"To achieve the ultimate results, you have to take as much into your own hands as possible."

Hailed by many as metalcore pioneers, Pro-Pain are ready to return with a new full-length studio album. More about it, as well as some details about the band's debut concert in Sofia, Bulgaria on June 3, 2008, were revealed by vocalist and bass player Gary Meskil in his first ever interview for a Bulgarian media.

Vassil Varbanov: Hey, Gary, hello! Where are you at the moment?

Gary Meskil: Oh, I'm at home, in Sarasota, Florida.

V. V.: Last time we talked to Pro-Pain was in March 2007 - back then it was drummer JC Dwyer taking the interview duties. I believe a lot had happened to your band since?

G. M.: Since the release of "Age of Tyranny / The Tenth Crusade" (2007) we've done quite a bit of touring, especially in Europe - we were over there 3 or 4 times - so we played quite a few tour dates since then. In June this will be our first time coming to Bulgaria, so we're really excited about that. It's been a long time and we're way overdue to play for you all in Bulgaria.

V. V.: Through the years I've done lots of interviews with your band, but it was always either with JC or with lead guitarist Tom Klimchuck.

G. M.: Ha-ha, yes, I know you've developed quite a good report with Tom in the past!

V. V.: Yeah... Anyway, this is probably the first time that you, Gary, are hearing their weird Bulgarian language, right?

G. M.: Yes, as a matter of fact... and it doesn't really sound weird - it's just that I cannot understand it.

V. V.: Okay then. Have you already started writing stuff for your 11th studio album?

G. M.: Yeah. When we put our minds to it, we get pretty productive, so we kind of just set a time frame for ourselves and say, this is when we have to do it. We've always worked that way, even back in the old days - we had literally no time to writeВ Р° record, but we got it in there anyway, in amidst of all the touring. Oddly enough, this time around we are almost done with the new record - we're gonna start mixing it this week. We're really, really excited about it. Yesterday we had Rob Barrett from Cannibal Corpse come in and do a lead, we've got a few other guests as well - some of our German friends will be appearing on the record, which is called "End in Sight". We think it's our best album yet - Rob from the Cannibals even said this is our "Master of Puppets"!

V. V.: How does it sound? Is it a political record like the previous one?

G. M.: Well, it's not as plainfully political as "Age of Tyranny", which I think was really up to the times in terms of its political content. This time I wasn't so inspired to write something as deeply political. There are shades of politically inspired material in it, but I think it's vaguer in that sense. However, we're really happy with the lyrics on this one - it lends itself to interpretation a little bit more, and everything is a bit more grey and hidden within the lyrics.

V. V.: Why? Does this mean that the political situation in the USA and the whole world is getting better?

G. M.: I certainly hope so, but it seems like we're in for more of the same here in the USA unfortunately. There are a lot of candidates that are pretending to be all about change, but... I hope that it happens and that they are serious about it, but I don't have a lot of faith in the candidates that are running right now, so it's gonna be a very difficult decision for me come voting time whom I'm gonna support, because I really don't like any of the existing candidates.

V. V.: You know, in a recent interview Blackie of W.A.S.P. said, "None of the three is my candidate, but it can't get any worse, so that makes me an optimist."

G. M.: Ha-ha, that's a nice quote!

V. V.: We can't call you angry young men, simply because you're not that young anymore...

G. M.: Ha-ha-ha, that's true, and I suppose there's nothing worse than an angry old man, ha-ha!

V. V.: What's been the biggest lesson that you've learned after so many years of touring and recording?

G. M.: To be as independent as possible, to do whatever you can yourself... We learned a lot of hard lessons. We gave certain duties in the past to other people and things didn't turn out either the way they were supposed to or that we had hoped. Throughout the years we found out that the more we did ourselves, the more we enjoyed ourselves and the more things came out in alignment with our vision. That's important... and it's really important to us as artists, because we don't look at things in terms of record sales or how many people are in the crowd - that just goes with the territory. For us it's more about being artists and really honest and true to our craft, so at the end of the day we can really be proud of our accomplishments.

V. V.: You mentioned that through the years you've crossed people that you shouldn't have...

G. M.: Yeah, more so in the early days. We really learned from our mistakes early on. We were involved with certain people and record companies that we didn't have to, we went with a lot of guidance from others... We were never really managed, but we kind of had a shadow manager in the background years ago... We've worked with various producers and people that were steering the band in what we felt was the wrong direction. I know they were thinking they were doing the right thing, so there's certainly nothing against any of those people, but in order to achieve the ultimate results in terms of what your vision is, you have to work hard and take as much into your own hands as possible.

V. V.: Does this mean that the world outside a band is something you cannot trust, and it makes the relationship within the band even stronger?

G. M.: Yeah, I think so... It's important to learn from mistakes, and we've made as many mistakes as any other band and people out there, so it's also important to make adjustments as you go. We're at a really good place with Pro-Pain right now - we're pleased with our accomplishments and where we're going from here. It's not like we're out and playing shows just for the sake of nostalgia - no, we feel that we have really good new music to offer, and we're just as excited about the new stuff as about the old one, if not more.

V. V.: Ok, tell us now where your upcoming tour is going to start?

G. M.: It shall start in Wroclaw, Poland. Then we're gonna play a couple of shows in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and then we're gonna work our way towards the Balkan area, as far down as Greece, and then swing back up and come through Bulgaria.

V. V.: It's a pity you guys have never been here so far. However, Rob and Cannibal Corpse were here some year and a half ago...

G. M.: Yeah, we talked a little bit about that yesterday.

V. V.: Did he give you any advice?

G. M.: He just said it was great. Rob is one of these guys that has probably traveled some more places than we have, so I asked him what it's like in the Balkans, and he was like, "Oh, it's great! The crowd are really awesome and you're gonna have a great time!"

V. V.: Last question. When the name Pro-Pain started becoming really famous in Bulgaria, it was linked mainly with the hardcore scene. However, you're not the typical NYHC band - you even prefer having people from Cannibal Corpse playing on your albums rather than the guys from Madball, Agnostic Front and so on. You mentioned the word independence, but still, can we say that you belong to a particular American music scene?

G. M.: Oh, maybe sonically, but not physically. We've always done our own thing in terms of the hardcore scene, and we've always been sort of the black sheep... I mean, we've made friends with a lot of bands, but I don't think we're too heavily embedded in any particular scene. There are certain aspects of Pro-Pain that lend themselves to hardcore and I can identify with many of the old ideals of the old hardcore movement, because that's where I came up from, but we're just as much a metal band as a hardcore one.

Copyright: Tangra Mega Rock