tock, with Chicago boys Madina Lake and rapidly emerging home-grown Leeds lads Kasiuss.
Luckily, we managed to catch up for a chat with both bands. Madina Lake drummer Dan Torelli told us about gigging, album artwork and the issues surrounding playing as a 3 piece after bassist Matthew Leone was serious injured whilst breaking up a domestic dispute on the streets of Chicago. We also spoke to Biz from Kasiuss about a new video they are releasing and how they feel about playing at upcoming behemoth rock festival Leeds/Reading.

Shazam Meets…Madina Lake:
You’re currently playing a few dates in the UK – how is it going?
Awesome! It’s been really fun. We kicked off with Sonisphere Festival then did some Barfly gigs so we went from massive shows to small shows but in general we are so glad to be here.
Do you feel it is important to keep busy?
Since Matthew was injured it has been important to us to keep going and not be depressed about it, we prefer to take positive action as opposed to sitting around being bummed out.
You must miss his presence a lot though?
We miss him tonnes, in every regard. Especially playing Sonisphere without him, it was a big stage to play as just a 3 piece. Matthew generally takes up every inch of a stage so not having him there was weird. We are actually playing to bass tracks that Matthew recorded literally a week before we came over here, he was well enough to get up and lay them down so it’s kind of like having him here in some ways.
Your released your last album ‘Attics To Eden’ in 2009. What was the recording process like?
It was awesome, but it was a labour of love – the producer David Bendeth was really rough on us! It was totally different to the first record which was a total breeze to record, every millisecond was checked over but ultimately I think it made us better musicians and the end result was great.
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