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From the ashes of ‘As I Lay Dying’ a new band with ‘Oh, Sleeper’ vocalist and guitarist Shane Blay was formed. We caught up with Shane Blay to find out more about the new group Wovenwar.

Mayhem Music Magazine: With the formation of Wovenwar, were you the group’s initial choice as a vocalist and how did that call out happen?

Shane Blay: I was the only person they called. I was on the Warped Tour with Oh, Sleeper in 2013. Me and Nick have known each other forever. He knew I’d been a singer forever and he showed my stuff to the guys. After the Warped Tour I flew out and the first day we wrote ‘All Rise’ and they were like “that’s awesome”. So now we’re a band.

Mayhem Music Magazine: Were you able to come in and co-write the songs or were they already laid out and just needed vocal tracks?

Shane Blay: I did all the melodies and the lyrics. They had a majority of the music written by the time I got out there and then we started writing together from there. They already had about six songs that I had to play catch up on.

Mayhem Music Magazine: You are also a guitarist. Did you also bring that part of you to the album or focus mainly on vocals?

Shane Blay: I had to play so much catch up on vocals, I wasn’t able to do as much guitar as they wanted me to. I had to spend my time doing vocals. The next record I will definitely have a lot more guitar stuff and they want me to. We got signed immediately and had to go into the studio immediately. I had to worry about singing.

Mayhem Music Magazine: You joined a group of musicians that have been playing together for years. Did that make things easier for you as a front man or more difficult?

Shane Blay: Live is a different world but I wasn’t scared of it at all. Coming in with them as people was fine. It was very organic and natural. It wasn’t a big deal. Playing live was like a trial by fire sort of thing. I just had to figure out what kind of front man I was going to be. I’d never done it before. Now I don’t care at all. Now it’s completely normal. The first two weeks of shows I was pretty nervous. They were with Black Label Society in the states. We didn’t have a record out on the Black Label tour. That was another reason why being a front man was kind of nervous, no one had ever heard us before. Hopefully they’ll see us now that they’ve heard our record. I wasn’t very good at the first shows.

Mayhem Music Magazine: The vocal styling of the band is much different then the band (As I Lay Dying) the other members were previously in. Was this the direction they wanted to go or the direction you decided to it?

Shane Blay: That’s why they hired me to do what I do. I didn’t want to scream much because I don’t list to any screaming music and I don’t really care about it. When I came in I was like “this is what I would to over the song”. Take ‘All Rise’ for instance, this is my take on the material and they loved it.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What would you like to accomplish on the sophomore album that you weren’t able to do this time around?

Shane Blay: The next record I want to definitely expand on what we do. I want to get heavier and more dreamy. Do more acoustic stuff. I’m still going to be singing all the time.

Mayhem Music Magazine: Do you feel bands have to constantly tour to survive?

Shane Blay: Of course. There is no other way to survive now. If you want to pay your bills and stuff, you have to tour. Bands don’t make anything off of anything else except for t shirts nowadays unless you’re a corporate fucking bunny like Taylor Swift.

Mayhem Music Magazine: What do you think people should realize about today’s music industry?

Shane Blay: Buy Music. We support buying music because if you don’t, bands will die. Music will die if people don’t start paying for it at some point. Stealing music or bitching about a single you’ll have forever costing a dollar when it cost thousands to make is just absurd to me. Support music is what I’d say to people.