Elias Soriano Of Nonpoint: The ClassicRockHistory.com Interview

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Back at it again with new hard-hitting tracks “Paper Tigers” and “Heartless,” Nonpoint frontman Elias Soriano tells all about his upcoming fully immersive Emerald Cities tour, a “Twisted Wizard of Oz.” The tour kicks off March 2nd, running throughout the month with plans of extending to more dates and even internationally. And so, it looks as if fans of the long-running alt-metal heroes have much to look forward to by way of live performance.

Joining Nonpoint for the jaunt is Palestine, Texas rock band Blacktop Mojo and Ontario, Canada’s own Sumo Cyco. Indeed, these shows are shaping up as evening to remember if you’re a fan of hard rock and heavy metal mayhem. As he prepares to hit the road, Elias Soriano dialed in with ClassicRockHistory.com to give the latest and greatest on all things Nonpoint.

Be sure to check out tour dates and locations at https://nonpointstore.com/pages/tour-dates

Last time we talked you had just released your EP Ruthless and then the tour that followed that, how did all of that go? What was the reception from your fans?

It was great. The tour went amazing. The song “Ruthless” was very well received and we’re gearing up for a similar welcoming with “Heartless” the fans are digging the Nonpoint bangers. So we’re, we’re gonna keep banging them out.

Now, you have your new single out “Paper Tigers,” how have the fans responded to this one?

It’s been great! That’s definitely a live song. Our fans are going to be jumping in the pit for that one and going to be making that a live anthem for sure. This whole upcoming run that we’re going to do is going to have that song and a lot of new stuff but we’re going back into the archives and pulling up the hits.

Would you say that song is a current social commentary of current events in the literal sense of what a paper tiger is?

It’s a metaphor for something that makes itself seem scary, but it really isn’t. Because at the end of the day, you’re only going to get a paper cut. It hurts in the very initial beginning, but it’s not going to kill you. And I’m sure somebody in the comments is going to fucking say, “Yeah, here’s a link to a guy who died from a paper cut”. [laughter]

But it’s just a metaphor for something that weighs a ton and makes a lot of noise, but at the end of the day, it’s nothing.

What was the recording process like for “Paper Tigers”?

Recording was fun. We did it with Uptown Studios with Chris Collier. And Rob Ruccia. The process was great, it was fun. Chris is great to work with and very hands on. And we like that.

Are you going back as far as your original stuff when you formed in ‘97?

The plan is to bring out songs like “There’s Going to Be a War” is on that list, “To the Pain” is on that list “Circles”, and “Hive” is on that list off of the first record. A lot of heavy songs that we know fans are missing that we’ve been seeing in the comments sections that they have suggested.

Is it hard to come up with a setlist with 25 years worth of music?

It is, you know because you can’t get too obscure because you piss people off and you can’t get too repetitive because you piss people off so you’re just constantly pissing people off so you just try to paint a picture of what the whole tour is and we make the setlist based on that.

Speaking of touring, you have the Emerald City Tour, the twisted Wizard of Oz theme, what can you tell us about that?

We’re going to be giving our fans a fully immersive experience from the second you walk in, to the second the show’s over. A feeling where the entire show is following you around instead of you waiting for the next band or the next show to happen. If you feel like you got a little bit of downtime you can open up your phone and see where you are in the story just by using Shazam and seeing what music is playing and what part of the story is coming up next. Every single band is involved in the theme of the tour. So you know there we’ve been lucky enough to have Sumo Cyco and Blacktop Mojo join in the theme, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Did you coordinate songs for this tour specifically to go with the theme?

We picked out songs that we felt like had a little bit of Emerald City’s vibe to them, but the actual show around them is going to be also to what’s going to be driving interest.

What cities are you excited to play in? You’re going across the US with this one, correct?

What we’re doing is we’re going from Virginia doing about 20 dates, going clockwise. I’m excited to get through Florida again. We, unfortunately, had to miss it last time because of the hurricane. So this time around, it’s going to be really fun to get back there and play for our home state, I’m really looking forward to hitting Florida again. Texas crowds are awesome so I’m looking forward to getting through there.

We are playing North Carolina on this run, Greenville and Charlotte. Spartanburg, South Carolina, we’re hitting the Carolinas hard with this one. We’re bringing it all, the production, more lights than you’ve ever seen and more stage show than we’ve ever had in our lives. So it’s going to be amazing!

When does the tour start, exactly?

It starts March 2nd, and runs all the way through March. Then we’re gonna take a little break and we’re already setting up second legs, third legs and international legs because the buzz behind it is definitely deeming it that we need to rinse and repeat this.

You also have a VIP package along with this, can you go into detail about what that includes?

We’ve uncovered a couple of demos from back in the day and we’re going through demos right now and working on new music. So we wanted to kind of like play some new music, play some old music for our fans get their thoughts on it. You know, what riffs stuck out what vocals stuck out what lyrics really jumped out at you and basically taking notes and research and seeing what really drives our fans and drives our fans interests because the people that come to our VIPs are are normally the tastemaker fans of ours, and they’ve been around for the longest and understand the experience and have that connection with the band. So to be able to some way down the line create a story where they could feel like they were part of the music writing process with one of their favorite bands just by giving their opinion, and then four months, six months down the line, hearing their opinion pop out, to say they were part of that, we feel like that’s an awesome experience that not a lot of people get. So we put it into a VIP package.

That’s something you don’t see a lot of bands doing, getting fans directly involved with the music along with doing that process on the tour bus with you guys.

We’ve been doing this for 20 plus years, and we’ve written every kind of song and we’ve had every kind of VIP and experience. So now it’s really about when you get to this point, you’re looking to get a new experience and it just would be fun to really get into the minds and what drives our fans.

Your last album X came out in 2018, then your song “Ruthless” came out a year and a half ago and “Paper Tigers” out now, is it safe to say that you have a full album coming out soon or you’re working on one?

The plan is to round out these EPs. We mentioned what we were going to do in the documentary when we went independent. We want to follow through with what we wanted to accomplish and the accomplishment is to drop some EPs, to do some connecting with our fans, and with our songwriting process, and find ourselves coming out of these testing environments, and then falling into a full length album that we feel really, really strong about.

So the goal is to get these EPs done, and then find ourselves in a place mentally and professionally, that we are not only ready to go into the studio and write but in the right mindset as well.

Since MCA had dissolved and you have gone independent, are you wanting to stay independent or are you looking to get signed again?

Our plans for what we want to do with the artwork and what we want to do with the theme, and our music is very ambitious and what they would consider very risky, because it’s a long-term plan. So I don’t know if it would work right now with a major label. So we’re going to follow through with what we’re planning on and we’re doing awesome. So I really don’t see us signing soon unless, obviously, something comes along where we feel like it would be a great addition to the team or a label that understands our vision and can inject a little bit more infrastructure.

Label machines are very heavy. Right now we feel very nimble, and we can move fast when we need to and can be more flexible.

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