Antithesis
Interview Courtesy of 1340mag

1340mag: Antithesis has been around since 1997, could you give our readers a brief history of the band?

Antithesis: Antithesis was formed by Sean Perry (guitarist) via the use of musician want ads in the local free newspaper. Tall Paul (guitarist #2) joined first, then Ty (vocals) and I (bass) joined in October 1997. Paul Kostyack (drums) joined in Feb. 1998.

1340mag: I noticed your fan club is called "Opposition" and the name Antithesis could be defined as this as well. What, exactly, are you as a band opposing?

Antithesis: We are "opposing" the hateful, violent, comic book/hobby satanic messages. We are trying to offer an alternative (the contrast or "opposition"...hence our name) to the young people who listen to this style of music. We are just trying to be more positive. We determined at the outset of this project not to write about the aforementioned topics.

1340mag: You have been described as a power metal band and this seems to be a dying breed of music (unfortunately,) how do people respond to Antithesis' style of music, generally?

Antithesis: We have been gaining more and more popularity every week it seems. Our live shows are very energetic and the crowds respond most favorably. I think we offer enough progressiveness to our music to make it fresh and not just "power" metal. Many people e-mail me and say, "all you need now is keyboards and Antithesis would be even better". We tend to agree and are searching for keyboardists now (have been actually for the past 6 months). If you read through our reviews on our web site from all over the U.S. and Europe, you will see we are receiving excellent marks, especially from Germany.

1340mag: On your current CD the song "The Web" really stuck out to me because of the very "detailed" lyrics. Could you describe what this song is about and how it came to be?

Antithesis: Ty writes almost all of the lyrics but he and I have discussed the meaning of The Web before, so forgive me as I paraphrase for Ty. The Web is about the pitfalls of lust, basically. If you approach the song from that perspective you can see how the lyrics develop that idea. As for how the song came to be...originally Ty planned on The Web to be about cyrbersex, but keeping with our idea of being Antithesis, changed it to the pitfalls of lust.

1340mag: Recently Antithesis had a very positive article written about them in Metal Maniacs, how did this come about and has the response been well received?

Antithesis: Matt Johnsen interviewed us at Powermad 1999 outside of Baltimore. We did not know at the time (that) he was going to give it to Metal Maniacs. We were just fortunate in the fact that a spot opened up for us to get some press. Matt did a lot to help us out and we thank him profusely. The response from the MM article was very good and gained us some more fans. Matt was just down in Cleveland for a show we did Feb. 25 as a matter of fact, very cool guy.

1340mag: How is the recording of the new CD coming along?

Antithesis: Very well thank you. We just finished two of the tracks last weekend (March 3-4) and need to finish the final mix down and get them mastered. We have about 3-4 other songs halfway done and like 3-4 more in the infantile stage.

1340mag: Do you have a title for it yet?

Antithesis: We have kicked around some ideas. I was thinking of titling the disc "Dying for Life" and the guys were pretty receptive to this idea. I have an album cover idea already worked out in my head as well, which fits the concept of this title. I also have a song (lyrics) in my head as well for this title. All I need to do now is find an artist to talk to about drawing my idea and get the lyrics on paper for Ty.

1340mag: Could you give us a sneak peek as to what this CD will be like?

Antithesis: The new CD is going to be much better production wise. The last CD was not bad, actually the remastered version is very good we feel, but the new CD is amazing! The 2 tunes we did already blow the old production away and they aren't even final mixed or mastered. As for the material, we are moving into a more progressive realm while maintaining our power. There are a couple tunes that are somewhat faster and more technical that the first CD and also a couple tunes that are more straight-ahead powerful and melodic. We are experimenting with some new time signatures also.

1340mag: Are there any current plans to do a tour for the upcoming CD?

Antithesis: Well, that would depend on if we hook up with a label or not. Right now we are doing several shows each month on the weekends but no real tour per se. I would like to see Antithesis do a 1-2 week mini tour up and down the East Coast and Midwest by the end of the year, but only time will tell. If all goes well, and Antithesis continues to gain popularity, maybe we'll be lucky enough to get to Europe in the spring 2001.

1340mag: How can one acquire a copy of your CD?

Antithesis: Anyone can send a money order made payable to Antithesis, Inc., P.O. Box 88, Nova, OH 44859 for $12 inside the U.S. and $15 worldwide. We also have a merchandise page with a downloadable and printable form with all of our merchandise listed and people can check the items they want, their shirt size, and write in their Visa or MasterCard number and mail the entire form with their order to us. Or just use the form with their money order. That web site is http://www.antithesismusic.com

1340mag: What do you think is a better concept album... Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime, Dream Theater: Metropolis 2 or The Who: Tommy.

Antithesis: Without a doubt I would have to say Operation Mindcrime.

1340mag: (I ask this to everyone I interview) Who is your favorite Comic Book Hero and why?

Antithesis: Man, I never read comic books as a young man. But if I had to pick I'd say Batman because he had a really cool car.

Antithesis: I would also like to say thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point in our careers. Please spread the word of Antithesis and check out our web site when you get a chance. We are hoping to have a message board up soon. http://www.antithesismusic.com we also have another web site done by our Danish management, Intromental Management from Copenhagen at http://www.intromental.com/antithesis

*** Teens4Jesus would like to express their gratitude for 1340mag.com for sharing this interview with us. Please go and check out their site and the other interviews they have there. The site is http://www.1340mag.com ****