A Pre-show Conversation with Nonpoint’s Elias Soriano

Written By: Brandon Delano

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Side Stage Magazine: So Hows the tour going?

Elias Soriano: Awesome, we’ve been with the Buckcherry guys for almost 4 weeks now, and our record is doing fucking awesome.

That’s right you have a new album out “The Poison Red”

Yeah its charting great, were stoked.

2016 has seen a heavy dose of touring for you guys, when will you get a break?

Right after this one were taking a little time off to spend with family, and then were doing a co-headlining run with Escape The Fate.

That will be a good tour.

Yeah we love those boys.

So whats your typical touring cycle for an album release?

We normally do two laps around the country, an A market lap and then a B market lap. Then of course we have support slots, and spring festivals and all that stuff, so hopefully that will all come next year. There are rumors about it. There’s a lot more rumors about us going overseas this year, talks of Australia, South America finally, hopefully some stuff in Mexico, and in the U.K.and Europe.

Lets talk about Europe, you were in Europe last year during the Paris attacks, you decided to stay in Europe and continue the tour, but how has those events changed how you look at touring Europe?

Its scary, it’s still scary right now, there’s a bunch of madness going on over there. They’re targeting people in the states, we’re obviously careful with it as best that we can be, but you still have to do your gig.

Lets talk about the latest release, “The Poison Red”, where do you think it falls in Nonpoint’s catalog of music?

Its getting the best reviews than I’ve ever seen our music get, when it comes to really critical critics, so that’s a great thing. I think were finding a bit of a niche, and finally settling into our style a little bit more. I have two guys that can sing now in the band now with me, a lead and a rhythm which gives us a lot more freedom that we were kind of chasing in the beginning with our music. So were really writing some fun and some big songs in my opinion.

So when you go in the studio are the charts or radio play in the back of your mind as your writing new material?

That usually comes after its done, then you start letting people put their opinions in on which songs are strong. A lot of things have to do with research and marketplace when it comes to the business side of things. A song is a song, you write the song that its supposed to be, whether or not it gets chosen to go to radio or not is really, as of late its kind of up to us, but before it’s just because of what a label feels like, or radio staff feels like, or program director feels like is something that they want to play which is great for us regardless. its like “hey we want to play this song on the radio for you guys”, well shit, play it, go for it, whatever song you guys want to play, play it. You know we let people give their opinions and stuff, if its something that we feel like its something we don’t want to put our foot forward with, especially when its our first foot, we’ll voice our opinion, but its a partnership.

What do you think will be the next single that you release from the album?

We have our hearts set on “Divided…Conquer Them”. It’s a favorite of ours and its slaying live, so were excite to see what people think of it.

How much of the new album is in the current setlist?

More than ever, I can’t even remember the last time we’ve played this much new music in a set. I think in a 40 minute set, were playing four new songs, we play, “Generation Idiot”, “Divided…Conquer Them”, “El Diablo”, and “Standing in the Flesh”.

So with such a catalog to choose from, how hard is it to pick and choose what songs go into the setlist?

Fans like to come out and hear the songs that they like to hear from us. Were not the kind of band that likes to disappoint our fans in that sense, you know were not going to not play bullet. It would almost be like a “fuck you” to the fans if you were to do something like that. Now granted there are times where you have to make tough decisions and you’re not going to make everyone happy when you have 160 songs cataloged. We sit down and we gauge the crowd, the tour, and the fans that we know are going to be sitting out there and we right out a setlist.

So as far as getting your music out there, there’s been a big push towards online streaming sites, what are your thoughts on those?

It’s tough to stomach, but its new part in the way of monetizing it, I guess is the best way to put it. Monetizing music, that in my opinion really doesn’t need to be monetized. I mean we already had a format, already had a way of getting it, to me it dropped the value of it. There’s less effort to get it, less care in listening to it these days. Unfortunately places like Spotify in my opinion don’t really allow people to invest in their bands. If you look at how bands get paid off of Spotify, its less than a 1000th percent. I think my last check that I got was .00008 cents, the envelope and the stamp was worth more than the check. We were the 3rd most streamed metal band on Spotify last year and those are the size of my checks.

So someone is getting the money but it’s just not the bands.

Yeah, people don’t realize what really is going on.

What are your thoughts on the reemergence of vinyl?

Thankfully it’s creating a lot more value, but all its doing is giving another format to physical sales. The physical sales are just shifting like they did from 8-track to CD, to MP3, now its gone back to vinyl, where vinyl has sold more than all the other formats combined last year. But you know its more of a novelty as opposed to the need to hear it as it should be heard. I have a vinyl collection but I also have a $500 record player that I play them on. I’m doing it because I like the quality of the sound, not just because its nice to hang on the wall.

So Nonpoint is coming up on the bands 20th anniversary, are there any plans for a special release or re-release with a tour?

I don’t know, we’ll see, I mean there’s always talks of a million things, but you never know where the business is going to put you. When it comes time who knows we could have a #1 single at radio and have to put all that on the back-burner. People are probably going to be more focused on our new stuff then the past.

What does it take these days for a band to last 20 years?

Sacrifice really, and writing good music.

So with the constant touring how do you balance touring with family life?

It’s a balancing act definitely, but like I said earlier its the gig. You either make a choice that this is what you want to do for a living or you don’t. It’s the same way that people choose to be soldiers and tour overseas, and be away from their families longer than I do, and then there’s CEO of companies who spend 15 hours a day at their job and don’t even see their kids off to school or put them to sleep every night. It’s what ever life you choose to live, this is the one I want.

So do you have any advice for bands trying to make it?

Set your bar high, and be honest with the type of band your supposed to be and stay steadfast.

Ok, well I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us today.

No problem.

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