Interview with guitarist Andrew Bradley
Connecticut's Life In Your Way is a new band playing a form of music which has elements of hardcore, punk, and metal. Their debut, The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets and Still Our Time is Endless, has been released through Indianola Records. The packaging for this album is fantastic and musically Life In Your Way have constructed an intense album. Here is guitarist Andrew Bradley.

Life In Your Way is a peculiar name for a band, how did you happen to choose this for your group?
Like most kids starting a band, we had to think of a name that was original and catchy, I was looking and thinking about everything. While reading the Bible (as I do sometimes) a few lines popped out to me and on part of it was "life in your way". So, I went on reading about why it was in very small print down on the bottom of the page in a book called Psalms. It turns out that most things in the Bible were often difficult to translate from language to language. The languages that the Bible were written in; Hebrew, Greek and and a few others. Well, things were hard to put into our way of speaking so, sometimes they'd put little ideas to where something might sound a little different or just be put in a different way. That's what life in your way was all about, and I thought it was awesome.

The booklet and imagery is very unique and expressive- what was the idea behind this creation?
It's really a work of art by Club Olsen from Bootcore Grafix. We had an idea of putting a vintage or a mid-evil scheme to the lay out. We only really had ideas for colors and stuff like that, we gave him a bunch of pictures too (that never got in there). Anyway, we think it worked out great.

Do you feel there is an overall concept at work on this debut album? Was it important to portray this visually as well as lyrically?
The whole booklet worked out awesome to how the whole album turned out to be too. It does have a good flow, the lay out with the music and the lyrics just came together. We're glad that the layout came to be eye opening, like how we want our songs to be. I always hoped i could put out music that would change people for the better.

Many bands in heavy music express themselves with negativity- why do you choose to spread a positive message?
In the last interview I did there was a question something like "I know there is a time for us to talk about personal issues like you do in your songs but with so much going on in the world right now like the Iraq war and the different stuff the Bush administration is doing, will we see Life In Your Way take a stand for some of these specific issues? I like to put out lyrics that would help and strengthen all people no matter what they believe. You know what I mean? We do share a lot of what has happened to us in our songs. I think that's a great way to put a new idea in a persons point of view. There is a lot that I don't believe in, but I will try my hardest to believe in people.

Do you feel it is important for someone to have faith to be able to understand your lyrical message?
Important? No. There is such a big picture to what we can be in this world, through our lyrics I want people to know the things in this world that we all can believe in and rely on, sometimes it's hard to see but it's in there; true love, sincerity, trust, hope and God (who is always the same for me).

Your music appears to draw inspiration for metal, hardcore, and punk- how did you happen upon such a varied sound?
When we first started out in early '99 we were straight up metal core. Wrote some awesome songs and had a great time playing them. Then, in early '01 we had some member changes, (it was a 4 piece) so we lost our one guitarist. The drummer moved up to guitar sang backup vocals. Two new members came right in, new drummer and a new guitar player. We scrapped all of our old songs (which I didn't really want to do, but I went along with it) and we started writing the new material. It was really how it usually works, everyone putting in their ideas, we tried the best we could to write music that was exciting and maybe even breathtaking.

How do you like living in Connecticut? Do you travel down to New York City often?
I like Connecticut very much. I was born here and lived here all my life. I have gotten around quite a bit with the band, but this will still always be an awesome place to me. Haven't gone to the city too much, maybe around six times. I've seen a few shows down there and been there once or twice just to hang out and walk around. It's a busy place. So much going on and so much anyone could get into. I'd say anyone who hasn't been there, they should really go and check it out. Like I said, there is so much you could do.

What thoughts do you have on your local music scene? Is it overall supportive or are bands and clubs usually out for themselves?
We sure do have some of those clubs and club owners that are all out for themselves, and those shows usually don't a good atmosphere. Most of the really good shows now are put on by kids. It could be at a hall or there has been a lot of shows at university's. The scene is over all pretty good. We have the Boston scene very close and there is quite a bit going on in New York, those are both very close neighboring states. The bands, I think are like everywhere, kids just trying to have fun and play for people, even though they could have bad attitudes and sound horrible.

Final comments?
We just put out a full length album in early August. We're really happy with it. It's on Indianola Records out of Georgia. It's been getting in some stores but if it's in a specific one, you should be able to order it pretty much anywhere, and of course, you could get it online. Other than that, try to look out for us on tours and