South Florida-based rock band Nonpoint have been entertaining fans with their energetic live sets for over two decades.
The band recently released their new single "Underdog," a track that embraces the idea of perseverance, resilience and determination.
Nonpoint is also gearing up for a Summer tour with Black Stone Cherry.
Rock Life recently caught up with Nonpoint vocalist Elias Soriano.
Rock Life: The single has been out for a couple of days now. How has the response been?
Elias Soriano: Well we've already played it live on this last run so we've seen the reaction from our core audience and it's been really positive so far. That's always good. You never really know until they tell you, but from what they seem to be telling us, they're digging this record.
RL: And is there more new music coming?
ES: Yeah, we've actually got a couple of songs already written. We're just tying up some loose ends and getting ready to drop an album hopefully at the end of this year or early next year.
RL: How did the "Underdog" track come together?
ES: Like all Nonpoint songs come together really. It starts with a cool riff and some cool words that feel right at certain parts. The sentiment and lyrical content is basically a love letter to the last 20 plus years of doing this.
RL: And Drew Johnston directed the perfect partnering video for the track. How did you hook up with him?
ES: He's an old friend from South Florida. He's A talented guitar player that moved into the content space and is an outstanding videographer. He was working with other people and then became available. We reconnected after years and years of not running into each other and picked right back up where we were. It's a great partnership and he's amazing at what he does.
RL: Did you have an idea for the video when you were writing the track?
ES: Not for that one. That was one that we wanted to go more behind-the-scenes kind of a situation. Just giving people a feel for what it's like to be in the camp. Especially with the run that we were on. We hit all the festivals and the shows that we were playing and we just wanted to give people a look at all of the parts of Nonpoint.
RL: You've always been a band that tackles social issues and try to bring forth positive messages. Is that something that you get a lot of feedback about?
ES: Oh yeah! Our core base knows the type of people that we are. We're not shy with our fans. We've always held a close relationship with them for decades. We're not hard to get close to or communicate with and we like sharing those parts of ourselves. I think that resonates in the music.
RL: And you'll be on the road again this Summer?
ES: Yeah we're heading out with Black Stone Cherry at the end of July into August on the Kicking and Screaming Tour.
RL: And what can fans expect from this run?
ES: We've been having a lot of fun with the production and song choices. We've been shaking it up a little more than usual. They can expect some differences between what they've just seen on our Million Watts Tour and on The Emerald Cities Tour.
I think we're going to gear this tour around some of our monster songs. I think we'll pull out our cover of "In the Air Tonight" again. We've talked about doing "When Doves Cry" too. A lot of songs that we sing on a lot of our streams. Those are the ones that we feel people are going to want to see.
RL: You've always been known for your standout live shows. Is that something you take pride in?
ES: Oh, always! If nothing else we always want to make sure we top ourselves in our performance if anything. We may not always have the stage room or the ability to bring out the production we want. With Black Stone Cherry it will be smaller, but when it comes to the energy and the music, that's our top priority.
RL: You created your own independent label 361 Degrees. What made you want to do it?
ES: A lot of it was timing and the situation we were in. It was the pandemic and everybody was sitting at home and basically hitting the brakes on a lot of things. The touring business all stopped so with a lot of creativity and time being an opportunity, it just seemed like the right time.
RL: What has kept you guys going in such a tough industry?
ES: I guess just what has kept us going over these last 20 years. I've seen format after format change and station after station disappear along with management teams and labels disappear I've seen it go from tapes to CDs to streaming and go from 12 major labels to just three. It's just the nature of the business and the nature of the game. If you can go with the flow you'll find yourself on the other end of the wave that you're riding.
RL: And what's next?
ES: A lot of overseas stuff and really just wrapping up the record. We really want to finish up that full length and do a lot of overseas travel. They've been requesting it and shows are already starting to get booked. We're definitely looking forward to that.
RL: After 20 years of touring, what's the biggest thing you learned early on that helped you?
ES: To stay focused on the music and to surround yourself with people that you trust and the rest should basically take care of itself.
RL: Is there anything still out there you haven't done?
ES: Man, I don't know! Rockville was pretty amazing. This whole festival season is pretty outstanding. I'd like to do the festival runs overseas. We haven't done any of those in awhile. That would be exciting to get back into.We're also looking forward to getting into South America and getting over to Asia. That's really exciting for me.
RL: Anything else you'd like to add?
ES: The Kicking and Screaming Tour with Black Stone Cherry is going to be a monster tour. If you haven't seen that band before, it's going to be an unbelievable show! And for all my people overseas, we'll see you very soon!
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