Brighton band, River Jumpers, are back with a new line-up and a new self titled EP. After the release of the new video for their track Peaks and Troughs, we quizzed vocalist Nick about the new EP, his favourite thing about Brighton and their upcoming shows.
COULD YOU KINDLY STATE WHAT YOU DO IN RIVER JUMPERS... My name is Nick and I sing in River Jumpers.
YOU RECENTLY RELEASED YOUR SELF TITLED EP, TELL US A BIT ABOUT IT... It's five songs, we recorded at the ranch in Southampton and it's the last recordings as a four piece. It's kind of a little heavier and more experimental than the last release and a nice sounding stop gap before album number two. It has a sea monster on it.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM THE EP AND WHY? For me it's Greys Sports Almanac as it represents what River Jumpers do best. It blends a mix of stuff into a kind of musical journey.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE ARTWORK? We gave the reigns to our guitarist at the time and he took it to a friend of his and when it came back we had a sea monster.
YOU ALSO RELEASED A VIDEO FOR PEAKS AND TROUGHS, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH HE VIDEO IDEA? Our long time collaborator Craig of High Tides came up with the idea and made it happen. He's a solid guy and I ended up eating beans from a tin. Ha.
YOU'RE PLAYING SOME SHOWS IN AUGUST, IS THERE ANY PLACES YOU'RE PARTICULARLY EXCITED TO GO? Looking forward to the long haul up to Aberdeen as we have not been there for a couple of years.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT BEING FROM BRIGHTON? Living by the sea and Grubs veggie burgers.
WHAT ARE RIVER JUMPERS' PLANS FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR? Tour in August and October and a few big shows with random hand and to try and have all the fun and record a new album.
In May of this year, The Kimberly Steaks played a few dates around the UK, alongside of the release of their new EP Chemical Imbalance. We asked the band a few questions ahead of their set at JT Soar in Nottingham...
CAN YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELVES AND WHAT YOU DO IN THE KIMBERELY STEAKS? Greg: I'm Greig. I play guitar and sing. Ross: I'm Ross and I play drums Tam: I'm Tam and I play bass and do some singing. HOW'S THE TOUR BEEN GOING? Tam: We played Glasgow on Wednesday with Frenzal Rhomb. We came down to Manchester the next day and met up with Austeros, we're playing tonight and we're doing the rest of the gigs with them. So, it's been Manchester, Cheltenham, London and here, and home tomorrow and back to uni and things. HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN HAVING FUN? Tam: Yeah, it's been really good actually. We didn't know what to expect because it's Groezrock this weekend and it seems like a stupid time to do a tour but other than that, it's worked out really well. Ross: There's lots of places we've never played before as well. We've never played in Cheltenham. We did a house show there and it was really fun. We've never played in Nottingham before. All the gigs have been really good. Austeros are a really good band as well. DO YOU GET TIME TO HAVE A LOOK AROUND THE DIFFERENT CITIES THAT YOU VISIT? Ross: We've just been eating a lot really. Greig: Lots of burritos and stuff like that. PPUK: Where do you like to eat when you're on the road? Greig: It's been really varied. We've been eating really well. It's been quite a good holiday. Tam: It generally seems to be quite spicy. We smell really bad for the rest of the day, we stink out the car. But yeah, we didn't get a chance to look around Nottingham today because we came straight from London and we were all pretty hungover. It took us about three hours to leave and we had to get burritos obviously as well. It looks lovely coming in though. Ross: It's a nice bit of the country, lots of countryside. IF YOU COULD TOUR ANYWHERE, WHERE WOULD YOU GO? Greig: We were talking the other day about going to Japan. We sell a lot of CDs and records in Japan. It's really cool. Ross: UK style pop punk, they seem to love it in Japan. Tam: There's a midlands band called Skimmer and they play Japan and China quite a lot. They just play to thousands of people, it's amazing. They seem to do really well. The gigs are apparently great and the crowd is awesome. I would love to go, a wee lad's holiday. Greig: I would love to go to Spain, I've never played there before. HOW DID YOU GUYS FORM? Greig: We formed years and years ago. The bands always been called The Kimberly Steaks but I'm the only original member. There's not really like an interesting story behind it just me and a couple of friends from school and we started playing. I knew these two from different bands and this is the way it's ended up. