Can you tell us about the origin of the band name, a history of the band and a little bit about the various members?

Jon of Mars came to me kind of easily, it’s my middle name and my favorite planet put together, and I already feel like an Alien so it made sense!

Are you all from the same area? How did you get together as a band?

We’re all from the Western Pennsylvania area of the United States! Some of us met through other musical endeavours, but I met Jordan through a friend of a friend

Who are your favourite artists/bands and how have they influenced your own sound?

Oh man, that is hard to boil down so I’ll give you my top 6 in no particular order: Fear Factory, Korn, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Strapping Young Lad, and Meshuggah! I think every single one of those bands had a massive influence on this album, I did a lot of weird transition songs with very digital sounds, and there’s a rap song on the album, with strange timings, it was very much like “I want to put a little bit of everything in here” kind of feel!

Did you always have the ambition to be a musician and in a band or did you originally have other plans?

I think we all had some plans to do music in some fashion, it was just random luck or dumb coincidence that got us where we are now with this album, and I think that it went way further than what we ever thought it would, so it definitely feels like a solid starting point for us to continue those dreams

What songs or albums are on your current playlist?

Currently listening to a lot of Amazonia from Gojira!

Do you sing in the shower?

I sing in the car, showers are relaxing time, reserved for good music and shower beers while I wash away the sins and filth from the day before

Do you have any plans for the band for this year and into next year?

Right now, the only plan is to keep writing and recording music, touring sounds awesome, but it’s not in the budget at the moment

Do you currently have any new songs/albums ready to be released?

Not anything ready for the world, but it’s coming along.

If you could play at any venue in the world where would you choose?

Madison Square Garden would be kickass, but even playing the main stage at the Cleveland House of Blues would be sick

Do you have a favourite album? If so, what is it?

Not really, I have quite a large collection of music and just naming top bands would be hard to do

Do you have any guilty pleasure songs/albums?

Guilty? Hell no! We like what we like and no one can tell us how to like it! But there are some things that I listen to that make my metalhead friends raise a questioning eyebrow, like N.W.A and A Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, Tupac, and a lot of Rap/Hip Hop/EDM/RnB from the 90s to the 2010s, I just love music!

If you were putting together the greatest show on earth, who would be playing?

Meshuggah, Avatar, GWAR, Mastodon, Gojira, Korn, Slipknot, The Misfits, Fear Factory…. Pretty much every band or artist I’ve talked about already plus some OG lineups of bands that lost members like Pantera, SRV, and Nirvana. Just weeks and weeks of music nonstop!

Can you remember the first album you bought with your own money? What was it and do you still have it?

Hellbilly Deluxe 2 by Rob Zombie, I still have it and it was the most frustrating purchase of my entire life. I bought it at Walmart and it was the censored version, it made me so mad I hand-wrote them a letter about not having the uncensored version

As your fans will be reading this, is there any message you would like to send out to them?

I love you, nothing is possible without you, eat your vegetables, and remember to always stretch before you exercise.

Finally, let us know all your social media sites so your fans, old and new, can find and follow/like you!

https://www.facebook.com/Marsjonmusicman/

https://jonofmars.bandcamp.com/

We, at The Metal Asylum, would like to thank you for your time. Is there is anything further that you would like to add?

Thank you for your time and thank you to everyone involved in the album’s creation, it is appreciated so much! Look out for more music from us!

This interview is the property of The Metal Asylum