Interview with Nonpoint Singer Elias Soriano

photo - Angela Villand

Every time Nonpoint crosses the state lines to play a show in my state, I see the madness, the excitement and anticipation of a show people KNOW is gonna kick so much ass, they have to take the next day off work. I hear the stories of "my first show was insane," and "the last time I saw them, they were just as good as ten years ago when they played here." It's almost "viral," in the sense that I can go to a show, any show, and see someone in a Nonpoint shirt or hoodie and smile, and they hold the horns up. They know. We all know. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll be a bit more specific. One of the greatest LIVE shows you will ever see is Nonpoint. If you have not yet seen them play either an indoor or an outdoor concert, you have not seen a rock show. It's a bit metal, it's hard core, it's heavy, it's heart-pounding bass lines, followed by either melodic or angry vocals that are so intense it gives me chills just remembering my first Nonpoint show. I'm so emphatic about it because I've had the honor of seeing them so many times in concert. I have not once hit a show and thought to myself that it was the same or not as good as I'd expected. Every article, every show review, every follow up says "Nonpoint do not disappoint their fans." Robb Rivera, Nonpoint's drummer, says it's because that's what they intend. They don't want anyone, no matter their age or creed, to leave feeling hungry for more. They have every intention of leaving you feeling satisfied. That's exactly what happens, without fail.Nonpoint's singer, Elias Soriano, feeds off the energy that is prevalent in the pit and beyond, reaches out to give back that aggression, the passion, the excitement that is what Nonpoint is all about. Hard-Rock-Reviews spent some time talking with Elias about the music, the live show, and  more...

Nonpoint's Elias Soriano
Photo - Samara Howland

Angela:  How has the band grown collectively over recent years with the addition of Zach Broderick on guitars?

Elias: Our main thing is being able to do things live and to really put on a great live show. Zach’s a good showman. He’s got a different kind of angle that he comes at with the song writing. That’s exactly what we needed at the time, to kind of freshen things up for us and he’s a great fit. 

Angela:  Nonpoint started their own label a few years back, how did that come about?

Elias:  We were looking to sign another deal and a distribution company came to us with the idea of offering us our own imprint. They believed in the band enough to kind of let us do our own thing and it actually turned out great.

Angela:  There’s a Nonpoint DVD in the making this year, starting with a live DVD shoot on May 5th…when can we except this DVD out?

Elias:  Six-camera shoot, full stage, it was really cool. The DVD will come out probably in December 2011.

Angela:  “Billie Jean” video success from the NYE 94.1 WJJO show here in Madison WI, quite a surprise….over 10k hits in a few mths!

Elias:  Since it wasn’t something we planned and it was so last minute, it kind of took everybody by surprise. It turned out great, and I’m so glad it caused the buzz it did, that people enjoyed it.

photo - Kelly Lloyd

Angela: The MAAW show at the Milw Rave on May 21– how did this particular show come about, especially since it was a “one-off” show and it’s the only one you did with Disturbed or the MAAW tour? 

Elias:  Actually, Robb reached out to Dave, the singer, and asked if we could get on the show. I think within about 24 hours we heard back from him and he made it happen. So we got the offer and we figured that would be a pretty good way to end the tour. 

Angela: The Universal/Geffen "Icon Series" on some of their former and current artists touts the new Nonpoint ICON as a "best of" collection for Nonpoint...

Elias:  They asked us to pick the songs and just work on the artwork. The licensing came up for that stuff and so they asked us for a little first volume/greatest hits.

Angela:  Nonpoint has been around for a very long time, over a decade. There have been many months of extreme touring. What keeps you coming back, saying “I gotta do this again tonite” and with so much energy and enthusiasm…almost relentless.

photo - Kelly Lloyd

Elias:  Well it’s our livelihood too; this is how we pay our bills, but we keep coming back because we keep getting offers and getting fans. You know, there are still people coming up to us that have never seen us before or have never heard our music before. We’ve relatively stayed “underground” for long enough that we seem to always have a market.

