Travis Neal of The Bloodline Interview

Travis Neal: I just stopped at home. So I just made a sandwich real quick. Instead of buying some food, I was like, “I’m close to home.”

Travis Neal: That might be a little off. We’ve been together as The Bloodline for, it’s been, I’d say about almost three years. We’ve been known, probably, since around January. The history of the band basically came from we were all in a band together called, Dirge Within. I joined the band late in the band’s career. We played a handful of shows as Dirge and you know they had a record that was out. [It] cycled for a while so they wanted to write and start getting on a new record. So, we set out to write the new record. Just slowly, we all decided that the more the music came out, the more we realized it wasn’t Dirge Within at all. It was a new band. You know, Dirge had some history behind and stuff like that. So, we just kind of, you know about three years ago, we decided to kill the band name and start fresh. Start over again with a fresh slate and a whole new brand, it’s kind of a bold move for a band that’s already established and has a following and tours under their belt as well as two national releases. We just felt the band wasn’t the same band anymore and we needed to move forward. So, then, that’s kind of ushered in the Bloodline from there and we never looked back. Now we have a record out and everybody is starting to know who we are, so it’s definitely cool.

Travis Neal: The record is called We Are One. It’s a full length and it’s a twelve song CD. There is two extra songs that aren’t listed that are bonus tracks on the actual hard copy of the CD. And then [you] can get the standard twelve song release via any media outlet.

Travis Neal: No, actually, that’s funny you say that. I’ve had quite a few people approach me here, in my hometown of San Diego, asking about vinyl and stuff like that. And I hit up one of our guys at the label. I asked him the ups and downs because I’ve never worked with vinyl. But yeah, it’s definitely something we want to do. I have some good ideas of what I want to do on releasing it vinyl. From what I gather, it’s costly undertaking. The label and [the band], we decided to let the album cycle for a little bit, get some touring under belt, and get some momentum. And then start to usher in some cool bonus stuff like vinyl and some other things like digi-paks, stuff like that, with the CD.

Travis Neal: We have a concept behind the title, We Are One. And that concept basically, it’s conveyed on the first song, on the intro on the CD, which is called, “The Bloodline.” And then it goes right into the first track, “We Are One.” That message, behind that song, it’s just basically what The Bloodline does stand for. That meaning at the end of the day, you know, with everything that’s going on in the world. You got people fighting over color, people fighting over religion, you know, and people fighting because they just don’t think you’re the same as them. In my eyes personally, the concept that I brought to the band was just in a sense we are all one. If you strip our flesh off, we’re the same color. We’re the same skin, you know, when there’s no skin there.

So, to me it’s a bonding with our fans and anybody that loves the band. We’re all part of it. We’re of the same blood. We are one. As for the rest of the record, it’s a hundred percent from the heart. All of the lyrics on the album are very, very personal to me. They deal with a just you know a good five or six year period of my life before I joined with the Bloodline, that was a little harder then normal. A little more trying then normal life should be. So, I guess you could say I ran into some bad luck and had some personal issues and everything. It was a life changing experience. Perseverance through it made me a better person and the Bloodline helped me get that out, an outlet for all of the stuff I held inside that allowed me to be a better person instead of holding it in. Each song on the record is very personal and I definitely think that anybody that listens to it from all walks of life can, you know, can relate to one or two songs on there from personal experience that they may have. Or take the lyrics to the songs and develop their own meaning that means something to them.

Travis Neal: Definitely communal. The band writes all the music. I came in, I write the all the lyrics. We just joined them together. Usually they give me pretty free reign on what I can say and how I convey things. It went really good with the lyric writing. It just fit over what we did. But, yes, definitely, we’re a cohesive unit as a band. You know, we write together as a band.

Travis Neal: You know, I love all the songs on the record. I would definitely say, one of the most… there’s two of them that extremely personal to me, but one of them that I think is just an all around great song. It shows every side of this band, our heavy side, our rock side, you know, our commercial side as well as just really intense lyrics for me is definitely, “Above The Rain.” That’s probably, probably my all time favorite song on the record. I mean I love all of the songs don’t get me wrong, but if I had to pick one, it’s probably that song.

Travis Neal: Well, we’re basically, a heavy, active rock band. We have rock and metal tinges in our music. But overall I would say, this genre is coined active rock. We definitely keep our roots as heavy musicians. We add it in there. I guess more so as especially with the vocals, the screams and stuff like that I try to add them in as accents. Like a symbol hit or something would be in the vocals, but I can actually point us, you know, that heavy active rock band slash maybe melodic metal you know cause we do have melodic metal aspects to the band.

Travis Neal: Yeah, I definitely have a personal wishlist I mean. But some of the bands I would love to play with, I mean, I think we would be a little out of their spectrum. We’d maybe be a little bit heavier then their crowd would be used. I would personally love to go out with like Shinedown or Breaking Benjamin. I love those bands and I think that we’d fit. But, more then likely, folks can expect to see us out with bands in the same genre as like All That Remains, Killswitch Engage, and In Flames, Wovenwar, Fear Factory, and Trivium stuff like that.

Travis Neal: I would say Mayhem, but it seems Mayhem’s lineup is quite, quite aggressive this year compared to previous years. This year it seems like it’s a lot heavier. Definitely Rock on the Range, stuff like that we’d fit any of those because like I said they have a wide spectrum of different artists. In Europe the possibles are endless.