The biggest metal festival of 2015 is the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and we were lucky enough to grab some time from some of the bands during the tours recent stop in Detroit at the DTE Energy Music Theatre.  After witnessing the bands show on the Victory stage,  I was able to speak with bassist Joseph Guajardo and guitarist Daniel Trejo to discuss the tour, their fans, and so much more in this follow up to the pre-tour chat I had with Daniel...

Toddstar: We've got Joseph and Daniel from Shattered Sun, thank you for taking time out guys. Welcome to Detroit Rock City – a far cry from Corpus Christi.

Joseph: A 1000 miles.

Toddstar: How's the tour going so far guys?

Daniel: It's going good, the crowd response are really good. The lines are really good, especially at the Coldcock signings and our own signings.

Joseph: Yeah, it's going pretty dang good; the weather's been fairly decent for us. We're used to the hot weather so it's not too bad. It's going great.

Toddstar: How do you find the fans are receiving the music of Shattered Sun?

Daniel: That circle pit explains it all.

Joseph: You have to be there to see it, or backstage. You'll see the crowd response throughout. Right after our second song on our set, they were already going nuts, so it's been really great.

Toddstar: Well that's great. You were the first band I saw today and it was a way to start the day off on the right foot. With everything going on, and Daniel we talked before the tour, what does this mean for a band like you guys, to be out on Mayhem killing it every day with Slayer and King Diamond?

Daniel: Yeah, it feels good. Definitely helps us as a new band, being exposed to so many genres, especially out here on this Victory stage. Hardcore, death metal and play every day just exposes us to a bigger crowd, bigger fan base. Hopefully when we come back around in October with Soulfly, those people will come see us again. That's what I'm looking forward to.

Toddstar: What's your take on it Joseph?

Joseph: I'm mean, Mayhem is a tradition now, I think they're 8 years in. People come out just every year because it's a yearly thing now and every year there's been amazing acts that's been on it, just to be on it now this year with Slayer and King Diamond and Whitechapel and all those bands. It's really a good honor to be on this line-up.

Toddstar: Well Joseph, what band did you see for the first time on this tour and think 'Holy Shit'?

Joseph: King Diamond. Definitely. It was fucking awesome.

Toddstar: What about you Daniel?

Daniel: The guitar tone I really like was Jungle Rot. The guitar tone was pretty nice and tight, I'd liked it a lot.

Toddstar: Different ideas from bass player to guitar player. You guys are out touring, you're doing this, and you’ve got a crew almost the size of the band.

Daniel: Yeah dude.

Toddstar: How different is this than doing the smaller scale tours back home? Maybe where you're hitting a 200 mile circuit and like you said a 2000 mile circuit.

Joseph: It's a lot more chaos as far as having to do with everybody's personalities and trying to just fit everybody's schedule together into one day. Everybody's doing their own things, some of us work out, some of us like to run, some of us just hang out.  There are just a lot of schedules between 11 people and just trying to fit it together, trying to be cool with everybody. It's a little bit difficult, but we make it work.

Toddstar: What do you miss about home Daniel?

Daniel: What do I miss? Of course my family, definitely my little girl. She's what I miss most.

Toddstar: What don't you miss about home?

Daniel: What don't I miss? I don't know. I like being home so it's all good.

Toddstar: How about you Joseph? What do you like and what don't you like about being on the road?

Joseph: Definitely my family, I miss my family. We take pictures and FaceTime sometimes so that's as close as I get. Just sitting around doing nothing, this is what I like doing, playing music and being out here with the crowd and fans.

Toddstar: Of all the cities you've hit so far, you guys are about 2-2.5 weeks in, what's been your favorite city? What crowds just really responded to Shattered Sun so far?

Daniel: Arizona, I think, right?

Joseph: I'd say Arizona was pretty...

Daniel: In the Arizona crowd we saw a bunch of people singing our single 'Hope Within Hatred', which was pretty good. Especially when people know that song and then you see other people singing some other songs, you're like, wow you know that song too. Hell yeah. Motivates you on stage man.

Toddstar: You've got the new album and the new single "Hope Within Hatred," the title track. What's it like to see people singing that back to you guys when you're on stage knowing that that's your hard work, that's your life poured into that, what's it feel like to be on the other side of that and to see it?

Joseph: It's a really good feeling, especially being on the stage and you're playing music, and you pinpoint somebody there knowing the lyrics and it's a really good feeling just to see that.