Angela: Ten, fifteen years ago - all we had was fliers, posters, message boards on official record label websites. Now, with the advent and uprising of social tools such as Twitter and Facebook, do you think these are helping bring more awareness about things like tour dates and band news?

Elias:  With this tour I’d say it’s helped a little bit - it’s just caused a little bit more interest (socially). But the days of fliers and putting up posters is slowly starting to come back. The social media base is very saturated and it’s even hard to get an update – there’s so many updates flying in, so many people spreading the word about their day, so it’s kind of hard to keep up. It’s a great tool, especially to our fans that stay connected to us online.

Angela:  Do you use Facebook or any social media basics to follow other people or bands that you like?

Elias:  No, I don’t; but my lifestyle is a little bit different. Other than the music that I listen to during my leisurely time – it’s more about recreation for me than actually working. It keeps it fresh for me not knowing every single thing about a band, you know; just keeps that little bit of mystery. I know quite a bit about the business and everything, and when it comes to things I like, I don’t like to see that side of it.

photo - Kelly Lloyd

Angela:  After so many years of being an underground band, and rising to success with a good deal of albums and tours under your belt, how do you remain balanced and honest as a person, true to yourself - so that the "rock star status" doesn't ever go to your head?

Elias:  I think that’s personal: that comes from the person; how they were raised, what type of person they are. It’s a coin flip; it goes to a lot of people’s heads and sometimes it doesn’t. I can see bands that have been out for decades and decades and decades, I can see how the routine can wear thin and you know the appreciation level of where they are kind of drops off a little bit. But people forget that it is a job for us out here, and our livelihood is based on opinions so when it’s a negative opinion, it hurts all around. Some people, they react in a positive way and some people react in a negative way and I think the ones that take all those little quirks negatively are the ones that kind of get lost.

Angela:  Words of wisdom? Do you have advice on how to keep that balance…how to stay cool and "approachable?"

Elias:  Stay aware of the business side of things, and it definitely keeps you grounded.

Angela:  You guys started your own label a while back – what brought that up? You guys had an offer from a distribution company...

Elias:  The deal came; it was an offer, they pushed it through, felt we could stand on our own. We know the business side of things; we know what it takes to survive. We know when to sacrifice and when not to, and like I said – it survived us.

Angela:  You're taking some "time off" this summer to embark on the next album for Nonpoint. How goes the process this time around, does the music come first or perhaps the lyrics, then the music, especially now that you're living in different places?

Elias:  It can work either way. Sometimes the guys write music, and sometimes I write the lyrics first, but it’s not really rocket science. We do things on our own and present them to each other and it kind of materializes.

Angela:  Do you sometimes record at home and send things to each other?

Elias:  Yeah, I pull them to the side; we really haven’t gotten into the emailing music back and forth yet. But it is gonna be, more so on this album than any other, because some of the guys have moved up to Chicago. We’re a little bit separated, so that’s kind of how we’ll do it.

Angela:  The Nonpoint concert experience – the live connection with the fans is almost on an spiritual and a fluent “energy” level.

photo - Kelly Lloyd

Elias:  That’s the goal every night to establish that; trying to connect with them so that way they leave with something.

Angela:  Acoustic album? Acoustic tour?

Elias:  We’ve talked about it. We haven’t really integrated ourselves into that circuit yet.

Angela:  I’d love to see you guys out with Sevendust again. 

Elias:  They’re going out with Alter Bridge right now, so I’m sure – maybe not this year, but next year.

Angela:  If someone’s coming to see you for their first Nonpoint show, what can they expect….something you want them to know. 

Elias:  They can expect to find something in the show that they connect with. Like I said, it’s my goal and I’m very ferocious when it comes to meeting a goal. I make sure to try to connect with everybody in the audience.

Head over to the Hard-Rock-Reviews.com interview w/Robb Rivera, Nonpoint Drummer! click HERE

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