Update – September 08th, 2017 – 10:50am:
A transcription of a part of the discussion can be found below:
Bryan Garris: I think Knocked Loose does definitely get a lot of criticism, especially like walking that thin line between what people consider hardcore and metalcore. ‘Cause Knocked Loose will play any kind of show that’s cool. We’ll play the pop-punk show, we’ll play the hardcore, the metal… We don’t care, we just like playing shows and we like every style of music, so we do get a lot of criticism when it comes towards that.
And it’s always just rolled off my back as well. I didn’t start this band thinking that everybody in the world is gonna like it, I went into it knowing that not everybody was. But I will say, and it’s funny to talk about this, because the only criticism that ever bothers me is like, Are you familiar with Lambgoat?
Jamey Jasta: Lambgoat, is that still like a thing? It was big when I was…
Garris: It’s like the online media source that it’ll post all music related news for alternative and heavier music. So on Lambgoat you can post anonymous comments on whatever they post, so like Lambgoat‘s kind of the website to go to and just…
Jasta: Just for Lambgoat? I can’t believe they’re still… So they must be getting a check?
Garris: Oh probably I’m sure.
Jasta: That’s great, see I thought all that stuff died and that was like sad for me. Because I still check ThePRP—that’s really the only one I check —or I’ll check, occasionally I’ll check Blabbermouth. But that’s like more classic rock and like Scorpions and you’re not gonna see Knocked Loose news on there…
Garris: But on Lambgoat it’s funny because you can post anonymous comments, so that’s where everybody goes to just shit talk. And a lot of it’s funny because you’re hiding behind anonymity—or however you say that. But one time we got posted on Lambgoat—we announced a tour or something—and somebody commented, vanflip, vanflip, vanflip, like they were wishing for us to flip our van.
And that’s the only time criticism has ever bothered me because I was like man, that’s like a constant worry being on tour. Like being in a van with a trailer, or like bus or anything.
Jasta: But that’s a person that is in a band that wishes they were on ‘Warped Tour‘ killing it, [in front of] hundreds sometimes thousands of people going crazy. That’s the weird thing about when you start to have succcess. There’s so many people that genuinely hate when other people become successful.
And to me that’s the saddest part. When I said, I couldn’t care less. I don’t want to include constructive criticism, because I will consider constructive criticism. Something like that, where someone wishes a horrible death—and we’ve seen bands suffer extremely—But those are the type of people, if that did happen to you guys, all of us bands would come together and we’d try to help you, donate money and stuff like like that.
Nobody is gonna do something like that, in person like that. Those people are so dark, I almost feel like now the only thing you can combat that sort of negativity when someone is wishing death upon you is to just give them love. Like really what they are is just a baby that never got loved. If your outlet is going on the internet to wish you to die in a carwreck, that’s a dark, hateful, miserable person that didn’t get love.”
Original Story:
You can hear Hatebreed, etc. frontman Jamey Jasta, Knocked Loose frontman Bryan Garris and some fan participants discuss the effects negative commenting online has on bands on a newly shared episode of ‘The Jasta Show‘. The conversation sparked off from originally discussing the suicide of Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington this past July.
There’s mentions of a handful of heavy music blogs, from Lambgoat and Blabbermouth to the very site you’re reading right now. You can hear that begin around 48:28 in over at Overcast. You can find them delving into the impact negative comments have around 50:52 in. Garris himself mentions being bothered by vanflip comments made by anonymous commenters on Lambgoat, while Jasta eventually suggests combating the most severe of haters with love.
