Andrew Hercules & Sean Dooley

The End

Ok, those of you who have read my interviews before are probably familiar with the fact that I like to have fun during interviews and this one is no different. It's by far the most fun I've ever had during an interview because these guys are friends of mine (we met way before I ever thought about working for Metal Temple) and we were all shit faced drunk by the time we did this interview. In the text, I did notate certain areas where we laughed, but we pretty much laughed through the entire thing. This may be the most fun interview I've done yet, but it was also the most difficult to conduct. I recommend trying it sometime. Try to conduct a supposed serious interview with a couple of friends while being plastered drunk and having your best friend film the whole thing, who's also drunk, and see how well it goes. It's guaranteed fun!

Seriously, these guys are awesome. If you haven't heard them yet, (where the hell have you been) I highly recommend checking them out. It's great Hardcore Metal, almost like Opeth meet Dillinger Escape Plan... anyway, onto the interview...

By Katrina Cannon

• July 13, 2005

How's the tour going so far?

Andrew: How's the tour going so far? Sean, you wanna take that one?

Sean: It's ok. [All Laugh]

Andrew: Nah, we've been out for like 2 weeks now. We did a couple of days by ourselves and then we hooked up with Into The Moat and The Red Death and we've been together with them for like a week and a half, that alone makes it a good tour, plus they're really cool bands. We've done some cool stuff.

Sean: Lots of hacky sack.

Andrew:Yeah, lots of hacky sack. Hacky sack has been the theme. We brought the hippie Canadian past time to the U.S.

Sean: We packed up the football. [Laughs]

Andrew: The pig skin is gone! It's been replaced with the hacky sack and that's been cool cause hack's fun and we're easily entertained.

I last saw you back in March of 2004 and you've been on tour ever since that tour. Is it difficult to be on constant tour for over a year?

Andrew: We haven't been constantly on the road, but we've been on the road for a long time.Yeah, it wears on you but it wears on you in a good way and a bad way. You're musical life takes over and unfortunately we're not at the level where the band can really be a full time thing. But your band life becomes your real life and you get closer to that and it takes you away from your other life and that's the weirdest thing really about extended touring. Just like how it pulls you away into another world, a world where camera people giggle and everyone has a good time. [All Laugh]

How did you come to form The End?

Andrew: It was an eruption.

Sean: Well, I was born on May 3rd, 1980 at Montreal Children's Hospital at 7:47 am. I think I weighted 8 pounds, 3 ounces, maybe 4. My name is Sean Dooley. I lived at 1668 Miller Street, my phone number was ***-5358, that's a 514 number.

Andrew: Montreal! Represent!

Sean: 514! Yeah, 514!

Andrew: Yeah, that's basically where it started. I would go even farther than that. When Sean was a zygote, that's when the band really started. And basically at some point after that we all met and started playing music together. And um...

We should have done this interview before everyone got shitty. [All Laugh]

Sean: Ok, seriously, [Laughs] I got my first bass when I was 15...

Janel: What was your inspiration to play, to really play?

Sean: To really play? Andrew. Andrew was my inspiration. [Laughs]

Andrew: I gave Sean biscuits whenever he played a really good riff, and gradually he became addicted to those biscuits.

Ok, but you still never answered the question.

Sean: Oh yeah, we actually have a question to answer

Andrew: The question? [All Laugh]

Yeah, the question. How did The End come to be, how did it spawn?

Sean: Ok, well, Steve [Watson, guitarist] and I have been playing together since I was 15, when I got my first bass, which is what I was leading to.

And how old are you now?

Sean: I am 25, so we've been playing together for 10 years. He taught me my first song actually. And then Steve met Anthony [Salajko, drummer] and Andrew and Tyler, who is not with us anymore. And then we met Aaron [Wolff, vocalist], and now we're The End.

Andrew: Yep, that's pretty much it.

You guys took off not long after forming. Were you surprised at how fast the response you got was?

Andrew: Big? I didn't know we were big.

Well, you were picked up within a year of forming. That's pretty fast.

Andrew: Physically, yeah. I mean we're both like 6' 4'', so we are pretty big.