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME THE KIMBERLY STEAKS? Greig: We can't remember the exact story but it was the drummer's wee brother and he had a friend who apparently had an imaginary girlfriend and for some reason he just made up the name 'Steak' and we don't know how it came about but we thought it was really funny and we decided to call the band 'The Kimberly Steaks'. Ross: I think it's quite a good name because they'll never be anyone else called 'The Kimberley Steaks'. DO YOU GUYS LISTEN TO A LOT OF POP PUNK? Tam: Yeah pretty much. We've kind of all grown up listening to it and we listen to it loads now. That's pretty much all we listen to in the car. We listen to Chicxsdiggit, Teenage Bottlerocket, Mean Jeans. There's been some great bands that we've played with like Don Blake from Manchester. There's some really great bands around at the minute like The Murderburgers, they're from Glasgow as well. HOW DO YOU GUYS KEEP YOURSELVES ENTERTAINED WHEN YOU'RE ON THE ROAD? Tam: What we've done is, on an ipod we've put old Alan Partridge shows, in between listening to loads of music. We've been listening to dumb old radio shows and stuff like that. We just have really stupid jokes that just aren't funny in anyway to anybody else but because we've spent so much time together it becomes like a really stupid in-joke. We just sit and giggle a lot about really dumb stuff. We go a little bit weird by the end of it. ANY LAST WORDS? Tam: We've got a wee 7" that we recorded but there was a massive fuck up at the place and they printed side A on side B as well, so it's just the same songs on both sides. We were meant to have copies on this tour but it didn't work out. It's out and we'll have it available soon. Greig: Also, we're coming back here in July. We're doing a wee tour with the Murderburgers.(Check out the tour dates here). Check out Chemical Imbalance below:
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.
At the start of May, Such Gold embarked on another run of the UK and Europe which also included performances at Groezrock and Slam Dunk. We spoke to bassist Jon Markson and also vocalist/ guitarist Ben Kotin about The New Sidewalk, touring and English food...
HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY? Jon: I'm doing good. HOW HAS THE TOUR BEEN GOING SO FAR? Jon: In the UK, we've played Kingston, Norwich and Nottingham but we started the tour at this festival called Groezrock in Belgium which was super awesome. It's not everyday that we get to play to 2,000 really excited kids and adults and it was a really good time. We're four days into the tour but we've been overseas for about a week now so we're finally getting over jetlag. ARE YOU EXCITED TO PLAY SLAM DUNK? Jon: Yeah, we've got the offer to play Slam Dunk three times but this is the first time we've been able to take the offer. We're looking forward to it. Apart from last night, I don't want to call anyone out, but we were like 'we're going to play Slam Dunk, is that cool?' and a couple of people at the back were like 'meh' but we're really excited. I love festivals, I think festivals are awesome because A) everyone's having a good time B) they treat bands really well and C) fans treat bands really well, better than at club shows generally. YOU GUYS RELEASED THE NEW SIDEWALK LAST YEAR, ARE YOU STILL LOVING IT? Jon: Yeah we love it, it's awesome. DO YOU LISTEN TO IT? Jon: Not anymore but we did for a while and we were really excited to have finished it. We were working on it for a long time so I think the honeymoon period is over. We don't really put it on in the van anymore but we're still really excited about the material. I think as far as being in a band and being able to play the songs live, they're definitely the most fun songs to play live. They test us as musicians and now, learning some of those songs from the album live, has been a really good experience for the band because we've really had be able to consistently enact what we recorded on stage and that's a fun exercise. Sometimes I listen to The New Sidewalk on bandcamp on my phone and then bandcamp tells me that I should pay for it. WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM THE NEW SIDEWALK? Jon: It changes all the time. Right now it's Frying In The Mix probably just because we don't play it live. It was Food Court Blues for a while. BEFORE A SHOW DO YOU STILL GET NERVOUS? Jon: