KILLSWITCH ENGAGE // The Hell In Jesse Leach

Jesse Leach doesn’t sleep, he screams. He screams in Times Of Grace, Seemless and Empire Shall Fall.

Two years ago, he slipped back into something called Killswitch Engage and started screaming for them again too. Fans thrust their arms open in embrace. So much so they excitedly crowned him KsE’s homecoming king, forever. Buzz swarmed his 2013 comeback record Disarm the Descent. Before long, the fine young GRAMMY peeps knocked on KsE’s door and invited them to Tinseltown’s BEST party (behind the Oscars, Emmys and the Latin Grammys). The brass Best Hard Rock or Metal GRAMMY-phone went to Black Sabbath. Jesse doesn’t mope around slump-shouldered and bemoaning all the awards they don’t win. So who is this Jesse Leach customer? Stepping in from Hoth-like conditions—“I just came back from some legit hiking … in knee-deep snow”—he speaks candidly on a life devoted to the punk way, art and paying success forward to a family in need.

First of all Jesse, congrats on your GRAMMY nod. I took a look at your red carpet interview that they posted. They obviously loved you so much they misspelled your band name (“Kill Swich Engage”).
Yeah, but you know what? It is just perfect, because it is just how much they really care about metal and like what we are doing. It doesn’t really matter to me.
So the announcement came through too, they sent out a mass email to all of the bands and stuff, and the actual photo of Killswitch didn’t even have me in it, it was Howard.

“The GRAMMYs sent out a mass email to all of the bands and stuff, and the actual photo of Killswitch didn’t even have me in it, it was Howard.”
[JESSE]

I’m sure the two reporters you talked to had no idea who you were. The cameraman looked you up and down like you were Lady Gaga. It was surreal.
Yeah, I walked in with sort of an amused attitude and that’s what made it fun for me. Because to me it was just like, “This is wild. I can’t even believe I am here.” Never in my life did I think my music would catch the attention of people in the mainstream at all. So, I walked into the whole situation like, “Hey, let’s have fun with this.” I didn’t think we were going to win, but for me, just to be there, it’s potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity. So, we went in and we had a lot of fun.

How do they treat the metal nominees? Are you sat up the back near the toilets and behind a pillar?
We were definitely around other musicians, but we were near this funk group and it was all kind of mixed in. The only people that were in the main section, like sort of a VIP section, were people who obviously had won before. Really big super-stars, you know, like the really huge people. We sort of were on the outskirts with other people who were ‘less VIP’: choral musicians, reggae musicians, funk musicians, folk musicians. Anything that wasn’t pop was on the outskirts.

You rejoined Killswitch a couple years ago. Add to that your duties in Seemless, Times Of Grace, Empire Shall Fall … do you sleep?
[Laughs] I do sort of keep busy, and I like it that way. I am constantly learning. I have an online column, I write poetry. For me, I am constantly stimulated and I consider myself an artist. Everything that I do, I see an art in me, even if it is just going around taking photos today, like when I was on my hike. You know, yesterday I spent the day in Manhattan just writing poetry in a cafe. Typical artsy stuff. I’m an artist … it’s not just music, it’s everything. So I kind of can’t help it. I have this really weird urge to just express myself. With that being said, I have actually started on some potential solo material as well.

Do you just find yourself scribbling madly on a pad of paper without any thought?
Yeah, it’s just part of life. The more you exercise it, the more it sort of flows from you naturally. I have a hard time sometimes, if someone asks me to do something. I’m sort of like, “I’ll give this a shot.” Sometimes it just has to come naturally. You can’t force it. But I have been fortunate enough to have it flow pretty freely lately. But, you know, I go through dry spells. I go through writer’s block like any other artist probably does, but I have been fortunate to have it pretty free-flowing lately.

Does that flow from rejoining Killswitch?
Yeah, I think a lot of it had to do with their enthusiasm to have me back. Prior to that I was touring with Times Of Grace and working with Adam [D.] in the studio, and I’d been on the road with him. It basically was already moulded. The gears were already greased, if you will. [Laughs] Yeah, I credit them. Overall, those guys just continued to encourage me. They just made me feel really welcome. The excitement and the spark is back in the band and that is in their own words. So I really feel that it is contagious.

Disarm was well-received by fans and the mainstream. Did the new energy in the band up your game?
Well, the music was written before I even rejoined. So, sonically it was more aggressive, faster. I just sort of worked off of what I was hearing from these guys. I was back in the band in a few weeks and we were out in Europe doing a full tour.