I'm seriously going to hurt you.

Sean: Plus, we're handsome guys, so we just assumed that it would happen pretty quickly. Because I look in the mirror and I'm like 'You are handsome.' And I looked at Andrew and I was like 'Wow, he's handsome too, not as handsome as I am though.' So yeah, it didn't even matter what we were playing, as long as we were doing something.

This is gonna be the goofiest interview that we have at the magazine.

Andrew: It is quite funny.

Sean: What was the question again?

The fast recognition...

Andrew: Oh yeah, well, we kind of had a goal. We made our first album and we felt confident with our band and the people in it. We strived at first to deal with Relapse because they're a label that we respect a lot because of some of their bands. So that had a lot to do with it. It was a long time in the process, it wasn't just like ok we're a band, here's a CD, we're touring, and bang we're signed. It took a long time, but yeah, we were surprised.

Your first release, Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient was named the 2001 Metal Album of the Year by The Canadian Independent Music Awards. How did it feel to get that award, Andrew, since you aren't paying attention.

Sean: It felt good [All Laugh]

Andrew: Oh yeah, sorry, what was the question?

Sean: How did it feel to get the award for Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point:False Omniscient.

Andrew: Surprising as hell. To see a band like ours with our style getting any sort of real acknowledgment from the mainstream press, especially at that level, was pretty intense. And with us being, you know, I'm not gonna say straight out of the basement, but yeah. It was really cool and it gave me a sense of respect, like maybe there really are people that actually do want something more than just Pop music and that could be us, so it was a definite pat on the back.

That's a long title for an album. Can you explain how you came up with the title and what it means, if anything?

Andrew: The title for the first album wasn't just something that came about in lyric writing but it was an idea that encompassed what we were trying to do with the album, I felt. It was kind of a very elaborate way of saying the voice of God. Like, Transfer Trachea Reverberations, it's like the movement of those vibrations in your throat, and then like Point False Omniscient is like kind of just our beliefs and the way people look at whatever the God entity is. It's like the voice of God it would be, if anything, like chaotic and flowing, like abstract like the real world, so that was the idea.

So what about your album Within Dividia, because that's not even a real word. [All Laugh]

Andrew: Dividia? Dividia is like, the place, the setting, the family, the time, that's Dividia.

Can we expect another album in the near future?

Sean: Yes!

Andrew: Yeah, we played a new song tonight.

Yeah, I noticed.

Andrew: It was pretty rocking, I thought.

It was ok, it had its moments. [All Laugh] No, I actually thought it was pretty cool.

Andrew: I thought it was rock.

Sean: We're kind of hoping for September for the new album.

Andrew: Yeah, it might be out earlier, it will probably be out later, but who knows.

Sean: We're pushing for September though.

You guys are pretty energetic on stage and your music is fairly technical. Is it difficult to thrash around like that and still play everything correctly?

Andrew: Well, Sean is a crack head. [All Laugh]

Sean: Seriously, you get used to it.

Andrew: Yeah, it's not technical to us. It's like, would you ever forget your favorite song? No, so that's it. We try to make music that we like and when you like it you're not going to forget it.

I didn't say anything about forgetting it, is it actually difficult, because there's a difference between just practicing and playing and actually moving around while playing.

Andrew: Yeah, but it's hard for me to stand still and do that, I just don't feel that. When we play our shit I'm like alright, this is brutal, I'm into it and I just gotta fucking tear some shit up. I mean, that's logical, right? I feel like when I watch bands sometimes, their music may be great, but they'll just be standing there. Their music may be inspirational, but I'm like 'are you into it? I can't tell as a person watching you if you're actually into what you're playing or not.' I like to see passion in music and that's the only reason we're doing what we're doing, because we love it.

Are there any really memorable tour moments?

Sean: Yeah, last time when we were in Memphis we met this girl...

Actually, we were in Nashville.

Sean: Dammit, we were in Nashville, that's right. So yeah, we were in Nashville and we met this really cool girl who now works for Metal Temple Magazine who's doing an interview right now. Her name is Kat and she's a wonderful journalist, she does a wonderful job at everything she does, at everything I've seen her do anyways, and right now she's getting really mad at me for doing this, but she should get a raise.

