Chimaira frontman Mark Hunter guests on the newest episode of the ‘Talk Toomey‘ podcast (hear it below) and takes part in a track-by-track revisit of their 2001 debut album “Pass Out Of Existence“. They also discuss the band’s early days, their potential future plans and more. Speaking of how he looks back at “Pass Out Of Existence” now, Hunter offered:
“I don’t love the album, but I don’t hate it as much as I used to. I’ve grown to like… It’s just one of those things where you are like, let’s say you go to school and you take this shitty high school photo and you’re like ‘goddamnit it, I tried so hard to have the perfect hair day, and I wore the great shirt, and this fucking photographer…’ But then all the girls are like ‘man, I love that picture of you’, and the next thing you know you have a new girlfriend or something.
- Advertisement -So that’s kind of what happened. We were proud of it while we were making it, of course. We got into some heated arguments while we were doing it. It was a creative labor of love and a lot of stuff was thrown at us. So for the effort we put into it man, I give us an A. We weren’t doing anything but trying our best and doing what we thought was the best path for the band.
But once we were done with it, and starting to tour on it, and starting to listen to actual feedback and getting ourselves out of that bubble, we saw a lot of room for improvement. But that said, we made a lot of fans that are still with us to this day.
So it’s a hugely important album for us and I recognize that way more than I did at the time, because the wounds are too fresh, like ‘goddamnit, we tried so hard and people didn’t like it as much.’ But the people that do like it, they’re the ones that are still here.
They’re the ones that are on my Facebook or Twitter or something, still hanging out and that means a lot. If we were ever to be able to get to play again, we obviously need to put a little consideration into some of that older material.
That was the biggest complaint at the reunion show that we didn’t go far enough down the rabbit hole with the older material. But again, some of it is just embarrassment that’s probably unnecessary by this point. It’s like, get over yourselves, you know?”
Hunter underwent surgery for papillary thyroid cancer in August of 2019 and followed up the thyroidectomy with radioactive iodine treatment. When asked if he is still able to sing following the surgery, Hunter replied:
“That was a huge concern of mine… Rod Stewart had something similar… He lost his voice for a bit. It’s not common but it’s very easy to snip part of the vocal cord, and then you’re done. So I was concerned.
I was recording some guest vocals—I actually record guest vocals here and there for bands—and I was like… the last one I did, I did it with Rob [Arnold, Chimaira guitarist], Rob produced it for the band. And I was like ‘man, is this gonna be the last time I ever sing?’ There was a moment of some unnerving fear of the unknown.
Now, to be honest with you, I haven’t tried to sing. I don’t think there’s going to be anything wrong. Because I’m able to speak and there’s no pain or anything like that, so I can’t imagine that anything has changed. But I can’t guarantee that it hasn’t, because I haven’t tried.
I haven’t been in the position to try. It’s only been about two months that I’m healed and that we’re on lockdown, I don’t know where I’m gonna be singing anytime soon, so…”
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