We were able to talk with Get The Shot bassist Dan Fisher Roberge in an interview about the new full-length Infinite Punishment, the upcoming European tour with Lionheart and Nasty and many more things.
AFL: Hey, how are you? Firstly thanks for taking time for the interview! You have released your long-awaited third full-length INFINITE PUNISHMENT last August. For me one of the best hardcore records of last years! How distinguish INFINITE PUNISHMENT from NO PEACE IN HELL (2014) and PERDITION (2011) in your opinion? Are there any differences in the writing process, sound and so on?
Dan: Thank you for the invitation and the great words, it means the world to us. We’ve worked our asses off on this record and I must admit that we are pretty proud to finally show the result. PERDITION (2012) was our first LP and was written with a slightly different line up and under different circumstances. It was a instinctive first attempt to get together and express a common shared feeling.
NO PEACE IN HELL (2014) was our first effort written with the line-up we are today. As some of us grew up listening to thrash metal classics, it was inevitable that our work together would cross over a little bit more.
What distinguish INFINITE PUNISHMENT (2017) from our previous albums is that it is a lot more assumed in the genre. We still consider Get The Shot a hardcore and it will always be, but we definitely embrace our other metal influences to create something that we can call our own. It is the outcome of three years of hard work. During that period, Guyp our lead guitar wrote about 44 song ideas. We then worked together on 24 of them to finally keep only 11 for the record. I feel like we could have worked on that forever. There’s still some spontaneous moment on that album as JP recorded all his vocal in one session and even wrote Evil Rites live in the studio.
As our music is tinged with metal influences, we decided to work with someone who breathe metal, Chris Donaldson from CRYPTOPSY. As far as I’m concerned, I cannot say that we did something really different in the studio approach. We want our work to reflect what we are live, as loud and as wide as possible.
AFL: Who is responsible for the artwork and how came the idea of the style? I really like it!
Dan: The artwork was created by the one of the greatest, if not the Greatest artist from Quebec City, the magnificent Alexandre Goulet. He is known for his work with Despised Icon, Ion Dissonance and All Out War to name a few. Goule has worked with us in the past for several t-shirt and poster designs. We wanted the artwork to reflect the overall cohesion of our work. Something that was more grounded in the old death metal imagery. Something that can fit between an OBITUARY and a ENTOMBED album.
AFL: What are your musically and lyrically influences on INFINITE PUNISHMENT and why you choose the album title?
Dan: JP is the main guy behind the main concept of the album. He writes all the lyrics and gives all the major artistic lines. There’s always a general idea behind his writing. As far as I’m concerned, PERDITION was the questioning of a man weather he’s fundamentally good or bad. NO PEACE IN HELL was the realization of his own failure and the struggle of his willingness to be a better self. INFINITE PUNISHMENT is the acceptance that there is no more hope. You are in the depth of hell and there’s nothing you can do.
We listen to all kind of music in the van but mostly 70’s rock icons like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, 80’s thrash metal pioneers like Slayer, Testament and Metallica, 90’s hardcore like Strife, Integrity, Hatebreed and All Out War and other classic death metal and doom like Pallbearer, Saint-Vitus and Obituary. Musically our main influences come from different era of extreme music. I can personally say that I was a lot influenced by recent bangers like Power Trip, Gatecreeper and Darkest Hour.
AFL: After your tour with the YOU ARE PART OF THIS TOUR (Comeback Kid, Deez Nuts, …) in the beginning of this year, you will come back to Europe in November with NASTY and LIONHEART. Is there any show you’re looking forward specially? And what do you like on tour life and what less?
Dan: The YOU ARE PART OF THIS TOUR was the biggest tour we’ve done so far and we can’t be more grateful to the guys in Deez Nuts and CBK for bringing us on this run with them. We quickly met NASTY on that run and we are so stoked to hit the road with them. Really glad also to see LIONHEART back on stage to do what they do best. I’m sure it’s gonna be one of the heaviest and loudest tour of the year. There is a lot of cities we’ve never played before. But if I have to choose one show that we look forward, I must say that Paris is always stupidly insane for us.
Playing live is what we love the most, connecting with the crowd and refuel on that energy. Hardcore always had this “Made by kids, for the kids” mentality where nobody is better than anyone else, on stage or off the stage and that’s what we’re all about. On the road you can finally say THIS IS WHERE I BELONG. Of course, as we’re getting older, tour has become a little bit harder on our bodies. Old injuries resurface and we are getting more fragile to the lack of sleep.
AFL: How distinguish touring in Europe with touring in your home Canada? Are there any differences? Big bands like COMEBACK KID, THE REAL MCKENZIES and you seem to be touring the US and Europe a lot and everywhere else but Canada, why?
Dan: Europe was the first to welcome us with arms open. There is a community feeling like nowhere else in the world. Since our first squat tour back in the days, every concert promoters had offered us food, drinks and a place to sleep every night. I feel like North America is a lot more individualist than European countries. Furthermore, it is a lot more viable to tour on your soil as there’s a lot more of people and cities. Canada is a wide country with not a lot of people in it.
AFL: Have you some newer bands from Canada which are worth to mention?
Dan: Canada and especially our local scene in Quebec is one of the most prolific and active scene I’ve seen in a long time. Go check out our brothers from APES, Boundaries, Cardinals Pride, Ghostblade, Harriers, Depth Of Hatred, Obliterate, Die Hexe, Loyalist, Feels Like Home and all the New Damage Records catalogue.
AFL: If you could choose a band you can play a tour together. Which band would you choose and where would you play the tour?
SLAYER ON A EU/UK TOUR ALL THE WAY!!!
AFL: Here are some tags. What is your first thought about it?
- Sport: Lifting!
- Punk-Rock: Never trust a HC kid who never listened to punk rock.
- North Korea:
- Vinyl: Support your bands.
- Wolf Down: VICTIM IS ALWAYS RIGHT.
AFL: Thank you for the interview! Have you any last words or something to add?
Dan: Keep on the fight against machismo, sexism, homophobia, racism, xenophobia and fascism. Just care about something and do something to make it better.
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