It depends, sometimes. When I get nervous it's not for any particular reason. It's just like once in a while I'll feel a little funny. Sometimes before our set I try and get myslef a little hyped up and feel a little amped and nervous but I don't really get butterflies before playing. I really like performing so I'm always really excited to do it and not so much anxiety about messing up. When we first started to tour, maybe the first couple of time, it's like 'are we going to be able to do it, okay we did it, it's fine'. HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU STARTED TO LEARN BASS? Jon: Like 11 or 12. I started playing guitar in bands and recording music around 11. I started playing guitar, I got a little eight track so I could record myself fucking up on guitar, and then I wanted to add bass parts to it and I didn't know anyone who could play bass. I didn't start playing bass seriously in bands until Such Gold but I love the bass more than I love guitar now. A lot of people who end up playing bass in punk rock bands, sometimes they end up playing the bass like a guitar. But I just really love the bass, I love being in that register, being all the way down underneath everything and it's really cool. I think it's a really cool instrument. HOW DO YOU FIND BEING ON TOUR? Jon: I love it. PPUK: We're jealous we want to go on tour. Jon: Do merch or be a tour manager. Just as important to the band on tour are the people who are working for the bands on tour, like literally equally important. Especially for American bands in the UK or in Europe because it's like 'I am not going to drive a car on the opposite side of the road, no way, I hate it'. I hate the idea of it so if we didn't have drivers and people working for us it would be impossible. I love the UK, I love England. The cities are beautiful. I love how all the cities have really open town areas. I live in New York City and everything's really blocky. I like New York City a lot but it's cool to go abroad and see like these really old cities that have had to modernise a little bit. WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ENGLISH FOOD? Jon: I like the food but it's kind of heavy. Breakfast is heavy but I kind of like it. (Ben walks in) Jon: What do you think of the food here? Ben: It's good. Jon: Do you like English breakfast? Ben: I love English breakfast. I like pretty much everything, I don't like Indian food which is big here but I can deal. There's plenty of stuff I can eat here. Jon: I like Wagamama. Ben: Wagamama is cool. I like Sunday carveries. Jon: I approve of English breakfast. We had kind of an English breakfast this morning that was served by this guy, he didn't want to give it to me though. Ben: He didn't like Jon. Jon: I asked for beans on my sandwich and he was like '(laughs) beans?' Ben: He was literally like 'you're asking a lot of me'. DO YOU FIND ENGLISH PEOPLE RUDE? Ben: Sometimes. But it's just like anywhere. Not in general though. Jon: We live in one of the rudest places in the world. People are rude to each other all the time. Ben: We're used to it. Jon: French Canada is the rudest place on the planet. Ben: That's not where we're from. Jon: I know but I'm just saying. As an example, French Canada is the rudest place. Agree or Disagree? Ben: I don't know. It's pretty fucking rude. It's like 'hey, can I borrow your lighter?' turn around and smoke crack. Jon: That actually happened one time. WHERE IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO TOUR? Ben: Anywhere warm that we can skate Jon: Japan, the UK and Germany and also the East Coast and the West Coast. Also Belgium and also Australia. So pretty much the world. We don't like touring on the moon. We did a show on the moon. Ben: A simulation moon. Sim moon 9. WHO HAS BEEN YOUR FAVOURITE BAND TO TOUR WITH? Jon: We have a great time with Transit. We are most inspired by A Wilhelm Scream, we our most educated by Strung Out. The Story So Far showed us incredible amounts of kindness. Ben: Possibly the best shows. Jon: Comeback Kid are the coolest dudes ever and they make us feel cooler than we are. That's a good five. Transit we drink a lot, A Wilhelm Scream we drink a lot and they kick our asses in music. The Story So Far are the most hospitable. HOW DO YOU BOTH KEEP YOUR VOICES INTACT ON TOUR? Jon: We haven't. Katrin (Such Gold's tour manager): That's a good joke. Jon: We fellate each other and that's how we keep our voices intact (laughs). We 69 all day. Ben: It helps clear the throat. Jon: Especially if you deep throat it. We're probably not the best people to ask.
