TiLT 360 returns after 15 years with renewed purpose, blending remastered classics and reimagined alt-metal/grunge grit. In 2025, their EP It Grows and new single Point Blank prove that real lyrics and raw energy never fade.
1. TiLT 360 had a strong run from 1999 to 2010 and built a loyal following. What motivated the band to reactivate the project after all these years and release new material in 2025?
Actually what did that was me saying these distributors and all this internet activity, I linked up with distro kid and I saw that our songs can be spun and made royalties out of them so I just uploaded our catalog that we had over all those years these songs are old but they’re still hitting hard I did a little remastering of them some of them are just mix it as is 20 years ago and these tracks are getting a lot of reviews and reactions that I never thought was going to happen. We were torn and planned or in different era we didn’t have this luxury of a tool so I figured what the hell it’s just sitting around mines will distribute it. And from that point on started talking to the band again I always kept in touch with him in fact me and my bass player from tilt started another kind of act acoustic alternative rap Blues type project that we played around for 5 years with called ‘Dempsey’. We’ve talked about a reunion show and writing new material though since
2. Your new EP It Grows revisits and reworks tracks from the Day 11 era. What made you want to return to those songs, and how do the new versions reflect who you are today as musicians and as people?
Well like I said we had the album out in 2008 but with this new distributing platforms and all these distributors out there it’s easy to link up and get your songs put on every major streaming platform and to get noticed and downloaded and you can make royalties easier than ever now if I just sitting at home and uploading your songs. Granted you’re not making much you still got to get out there and hustle so if you can have the hustle of when we was coming up and what we had to do and combine it with the technology today there’s no reason independent artist can’t hold It Down get noticed have leverage when they get a record deal to come to them and pretty much make their own brand themselves. The day 11 songs the album was just really really good I just didn’t get as much exposure as it should have. So that’s what I’ve tested by sending it out there I’ve had it reviewed on submit hub and I’ve sent it you know the curators and sites like this one and people want to write about it they want to interview US, they want to hear the boxing song Point Blank they see that we were featured in the former middleweight champion of the world Kelly Pavlik knockout real on YouTube that’s because I boxed with them he’s from Youngstown like we are and I box with them when I was growing up and then I went to the military and he kept going and he became middleweight champ so we had talked he loves our band and we did a little cross market thing and it’s great to hear our song always knocking people out!!
3. Billy, your lyrics often draw from deeply personal battles, including addiction. How do you approach turning those experiences into art, and how does the band support the emotional process behind that writing?
It was always an outlet for me sort of like therapy I was not always in addiction when I was writing but when I did get sucked deeper and deeper in it it was my cry for help it was what I had to scream about and the darkness, into right about music is kind of kept me going but it also kept me going the other way too already having shows booked and you know you’re cotton addiction and you just can’t stop, my band is always been writing music but we always clicked it’s been many years so Ellen Jay came in the band he just had songs written that just fit exactly where we were at we started playing and then you know my addiction took over years down the road you know that’s one of the reasons why we kept breaking up or we took time off and then after that about 2010 we had that run with the album and then I had a child and people kind of just went through separate ways we had to go do some life things I mean after 11 years of playing you think you had your shot and kind of burned out so we all kept in touch though cuz we’ve been together so long. Especially Me, Drew and Heather. Since 1999 and going….
4. Each member brings a distinct energy, from Heather’s commanding drumming to Jason’s haunting riffs and Drew’s pulsing bass lines. How has the band’s chemistry evolved since the early 2000s?
Well we evolved by just getting better, when we started you know we’ve had three different guitar players over the years which changes your sound as they write songs most of the time the music I would write some things but I didn’t plan sing, Drew wrote many songs but every time we had a change of guitarist it would change the sound a little bit. When we started we were around the new metal rap rock era late 99 and that’s what we were sounded like cuz I really never sang I just wrapped scream start a band had a yell about it and then as we got better and tighter and practice we started to find our own sound that was like our beginning. And then as we went through different guitar players three to be exact the third one being Jay Miller who stayed and was our complete sound. That’s when I think the whole tilt sound just came together we still had our sound but when the guitar players come and go especially when we had studio already written drum tracks and one of her players out there show just left that was tough but Drew handle it and we got a buddy of ours to filling on guitar and he wrote some parts on the album that actually never got released that’s kind of some of the songs that I’m putting together and putting out now with some day 11 songs. Some of these songs people never heard on disk before they might have heard us live but they never heard the recording unless they heard it online but we had a little album that just didn’t was recorded and just never panned out because of break up hiatus stuff, mainly due to my addiction.
