Photo Credit: Dominique D’Costa
Breaking Benjamin have been making their way across the pond for the first time since 2017, and we caught up with guitarists Keith Wallen and Jasen Rauch for a few minutes before their debut show in Romania. With a new album announcement imminent in the coming months and two new songs in the setlist, here’s what Keith and Jasen had to share with us about the band’s current tour and their future endeavours.
This is your first European trek in nearly 10 years. How is everything feeling so far, how have the festivals been treating you?
Keith: Hot.
Hot, right? [Laughs]
K: It’s very hot, yeah. The festivals have been amazing though. This is our first time here, so we’re pretty excited about it.
Jasen: Cool venue, too! But considering they said a heatwave is happening right now. It’s not that bad.
K: Yeah, I feel like it could be worse.
J: Some of our friends are further west in Europe right now, and it’s way hotter over there. So this isn’t bad. We’ll take this – a little breeze, it’s not too bad.
Yes, we noticed you met up with Three Days Grace on Friday night since they played the same venue, but it absolutely has been a scorcher here in Europe.
After so many years of only playing in the US, where the crowds have mostly been made up of Americans and some Europeans who have been fortunate enough to travel over there, how does it feel to be able to make the comparison between mostly US-based crowds and the European crowds, who have finally been getting their fill of Breaking Benjamin after nearly 10 years with no shows?
K: Well, they love to sing over here, that’s for sure. Not that they don’t love to sing in the States, it’s just a little louder over here.
J: I think the crowds are definitely louder over here. It’s been great.
Has that been the “it factor” that made you go “Oh, so that’s what everyone’s talking about?”
J: Yes, it’s been great. We’re very humbled to come over, like you said, after almost 10 years, a long break, and even to do areas like this that we haven’t been to and have the reception we’ve had has been amazing.
K: Yeah, we’re very grateful.
From what we’ve seen of your festival appearances, one of the standout moments has been whenever you’ve brought out someone dressed as Master Chief from the Halo series when you’re playing Blow Me Away. Now, nearly 22 years later after the track was featured in the video game, how would the band feel if Bungie or any other video game developer were to come forward and say, “Hey, we want you to release a song and put it in our video game?”
J: Honoured, yeah, it would be amazing.
K: Yeah, it’d be sick.
J: Being in that video game has obviously stood the test of time. And so, I think to be, like you said, 22 years removed from that happening, and it still being relevant is such a cool thing. We’re very fortunate.
K: You can tell it’s a fan-favorite for sure.
Yeah, and even now especially after the release of games such as Doom and Metal: Hellsinger, where the music is such a great part of it, it would be a really important thing for that to happen.
J: Yeah, big time!
Nowadays, you two are known for helping carry the vocal load live with your backing vocals. What songs have been the most rewarding word fun for the two of you to perform, especially now that you’ve hit the European continent again?
K: Ooh, let me think! [Laughs]
J: Dance With the Devil! I think that’d be mine. That’s probably one of the fun ones that we play from time to time in the United States, but Dance with the Devil out here seems to hit a little bit different. It’s later in the set, and I love how the crowd reacts to that after being with us in the set that long and still get that much energy is pretty cool, so that’s my favourite right now.
K: Honestly, I’d have to agree. We played that on and off for a little while, but it’s cool to put this back in the setlist and people love it. So, it’s been a good one.
And probably for Aaron it’d be Red Cold River when he gets to unleash those monstrous growls, eh?
K: Yeah, for sure! [Laughs]
Speaking of more timely matters, you’ve been playing two songs off the coming album: Something Wicked and Awaken, and on Something Wicked you’re also credited as being the producer. Is there anything else you can tell about the new record? We’re assuming it’s not a lot because of embargoes and everything else, but obviously fans are dying to know as much as they can, and there’s a lot of theories out there. For example, with the backdrop, that it might be the album cover, where it’s a holo thing that switches from the flower that decays and the woman that also decays from young to old, so anything that you can share?
K: Hmm, very good! But you’ll just have to wait and see.
J: Yeah there’s been a lot of behind the scenes stuff, there’s been so much happening for a very long time to set everything up. And so, to be done with the album now and be able to see all those things in place. We’re even that much more excited for so many announcements coming even in the next couple of weeks, so we’re very excited about it.
