Anyone who listens to metal music knows Nonpoint and I guarantee you know at least one of their songs (probably “Bullet With a Name”). The band formed back in 1997 hailing out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. With 10 studio albums under their belt, thousands upon thousands of fans, tours anywhere and everywhere, what could be next for Nonpoint? The answer is: a lot. I had the chance to catch up with Nonpoint‘s vocalist Elias Soriano to discuss their big picture plan.
The biggest announcement came with Nonpoint deciding not to go back to traditional record labels after all these years. “We’re in very untraditional times,” Elias started off, “The last three to five years really, we’ve seen music delivery and new models and ways to deliver songs and records being tested. It’s a lot of stuff we tossed around ideas to some of the bigger machines and teams that we’ve been part of in the past. We know that a lot of those processes and models are really set in stone and don’t have a ton of flexibility. They have certain channels and infrastructures that are set and run their bands through their proven model….Nowadays, especially with the internet and boutique teams and finding creators and people that are stretching strategies in more of an untraditional way that are matching these times that we’re seeing with music delivery and content delivery. As a band, we want to stay nimble. And we want to be able to move with that pace. A lot of those infrastructure an old traditional models can’t move at that pace. Nor do they have enough proof to weight their dollars with those risky models. Being indepenent has always been ‘risky’. In such an untraditional time and with such a support group and backing that we have, if there was any time to take the risk, it would be now.”
More and more bands have looked an these untraditional models and have been quite successful at them. Elias made an excellent point when he said, “I think the focus of what you’re calling your success and what you’re calling your growth as a brand is starting to shift away from just a unit sale.” And what makes these new untraditional models successful? The fans. “Now we have fans that can make something viral, or push a song, or push an image, or a tour or a hometown show more so than just an ad.” And knowing the power the fans have in social media today, Nonpoint made the decision to not only go independent, but to do it under their own record label called 361 Degrees Records. The name is an homage to their fan group.
Nonpoint is still looking for the success all the bands are watching: fan growth, sales, social media growth, etc… And though they are now independent, they still have a great team they put together to help keep the drive going. When I asked what as their definition of success, one of the things Elias called out was “We’ve been on the success train for decades now.” You don’t have the longevity they do without being consistently successful. The main factor for their success is based on “Connection. Communication. Loyalty and love with our audience base.” Going to this new model, they can take the connection and communication with the fans and use it more effectively in their business.
Elias went more in depth using Silk Sonic as an example. The duo of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak. released their song “Leave the Door Open” back on March 5th. The two let that song ride as long as they could before deciding to release anything else. They wouldn’t release another single until July 30th with “Skate”. In most traditional major labels, singles would be released on a particular cycle, every 4 weeks, 6 weeks, etc… Nonpoint is looking to do the same as Silk Sonic with their first single as an independent artist titled “Ruthless”. “When we started “Ruthless” we decided we were going to go until knew people absolutely wanted more, weren’t done with “Ruthless”. “Ruthless” has broken every single chart record thus far for our camp. And it’s still growing. So the last thing we would want to do is draw attention away from that seeing that there’s still people getting their ears on it, even though it’s been out for 10 weeks.” He continued, “We want to give this body of work, this EP, that due with each song where people go ‘OK this is “Ruthless”‘s time. OK what’s next?'” It was surprising to me when Elias said, “We’ve never seen our music get that kind of attention” because all the Nonpoint fans throw themselves at the new music when it’s released. But, what he meant was taking the time to properly let the single stay out there before deciding to drop the next one. All their record labels before stuck to the traditional cycles. Now, Nonpoint gets to decide when to move on. “And now that it’s up to us, now that we have the risk, and the financial risk on our heads, we can decide how much we want to stay on that plan. We will be staying on that plan, but we adjust to figure out how we stay on that plan.”
Besides the new model for releasing their music, Nonpoint has taken social media by storm. There isn’t a day where I don’t notice Nonpoint has posted something new or commented on someone’s social media post. “It’s part of our new mission,” he said, “and under the direction of our new label team and our creative director Francesca. When she first started with us she was backstage, on the bus, camera in hand all the time and saw the story. She saw the personalities and life behind the show and knew that it needed to be delivered and we needed to interact in that same way in our social media world. In the past, Nonpoint social media has been, for a lack of a better word, almost stagnant and dark. So we wanted to brighten it up and make it more the personality of the guys in the band. And if you follow us on social media, we’re no short of a punchline in any direction, it’s like nonstop good times.”