DO YOU GUYS LISTEN TO THE TYPE OF MUSIC YOU PLAY? Jon: Definitely. I think the bands we all like together tend to be in our field. We do listen to different music a little bit but the bands that we all enjoy together are like Propagandhi and A Wilhelm Scream, technical punk bands. Ben listens to grindcore in his spare time, Nate listens to stoner metal, Matt listens to Reggae, I listen to mathrock. We all listen to shit together but the stuff we really listen to together is aggressive technical punk rock. Ben: And smooth jazz. Jon: We also love Frank Sinatra together. We actually just bought a Frank Sinatra Christmas album. Ben: On one of our tours of England someone actually asked who our influences are and I said The Rat Pack and they asked my to leave the interview. They were not pleased.
The Early November have a long history, one that started in New Jersey,1999.The band was signed to Drive Thru records, the previous home of New Found Glory, Allister, Home Grown and Midtown. After 8 years of playing shows and having released two albums and three EPs, The Early November went on hiatus in 2007. After 4 years of being inactive, the band reformed and released a new album, In Currents, in 2012. Three years later, the band have released their highly anticipated 4th album, Imbue, via Rise Records. We spoke to vocalist and guitarist Ace Enders ahead of the release at Hit the Deck to find out more about what to expect from the new album...
HOW WAS HIT THE DECK YESTERDAY? It was actually very nice, a lot better than I thought it was going to be.
WHEN YOU'RE AT FESTIVALS LIKE HIT THE DECK, DO YOU GET A CHANCE TO WATCH OTHER BANDS OR IS IT TOO HECTIC? Sometimes it's a little hectic but it's not bad. YOU RECENTLY PUT OUT A STATEMENT SAYING THAT ONLY SOME MEMBERS WOULD BE COMING TO THE UK. NOW THAT YOU GUYS ARE OLDER IS IT DIFFICULT TO ORGANISE TOURS DUE TO OTHER COMMITMENTS? It's not so much commitments but lifestyle choices and how you want to live. Everybody would like to be here but sometimes you can't be. They'll be in the states and going some of those shows but you can't necessarily make it to the other side of the world sometimes. ARE YOU DISAPPOINTED WHEN EVERYONE CAN'T MAKE IT OUT? If you can't it's not the end of the world, everybody's adult enough and we know that sometimes you have to sit one out. YOUR NEW ALBUM IS OUT IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS ARE YOU EXCITED? Very much, we're very excited. DOES THE ALBUM TITLE IMBUE HAVE ANY SIGNIFICANCE? Yes, it means what the definition of the word is (to inspire with feelings and opinions) and it's all about finding that inspiration. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM THE NEW ALBUM AND WHY? The first one we released, Narrow Mouth, I think because it sums up what I wanted the whole album to be in one song. I think that's my favourite. WERE YOU INVOLVED IN THE ARTWORK PROCESS AND IF SO HOW DID YOU DECIDE ON IT? We just wanted it to be a striking photo and your imagination could run with it. It turned out really cool and I'm very happy with it. I like the purple effect and my wife is in the photo. SPEAKING OF YOUR FAMILY, WHAT DO YOUR KIDS THINK OF YOUR MUSIC? ARE THEY INTO IT? Yeah, they're into it. They love the idea of it, they think it's really cool and it makes me very proud to know that I'm contributing to their development and this is a part of their life too. It's cool. DO YOU THINK YOU'LL BE ONE OF THOSE PARENTS THAT MAKES THEM PLAY AN INSTRUMENT BECAUSE OF YOUR MUSICAL BACKGROUND? I'm not going to make them do anything apart from be good people. I'll support them in what ever they desire. YOU WRITE AND PRODUCE FOR OTHER ARTISTS, IS YOUR WRITING PROCESS FOR THE EARLY NOVEMBER DIFFERENT TO YOUR OTHER PROJECTS? It's very different. With The Early November, for me, it's a very freeing thing. I write from a different place, I don't want to say a darker place but I keep myself locked in most of the time and that is where I write from. When I'm writing for another artist I write from where they're coming from. I'll find that place and what they're looking for and pull it out of someone. