Transit | Interview

With their new album, Joyride, released last October, Transit had some new material to unleash to fans across the pond on their recent tour across the UK and Europe. We spoke to vocalist Joe Boynton about Transit's hometown of Boston, Slam Dunk and Neil Degrasse Tyson podcasts...  

HOW'S THE TOUR BEEN GOING SO FAR?
The tour's been great. This is show four. Groezrock was incredible. All the other shows have been great. It's just been fun to be on the other side of the planet and playing music and hanging out with your friends 

ARE YOU EXCITED FOR SLAM DUNK?
I'm Unbelievably excited for slam dunk. This will be our fourth time I believe.

YOU GUYS RECENTLY RELEASED JOYRIDE, WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM IT AND WHY?
It's hard to say because it changes every few weeks. It depends what kind of mood I'm in and if we're performing the songs a lot, I'll either stop liking the ones we're not performing as much because I'm not hearing it as many times in a row. I would say my absolute favourite song off of Joyride is probably The Only One because it's the first track off the record. We wanted to put the strongest track first and the one that we all love the most. The whole thing's about giving something for people to take away so we figured if that's our favourite song as band, it should be the first song that everyone else hears. 

DO YOU LIKE TOURING IN THE UK?
It's awesome but America has the best food hands down. America is a funnel for every other country in the world. We have the whole world's display of food inside one city usually. There's a little gallery of food inside every restaurant and it's incredible and there's no where else like it in the world. The UK has excellent chicken and steak because it seems like it's more farm-raised and it doesn't seem like it has that many preservatives and chemicals shoved in like America does, which is unfortunate. So everything here that is good, is good because it's natural and it tastes more natural, but as far as overall restaurants and food, United States all the way. More people go out to eat in the United States, it's a normal thing there and over on this side of the world people eat at home and they spend more time around the table with their families, which is beautiful.

Overall, the UK is beautiful. When you fly over everything is green, you've got these yellow vibrant fields and people are generally nice, which isn't always the case when you go around America. The thing about America is that it looks so crazy on the global stage because it's a giant mass of land with one title. However, Europe is all these tiny little countries next to each other so if something bad happens in France people look at France, if something bad happens in Germany, people look at Germany but the US is like 13 different countries in one land mass with the same name. So, to the rest of the world it looks nuts but it's really not, it's just specific areas. 

WHAT WAS IT LIKE GROWING UP IN BOSTON?
It was tough. There's a lot of societal problems and not enough people get help. It's still a new country, it's still growing, it's still learning, it's still discovering who it is and I think in the process, families, the middle class and lower income families even the upper-class they're all affected in certain ways based on school, work, the internet. Just regular drama, like TV shows and how they influence the way you think. Everything is at play and the houses are close together in certain spots and there is certain tension and drama. From my perspective it was tough but I know a lot of people who have had it harder. Every town that I'm from is like a different country. 

I'm from Saugus Massachusetts which is very middle-class; carpenters, plumbers and electricians. It doesn't care for music as much as I wish, the library has been closed and opened randomly. Then you've got Lynn which is right next to Saugus which is a little bit tougher, right beside the ocean, it's got people from all over the world and a lot more diverse than my town, a lot more beat up as far as appearance when you're driving through, it's a lot more packed in and a lot more people live there. 

Right next to that is Salem, Massachusetts, which looks like a European version of the United States and it's where the witch trials were, filled with tourists, filled with bars, it's generally really happy and upbeat, people generally make more money than in the other towns. Next is Marbelhead which is very closed off, there's not a lot of action going on, people make a lot more money but it's not as fun as Salem and that's just how it is and it keeps going as you move East or West. Every neighboring town is different than the next.

IS IT INTERESTING TO SEE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE WORLD WHEN YOU'RE TOURING?
I believe there's 96 or 97 countries, I don't know the exact number but we've seen 14 or 15. So we've seen pieces of the world, we've gotten a sample. Most of the world I've seen is through documentaries. In the States my favourite place to visit is Seattle, San Franciso and North Carolina.

WHO'S BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE BAND TO TOUR WITH?
Some tours are better than others. Some bands are funner to hang out with than others, some shows are better than others. My favourite tour was probably with Taking Back Sunday. Adam (Lazzara) had his second kid in the middle of the tour so he left and I got to sing a song in their set for about two weeks and I grew up listening to Taking Back Sunday from when I was about 15. It was a real honour to get to play and perform with a band that you looked up to for so long. Other than that, Saves The Day because they're the reason I'm in a band and to tour with them and have lunch and dinner with them randomly and just hang out and have a few beers is something I never thought I would do. Everything since then has been a plus. 

DO YOU HAVE TO PINCH YOURSELF SOMETIMES?
No because everyone's just a person. You can meet anyone in the whole world and no matter how famous they are, they go to sleep, they eat, they drink, they breathe the air just like everyone else and when you really believe that and feel that for what is is you're never really nervous or not worthy of someone else's presence. My mother taught me that and I believe that very dearly. 

DO YOU LISTEN TO SIMILAR MUSIC TO TRANSIT?
Completely different. I listen to a lot of hip hop and reggae. I listen to more podcasts than music. I started off with the Joe Rogan experience podcast. From there I went to Star Talk with Neil Degrasse Tyson which is about astronomy. From there I listened to the Infinite Monkey Cage which is a BBC podcast and then I started getting into English podcasts. I started listening to a lot of podcasts about Tolkien's work because I'm really starting to get into the English language. Also, Hardcore history with Dan Carlin who's the best history teacher you will ever have. I hated history when I was in school but now I love it.