Sick Drummer Magazine recently caught up with THE AGONIST's Simon McKay to discuss the band's new album Prisoners. An excerpt from the interview is available below:

SDM: Simon, it’s been a while since your previous record, Lullabies For The Dormant Mind, but the more recent Prisoners was released June. There seems to be a lot of differences from the past release… talk to us a little bit about what changed.

SM: "Ok, well in the single that was released, 'Ideomotor' it definitely reflects overall where we’re going with this album. We focused more on writing good songs and making the overall feeling come together, as opposed to forming a bunch of cool parts. It’s still aggressive and spastic like the last album but overall it’s much more mature and focused on solid material rather than technicality or whatever, just good, memorable solid songs."

SDM: On the last record, you wrote and performed all the instruments on the track 'Waiting Out The Winter'. Did you do this for any of the new songs? If so, which ones?

SM: "Yep, I did. There are two songs on this release that I wrote and performed. Guitar as well, Kells did bass and obviously Alissa did vocals. One of them is on the standard album and the other for a Japanese bonus track. I actually did four songs in total but the other two were kind of bit too different, so we thought maybe we’d keep them for a different time or something else. I have my own style too and we can’t just throw everything in there. But the one song that is on the standard issue of the album I’m extremely proud of."

SDM: Not many bands have someone in the band who is capable of doing this, so what about doing these “solo” tracks do you enjoy most?

SM: "I’m just happy I get to do it in the first place. I would love to do my own stuff, write my own music and my own albums. I have a lot of ideas all the time and I’m always thinking about things like parts to throw together. It’s just a really good opportunity for me to explore my own style but also write in the style of The Agonist. I can’t just do anything. I have to think about where we’re going in the album. It’s just a lot of fun for me. I appreciate that, ya know I mean Danny writes the majority of the material so it’s great that he just let me do that. It’s a lot of fun, and I’m proud of it."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

The tracklisting for Prisoners is as follows:

'You're Coming With Me'

'The Escape'

'Predator & Prayer'

'Anxious Darwinians'

'Panophobia'

'Ideomotor'

'Lonely Solipsist'

'Dead Ocean'

'The Mass Of The Earth'

'Everybody Wants You (Dead)'

'Revenge Of The Dadaists'