Attraction to Tragedy Interview

What are your earliest musical memories? 

“Hearing Master Of Puppets on the radio as a kid.” - Jaiden

“I used to play drums for my mom’s church when I was like 11 or 12. It was a pretty decent size audience too. It definitely made up for all the religious nonsense.” - Sterling 

“ I would say singing along at the top of my lungs to Pantera and whatever would play on our local radio stations back when I was a wee child. Although I remember trying to learn my first couple tunes when I was six. I could barely wrap my hands around the bass.” - Brandon

What do you love most about your instruments?

“When I play I feel like I’m doing the one thing I’m meant to be doing. The idea that you’re never done learning and that you can always get better is really appealing. That said, there's my inner 13 year old who’s just fascinated by all the colors and shapes guitars come in. They’re instruments and creative tools but also works of art. “ - Jaiden

“There’s a lot about my drum collection that I would love to talk about but by far my Axis pedals are my favorite. I love the way they look and feel when I’m playing them as well as the speed I’m able to reach with my kick patterns. Axis has a unique design that fits my style, not only aesthetically but musically too.”  - Sterling

“I’ve always been drawn to the lower resonance of a bass.

Something about the sound just feels darker and the ability to express whatever chaos is running through my brain by simply picking it up and playing has always been something I cherish.” - Brandon

How did you all meet? 

“I met Brandon through our old drummer. We jammed maybe 2 songs and just clicked. We found Sterling online and offered to fly him out to audition and the rest is history.” - Jaiden

“Brandon and Jaiden found me online, I sent a video doing a play-through for the song ‘Beauty In Bloodshed’ it went well so I traveled up from Texas and we played our first show together at The Palladium in Worcester still my favorite show to this day.” - Sterling

“Sort of a long story but our previous drummer and I had been in a different project together and Jaiden had asked him to audition as Attraction was down a drummer. He initially took years to respond but when he did he told Jaiden that he would only try out if I could come along as well. I immediately felt a connection with the songs so I learned what was asked, jammed a couple with Jaiden and it clicked right away.” - Brandon

What is the meaning of the name Attraction to Tragedy?

“The fine line between beauty and profanity” - Jaiden 

“For me the name Attraction to Tragedy describes my history of toxic relationships and simply finding myself in love with people who drag me down and break my heart.” - Sterling 

“Probably more of a question for Jaiden but I’ve always felt it represented the irony in our human eye consistently searching for what it, apparently, doesn’t want to see. Everyone’s always rambling about the latest tragedies and how they become physically ill at the thought but then they tune back in to the platform they heard of it for another fix.” - Brandon

If you could tour with any artist who would you choose? 

“Theres way too many! Ice Nine Kills, Silverstein, Bullet For My Valentine, As It Is, Capsize, Trivium, Awake At Last to name a few.” - Jaiden 

“If I could tour with anyone in the world I would have to pick Manson because of his antics, he just seems like a fun person to interact with.”  - Sterling

“It’s difficult to narrow it down but I think New Years Day would be a blast to tour with because they’re all sweet people and I know it’d be a good time.

I would also love to play any sort of event with The Gazette because they’re so well put together and every aspect of their band is calculated and huge so I think I could learn a lot. I’m sure Jaiden and I can both agree that one of our bucket list bands to play with would be Bullet For My Valentine.They’ve had a huge impact on us both since discovering them as larval humans so it would be surreal to bring it all full circle. Oh...and Silverstein is sick.” -Brandon

Do you prescribe to a genre?

“The idea when I started the band in high school was metal musicians playing essentially post-hardcore. Since our last EP, Stigma, we’ve been really refining that.” - Jaiden

“I suppose it would be ‘metalcore’ although we’ve adopted elements from a multitude of other genres. It doesn’t feel right simply calling it metalcore. I feel like we don’t really fit in to any one specific genre.” - Sterling 

“ We get a lot of different titles thrown around but I think it’s ultimately up to each listener to decide. Whatever makes it more comfortable or familiar. We just play the songs we’ve always wanted to hear and we strive to be the band we’ve always wanted to see.” - Brandon

What sets you apart from the rest of the scene? 

“We write our music for ourselves and what we want to hear and I think that really keeps us honest. Also Brandon’s [playing is] very different from what I see other bands doing. The bass is its own entity not just the guitars down an octave.” - Jaiden

“We aren’t afraid to push the boundaries of what style of music we play. If we feel inspired by a certain sound we’ll let our creativity roam around that concept even if it’s not “metal” enough for most audiences. Well, that and the makeup.” - Sterling 

“Our integrity and ability to play whatever we want. We’ve got enough diversity now between the three of us that I think we have a little something for everyone.

And we all have great legs.” - Brandon

What setbacks have you faced thus far? 

“Life has gotten in the way for all of us at one time or another and I feel like that's really brought us together.” - Jaiden

“I’ve been breaking cymbals a lot lately, not a cheap habit.”  - Sterling 

“Lineup changes have probably been the worst of it so far, but we’ve always rolled with the punches. It’s important for us to consistently play and that can be difficult at times but we’ve been fortunate enough to keep busy and just keep pushing through.” - Brandon

What are your other interests/hobbies? 

“I honestly don’t do much outside of musIc. Even when I am taking a break and watching netflix there's almost always another tab open where I’m looking at guitars or trying to do some geek stuff like scrolling through lists of every guitar James Hetfield has ever been photographed using.” - Jaiden

“Some of my interests and hobbies other than drumming include body mod, SFX makeup and of course ODDITIES. I am an oddities collector, I work at an oddities shop called The Glass Coffin in Austin, TX, and have my own shop under the moniker ‘Grotesque Anomaly’. “ - Sterling 

“I don’t have much aside from the music but lately I’ve been a fan of traveling to explore different parts of nature and natural wonders. Aside from that probably just memes and pictures of bats.” -Brandon

Is there anything you would like your audience to know? 

“We’ve been hard at work on new music and can’t wait for you all to hear it.” - Jaiden

“This might sound cliche but always be yourself. Don’t let your own negative thoughts or the words of others discourage you. Become who you want to be in life. Love who you want to love. Dress how you want to dress. “ - Sterling 

“Thank you for having us! Stay tuned, stay hydrated and just wait for what comes next. We’ve been reignited and we’re only just getting started. Check out our social media pages to find out when and where you can come get weird with us!” - Brandon