It’s been a crazy old year for Beartooth. With almost a year passed since they released their second full length album Aggressive, as well as getting some serious touring under their belts, we caught up with guitarist Kam Bradbury to find out how things are going in camp Beartooth.
BM: You played Slam Dunk Midlands yesterday, how was that?
Kam: It was insane, we played this indoor arena and it was just front to back, completely full- everyone just had so much energy. We just love this festival, it’s like a second home to us.
BM: So it’s been pretty much a year since you released Aggressive, how have things gone since then and in comparison with the receptions to Disgusting and Sick in previous years?
Kam: It just keeps getting bigger, I mean with Hated coming out, at least in America we’re getting played on radio stations and stuff, so the response to that song alone has been astronomical. It just keeps going; we’re very grateful for it!
BM: You’ve just done the American Nightmare tour with Bring Me The Horizon and Underoath, then you played Rock On The Range- was that a home town show for you?
Kam: That was hometown, my Dad was there! He was so excited, he had a great time
BM: Did you catch any of the other bands while you were there?
Kam: I made a point to see In Flames, because I’ve been a huge fan of them since junior-high. I watched Metallica, of course. Korn, a few older rockers
BM: So then you’re heading out to Australia after this?
Kam: Yes! With The Amity Affliction and Pvris. And then Warped Tour
BM: Do you have anything special planned for Warped Tour
Kam: I love Warped Tour, it’s one of my favourite tours. This (Slam Dunk) kind of reminds me of Warped Tour a little bit, just smaller and kind of more organised. You know what time you play every day and stuff like that, but on Warped Tour you just wake up thinking ‘what time do we play today…?’ It changes every day, which is cool, it’s like a summer camp. Like a band summer camp.
BM: How many times have you played Warped Tour before?
Kam: We’ve played it twice, but I’ve actually done the tour four times because I used to tech for Amity Affliction and a band called Like Moths To Flames
BM: You’ve just released a new video for Sick Of Me about four days ago, was that song written about personal experiences?
Kam: Yeah it was written by Caleb about his experience with depression and finding himself. We wanted to release that video to show what other people have done to get out of their depression- it opens up saying there’s no known cure for depression but this is what some people did. We also released a shirt for charity to help people as well!
BM: The video follows some people and their experiences with depression and with combating it- where did you meet those people?
Kam: The film director actually found them- we didn’t know them but their stories are incredible. Especially the guy who walked from Nashville Tennessee to LA, it was mind blowing. He was a veteran.
BM: How was it working with the director Marc Klausfeld? He’s worked with the likes of 21 Pilots and Katy Perry and people like that hasn’t he
Kam: I actually did not meet him. We all had a phonecall with him where we talked about ideas and things, and he said ‘if you guys want to be in the video then that’s cool, you can, if not it doesn’t really matter’. He came out to the LA show to film the part with Caleb talking about himself, and the live shots were just live shots from our Columbus show. It’s great, it turned out awesome I’m glad that people are liking it
BM: It’s come out at an ideal time with Chris Cornell’s death a couple of weeks ago, you guys are sort of raising awareness
Kam: Well we didn’t mean to time it like that of course, we were supposed to play Rock On The Range on the Soundgarden day and that literally happened the day before. Just the whole mood of the festival was kind of weird, it was a little bit sad. I think everyone kind of stepped their game up to play for him and celebrate his memory
BM: So what happened then with Soundgarden’s set?
Kam: They were supposed to be headlining, they did a tribute set so Corey Taylor came out and like a bunch of bands pulled together so quickly. I actually saw Stone Sour the day before, and Corey was like ‘oh we’re playing this song today’ and they played a Soundgarden song at that show. That was really cool, pretty heavy though.
BM: The reaction to such negative things from people bringing together a sense of community is incredible
Kam: It’s the music scene man, it’s awesome
BM: Anyway, did you have the idea for the video of Sick Of Me before Caleb wrote the song or did that come about afterwards?
Kam: Yeah the video idea came a lot later than the song. It’s been about a year and a half since we released the song so… We just thought that was a good idea for a video to go with the song, hopefully it helps some people out
BM: And the deluxe edition of Aggressive came out two days ago!
Kam: Yeah, there’s a hometown show on there from Columbus on our headline tour- we put a lot of work into it, we had a full film crew and a lot of production went into it. It turned out awesome, I’ve watched it personally like five or six times. I kind of feel weird watching it myself. There was so much family there and so many friends, it showcases it in the video because in between each song there’s us talking about our hometown and what this means to us now, all that stuff. Things like I went out to eat with my friends and the camera crew came and got some shots of that; it shows our home life a little bit too
BM: There’s some bonus tracks and things on there too?
Kam: Yeah, there’s a 7 inch which has Hated and Sick Of Me acoustic tracks, and then there’s some live tracks on the deluxe edition as well
BM: Finally, what are your plans for after Australia and Warped Tour- the winter through to next year?
Kam: We’re going to take most of that time off to write the new record and get that going so…
BM: Do you have any idea when you’ll have anything to release
Kam: Well hopefully next year! But you never know, whenever it’s done!
Photography by Ben Bentley
