Of Mice & Men say Austin Carlile continues to inspire them and confirm 'tons more' music is coming!

With the adrenaline still pumping through his veins following Of Mice & Men’s excellent Main Stage set at Download Festival, a completely “stoked” Valentino Arteaga spoke to Kerrang! Radio’s Johnny Doom backstage.

Overawed by the experience of playing in front of tens of thousands of people at Donington, the drummer said: “I’m still buzzing from the show, honestly it was one of the biggest Of Mice & Men shows to date for sure. Our first Download experience and it was amazing. I don’t think anything… was gonna prepare us for that amazing audience out there.”

“For us to be able to come out here and perform for that (crowd) is just a dream come true, it’s unbelievable.”

Continuing to wax lyrical, Valentino enthuses: “(The crowd) almost feels endless y’know, waves and waves (of people). Then when everyone starts jumping and the circle pits start opening up and y’know like the classic Of Mice audience and it was just amazing. We’ve never really seen it on a scale that’s that big and so y’know we just feel so fortunate to be here and to be able to witness something like that.”

He continues: “One of our photographers… was showing me the photos from the set and he was like ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile so much’ and I was like ‘I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. I think this could be one of the best moments of my life’ because when you’re a musician and playing in garages and coffee shops, nothing can prepare you for this.”

Since former singer Austin Carlile’s departure due to Marfan syndrome on 30th December, the band has unleashed two epic new songs ‘Back To Me’ and ‘Unbreakable’ this year with bassist Aaron Pauley taking on vocal duties.

Valentino explained to Johnny that it was Austin’s sheer strength of character in the face of illness that inspired the four members to step up and continue.

“He had to leave the band because of the strain it was putting on his body,” Valentino said. “For him it was very hard and he basically rocked it until the wheels fell off.

“And in a lot of ways like we use that to inspire us – the four of us had to step up because he always stepped up.

“In a lot of ways it wasn’t about a replacement, none of that felt right. We felt like the right thing to do was for Of Mice & Men to continue and for all of us to step up and Aaron (Pauley) has done it so amazingly, Alan (Ashby) is doing vocals now too and I have like 12 microphones back there on my kit and I’m screaming my head off back there too.”

Revealing that there’s plenty to come from Of Mice & Men in the coming months and years, Valentino said: “Right now, truth be told, we have over an album’s worth of material written but we’re feeling very inspired out here. We’ve already started on a new song yesterday so inspiration strikes and it hits and it doesn’t matter where we’re at; in an airport or in our bunk on the bus. For us these songs that we’ve just put out, we wanted to give the audiences at these festivals a demonstration of what the band can do and honest we just wanted to put them out there.

“Music is our therapy, it’s how we got through this, it’s how Of Mice & Men has been a band for almost ten years is with the music and how much we love and devote ourselves to this.

“The fact that we can put out music and work on new music and there’s tons more of all that coming – more shows, more festivals, more music, more everything - and we just feel so fortunate to be able to continue to do that and have such a wonderfully passionate fan base that’s still growing. I hope we made some new fans today.”

You can listen to Valentino’s full interview below where he also professes his love for Kerrang! Radio and Of Mice & Men’s label Rise Records and how he’s going straight in the mosh pit after the interview! Hero!

• Of Mice & Men