The Eyes of a Traitor- *Interview*

Contained within today's senescent article are the words of Eyes of a Traitor guitarist- Matthew Pugh. Huzzahs all around!

Eyes of a Traitor are a Deathcore band from good Ol' Hertfordshire UK. They have released 3 records as of writing (one studio album, one EP and one single) and are set to release their new 2nd album, Breathless, soon. Well without further ado here it is.



Jyujinkai- Have you always wanted to become a musician? Or is it just something that happened?

Matthew- No, not at all. I didn't start playing guitar until I was 16 and all through school I found the music lessons to be the most boring thing ever. A few of my friends were really into their instruments though and they had a show at school called "golden oldies" one year, which involved them playing Guns 'N Roses and Black Sabbath covers. They practised their arses off for it and I went along and saw the show, and it totally changed my perspective on the whole thing. Just seeing them up on the stage having a good time made me instantly want to go home and start saving for a guitar and then I pretty much got addicted to the thing!

Jyujinkai- So what is your current guitar amp set up? Why do you use them?

Matthew- In terms of guitars, I use two Ibanez RG1527 Prestiges which I love to bits. I swapped to playing 7 string guitars a while ago and have no intention of going back! We tuned down to drop B and for me, I found the stings to be a little too floppy and the range quite limited. So the 7 string gives me much better string tension and I tune in a way that gives me an extra top string (B F# B E G# C# F#), so I have huge range of notes. For some reason the bigger neck feels more natural to me than a 6 string ever did.

In terms of amps, I use an ENGL Powerball. It was 3rd hand by the time I got hold of it, and everyone owner including me has toured it... and until recently it had never had a flight-case either, just bumping around in the back of the van, and the thing still sounds incredible. It allows me to get a really clear high gain sound without sounding crackly or fizzy and it has a really tight bottom end on it, which is perfect for the low grooves we use.We toured with After The Burial last year, me and their guitarist, Justin, used a combination of my head and his pedals and managed got the best tone I had heard from it... so I recently managed to get the money together and sling a couple of other gates and a tube-screamer in there too and have my set-up sounding pretty good now.

Jyujinkai- Just an aside, do you think there are many false stereotypes about metal fans?

Matthew- Yeah, definitely! A lot of people who aren't into metal don't really understand the music or the culture that surrounds it at all and a lot of them have very negative views on the whole thing, despite not really having a clue what it's about! The main things that I hear people say is that the music we listen to is just noise and is talentless, which is obviously not the case, but then I guess it's all down to opinion at the end of the day, as I sure don't understand a lot of the music they listen to either haha!

Jyujinkai- Yeah I know what you mean! So what are your favourite genres of music?

Matthew- I appreciate quite a few different genres but my favourite is metal and its various sub-genres haha. I'm a huge fan of instrumental guitar music and would definitely recommend people check out Jeff Loomis' solo album "Zero order phase" and Animals as Leaders self-titled album if you are a fan of instrumental music in the metal category! Outside of metal I'm quite into blues/rock playing, a new favourite of mine being Joe Bonamassa... I think he is great, check out this Led Zep cover of his.

Jyujinkai- So within that, who would you say is your favourite guitarist and why? Are there any songs that showcase his/her style and technique in particular?

Matthew- I'd say that my favourite guitarist is Vinnie Moore, when not on tour I work for an agency and my boss took me to see UFO, which is the first time I had seen or heard Vinnie's playing and his technique and phrasing blew me away. His latest solo album; "To the Core" is one of those albums that I can listen to over and over again without getting bored, so I'd recommend the whole thing, but if I had to pick one track it would be "Soul Caravan" here is a link to it.

Jyujinkai- A man with varied taste! So moving back to your band, how do you write your songs? Is there a process that you use?

Matthew- The process has varied a fair bit over the last couple of years, at first I used to rely on Guitar Pro (tabbing software) for my writing. I would usually start with a riff and put it into that and then flesh it out a bit with chords and drums and then go from there, and send it to the other guys in the band for them to tinker with. I have gone off that idea a lot though recently as you really don't get much of a feel for the music from that, it is midi based so the whole thing sounds like an end of level boss battle on the old gameboys, haha. I recently got Cubase and a Pod X3, so now I record my ideas and send them to the others instead as this gives a much clearer representation of what I am going for. We still use Guitar Pro to document our music though, for practising to later.

Jyujinkai- So after writing *nerdy question alert* when you record, are you a fan of the click track?