Daniel: I like seeing, of course when people sing the lyrics, but I like the air drumming some people do. Especially when I am about to do the solo and people point and they do the hands. It's pretty kick ass.

Toddstar: You mentioned the Soulfly tour. What's it like to jump, in your mind so far, to jump from a tour like this, where - it is Mayhem, it's a big deal - but it's no small feat to get on tour with Soulfly either, that's a big tour. How does it feel to know that you're getting that recognition where you're being able to get on those bigger tours now?

Daniel: Yeah it feels good, especially because we toured with The Testament and Exodus so we're used to being downtown and all the clubs and basically the theaters that we're playing at. Now on Mayhem, it's a lot of amphitheaters and then with Soulfly back to theaters. I think we're going to be pretty used to it.

Joseph: Yeah I'd have to agree with that.

Toddstar: What's your favorite part about Mayhem? Just in general, not necessarily the playing. Is being on the road? Is it being on stage? Is it meeting the fans? What's your favorite part of Mayhem?

Daniel: Definitely the fan base. There are so many people who love different genres but they come together for the love of metal, Mayhem. They come check us out. On the Testament tour we saw that they were there for the trash metal bands and we saw the hardcore denim jackets with all the thrash band patches and people coming up to us and be like, 'Hey man dude, you guys did great.' To see that again with so many different genres of people come and tell us the same thing. It's good, it's expanding our fan base, and we need that as a young growing band.

Toddstar: What about you Joseph? What do you love about Mayhem?

Joseph: I agree with Daniel on the fans and everything but I'd also like to add, just being able to hang out with other musicians too. Out here everybody comes out, brings out their tents. We'll just walk around to other bands tents, hang out with them, and say what's up. That's pretty cool too, to meet other bands.

Toddstar: With everything going on in the music industry, I mean there's streaming, there's all that shit, you guys are out here selling CDs for $10, probably one of the best deals on the tour. How hard is it for you guys to really get your music out there and get paid for it knowing that somebody's copying it, streaming it, I mean what's your take on that?

Daniel: Yeah, it has its ups and downs, because the label wants you to sell and the kids just download it for free. It doesn't benefit us. If we make the label happy, you land bigger tours. So if you're not selling as much it hurts the band, it hurts the labels, but out here people will come buy the CD and we just tell them thank you for buying it dude. It's a big deal people buying our CDs.

Joseph: I'd say that live performance plays a huge part in that. A lot of people, they see our band name, they might hear a little bit of a song on the radio, or anywhere online and they might just skip it, they might just not even hear it; but once you see us live, and see the energy we have, and you're with the crowd and your mosh pitting, you feel a lot more into buying the CD after seeing our live performance than online.

Toddstar: It was funny, when I was taking pictures of the set, you had a guy actually in the photo pit actually selling CDs. People were buying it, so it was cool to see.

Daniel: Yeah, yeah, definitely. We've gotta have that hype man, especially on this tour.

Toddstar: You're right, especially on this tour. You're now part of Mayhem history. You guys will forever be a Mayhem band. What's the next thing for you guys? What do you think is that next plateau for Shattered Sun?

Daniel: I would say if we keep selling the way we do, definitely overseas. Definitely Europe coming 2016. Early January, February so that would be the highlight. Just going overseas.

Toddstar: Joseph, what would you like to see next for the band?

Joseph: Yeah, that's what I'm looking forward to, going overseas, going international. That's going to be huge. It's going to be awesome. Really looking forward to going over to Europe and checking out the scene over there. I hear it's really great over there.

Daniel: Definitely we'd love to tour with some of the American bands like Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God, Trivium, which would be just too sick if we landed a gig like that.

Toddstar: Cool. Well I know you guys are busy so I've got one more for you. With everything that's been going on, I mean you guys have a great selling album, you've got a single that is getting airplay, you've got crowds going crazy, people lining up to meet you. With all that going on for you just right now, what's the meaning of life?

Daniel: The meaning of life is to inspire those young kids that came out to see us that want to be up on that stage because I was that kid one day. I would always look at the band and say I want to do that so hopefully it's inspiring, to just keep metal alive, keep it going, fuel the fire, because like I said, we toured with Testament and Exodus and we're the young bloods now, we've gotta pass it on, you know what I mean.

Joseph: Gotta work hard and make a name for yourself, that's all to it.

Toddstar: Well again, thank you guys, taking time out, enjoy Detroit, what you've got left of it and enjoy the rest of your tour and good luck.

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