NO-ONE KNOWS...
WORDS:
Alistair Lawrence
PHOTO:
Vanessa Heins
“A PROMOTER GAVE
US MATURE PORN!”
I LOVED PHANTOM
OF THE OPERA
“When I was a kid I bugged my parents
to let me see it about four times. I took it so
far that I put on part of the play at school in
my grade-two class. I don’t think it was even
for an assignment! We got a chandelier from
a garage sale for it (laughs). I don’t know
how familiar you are with Phantom, but the
chandelier forms an integral part of the show.”
POP STARS LOVE ALEXISONFIRE
“A few months ago I got invited out to Post
Malone’s show in Toronto – he’s a big Alexis
fan and wanted to hang out. He was lovely
and it was a trip. Last year, Gallows went to
see The Weeknd play in Toronto and he was
like, ‘I’m so stoked that you came out – [
AOF album] Crisis was my shit when I was
in high school!’ On one hand it’s strange,
but I play the music I play and listen to their
records – maybe they think that’s weird!”
I GOT CAUGHT UP IN A
GERMAN FOOTBALL RIOT
“The day before an Alexis tour started in
Hamburg I went to a St. Pauli match with friends.
It was a local derby so there was a large military
presence – they had water cannons set up, and
I don’t know if this is what you guys would term
a ‘soft’ football riot, but it definitely jumped off
and there were people getting sprayed! We
ran and hid out in a department store amid the
chaos, but then they just went and got a beer,
so I’m guessing it wasn’t a big one.”
MY FIRST TATTOO STILL ITCHES
“It’s a Bouncing Souls one, on my leg – and
it was such a [bad] job! It’s basically three-
dimensional because of the way it’s raised up
off of my skin, which means it’s constantly
itchy. I got it when I was 15 and I love it, but
it’s definitely my worst one.”
I LEARNED WHAT IT TAKES
TO RUN A DAIRY FARM
“At catering backstage at a festival one
morning, there was one other guy there and he
told me, ‘This is nice milk – and I would know,
I own a dairy farm.’ So I ended up having a
20-minute conversation with some guy about
what it takes to run a dairy farm!”
I’VE BEEN GIFTED PIE AND PORN
“When Alexis were touring non-stop we
added ‘gifts’ to our rider, and what some
people did with that was pretty funny. At
one show a promoter took it to mean a lot of
very mature pornography magazines. Another
time someone’s sister made us a strawberry-
rhubarb pie. If I were only allowed one, it
would be the pie – no question.”
MY BIGGEST REGRET IS
NOT RELEASING CRISIS
THROUGH GUITAR HERO
“I try not to sweat this stuff too much,
but Alexisonfire could’ve released Crisis
entirely through the game. I’m happy to have
just released it as a record and not a gimmick,
but at the same time maybe it would’ve got
our music out to tons and tons of people.
DragonForce got a platinum single because
of Guitar Hero? Don’t rub it in!”
ALEXISONFIRE’S NEW SINGLE COMPLICIT
IS OUT NOW via dine alone records
18 KERRANG!
ALEXISONFIRE and GALLOWS’ WADE MACNEIL
knows his stuff when it comes to musical theatre, getting
ink done and, um, unusual rider requests...