Michael “Vampire” Orlando is the lead singer of the metal group Vampires Everywhere. The group recently released its second full-length album titled “Hellbound and Heartless”. Media Mikes caught with Michael at this year’s Vans Warped tour to discuss the band’s latest work.
Adam Lawton: How would you describe the band’s latest album?
Michael Orlando: I would say its more dark and message driven. The album is more real and less contrived. Our previous record was more of a cluster fuck of what we were and it featured a different line up. “Hellbound and Heartless” is more of what we are trying to be.
AL: How does the band generally go about writing its material?
MO: This time around we produced the record ourselves. We had a demo process at our house and we went in to the studio with the album pretty much completed. We just showed the engineers what we needed to lay down. It was more or less me writing the lyrics and our rhythm guitarist DJ “Black “ Blacker writing the music and we all just put everything together.
AL: Is there a track that’s sticks out as a personal favorite for you?
MO: “Star of 666” is one of my favorites. It’s a very 90’s/new metal sound. The song has a really cool vibe and an awesome message that means a lot to me. It’s an awesome track.
AL: Have there been any highlights for the band on this year’s Warped tour?
MO: Las Vegas! We played in front of Mandalay Bay and had a main stage slot that day. There was a sea of people there as was our label. It was really good timing and it was a lot of fun.
AL: What are the bands plans after Warped tour ends?
MO: We have a cool tour coming up that we can’t announce just yet. There are some pretty big sponsors that are going to be behind it. We also just released a new video for the song “Drug of Choice”. Other than that we are going to just keep pushing the new record.
AL: What type of treatment did you give the new video?
MO: The video is about social climate in Hollywood and it follows a girl though Hollywood who is trying to be noticed. The video has a really cool twist at the end that I think people will enjoy.
