Our sit down with Ryan Knight from Black Dahlia Murder

Andyman and myself were lucky enough to have out first interview with Ryan Knight from Black Dahlia Murder when they came into town.

Knuckles First: I saw you guys are headlining The Bonecrusher Fest with 3 Inches of Blood in the UK?
Ryan Knight: All of Europe, the UK is in there too.

KF: Is this your first time in the UK?
RK: This is my second time with them going to the UK. But they’ve been over there a lot of time since 2003, 2004.

KF: Do you like it?
RK: Oh Yeah, I like the UK.

KF: Crowds Different than here?
RK: Uh, you know what, the UK is a lot like the US. The UK is kind of like the US, the take everything that they think is in the US, and just glorify it. The rest of Europe is, uh they still have their own lines. But not too different.

KF: Have you been acquainted with the illadelph gift?
RK:Oh the Bong! The black bong. Yeah yeah. We don’t bring it on tour. But uh, yeah I’ve definitely seen it. I can’t say that I’ve smoked out of it yet.

KF: So obviously, Deflorate was the beginning of your interaction with the band.  After the CD release, tour, Mayhem Fest…How do you feel like your role has changed or grown?
RK: I don’t feel weird being in the band. I’ve played well over 100 shows with them so far — It’s been a pretty rigorous tour. I don’t know, I just feel like with the album out now, I definitely feel more apart of the band.

KF: What’s your position in the band? Is it similar to the shoes that you had in Arsis?
RK: In Arsis, we split the leads. Because you know James did leads. I guess in BD I’m the lead player. Just help contribution the writing. Brian is really cool. I think John didn’t contribute too much. I know they said towards the end John wasn’t even writing solos.

KF: As a band how do you guys feel being in the Billboard top 200 for 3 weeks?
RK: We are pretty stoked. I mean we’re out here doing the thing. Luckily it’s going pretty well. But yeah, good times.

KF: Black Dahlia Murder seeing amazing growth and success, do you get to play a lot of smaller shows like here at the Basement?
RK: We still do the major market shows, and, normally when we do a tour like this, we make a bunch of stops at smaller venues. I think we will always play plenty of smaller venues. The band came from playing in VFW halls, and places like that…I personally like playing the smaller venues, when it gets packed out. It’s a big part of the bands fan base.

KF: I saw a video on YouTube with you teaching how to play an Arsis song. Are you going to more stuff like that in the future?
RK: Yeah, Probably, in the future. I like doing stuff that, ya know. I mean, people seem to appreciate it. I don’t know when, but I’ll get around to it.

(photo credit: supercharger5150)