Dying to play gigs
Every Time I Die, Buffalo's finest exponents of fast times and punk-metal, are in the middle of a gruelling US tour before they embark on an Australian round, leaving no time for rest.
Speaking from Cincinnati in the middle of a stretch of 11 shows in 12 days, vocalist Keith Buckley says the band from upstate New York wouldn't have it any other way.
"If you get out on the road, every day you don't play is a missed opportunity to sell some records and sell some merch and entertain some kids, so why not," he says.
"We get to relax most of the day anyway, we only have to jump around for an hour. We're not that old yet where we need to cancel shows."
Every Time I Die are revelling in the success of latest album From Parts Unknown, which has picked up the best reviews of their 16-year career. Buckley puts this down to the fact that fans may have expected them to slow down on their seventh outing.
"Once I wrote the record and I realised that it was going to be the best one that we've ever done, I realised it came from a place that no one expected us to come from," he says, referencing the album's title.
The frontman has also been making the most of the long hours on the tour bus in recent years, writing his first novel. Due out at the end of next year, the former English teacher's debut opus Scale follows 31-year-old guitarist Ray Goldman's downward spiral in the wake of a life- altering tragedy.
Buckley says the story may take more than one read for the reader to get their head around it, although he adds editing and "trimming the fat" are still to come.
"The odd chapters start after an event in the main character's life that changes his outlook on things and those are the ascension chapters; he's having a little bit of an awakening as far as his job and his purpose are and his relationships with other people," Buckley reveals. "The even chapters are about his downward spiral, leading up to that beginning point, so once you finish reading it, you can start over."
