Straight Line Stitch
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"Soulful face-ripping metal" might sound like blatant record company hyperbole, but it’s a perfect description of Knoxville, TN based Straight Line Stitch. The group who just recently released their Raging Nation/KOCH Records debut, When Skies Wash Ashore is a ying-yang combination of beauty and brutality. Their debut mixes bone crushing intensity with soulful melodic choruses that rage with the ferocity of Pantera and the sweeping melody of In This Moment.
Blistering.com caught up with Straight Line Stitch guitarist Seth Thacker and the group's gorgeous frontwomen Alexis Brown to discuss the band's debut, collaborating with Hatebreed's Jamey Jasta and why Alexis is more than just eye candy.
Blistering.com: Can you give us a quick rundown of how the band came together and how you got to the present line up?
Seth: Man, this can get complicated [chuckles]…. Technically speaking, Straight Line Stitch began nine years ago and we've had a handful of lineup changes, but Patrick Haynes (drums) and I are the founding members of the band. Patrick and I like to think that the band didn't officially start until 2003, which is when we got Lex to join the band. She is initially from Clarksville, TN which is about four hours west of Knoxville, TN. She sang for a band called FSN which we used to trade shows with. At the time we were having issues with our singer because we wanted to have singing in our music, not just screaming all the time. It turns out Lex was having trouble in her band as well because she wanted to tour and branch out farther from her hometown area. Patrick knew her the best so he called her up and asked her if she would be interested in singing for us. She was all about it - she packed her stuff and made the move to Knoxville. Immediately there was an impact from her singing with us. Not the same drab metal...we were able to write more melodic music with her and still keep the heaviness.
We found Jason White (bass) in 2005 while we were on a DIY tour. He is from the Atlanta, GA area. On the Atlanta stop of the tour he was filling in on bass for another band we knew from that area. We were all like. "Who the hell is this guy," because he was so awesome! We were having issues with our bass player at the time so Alexis and I just started talking to him. No real intentions of asking him to join our band at the time but we certainly wanted to fill him out and get to know him. We exchanged phone numbers and told him we would give him a call if we knew of a permanent gig that he could join. Turned out that we couldn't settle our differences between the bass player we had so we called Jason and he made the move to Knoxville to join SLS.
We found Pat Pattison (guitar) just last year from mutual friends, right before we signed with KOCH records. Some friends of ours told us about him and that he was looking for a more serious band than the one he was in at the time. I gave him a call out of the blue one day. Looking back I'm not even sure he was expecting my call...I just called and started talking. See, at the time we had a friend of ours that was just filling in the other guitar spot so that we could fulfill our touring obligations. We needed someone to fill the other guitar spot permanently and quickly because we had all of the record deal and video shoot stuff already in the works. When I called Pat, I said nothing of these things because we wanted someone to join the band because they loved what we were doing and they wanted to be a part of it...not because we were about to be signed. So after explaining everything the best I could without giving anything away, he bought his own plane ticket, put his current job on hold and came to Knoxville. He fit in nicely with us and even brought a new feel to the band because he is an effects guru.
This band has gone through so many faces just to get where we are, but with this lineup we are solid. I cannot say how much I admire everyone in this band. Particularly Jason, Pat, and Lex because they all gave up family, jobs, and just about everything else to move down here and be in this band. Thankfully, none of that has been in vain.
Blistering.com: Your debut is the first release on Raging Nation Records, the new label started by video director Dale Resteghini who has done high profile videos for Mudvayne, Hatebreed, Walls of Jericho and others. Tell us, how did you guys become the first band signed to his label?
Alexis: We met Dale a few years back when we were on tour with friends that knew him personally. It was by chance that we got to sit in on their meeting with him and his wife, Kim. At the time they were telling us how they could help our career by making a simple video. These days people are looking for the visual to go along with the music. Apparently we made an impression because unbeknownst to any of us, he took notice and tracked us for a year and a half. I suppose he noticed that we are a DIY band. We don't sit around and wait on things to happen to us - we go out and make it happen for us. So one day I get this call out of nowhere and its Dale. He's telling me he wants to help us get a deal, and that he personally wanted to manage us, needless to say I was blown away!!
First things first...Dale is a video producer so he got us down to Atlanta, GA where he was doing another video for some huge star. He managed to get the crew from that video to work an extra day and help out on our video for the song Remission from our 2007 EP The Word Made Flesh. In the meantime, he is pitching us to Koch records who at the same time were working with Dale to set up his own imprint, Raging Nation Records. We had a show already scheduled in Richmond, VA and he was able to get KOCH Records to come out to. Most of this stuff is a blur - it has all happened so quickly.
Blistering.com: How instrumental was touring with DevilDriver in establishing the band and earning fans?
Alexis: I definitely think that the DevilDriver tour was very instrumental to us because we got to learn a few things first hand, for example, not all great bands are assholes. They showed us that no matter how big you are in the public eye, you don't have to have that rock star mindset. I feel like it was a blessing for us to have been on tour with those guys they really took care of us! To me, I think DevilDriver is one band who has really worked hard and paid their dues, not to mention they have so many diehard fans and it was just a blessing to be able to share the stage with them and have their fans become our fans without any egos getting in the way. That whole tour was amazing and we had a blast. I wish we could do it again.
Seth: Man, that was a really scary time. We initially weren't supposed to be on that tour. Walls of Jericho had to drop off due to recording duties so it was a gift for us to even be part of it. We had never done anything of that scale before. We were used to playing in legion halls and dirty dive bars. Getting to work with bands like DevilDriver, Napalm Death, 36 Crazyfists and Invitro really opened our eyes. Just the importance of showing up on time - not that we're ever late but - the whole logistics of working together on a tour of that size was amazing. Also seeing the way all those bands treat other bands is a treat. They are all humble and treat everyone equally and we will carry that on with us as we progress and hopefully get bigger
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