Well since requests for interviews aren't pouring in, I thought it would be fun to interview myself. So, here Ground Zero Music/Media Productions caught up with Vaapour, bassist for Autumn's Descent.

GZMP: Tell us about your involvement with Autumn's Descent. You been playing with them for about a year now?

V: The first show I played with Autumn's Descent was about a year and a half ago, May '07. I think the first rehearsal was back in February. But I've actually been working with Autumn's Descent since June of '03. I was the live sound engineer, so I've been a part of nearly every Autumn's Descent concert in the past five plus years.

GZMP: How did you first get connected with Autumn's Descent?

V: That's an interesting story. The church I was attending at the time was having a concert put on by various musicians in the church. Ironically, most of the music was lighter than what the worship services were. Anyway, I was up front—I still had long hair at the time—and I was cheering and all—I must have stuck out from the crowd. This guy walks up and asks me what type of music I like. Since there is a wide range of stuff I listened to, I just said something like, "Heavier than this," referring to the concert. He said, "I thought so," and then handed me a cd. It turned out to be an Autumn's Descent CD, and the guy was Asche. He had walked off, but I caught up with him. His wife worked with one of the girls who was singing, and they had come to see her. I went home and blogged about the experience. Soon after, Asche was searching for "Autumn's Descent" online, to see who was talking about the band. My website came up, he found out that I did sound, and then asked if I would work with the band.

GZMP: That is quite a story. So how did the transition from sound engineer to bassist happen?

V: As those who have been following Autumn's Descent know, there has been some rotation of band members over the past few years. It's a little known fact that I actually first auditioned for the band in... I think it was '05. They decided to go with one of the other players, in part because they thought I did such a good job at sound and didn't want to lose me in that position. Anyhow, at the end of the summer 2006, some of the band members decided to leave. That winter Asche sought to replace the members who had left. After their first choice of bassists didn't work out, they asked me to step in.

GZMP: So you have experience as a musician prior to joining Autumn's Descent?

V: Yes. I started playing guitar around '94, and picked up bass in '01. I joined a different band in the spring of '04, but the band happened to break up after just a couple of months. After that I looked around for another band to play in. I talked to some different people, and did a couple of auditions, but nothing worked out. Before that I had spent a couple of years trying to get my own band off the ground from '01-03. I was playing guitar then. I've also played in various other contexts, such as church praise bands.

GZMP: There was a bit of confusion with another bassist playing a show recently. What was the story with that?

V: I've been going to school the past few years. I was studying recording engineering and music. I graduated in the spring. Audio engineering is really my main field and skill, being a musician is secondary to that. Anyway, there isn't a lot of work for sound engineers around here, especially for recording. I decided when I graduated to look for work in Southern California. If I had gotten a job and moved there, I obviously wouldn't have been able to continue playing with the band. I told them to go ahead and start looking for a replacement, because there was a real chance that I would be moving and not around anymore. If they didn't find anyone and I stayed, there obviously wouldn't be a problem. If they didn't find anyone and I left, they'd be no worse off than otherwise. If they found someone and I moved, great. If they found someone and I didn't move, I said I would go back to doing sound—it's important anyways.

There is another bassist who is friends with Asche and Rob, and they've been wanting to jam with him anyway. At the end of July and beginning of August, I was out in LA for a couple of weeks looking for work. Our concert in August was soon after I returned. They had a chance to practice with this other bassists, and decided to have him play this one concert just kind of to try it out, and because he really wanted to play that venue. They asked me about it and I was fine with it; I went back and ran sound for the show. It's funny because I didn't even think about the fact that it was different until almost the end of the show.

GZMP: So are you staying now? Have you found a job here, and/or what are you doing for work?

V: It looks like I'll probably be staying for a while, in part because I can't afford to move, though that's not certain because I still haven't found steady work. I interviewed at a studio near Detroit, and am talking to a studio in St. Louis currently. Right now I'm doing some freelance work, but I haven't had very much to be honest. I'm primarily looking for something here for shorter term, until I find a steady audio job.

