Rotation is a national hard rock band from Detroit, Michigan. The band independently released their first full length album ‘The Curse of 1990’ in 2009. On ‘Years of Therapy’, the second LP, they worked with famed producer Joey Sturgis (Asking Alexandria, Devil Wears Prada). They will be playing at the Rockstar Uproar Festival this year, featuring Alice In Chains, Jane’s Addiction, Coheed and Cambria, and Middle Class Rut. I’m speaking with Rotation’s charismatic vocalist Andi Oxide about tranquility of Michigan, darkness in their music, religion, vampires, playing on the same bill with Jane’s Addiction and Alice In Chains, and death…
Piotr Balkus: Your music and your image is dark and spooky. Why?
Andi Oxide: I’ve had a lot of dark, spooky things happen in my life. Believe me, we’ve tried to write happy music! But it seems no matter what we write, it always comes back to the dark side. It has a lot to do with environment and the crazy things that have happened to all of us over the years.
Saying “Environment” I’m guessing you driving at Michigan, as you describe”one of the most depressing places in America,” where “everyone is out of work, everyone is poor and the people who can afford it are moving away…”
Totally. When you cross into Michigan it literally feels like a weight is on your chest… Like a dark cloud of depression. I honestly think it’s the collective subconscious of everyone who lives here – everyone’s negativity and bad vibes – hanging over us like a thunderstorm. It would be impossible for this environment to not affect the music. I can look out my front door every day and see black smoke coming up from Detroit as the city literally burns one house at a time. I can drive ten minutes and see city block after city block of totally abandoned streets. It’s kind of beautiful in a depressing sort of way.
Your songs are dark, but they give a happiness, up-lift and hope for those who listen them – for your fans – for me too. How you can explain that depressing and dark sounds help for people to get out of depression and darkness?
I definitely try to paint a dark picture, for sure. But I also try to show that things can and will get better, no matter what happens. That’s the message we want to push. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from. Nobody is exempt from pain and sadness. But that doesn’t mean you give up. It means you push harder, you pull through the bad times and you never let the world beat you. There is a beauty in that struggle between right and wrong, sadness and joy. And if I can somehow capture that in our music, we’ve succeeded.
You sing in “Midnight Forever” ‘Devil and I we dance together’… Some people might read it as a Satanic verse…
Honestly, I was raised in a very Christian home. I was conflicted about religion my whole life… When I wrote that line, “Devil and I, we dance together”, I was referring to that inner conflict. It’s about being a good person who sometimes does bad things. We’re definitely not Satanists, just trying to use dark imagery to get our point across.
In “Band Interest” on your Facebook you mentioned “avoiding sunlight” and “vampires” as one of your interests. What is so attractive in vampires?
I have Transylvanian blood in me, I think that’s how my infatuation started. Once my mother told me about my Eastern European roots I read everything I could on the subject. I became very interested in the history of Vlad the Impaler, the first true vampire. I also find it fascinating that in every culture there are different versions of vampires. I’ve read that as far back as 3,500 years ago even the Mesopotamians had stories of blood-drinking monsters, and after them the Babylonians. Humans have always been terrified of these creatures, and I’m a fan of terror.
Your music hasn’t changed almost at all, it’s still same kind of dark energetic melodic rock (vampire rock…) What about you? Have you change in any way for years of playing in the band?
I’ve changed quite a bit. Many things happened that made me who I am now. I had a lot of close friends die in bizarre accidents, then the death of my mother… I fell into a pretty bad depression, got a little self destructive. Sometimes it felt like the only thing worth living for was the music. But the writing kept me sane, gave me something else to focus all the negative energy on. I’m stronger now because of everything, and I really feel like I’m personally the best I’ve ever been. I’m still dealing with my demons, but I have a good grip on my life and I’m very focused. The band has grown a lot too, and with the recent addition of Joey Sturgis helping produce and Wyatt Wade on guitar we finally have a team that can do what I always knew we were capable of. The cool thing is we always get better at writing together – I think this next album is really going to show our progress.
You play shows in America. Is it any country you would like to visit soon? And why?
I’ve always wanted to get over to Europe and Asia, and hopefully we’ll be able to make that happen soon. We’d love to get to Poland and Germany especially. Europe is so much more open minded with their music than America. I think we’d really do well there. We’re looking for a label situation in Europe for our next record now, if anyone has any connections send them my way!
What English and European listeners can find interesting for them in Rotation music?
I think they’ll find a different kind of band then the usual. We like to dig deep into subjects most rock bands won’t touch- religion, astrophysics, the paranormal. I like to think of it as intelligent rock for intelligent people. You can take the songs at face value and rock out or you can get into the lyrics and hopefully learn something or see the world in a different light.
In the meantime you will be playing at Rockstar Uproar Festival this year, amongst Alice in Chains and Jane’s Addiction…
Playing Uproar this year is a real honor for us. We all grew up on Jane’s Addiction and Alice In Chains music. We’ll also be getting exposure we really need right before our new album comes out. “Jar of Flies” is still an album I listen to all the time, even now. And I can definitely say the writing style of both those bands has influenced us, probably me the most. I got to go on the last Alice in Chains tour for a few days and I learned a lot – how to structure a live show, how to put together vocal harmonies, all kinds of things. At first I was skeptical of their new singer but he is amazing and very respectful of the position he’s in. Every night was an homage to Layne Staley, and I thought that said a lot about the band member’s character.
How often you think about death?
I think about death a lot, at least a few times a day. It’s just so final, so inevitable. Death doesn’t care who you are or how much money or power you have. I have an intense fascination with the progress that’s being made by science in this area. It won’t be long before nobody has to die, and humans can live to their utmost potential. We are on the verge of a new phase in human evolution… It’s a very exciting time to be alive!
Thank you, Andi, and good luck to Rotation!
Thank you!
Listen to Rotation music at https://www.reverbnation.com/rotation
