A Moment In Time With DANNY WORSNOP From ASKING ALEXANDRIA

Interview by Kris Peters
Asking Alexandria have always traversed the sonic tightrope between
rock and metal, refusing to be stereotyped or labelled in the
process.
Over the course of seven previous albums the band has had moments
of pure aggression offset by lashings of beauty, creating their own
musical boundaries with a contempt for convention rarely sustained
by bands with a global fanbase.
Frontman Danny Worsnop has been behind many of the sonic
disparities released by Asking Alexandria, his voice capable of
shredding with the best of them but also becoming a source of
emotional and sorrow at will.
They are a band who are divisive in some quarters but have only
ever proclaimed to be serving themselves as master with others more
than welcome to board or alight the train at any time.
With Asking Alexandria's eighth album, the ominously titled Where
Do We Go From Here? due out on August 25 it seems the band have
taken personal stock of their career to date and committed to disk
a collection of songs that serve as a culmination of their career
to date.
HEAVY caught up with Worsnop as he sat in the tattoo chair recently
to talk more about the album.
"It always sounds bad to say, and I don't mean it in a bad way, but
I don't care about releases," he answered when asked if nerves were
still a factor before an album drop. "This has been our album for
the last year and as of three days from now it's not our album any
more. It's everyone elses album. A lot of people look at the
release date as the start of the album, but for me it's the end.
Come Friday, that's when I get to start the next one."
Where Do We Go From Here? is being promoted as a culmination of
Asking Alexandria's historical body of work, so we ask Worsnop how
much of a tightly wrapped package it is.
"We very much didn't want to try anything new," he offered. "We
didn't want to re-invent the wheel. We didn't want it to be
anything exploring or adventurous. It was supposed to be a look
back on the last 15 years and a snapshot of everything thus far,
sonically touching on everything we've done prior to thematically
going back to subjects that have resonated with people from those
albums. Instead of it being a personal record for us it's
definitely for them."
The title Where Do We Go From Here? could serve as both a statement
or a question, but Worsnop argues the way it was written was
slanted more towards the latter.
"It's a question, and one I ask myself a lot," he answered. "And
one I think everyone should be asking themself all the time. I'm
very goal motivated and orientated, so in my life that's the
question I ask the most because regardless of the success or
failure or win or loss that's the first question because you've
gotta figure out what the next step is. When things are bad that's
the only question we can really ask ourselves."
In the full interview, Danny talks more about the subject matter on
Where Do We Go From Here?, how it encapsulates the last 15 years of
Asking Alexandria's life, closing certain chapters of music, the
one minute banger Kill It With Fire and its surprising origin, the
title and closing track and how it ties in with the album theme,
his personal line of tequila and more.