The new band Wovenwar was formed by As I Lay Dying members Jordan Mancino, Nick Hipa, Phil Sgrosso and Josh Gilbert after the legal issues of vocalist Tim Lambesis, which ended with him pleading guilty to murder-for-hire charges. The group, which also includes vocalist Shane Blay (Oh, Sleeper), will be releasing their debut album soon.

In a new interview with The Weeklings, guitarist Hipa talks about his new band in addition to discussing Lambesis. He says after the arrest of Lambesis, the band members pondered what their next step should be and whether they would continue As I Lay Dying.

"The immediate answer was 'no,' because Tim, in spite of the things that he was found guilty for, and some of the things he was wrestling with personally, was a great frontman and he was the face of As I Lay Dying, so for us to try and continue on with that didn’t feel right," Hipa says. "Our natural response was to write music and start another band with a new name and just make it something completely separate from the past."

Hipa continues, "When you invest yourselves in something for over 10 years, you’re building a career and you’re developing a sound that everyone associates you with, but to move on in the same vein with a different person, I felt like would have forced that new project to always live in the shadow of the old."

Hipa attended Lambesis' sentencing, where his former bandmate was given six years in prison for attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife. Leading up to the sentencing and immediately following, there were some back and forth remarks made between Lambesis and the other As I Lay Dying members. Hipa talked about why they chose to respond:

"The only reason we responded both times was because Tim took it upon himself to publicly make statements or make claims that weren't true, and when somebody says something that's untrue and that's defamatory toward you, you have to defend yourself. ... Moving on with our lives, we still have no desire to speak of his character as we had known it for the past few years. Clearly, he needs a lot of time to work on some things."

To see The Weeklings' full interview with Nick Hipa, click here.

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