K: Yeah, stay tuned!
It would’ve been really nice to be able to sing some of the new songs with you guys. But hey, maybe this is some incentive for you guys to be coming back in the next few years rather than after nine more years, right?
K: Absolutely!
J: Oh, 100%! And, to be honest, we’re always shy about playing new songs because we don’t know how many people know them, or how well they’re going to go over, but in Europe, in particular, the newer material has been very well received. And so, for us to see fans know it that well, so quick, has been pretty surprising for us.
Speaking of, has this process of recording new stuff changed in any way, after you two joined back in 2014 after the band came out of its hiatus?
K: I mean, we don’t really know how the recording process went before us. We all live in different places, so it’s been that kind of long distance thing.
J: A lot of remote recording. We did some of it on the road. We did the bulk of it at Ben’s studio in New Jersey, spent a lot of time out there wrapping things up, but we recorded in Nashville, too. We recorded it all over the place, so it’s kind of an accumulation of things, rather than us-
K: Florida!
J: Heh, Florida, yeah – rather than all of us going to one spot… Pennsylvania, too…
Transylvania? [Laughs]
J: Oh, I wish! [Laughs] Transylvania…
K: We should have stayed somewhere to record it here in Transylvania.
Well, who knows, maybe in the future!
K & J: I’d love that. Yeah, yeah, I’d love it.
A few months’ staycation to work on the next Breaking Benjamin album!
K & J: That’d be awesome! Next time! [Laughs]
On this tour, you’re also joined by a new face, Mr. Brian Medeiros on drums, after Shaun [Foist] left for health reasons, and James [Cassells] filled in for him for a while. How’s Brian been doing these past few weeks?
K: Amazing!
J: Phenomenal!
K: Yeah, absolutely amazing! He feels like the missing piece. Obviously, we wish Shaun the best, he’s our brother. But it was really great to find a guy that’s been working out for us.
That’s amazing to hear. So maybe there’s hope that he’ll be joining the band in the future if everything aligns?
J: Yeah, absolutely.
That’s great, and hopefully everything will turn out well.
J: Yeah, we’re very happy, because that’s the last thing anybody wants to go through. It’s very difficult, and it’s not something you can rush into a decision like that. And so, for us to have it going as well as it is, it’s really great.
K: We couldn’t be happier.
That’s great! Now we want to ask about some behind the scenes stuff. The band has been signed with BMG as a label for nearly two years now. Is there any chance that you can release some of the older stuff on vinyl now? Because people have to resort to making their own bootlegs until then, and we’d all very much love to see albums like Phobia on vinyl.
K: We’ve talked about this, the older material obviously is not on BMG, so it’s a little out of our hands and Hollywood Records has that material. It’s just a process of getting vinyl printed, and you know, some of the people that we worked with initially at the team over there are no longer there, and so it’s kind of sorting through that. It’s out of our hands, but we said the same thing, we’re on everyone’s side about getting some vinyl on those older recordings for sure.
Yeah and even with the CDs, it’s really tough getting your hands on some of them in some places, too.
K: Yup! On the new one, we’re prepared! We’ve got some coming this time.
We’ll be on the lookout for the new Breaking Benjamin album on colour splatter vinyl pressings!
Showtime’s approaching, so we should wrap this up so we don’t keep you guys for too long. Final question: Is there any song on the setlist that you would rather have switched out for another one? We’re leaving this one up to you guys to change because you have been performing a lot more in the US. So, is there anything that you wish you would have performed here instead?
J & K: Um, I don’t think so.
J: Personally, I’m excited about playing some of the new stuff. It’s just about the timing when that comes out and obviously playing it before the announcement and the release, it can fight against us a little bit. But that would be the thing for me. Looking forward to playing some new stuff as well.
K: We switch songs out pretty often.
J: This being our seventh album and only having a certain amount of time to play, it makes it difficult because you don’t want to cut someone else’s song that the audience may want to hear.
K: Yeah, you have to play The Diary of Jane. You can’t not play those songs.
J: Yeah, so there’s some staples we try to keep in there and move songs around those.
And that’s it from us thank you for your time guys, it’s been a pleasure!
J & K: Thank you guys, appreciate it!