Yes, I'm about to hurt you once again.

Andrew: And now she's threatening us.

Sean: Yeah, ok, seriously. One time we were in North Carolina and I was driving and Aaron was riding shotgun and the car in front of us all of a sudden swerved off the highway and into a ditch. The guy had fallen asleep. We stopped the van and ran up there, the car was upside down in this ditch, but he didn't get hurt.

I saw almost the exact same thing, but this dude was fucked up. I was traveling to Little Rock with my friends in Epoch of Unlight and these guys passed us on the interstate going like 90 miles an hour and he started fish tailing and almost hit a semi truck, then cut a 90 degree angle and nosedived into a hill. The car flipped up, hit a tree, then flipped over. The passenger got out and walked away, but the driver was fucked. His arm was broken at the elbow and wrist and the bones were sticking out and blood was squirting everywhere. He was in total shock and unresponsive. I had immediately called 911 when it happened, so the ambulance got there within a few minutes. I thought the dude was dead when we all first went up there because he was hanging from his seatbelt and not moving.

Andrew: Yeah, we thought the same thing when we saw this guy, and the first thing I said was 'nobody touch anything'. I mean, you have to help people, but no one in this band couldn't afford some brutal legal action for some bullshit, so sadly you have to be concerned for yourself at the same time. At least we pulled over because none of the other cars did. It was broad daylight and so many people saw this but they just drove right off. We were the only car to pull over. I remember Aaron was pulling on the guys door cause he heard him inside banging on the window. But it wouldn't come open and the guy started banging again, and we were like, 'what the fuck is gonna come out of this door if we get it opened'. We had no idea what condition is he was gonna be in, cause his car just flew off going like 70 miles an hour and did a fucking Dukes of Hazzard flip and landed on its hood, so he could be like a mangled corpse, that's basically what I was expecting. It was getting creepy because of the silence on the highway, it was just us and this car that was flipped over, smoking everywhere and the sounds of this dude banging from inside his car. But we got the door opened and the guy reached out his hand and there was blood everywhere. Then he got out and didn't even acknowledge us, he just went to his trunk and started unloading shit. It was fucking strange.

What are some of your musical influences?

Andrew: Some of my musical influences include bands from the early period of musical history starting in the classical realm of Chopin and moving onto things such as Prog Rock in the 70's. I'm just skipping the 50's and 40's and 30's, all those periods because mostly we like Rock 'N' Roll. Anything that falls into Rock 'N' Roll is good, such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Yes, King Crimson, Def Leppard. I define that more by the passion and by the sensation of playing music that just gets everybody going.

Sean: What are your musical instruments, I mean influences...[to Andrew] what did you just say?

Andrew: I said I like anything that's Rock 'N' Roll.

Sean:Anything that's Rock 'N' Roll is cool. [All Laugh] No, seriously, a long time ago a bunch of bands from Toronto were playing at this church down the street from my house, and one of them was a band called Blake and they were great. That was actually the first show I ever went to and watching Blake play actually changed the way I looked at music. They were a really great band.

Andrew: There was another band from our area called Acacia. They were really good. And it was that stuff that when you see it on that level where it's not a huge Rock show and you're not like 3000 feet away that makes a difference. When you see a band that's right in your face and you can see the raw emotion of it, that's where we all kind of started I guess.

If you could pick one band to tour with that you haven't already toured with, who would it be?

Sean: Blake! Blake and Tool.

Andrew: Tool and God Speed You Black Emperor, but they're broken up. And it would never be a good tour and everyone would hate us, but I just want to be able to see them every night. So, it would be cool.

Sean: And The Mars Volta.

Andrew: Oh yeah, they're really good. And Radiohead and Slipknot.

Sean: Meshuggah too.

Yes, the Gods of Metal.

Sean: And Green Day, I'd love to tour with Green Day.

Any Last Words?

Andrew: [chokes himself and gags]

Sean: [coughs and hacks]...and a smile

So we have gag, gag, gag, cough, cough, cough, and a smile...nice.

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