Damn, son. Was it a case of rock the house or die onstage?
My second show back was this huge show in Germany. I was playing in front of more people than I have ever had in my entire life. For me, a lot of the inspiration came from being out on the road. Being out there talking to the guys, hearing their road stories, hearing what they had been through, the struggles, all of that stuff continued the narrative for that album. It’s about finding redemption, about struggling, about falling down and getting back up a little bit. It was about losing your stride, losing your inspiration, all those sort of things. These things still happen to the band. There is a bit of a narrative based on my experience being with those guys on the road.

Talking about those stories, your lyrics concern themselves with the politics of struggle. Where did that take root?
I think it’s twofold. Number one, it’s just suffering and struggling in my own life, whether it’s with depression and anxiety, which I struggle with, to just trying to find my way in life. Going through odd jobs, you know, being a struggling artist. The other side of that is just looking at the way the world is. There is so much going on out there. A lot of people either don’t have the energy or the time to really see what is going on.

How so?
They are more consumed with surveying their lives and what is going on in their own worlds. I have always had my pulse on governments; world governments and the government here in the United States. Since I was I was a kid, they’re things I’ve harboured a lot of anger and disapproval toward. I think the struggle for human rights and equality has sort of been bred in me just through being in the punk and hardcore scene.

Being in bands builds a platform for you to express that anger to thousands, tens of thousands, through music.
I sort of try to make that anger and that frustration come through poetically, where it is not overtly political. It is not just my own struggle I talk about when I talk about struggling and suffering or whatever. It is deeper than that. There is a bigger level to it. It’s a narrative as well. I’ve tried to become more of a storyteller. On Disarm there are definitely songs that are not about me personally, but about other people. I’m telling their story, through other words.

That’s a huge part of the punk/hardcore scene too. I mean you don’t think of Rollins as a punk rocker, you think of him as a storyteller. Same goes for McKaye or even Zack De La Rocha. Is that the tradition you’re continuing?
I mean I would love to. I think for me, it is just the bottom line is being the working class. That is who I am. At the core of who I am, I am working class. I have that in my blood. When I wasn’t on the road, I was working a job. Up until about two years ago, returning to Killswitch, I had been working jobs constantly. So I see the struggle, I see the suffering that your everyday person goes through, and yeah, that is part of being punk rock. It’s part of being, sort of, I guess, folk music. Whether it’s punk or protest music from the ’60s, I was raised on that. My father was a hippie, my mom was a protester. It was just kind of bred into me, I think.

You’re successful now. Well, you possess the image of it at the very least. Has that ever tried to pull you away from those values?
For me, I can never forget where I come from. I am constantly reminded of it. Seeing any type of success at all, my success is my family’s success. It is my community’s success. I don’t hoard my money when I get paid. I help out my family. It is just something, I don’t know, all of that stuff is just part of who I am and I think it’s important to express that through my music. Again, I think I do it in such a way where it’s not preachy. It’s sort of written with a broad brush stroke.

So it’s not a case of “local kid does good” and deliberately forgets where he’s come from.
Yeah, mark my words, I will probably die broke. But you know what, I will die happy. [Laughs] I see money as a means to an end. It’s helped my family out a lot this past year. I’m continuing to do so. My aunt is actually suffering and battling cancer, so the band actually pitched in and put out a t-shirt design to help raise money for her. And you know, again, that’s just sort of a part of where I come from. I think that’s the way you should be doing it, you know?

Ahh fuck man, I’m sorry to hear that. Fucking cancer man, it’s fucked up.
Yeah, it has killed a bunch of my family and it continues to affect me and my friends. I mean, everybody knows somebody. I mean it is terrible. It is a terrible disease.

Absolutely, man. On a lighter note, did you know Adam is Hysteria’s glamour girl?
[Laughs] That doesn’t surprise me.

His face looks like a twisted up, week-old Halloween pumpkin. Our favourite centrefold in the office, bar none.
He probably doesn’t know and he probably doesn’t care. He just carries on that way. He’ll tell you that too. He’s oblivious to things that are going on in the world sometimes, it’s hysterical [laughs].

What would you want fans to get from you and Killswitch, after the last track finishes and the stadium empties? What do you want them to feel?
Honesty, integrity and for them to know we’re doing what we love. Knowing the band is a family. It’s a friendship that goes beyond the music. I think that’s why it’s been the way it has been the past few years, with me being back. It’s a different vibe, you know? It’s a different band. I think there’s definitely a passion that goes throughout. We really mean what we do, we love our fans and we are very thankful to do what we do after all these years. //