GZMP: Back to the band, What Autumn's Descent memories stick out in your mind?

V: The shows we did with Celldweller, especially the first trip to Iowa. The Bandwerks show was crazy, mostly for personal reasons. Mixing in the U.S. Cellular arena, and driving out to Baltimore to play in the Thunderdome only to find out it was actually just a bar are some others.

GZMP: How about since you started playing, what has been your favorite show?

V: Hmmm... I don't think one sticks out above all the rest. My favorite shows have probably been the two we've done at The Ritz in Rensselear. We've had a good, enthusiastic crowd for both of them. I enjoyed playing our first shows at The Nite Lite in Chicago, and Sacred Grounds in Lafayette, and the only show we've done so far in Bloomington, because there were a lot of friends there (you know who you are!).

GZMP: What are some of your influences?

V: Well, I sometimes like to say that I listen to everything from Sixpence to Anaphylaxis, Sixpence being a relatively well known pop rock band, while Anaphylaxis is an underground experimental noise artist. My main influences are what I'd term "alternative rock" in the past and/or more indie rock more recently, bands like Glisten, The Prayer Chain, The Choir, The Violet Burning, All the Day Holiday, Ethan Durelle, hard rock bands like Skillet and Stavesacre, industrial and electronic rock bands like Mortal / Fold Zandura, Deitiphobia / Massivivid, Celldweller, NIN, Mental Destruction, etc., and electronic music such as Prophecy of P.A.N.I.C., Rhythm Saints, Apoptygma Berzerk, and Kraftwerk.

GZMP: That is a significant range of music. How does that affect Autumn's Descent?

V: As far as writing goes, nearly all of what we're currently playing had been written before I joined the band. Some of the songs Asche and Rob had collaborated on when Rob was first in Autumn's Descent ten some years ago. Asche has been the primary songwriter since then, with Rob being the other main contributor of ideas. I played on a few songs on Character Assassination, but mainly I've just been the live bassist. Asche does most all of the recording work himself.

GZMP: What has been one of the challenges of playing in Autumn's Descent?

V: Well it's interesting in a way. I'd say one of the biggest challenges is that the style of music is just a bit different from what I'm used to playing. It's ironic, because I like a lot of similar music, but Autumn's Descent a bit on the other side of rock. It's hard to explain, but it's like there is one genre, say hard rock music, but there are a couple of different ways to play it. In the end it comes out sounding like the same genre, even though it's approached differently. Autumn's Descent has a more rhythmic, palm muted "chunk" thing going on than what I'd done previously. I was used to playing open stuff more. I've learned that ones not better than the other, but they're just different ways of doing things that give you different flavors so to speak.

GZMP: Lastly, what's with the name Vaapour?

V: (Chuckles) Good question. There are two things to explain, why a pseudonym, and why this one specifically. I had wanted to use a pseudonym for a few reasons. First, a lot of industrial bands and electronic artists I liked had cool pseudonyms, second, in order to try and be more unique and recognizable, third, for some anonymity and mysteriousness. I came up with the idea to use Vaapour a while ago. Less common letters like X, Z and V seem cool, and I liked the idea of the mysteriousness and intangibleness. I liked the idea of shadow too, but that didn't make for a good name. (Laughs) The alternate spelling was again an attempt to be unique. I thought to use it with Autumn's Descent because of how we used to associate ourselves with metal industrial music. However now that we're mainly just a hard rock band, I think maybe a lot of the fans—and even half the band—don't really "get it". Oh well, what can you do?

GZMP: Yeah, I don't know. (Laughs) Well Vaapour, thanks for taking the time to do this interview. Any final words you'd like to add?

V: I'd just like to thank the people who have come out to shows and supported us. I was thinking recently, while people usually make a deal about the band, the fans are just as important. People want to hear the music, and the band need people to play for, so in other words it takes both of the groups to have a concert. Beyond that, I've decided that I really like trying to become friends with the people who support us, not just have a bunch of fans. So thank you to everyone who has been supportive!