Matthew- 100%, I view it as being an essential tool for any musician and practice at home to a click track too. When I was first starting out I wanted to play fast and then later realised that I was sloppy as hell and being able to play slower but tightly was much more important... and of course you can then build your speed gradually from there. It's not only important from a personal stand-point; it helps you to keep in time with other people better too, which is an essential part of being in a band.

Jyujinkai- What would you say is the hardest part about playing your style of metal music as a musician?

Matthew- You just have to keep on top of your game really, there are some pretty fast runs and fast rhythm patterns so you can't really afford to not practice for a while and get sloppy otherwise it would just sound terrible live haha! We like throwing in a lot of dead stops in songs in our live set too so you have to be mindful of your muting.

Jyujinkai- Which one of your songs would you consider you’re favourite? Is there a particular part of a song that you play that you like especially?

Matthew -My favourite Traitor song is "Talk of the town" from our new album; we just uploaded it to the MySpace actually. It's just a very heavy track with a lot of groove which makes it great fun to play live... I had a bit of an ordeal with tracking the solo section for that song in studio as I get mega bad anxiety when it comes to recording... I get the shakes and my mind goes blank so I had to kick the other guys out for a bit while I tracked it. We have a part in an older song called "escape these walls" which I really enjoy playing too, it’s the riff right before and under the solo of that song... again, it's heavy and has a lot of groove which I guess something that really appeals to me with song parts haha!

Jyujinkai- You seem to like using a lot of legato type techniques in your breakdowns. I find this refreshing, is it something you have done deliberately or is it a part of your natural style?

Matthew- I joined the band a couple of years ago but we had a pretty similar style of playing anyway so I fitted in well. Legato is something that me and our other guitarist, Steve, picked up on pretty soon. I never used to be that great at alternate picking so I found the technique essential in helping me get a cross the fretboard fluidly without having to pick everything… so I guess it is just a natural thing to us.

Jyujinkai- How have you found touring?

Matthew- Touring is my favourite thing to do in the world, I love it! My approach to touring has changed a fair bit since I started, definitely in terms of preparation! My first tour, was one February so it was freezing cold and the first date was up in Leeds... and I forgot my sleeping bag, and we were staying on the floor of someones basement essentially, and I froze my arse off... so I learnt that lesson very quickly and make sure it is top of my list these days! As time goes on you learn more about what to take, what spare parts you need to fix your equipment based on what problems commonly arise after a few weeks on the road. The last tour we had, my equipment died on me several times right at sound-check, and being the opening band we had little time to fix it, so I had to learn very quickly how to take apart my rig and do rapid problem solving and fixing... You learn all the time.

Overall though, touring is great, you get to see and do a lot of things you'd never get to otherwise and I quite often find myself sitting there thinking "the only reason I am here to see this is because I picked up a guitar one day", I'm very lucky and hope that it continues! You learn a lot about co-operation too... a month or so in van with the same people, all being tired... sometimes you can get tired and irritable and have petty arguments for the sake of it, which just brings everyone down. So you learn what presses people's buttons and how not to tread of people's toes haha.

Jyujinkai- How have other bands generally treated you?

Matthew- Other bands we have toured with? We have been very fortunate in that we have played with some great bands and learnt a lot from them. We toured with Gojira in February 2009 and they had a massive impact on us as a band, both in terms of mentality and professionalism as musicians. For starters the band and their crew are the nicest group of people ever, very humble and even helped us carry all our gear up 5 flights of stairs to a venue one night. On top of that, they were slick with loading in and out each night and on stage they are clinically tight as standard and that really inspired me to practice my arse off haha! We recently toured with The Chariot too who's focus is more on the energy at the show and we really learnt to let loose and really get into the vibe of a live show from them. For those of you unfamiliar with their shows, give this a watch

Jyujinkai- Any news of things to come?

Matthew- Well the new album comes out on July 12th, and although it is still 'us' there is a big change in feel... the songs are generally heavier and a lot more groove orientated in places. We have worked a lot more on song structure in terms of verse and chorus sections too, and believe it to be our best material to date. In terms of other things to come, we have recently shot a music video for the new song "Come To My Senses" which should be up soon, I believe they are just working on the final edits (at the time of writing). Other than that, we have interviews coming in for the new album and will be back on the road touring it from around September onwards!

Jyujinkai- Well thank you very much Matthew for your time, I hope the new album does well for you guys. Keep on rocking! I'm sure we haven't heard the last from him!

Cheers for reading.

Shai-Hu-Lud Wriggles through the desert.