Interview by Rick Florino

It's always great when your record company fronts the bill for a good time.
     Just ask Asking Alexandria guitarist Ben Bruce. "We went barhopping in Hollywood with our label last night," says Bruce with a devilish grin. "I woke up the next day wanting to blow my grains out, but it was well worth it!"
     Hangovers aside, Bruce is feeling fantastic. Asking Alexandria stands on the eve of releasing their highly anticipated sophomore effort, Reckless and Relentless. The album teeters between modern thrash beat down and industrial synth party, and that's the often within the space of the same song. In a genre replete with imitation, Asking Alexandria incorporate a few tried-and-true flavors with a sprinkle of some new textures for a sound that's fresh and fiery.        
     "Dear Insanity" says it all, blazing from fleet-fingered fretwork into a pummeling chorus. That's just the tip of the iceberg though.
Asking Alexandria axeman Ben Bruce sat down with Hot Topic for an exclusive interview about Reckless and Relentless, nodding to electronica, saying no to drugs, and why Bruno Mars rules.

HOT TOPIC: So where was the party last night?

BEN BRUCE: We went to House of Blues Hollywood for a little while. Then we went across the street to Saddle Ranch, and then we went to The Rainbow. I loved The Rainbow. It was quainter than I thought it was going to be. I was expecting something really funky and fast because of the reputation it has. I got there, and it was a nice, normal bar. The alcohol was good. I didn't try much of the food [Laughs].

HOT TOPIC: Is one of your goals to blend various styles of heavy metal into your own?

BEN BRUCE: That definitely was one of our goals. We wanted to take a lot of our different influences and put them into one. When I was writing the songs and the guys were going over them, we really wanted to make sure that they flowed well from top to bottom. We didn't want the songs to bounce around to the point where people said, "Oh, they can't make up their mind about what they want to play." We set out to write an album that didn't sound like anybody else's. I feel like we accomplished that.

HOT TOPIC: Do you feel like the electronic influences shine through as much as the metal influences do?

BRUCE: On our last album, there was definitely electro stuff, but we felt like it was more immature overall. We spent a lot more time on Reckless and Relentless. There are a lot of darker and heavier electro influences in there like the Prodigy and Pendulum. It's awesome that you picked up on that.

HOT TOPIC: Was there one overarching vision for Reckless and Relentless?

BRUCE: Basically, Reckless and Relentless tells the story of Asking Alexandria since we embarked on this journey as a band. A lot of albums are about ex-girlfriends or typical bullshit that's upset you in your life. For Reckless and Relentless, we said, "Wow, look at what we've spent the last year and a half of our lives doing. There are millions of kids around the world who would do anything to have this job." A lot of people don't realize what it's actually like until they've been thrown into the deep end and they experience it for themselves. This is a very honest album. It looks at all of the mistakes that we've realized we made and all of the hardships we've gone through being on tour. It examines what we've been subjected to and introduced to that a normal person wouldn't get to experience. The album involves us realizing those mistakes and trying to learn from them. We're telling the story from our lives and what we've seen over the last two years.

HOT TOPIC: Storytelling definitely figures into that.

BRUCE: The album will hopefully open people's eyes to what our lifestyle was over the past two years. We've learned from the mistakes on the road we've traveled down together.
 

HOT TOPIC: Given the album's visual sensibility, do you watch a lot of movies?

BRUCE: We watch a lot of movies. We always try to visualize the story and paint a picture that people can really see when they listen to our music as well. We didn't want it to just be an album. We wanted it to be something people could see in their heads and relate to when they're listening to it. I like a lot of movies that have a crazy twist in the end, especially something that you are not going to figure out from the beginning of the film. Inception was a good one. I really like the Saw and Hannibal Lecter films as well. I want to watch movies that have a decent storyline which isn't too obvious. I like trying to figure out a movie before it's finished and guess the outcome. However, it pisses me off if I do guess the outcome. I like a movie that throws me off my feet at the end.

HOT TOPIC: What does "Morte et Dabo" mean to you?

BRUCE: A lot of very religious Christians have taken it as very offensive, which wasn't the point at all. If you listen to it literally, the lyrics are suggesting that we got to heaven, we've killed God, we're taking over everything, and we're going to rule the world in our own way coming from hell. We've been through hell and back over the course of the last two years, and we're trying to struggle and climb our way back up to the point where we feel comfortable again. It's just a story, and some people take it far too seriously.

HOT TOPIC: How would you describe the synthesis between industrial sounds and guitar?

BRUCE: I've got so many different influences that they all blend together and come out the way they do. We feel really strongly about all of the ambient background and electronic sounds. I'll do it all on my computer, but when we go into the studio with Joey [Sturgis, Producer], he's a genius and he'll flip the whole song around. We'll sit and build it together until we get the outcome that we were aiming for. That's basically what we do for all of the songs.

HOT TOPIC: Where did "Dear Insanity" come from?

BRUCE: That's probably my favorite track on the album [Laughs]. It's basically a look inside how easy it is to get sucked into the whole partying lifestyle, doing too many drugs, and drinking too much. It's about getting lost in that and you're losing your way. You don't realize what you've got when you got it because that stuff's hindering and blurring your vision. When you're touring as a band, you meet so many different people. As sad as it sounds, drugs are thrown at you from every direction. It's a temptation. Once you get sucked into it, it can eat you alive. We realized we were making mistakes and we didn't want to ruin our career for a stupid thing like that.

HOT TOPIC: For an outsider visiting the UK, what's the one attraction not to miss?

BRUCE: Honestly, you have to go to London. It doesn't even matter what you go and see there. As soon as you set foot in London, there's some sort of energy and chemistry in the air, man. It's electrifying. It's a really great time. There are a lot of great things to see there like Buckingham Palace, Towers of London, and London Dungeons, which is where they used to torture people. It's a great place to go and visit! Even walking through London, even if you don't do any tourist-y things, there's a ton of history to experience. There are so many different people that go there. It's a big melting pot.

HOT TOPIC: Who's on your playlist right now?

BRUCE: This is going to cause a few chuckles. I'm really into Bruno Mars right now. I feel like that kid has got the most stupendous voice I've ever heard. I love it!