During Blackwinter Day we managed to catch up with Dan and Patrick from Escape, here's what they had to say;
You recently toured Ireland what was it like?
A bit more of a disappointment than what we were hoping for but we had a good time. It was scary as we got stopped by the army at a checkpoint and they told us to get out of the truck and put our hands where they could see them and stuff. That was quite scary.
Patrick joined the band in November, how has this changed the band and its sound?
It has changed our sound - we were a lighter but have become slightly heavier.
How do you fit in college and band?
I am at college 3 days a week and Pat is unemployed. The guitarist and drummer work full time and our other guitarist is in college with me, 2 of them left school straight away, others to college...not cause we are lazy or anything!!
Pat: I am not lazy either, I just applied too late!!
At least thats our excuse and we are sticking to it! The hardest to fit in is our drummer as he works in a drum centre and it's a 9 till 5 job which can make it hard to get to gigs...like today he had to take time off work. The rest is easy.
You have a journal on your site, which is very in touch with your fan base?
Well when you go onto a lot of bands websites it just says well like for example Rock city, 8.30 and whenever it is, it's a bit useless. We like to try and stay in touch, sort minibuses and such what ever we have got we like to keep up.
Do you ever fear that as you get bigger that will be hard to maintain?
I think, cause I do all the website and updating it with gigs and stuff and I enjoy talking to them on MSN if they add me, so I know what it's like talking to them and I enjoy it.
Dan - what's the deal with the LEDs on your fretboard?
[Dan laughs] When I got the bass it didn't have any inlays, just this blank piece of wood and with my glasses off and everything I couldn't see what I was playing so I put them in. Plus it always gets people going ohhhh.
If you could go on tour with any band, who would it be?
I think every member of the band would say a different band probably, for me it would be Arch Enemy, or Cradle of Filth, those kinds of band.
When was your first gig?
Well on the website I think it was 1st April 2002, but we did one before that but we don't really count it and it was a while before it. I think it was 2001 but as a holloween gig. It was after a funeral and we were crap! We sounded shit so we try to forget about it now. Luckily we've improved with time.
It's a long time since those early days now.
It's about 4 years, but I don't think we have [become] happy with everything. We are always changing our sound and are just starting to get happy with it. Now that we have Pat, we feel complete.
Escape have their debut release through Copro Records later this year.