Rising Stars - LINE OF FIRE

Line of Fire are US based melodic rockerswho have been gaining some rave reviews. If bands like Def Leppard, Journey et al are your thing then read on...

What are you currently up to? (E.g. touring/studio, etc.)

- We are gearing up to rehearse for live shows in 2006 as well as sketching out CD ..2. We're waiting out the Holidays and will begin right after New Year's. We can't wait!

Brief history of how you got into the music business and the style of music you play…

- We've all been in bands for over 20 years now and have seen different levels of national and international success. We started LINE OF FIRE in 2003 with the intention of playing Melodic Hard Rock ala Journey, Def Leppard, Boston, TNT, etc. We wanted big, layered chorus vocals, soaring melodies and huge guitars!! We made the kind of music we wanted to hear and that we would go out and buy ourselves and we're thrilled to finally have it out for people to enjoy!

Could you take us through the album and some personal highlights/stories behind the songs on your new album?

- One thing we're all about is Positive Influence. We don't want to tear anyone down or be just one more depressing thing in a world that already has enough burdens. We want people to walk away from our music feeling good about themselves and thier lives. Songs like "Faith In Fire" & "Live & Let Go" exempliy that. Then there are the "love songs", be it new love, lost love, or unfailing love.
Songs like "Paradise", "Remind Me", "Can't You See" and "Time To Say Goodbye" reflect just human relationships in life and love. We also like to have a look inward a bit, so songs like "Salvation's Edge"
and "Falling Down" turn the focus inward on ourselves, who, what, and why we are who we are and where we're going. So, as I usually end up saying, day to day Faith, Hope and Love sums up the lyrical direction of the band.

How do you hope to get heard above all the other bands and singers vying for attention out there?

- It's all about word of mouth. We're on MySpace and we've amassed a good amount of attention for ourselves. We've also hit all the available avenues for our kind of music and have received a TON of positive, if not glowing, feedback. We're not out to be famous rock stars. We simply want to take our music to people. We feel no need to scream louder than the next guy just to be seen. We rely on the people we manage to attract to tell thier friends and so far its been working out very well. We'd rather build slowly than burn out quickly. We feel that, this way, you attract people who sincerely like what you do and not simply random people who have little to no interest in what you do.

How do you view the current live scene in the US as regards new bands getting exposure?

- It all depends on the style. The trendy bands get the breaks quicker, but the sincere bands will be around longer. Not knocking trendy bands because many of them are very sincere and will continue thier style even after it fades from popularity. But the more "current" something sounds, or the more they sound like someone else who is currently selling tons of records, the better chance they have of some "now" exposure.

Some bands, I feel, play too much. They overexpose themselves in a small area and ultimately burn out and make thier audience less excited about seeing them becuase they just saw them last week and can see them again next week. We feel there should be at least a 6 week cycle for returning to the same area...make your gigs special.

How has the Internet helped spread the word about the band? Do you think downloading is helping or killing music?

- Downloading itself is helping music, but killing the CD industry.
It allows people to test drive music, which is good in this age of having a band on every street corner. But, it also lets people know which CD's to NOT spend thier money on. I think ALL artists/bands should have at least 3 or 4 full songs that they feel is somewhat representative of thier overall sound available to hear on the internet...like with MySpace. If fans could go online, hear entire songs (not just 30 second clips), and have the option to buy the music, it would be infinitely better than villifying the fans for wanting to hear the music before they buy it. It hurts the CD industry because thier goal is to sell CD's, not establish musicians or artists. When the fans can test drive, they filter out the garbage (which is well over half of what the major label CD industry
produces) and spend thier money on music they like.

Now, there are people who seem to think music is a right or that music is owed to them in some way. They feel like they should get it all for free and they, IMO, are not deserving of the privelidge of having good music to listen to. It costs money to record and produce music so why they think it should be completely free to them is beyond me.

The internet has helped LINE OF FIRE tremendously! We have 4 songs, in thier entirety, on MySpace and we have received a lot of attention for them. We nearly sold out the first pressing of the CD in 3 weeks. Once we begin playing live, it can do nothing but grow.
People hear about us on the internet, and either contact us directly or visit our MySpace page and all of a sudden there are literally thousands of people listening to our songs! The ones that like it enough to drop thier hard-earned money on it tell thier friends and that causes a ripple effect. Good old fashioned word-of-mouth.

What bands/artists do you admire and/or are an influence?

- For the band, we all admire greatly and are influenced by bands like Journey, Def Leppard, Boston, Firehouse, TNT, Toto, Dokken and tons of others. Personally, I'm a huge fan of King's X as well as other bands/artists like Harem Scarem, Bon Jovi, and of course Journey. Between us, we have literally thousands of CD's ranging from jazz to death metal so, we're all over the place.

What have been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to date?

- Highlight has been all the wonderful people all over the world who have dropped us a line to tell us how much they like our CD, or how much they love certain songs or how certain songs have helped them through hard times in thier lives...nothing can top that. The only low point I can think of is taking nearly 2 years to get the CD recorded and released...but even that was a blessing in disguise because we're just now getting to a point in our personal lives where we can give it the attention it needs and support it live. Had it come out when we originally intended, we may not be on the path we're on now.

What ideally would you like to achieve by this time next year?

- TONS of gigs under our belts and well on our way to finishing the second CD and on the 3rd pressing of the first one.

What's the most rock `n' roll moment you have had so far?

- Probably having a couple of people I don't know ask me to sign thier CD for them. That's always pretty cool.

What CD's do you currently have available and where can they be purchased from?

- We currently have our debut CD, simply titled "Line Of Fire"
available. It can be purchased from BestBuy.com, VH1.com, CircuitCity.com, you can download it (legally) from iTunes.com, or you can get it directly from our label at TribunalRecords.net. If you go to Line of Fire you can hear 3 full songs and if you go to Tribunal Records you can download one full song...so you get to check it out first.

Message to your fans...

- Our sincerest thanks and heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has taken time out of thier lives to read this interview, check us out online, drop us a line, or buy our CD! We love you for it and we'll never forget! Happy Holidays to everyone!