Interviews: Changing Men: From Autumn To Ashes

'There are a lot of bands where the frontman gets too much credit.' - Francis Mark

Posted Friday, 4 May 2007 in

From Autumn To Ashes What do you call a drummer with half a brain? Overqualified. What do you call a beautiful woman on a drummer's arm? A tattoo. What's the difference between a drummer and a vacuum cleaner? You have to plug one in before it sucks. What do you call a drummer turned singer? Francis Mark, once sticksman and butt of a myriad of jokes about the rhythmically inclined, now vocalist and leader of From Autumn To Ashes, a band that never went away but are in desperate need of a comeback.

"I am very proud of what From Autumn To Ashes has done in the past, but I think we never really achieved what we were really trying to do," admits the newly installed frontman. "Now I feel like we have got ourselves into the band we always wanted to be. The main problem was that Ben (Perri, former vocalist who quit the band at the end of 2006) changed over the past few years and he no longer had any passion for music. With any band only being as strong as the person leading it, him not being there, not stepping up and motivating us really hurt us. All the things that the band was founded on were gone, it was getting really stale. I feel now we are fresh again and I think you can tell that in the new music we've been writing."

With Perri out, the line-up altered, and a ferocious new record in 'Holding A Wolf By The Ears', it seems that From Autumn To Ashes may be relevant once again, but Mark is quick to assert it is not just his presence at stage front that makes the unit interesting.
"I will say that people give frontmen more credit than they deserve," laughs the former drummer, unable to resist a trademark snipe on behalf of his former kinsmen. "There are so many bands where everyone acknowledges only the vocalist without recognising the other musicians who are more talented in the group. Every member of our band right now is better than the next and I think there are a lot of bands out there where the frontman is getting too much credit. Lots of people don't realise that some guys don't write their own lyrics, they don't arrange the music, yet they get all the glory. And it's shitty."

Drummers eh, they never change.

KNOW IT ALL
LINE-UP: Francis Mark (vocals), Brian Deneeve (guitar, vocals), Josh Newton (bass, vocals), Rob Lauritsen (guitar), Jeff Gretz (drums)
FROM: Brooklyn, NY
SOUNDS LIKE: Merciless, marvellous melodic hardcore.
CURRENT RELEASE: 'Holding A Wolf By The Ears' (album, Vagrant. Out now)
DOWNLOAD THIS: 'Love It Or Left It'