Interview with Matthew Leone of Madina Lake

Phone Interview

June 6, 2006

 

Leah Weinberg: So, I have to go ahead and get the Fear Factor questions out of the way. How long ago did you and your brother compete in the “Twins” episode?
Matthew Leone: We shot that last January.
L.W.: And what stunts did you guys have to do?
M.L.: The first one was a helicopter stunt where Nathan was hanging in tandem below the helicopter, I was in the helicopter and then we flew over a lake and I had to release him onto a buoy. Then I had to jump out myself. Then we had to grab flags and swim to a racing boat and jump off the boat, once it was going really fast, into the water and then go to some little floating area in the lake and hang up our flags. One was one they referred to as the “gross stunt,” which was like a 3-foot deep trench filled with cow parts, livers, intestines. We had to swim back and forth. On one end, we had to take bites out of a crate that was full of cow jawbones with maggots all over it. We had to carry those in our mouths to the other side of the trench, spit them into a grinder, grind it up and then drink it when we were done. That one sent us into the hospital for about 5 days.
L.W.: Yeah, I heard that you guys almost died.
M.L.: It was pretty amazing. But they had some nice painkillers in the hospital, so when we were in there, we were in good spirits.
L.W.: What made you guys sick?
M.L.: In the trench, there were obstacles we had to traverse over and everybody kind of nicked their knees or nicked their hands while they were doing it. So, the bacteria got in and we got flesh-eating infections.
L.W.: Any lasting injuries from that or is everything good now?
M.L.: Everything’s good by now. I hear the other guys weren’t doing so hot.
L.W.: What was next?
M.L.: The third stunt was the upside-down yo-yo. I was hanging upside down on ground level and Nathan was 75 yards up. And I had to unscrew 4 screws, pull the latches off, and then grab a saw and cut the rope and then that shot me up while it shot Nathan down into the tank of water where there were flags and he had to get as many as he could. And then the fourth and final stunt was pretty sweet. We’re driving down this long stretch of highway in the Mojave desert. I was on a semi with this apparatus on top of it and Nathan was riding next to me in a tank full of water, handcuffed to the wall. So I had to lower the plank and then climb down on top of his car as we were going like 40 miles per hour and then traverse across the top of it and then go in through the cargo bay and release him. Then I had to go set up the flagpole while he had to go set up the flag and then come out. We took the drawstring out of his bathing suit, because we knew the water would just rip those things right off, so sure enough, as he came out of there, he was totally nude.
L.W.: What did you guys do with the prize money?
M.L.: We used the money to go record our three-song demo and those three songs ultimately got us our record deal.

L.W.: What’s the story behind Madina Lake?
M.L.: Madina Lake is a town that we created but that we feel is real as well. It’s like a lost town in 50's America. It exemplifies a microcosm of what our society has become today. We feel like the morals and the values in our country are depleting, like people are placing great importance on vanity and financial wealth. So we created this town that we feel like we were from and that town represents when the line of thinking starts to skew a little bit. So the story of Madina Lake, something happens there, like a murder mystery happens there. We’re going to unravel the story over the forthcoming EP and the full story will be released with the record. It tells everything that happened there. It has a positive moral message.
L.W.: Beyond the full-length will there be a continuation of the story?
M.L.: It’s continual. In fact we already have the end of the story. We’re hoping to take 3 records to get there.

L.W.: What made you guys want to create this whole concept/story for the band and the music?
M.L.: To set ourselves apart, we wanted to be multi-faceted. We wrote the book that’s going to coincide with the record. The mystery is going to unfold, there are clues hidden in the music and in the artwork. And then every aspect of the band will be closely associated with each other. Something that happens in the story is going to happen on the record and it’s going to happen at the live show. To grab kids’ attention these days, I think it requires more than just the songs. We have all of these ideas and we have all of these really strong feelings about what’s happening to our culture, so we want to incorporate them all into one [thing] and make it interesting enough for people to really--if they want to dig beneath the surface, they’re going to find a lot of substance there.

L.W.: What are the official plans for the EP and the full-length? When can we expect to see those?
M.L.: We’re going to do a soft release of the EP in July. That introduces the story. It’s called “The Disappearance of Adalia.” That’s going to have 5 songs on it and then one programming sequence, this really erie drum loop and melody thing, like a really intense melody with talking over it. And that talking is going to be news reports about what happened there and then there’s gonna be some clues as to who did it. And there’s gonna be clues in the artwork of the EP as well. Then in late January, the full-length is gonna come out.

L.W.: Have you recorded the full-length yet?
M.L.: Yep.
L.W.: Who did you record with?
M.L.: Mark Trombino.
L.W.: Really? What was that like?
M.L.: It was great. We got a Mark Trombino record. It’s what we wanted out of it. The process was a little challenging.
L.W.: Yeah, I’ve heard he makes bands work pretty hard.
M.L.: Yeah. And he has a sort of social ineptitude. I can’t think of a nice way to say it. But we’re great friends and we definitely forged a good connection with him. But in the arduous part of writing when you’re arguing over arrangement things and melody things and vocal things, he doesn’t really want to see the other side. But the good thing was, he really respected us as songwriters and he turns down 99% of the projects that are passed along to him. Just by virtue of the fact that he chose to work with us shows that he had a great deal of respect for us and that’s the most important thing in the studio is you respect each other and you really can make the right product.

L.W.: Can you give me a little background on the character of Adalia?
M.L.: Adalia is a socialite. She’s thrown into Madina Lake and nobody knows where she came from. Like from the minute she got there she’s been under the flashbulbs for no real reason, for not accomplishing anything. She’s a very mysterious character. Very few words. The town is just crazy about her. You’ll find out why they’re crazy about her and what happens to her. She goes missing in the story. So it will all unravel once the story is released.

L.W.: When did the band sign with Roadrunner?
M.L.: I believe it was August of last year.
L.W.: How do you feel you fit on a label with bands like Hatebreed and Killswitch?
M.L.: We don’t. Simply put. We’re not going to the Christmas party.
L.W.: But I guess they’ve got the Dresden Dolls and Nickelback on there, so it’s not strictly a heavy label.
M.L.: They’re starting to redefine themselves and I certainly love being the guinea pig with the new direction. They’ve given us so much freedom to do whatever we wanted and they’ve been so open to our ideas. They’ve been spectacular. We couldn’t possibly ask for a better situation.

 

Related links:
Madina Lake Photos
Official Site