Killswitch Engage’s Mike D'Antonio Discusses Making 'As Daylight Dies'

Mike D'Antonio
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Ethan Miller/Getty Images

This week on the Rhino Podcast, Killswitch Engage bassist Mike D'Antonio joins podcast host Rich Mahan to discuss the makings of the Deluxe Edition Vinyl Release of their fourth studio album As Daylight Dies. Listen to the full episode below. 

ON THE INSPIRATION BEHIND THE BAND'S NAME:

D'ANTONIO: "You know, names are pretty hard thing to establish. There's not a lot of good ones out there. So it takes some time. I remember watching The X-Files one time and they said, "Killswitch."

"And I thought that was really cool word, but it didn't work well on its own. I just came up with the "Engage" part and showed it to the guys and they hated it. They're like, 'It sounds like Star Trek. What the heck are you talking about?' And then, I showed them the logo and they're like, 'Oh, we can get into that.'"

"So I kind of sold them on the logo, which I kind of knew I would. Like I said, you know, springing names of bands on people. Sometimes you knock it out of the park and sometimes people just can't stand it. But I figured I had a little leverage with the logo that I came up with, which is the original swirl logo that you see on all the earlier stuff that we did."

ON THE ORIGINS OF KILLSWITCH ENGAGE: 

D'ANTONIO: "Band's from Western Massachusetts, most of the members are from that area. Established in 1999. Myself and Adam [Dutkiewicz], who's now the guitar player /  producer, was the drummer at that time. So it was just a bass-drums kind of scenario, trying to get some stuff together, write some songs and see if it gelled or not, and just kept working from there."

ON THE RECEPTION TO AS DAYLIGHT DIES:

D'ANTONIO: "I felt like when we put out As Daylight Dies, people kind of didn't gravitate towards it. They were still talking about the previous record. So I felt like no one liked it. I know we had two and a half years of touring on that record, which is the most we've ever done on any record. "We got to the two year mark and everyone was tired. Then all of a sudden, "Holy Diver" hit on the radio and they were like, 'Oh, guess what? You have another half a year of touring on your belt ready to go.'"

"And I'm not complaining. It was a really cool thing. It was just at the very tail end of the cycle and everyone was just so beat up. The last thing we wanted to do was tour for another half a year, but it really helped that record to achieve our goal."

Listen to the rest of the podcast here

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