BLACK TIDE's sophomore album, Post Mortem, was released on August 23 via DGC/Interscope Records. The CD was written and recorded in the summer of 2010, and is the follow-up to 2008's Light From Above.

The band followed the release of Light From Above with an appearance on the inaugural Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, performed on the main stage of Download 2008 and capped it off by playing the entire 2009 Vans Warped Tour. In April 2011 Black Tide was added as support for the only two announced US dates of IRON MAIDEN's The Final Frontier world tour, which took place in Black Tide's home state of Florida.

Black Tide has just hit the road as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. The trek will run through October 15, conquering North America with a massive active rock lineup which features veteran acts AVENGED SEVENFOLD, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, SEVENDUST and more.

Recently frontman Gabriel Garcia took some time out to speak to Scottish based EspyRock over the phone to discuss their new album. Gabriel spoke about the bands ups and downs while they started out at the highest level and had to work and learn how to become a touring band after Ozzfest. He also states how they never appreciated being recognised for their age and hope people will now understand who they are through their lyrics.

EspyRock: Considering that you’re only what nineteen/twenty years old? How have you handled everything that has been thrown your way so far such as being signed at a young age and all the success that came with it as you were sort of thrown in the deep end?

Gabriel Garcia: "That’s a good way to put it, being thrown in the deep end. There are no lies when it comes to all of this as we’ve had to learn everything the hard way because we were so young. We’ve been through so many ups and downs. We started out at the top and had to work our way back down to the clubs because our first tour was main stage at Ozzfest and seriously who gets that sort of opportunity. We just had to work ourselves back down as we realised this is just not normal [laughs]. After Ozzfest we had to work out how touring works and how the band life works so we’ve had to go through a lot to get where we are today. All of that really inspired the new record that is coming out. Everything that we’ve had to go through really was thrown into Post Mortem."

EspyRock: When you consider things such as your first tour being Ozzfest and everything that you have achieved in the past three to four years, do you think that comes down to the work ethic within the band or is there something that sets Black Tide apart from the pack?

Gabriel Garcia: "Well for our first record it was weird because age was such a big thing about us. Every article you read about us it was all about 'these young kids Black Tide' and 'these young kids' this and that. So we did have to work somewhat harder to fight through that barrier but when people actually took time to listen to us they realised that “these young kids” actually sounded quite good. We didn’t appreciate all of the focus being about our age, we always think it should be about the music. Fuck everything else, it is all about the music and people started to see what we had when they listened to us. That’s the big difference with this record now that we are a little bit older because people are now willing to focus on our music rather than our age. Don’t get me wrong, we will still need to work our asses off but people are no longer giving us what felt like a sympathy vote in the beginning as were just young kids back then. We’re young adults now and it has become easier to write now in terms of the lyrics. Before I was writing from the eyes of a ten to thirteen year old and I didn’t really have much to say. The songs were not about anything that was real; I had not experienced enough at that age to be able to write anything with true meaning."

EspyRock: Do you think you have proved to those people who viewed you as just young kids trying to make a rock record that you had a lot more to give or do you still think you have more to prove to them and yourself?

Gabriel Garcia: "We will always have something to prove. Every band needs to continually prove their worth when it comes down to a new album if you get what I mean. We will just keep writing music that we love and then we have to hope other people will at the same time like it and join the army kind of thing. We’re going to continue to grow and evolve and during that process we will never make the same record twice, every record will be a step above the last one."

Read the full interview here.