Taproot Guitarist: ‘There Is No Finish Line’

"There's no finish line really," says Taproot guitarist Michael DeWolf of the band's current career trajectory. Five albums in and DeWolf admits every day is a struggle for survival. "It's always trying for this or striving for that. It's always going to be there; a struggle I guess to some extent, or especially with the state we're being in right now as far as the music industry ..." he adds, trailing off.

Taproot just released 'Plead the Fifth' via Victory Records. The album features the lead single 'Fractured (Everything I Said Was True).' Despite a rushed recording process, DeWolf says the band was able to return with an album more akin to their heavy beginnings.

"A lot of our fans have been asking for another heavy, heavy album, and so that's kind of what we set out to do on this one," explains DeWolf. "The first thing that came to mind [was] just to pull out the old baritone guitar and tune way down to 'A' and go from there. So [that] immediately kind of put us back in the 'heavy.'"

While signing to a new label and recording in time for summer tour season put the members of Taproot under the gun musically, the deadline taught the guys an important lesson: They can write fast and raw.

"We always had pretty much as much time as we needed," DeWolf admits of past recording sessions. "So this was just a whole new situation for us. But that's one good thing we learned from it is that we can write. We can help put a new album together really quick and be totally satisfied with it."

The ability to write fast gave the band a collective confidence. DeWolf says no more will the band -- or individual members -- discredit their songs because they were written on the fly.

Taproot has a few shows booked this July and will tour during the fall as well. The band is playing a broad mix of songs on the road, routinely doing up to four new tracks each show.