5. Reviewers describe your sound as a fusion of grunge grit, alt-metal heaviness, and emotional urgency. How would you define TiLT 360’s identity today, and what elements do you feel remain timeless in your music?
Well I’ll tell you the truth I never really labeled as in a genre I didn’t know what to cause cuz our sound evolved you know I put hard Rock heavy Rock we weren’t really metal that we were a little heavier than grunge Rock and alternative rock but then we fell in between them many times. So yeah the sound that’s been labeled lately as of these new releases to the distributors and fans and write ups y’all got it down that’s pretty much the sound I never really considered us grunge but thinking about it you know that’s mainly a lot of my influences growing up in the 90s I mean 80s and 90s but the grunge was when I was in high school so that was a big influence and for a guitar player Jay being a lot younger he just he wrote out of his era, I say we fall between grunge and post grunge and then hit alternative metal too some songs are heavier some songs are acoustic that haven’t been recorded. I always feel that bands Play alive if you can break it down acoustic and unplug and still play no matter how heavy you are it shows a lot of talent and I always like wanted to strip down to acoustic sets so there’s a lot of songs we wrote that can be stripped down to acoustic. And our sound is now our sound is timeless cuz the recordings are proven that or that or is just a hunger for this type of music again and it’s just coming full circle around after many years. Everything kind of repeats itself in this life anyway maybe we’re just falling in at the right time again it’s circles coming around because whatever was out there I don’t know I haven’t been much listening to music I write it and then that seems like there’s an urgency for real life lyrics Passion pain I guess realness. I guess that’s missing right now because I’m shocked to actually hear some of these reviews about me being personal and passionate and urgent that’s kind of what it is that’s what I always thought music it was that’s where I grew up with even the old hip Hop. But I guess we hit it right there where it wasn’t a lot of fabricating others AI so he can get a little wishy-washy. But our sound is stable to the ground now it’s been there now people are starting to hear it even though we’ve been playing since 99 this is people’s first time here that’s what brand new so even after 20 years that recording still brand new you feel me?! So we can keep pushing it.
6. With It Grows and Blindspot finally receiving the recognition they deserve, what’s next for TiLT 360? Can fans expect a full-length release, more reimagined material, or even live shows in the near future?
Well what’s coming is we just dropped the single point blank and that’s what this interview is about I’m hoping I don’t remember if you had got a hold of me for the one before that couple months ago and grab the wrong track but this is the point blank release that I hooked up with you on. Even got to write that but I just realized that that’s happened before and I didn’t check to see if the song that you got at me with was point blank or if it was it grows or blind spot or last string cuz I released those ones always pick one off the EP. We decided to go with CD Baby and not land her and just release a single cuz I wanted to fill them out see how they are as a business, it seems to be doing very good we got a sink license you know the songs of boxing song fight shows it can be someone’s fight song to walk out to it could be on a video game I mean it’s straight up about me boxing in my perception of what it’s like in the ring that’s what point blank is there’s nothing deep to it there’s nothing it’s just straight up fighting in a ring and keeping them in your range. But the song is just balls of the wall heavy thick guitars and it just always has a proud favorite live. It can be marketed it’s got a good sound good mix, we plan on still writing I already have a daw here and I’m recording myself solo stuff and now with technology we don’t have to be in the same city to keep recording so that’s what I plan on doing we’re going to release something sometime. I mean I’m trying to write a solo album right now or maybe it’s going to jump on to the next release I don’t know what in store but I know I’m in contact with them and I use reaper and I’m learning the mixing and the mastering end of this and recording all the instruments. Slow learning curve though lol. I appreciate ya.
-Billy Smaltz, TiLT 360
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