One of the most exciting pieces of news Nonpoint released is the band is back on tour! By far, Nonpoint is one of the most exciting, intense, and energetic bands I have ever seen. Any time they’ve come here, I always go see them. So seeing them back after the pause in live music we had makes me thrilled and others should be too. The band had a short stint with Staind playing the Rock Fest and then the inaugural Upheaval Festival. After that Elias said, “We start in September, we do a couple of weeks with Atreyu, then we do our headlining run for the “I’m About To Explore Tour”.” Nonpoint has been polling the fans on what songs they want to hear during their headlining tour. “We’re going to be pulling some old songs that people have not heard in decades. We’re going to play “Everybody Down” from the Smackdown video game that we’ve never played and people have requested that for years. We’re bringing some cover stuff in. We’re definitely adding “Ruthless” to the set. There’s talks of “Tribute” getting added to the set as well.” That tour will be with Saul, The Dropout Kings, and Any Given Sin and Elias raved about each of them. And after that tour they go on the road with Seether that Elias defined as “debaucherous”. And what is Elias most excited about? “Never having to sing this word”, pointing at his sweatshirt that read “Ruthless” because he knows the fans are going to sing it back to them loudly.
I asked him about his favorite singles to perform on stage and “Ruthless” was at the top. He also loves “Milestone” that “has a certain stank to it.” “Dodge Your Destiny” is the song he loves to watch the crowd go wild over and “Hands Off” is their jumping song. And Elias said they will be mixing up the setlists as they go, so you may not see the same show twice.
The band has a few more festivals they will be playing as part of the tour. First is the Blue Ridge Rock Festival, which has exponentially grown in leaps and bounds. That takes place from September 9-12, 2021 in Danville, VA and then the inaugural Rebel Rock that takes place September 23-25, 2021 in Orlando, FL. They will also be back on Shiprocked in January 2022. Elias was very excited about getting back on the boat.
Nonpoint is well known for interacting with their fans in person. There wasn’t a time when after the show I wouldn’t see them all at the merch booth taking photos, signing merch, and just connecting with those people who support them so heavily. But, with everything ongoing with the pandemic, Elias has some different thoughts on those face to face connections, “I’m nervous because on what’s going on with COVID to be able to be that up close and personal on this next run. We’ve having a V.I.P. experience where we’re trying to give them some type of experience where they’ll get to see us up close ask questions and take pictures with us without possibly catching it from one of us God forbid. What we’re trying to do and what we’ve done and decided in our camp. We’re all vaccinated. We’re going to stay inside the bubble, we’re going to make sure the backstage area is pretty much situated and taken care of. Keep our crew, especially our tour manager and our merch person, who is really going to be in and out of the crowd a lot. You know try to keep them safe and keep people around them masked up hopefully if there’s that ability to do so.” Nonpoint is taking the pandemic seriously and know their fans are very understanding if they are unable to greet them in the traditional ways they’ve done in the past.
Elias left with these words, “People want to keep an eye on our news, jump on our socials, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, just search Nonpoint you’ll find us. Definitely follow each member. Each member has their own thing on their own profile. We all like to have fun on our profiles. It’s definitely a full experience if you follow all of them. Pre-orders are still coming. Manufacturer pieces are still coming in for people looking for questions on the pre-order stuff (referring to merch). Keep an eye out, you’ll get a notice soon. The tour starting September 3rd, Atreyu, then our tour, then Seether, bunch of festival stuff. There’s definitely a choice near you if you’re anywhere east of Colorado Springs. Find one and get your ass to the show God willing. Outside of that, I had a good time man and this is something I enjoy doing so let’s do it again.”
It was absolute pleasure speaking with Elias that day and look forward to more music and show announcements from Nonpoint. And he did mention at the end there is a plan for a “I’m About To Explode Tour Part 2” sometime in 2022. Definitely follow Nonpoint and the individual members on their social media and support the band by purchasing a single, an album, merch because this is how they make money to continue to do what they’ve done for two decades. You can check out the full video interview below their social links!
Nonpoint is:
Elias Soriano (Lead Vocals)
Robb Rivera (Drums)
Rasheed Thomas (Guitar /Backing Vocals)
Adam Woloszyn (Bass)
Jason Zeilstra (Lead Guitar)
Nonpoint Social Links
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