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LISTEN TO AND IS IT SIMILAR TO THE EARLY NOVEMBER? I honestly listen to a lot of Talk Radio or nothing at all. IF YOU COULD PLAY A SHOW ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE? I would have to say my home of Philly. I guess I would like to play Alaska that would be fun. WHO'S BEEN THE BEST BAND THAT YOU'VE TOURED WITH? I did a tour with a band called Steel Train once. They were real tight and real fun and we were really great friends so it was a really fun environment. I would relive that tour for sure. YOU GUYS WERE ON DRIVE-THRU BACK IN THE DAY, WHY DO YOU THINK DRIVE-THRU IS STILL SO ICONIC NOW? I think because it was a really special time. They created something really cool without knowing it. It was a very pure, awesome thing that came to an end, a very fast end and I think that's what made it live on. It didn't like trickle out and die it just ended. It was something I'm very proud to be a part of. WHAT FIVE WORDS WOULD YOU USE TO DESCRIBE IMBUE THAT WOULD PERSUADE SOMEONE READING THIS TO GO AND LISTEN TO IT? I would say different, focused, angry, desperate and inspired. Check out Imbue below:
New Jersey pop punks, Man Overboard, recently visited the UK and Europe on their tour with Moose Blood, ROAM and Smile Burn. The tour was set to take place in November of last year but due to vocalist and bassist Nik Bruzzese tearing his ACL (Anterior cruciate ligament) it had to be postponed until May. We sat down with Nik and Zac Eisenstein (guitar/ vocals) to ask them about and their time in Europe, whether they actually like pop punk and their recent split with Senses Fail.
YOU'VE JUST COME BACK FROM EUROPE HOW WAS IT?
Nik: Better than we thought.
Zac: it was our most successful trip to Europe ever, I think. We had a good time and the crowd was good. The shows were really good. We’ve definitely had worse trips out there.
DID YOU THINK IT WAS GOING TO GO BADLY THEN?
Nik: it’s tough to gage how it’s going to be and to build like a pop punk fan base over there. It’s very metal driven. We’ve been going over there since ’09 and now it’s starting to pick up.
Zac: That’s the thing, we can’t really monitor it as well as at home or even in the UK for some reason. We’re just kind of going over there in the dark, so to speak. You’re kind of like ‘I hope somebody comes to the show’ and then one person turns up and you're like 'that's cool' and then more people come and then you’re like ‘this is a real show!’
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO VISIT IN EUROPE AND WHY?
Zac: I’m going to say Amsterdam.
Nik: Yeah.
PPUK: For the coffee shops?
Zac: Yeah.
Nik: We support your local coffee.
Zac: I like Vienna a lot, Italy.
Nik: I like Italy. We had fun in Milan, Switzerland.
Zac: I decided yesterday if I ever lived in England, I want to live on Old London Road in Kingston. I want to live across from the Fighting Cocks and get drunk from sun up until sun down every day.
Nik: You could probably do that after this.
Zac: I am.
Nik: We’ll just buy a house.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF EUROPEAN FOOD? IS IT BETTER THAN AMERICAN FOOD?
Zac: We’re partial to American food but over here we’re big falafel fans.
Nik: We love falafel. We treat falafel like chipotle. So we’re like ‘falafel down there was really good’ or ‘it wasn’t so good’, you know?
Zac: I think I find England and the UK more convenient to get something to eat than Europe. At least if I’m in England, I know there’s a kebab shop somewhere.
Nik: A lot of stuff in Europe closes early too. So, come five o’clock everything’s closed and you’re hungry and you’ve got to wait until the next day.
SO THIS TOUR WAS MEANT TO BE IN NOVEMBER. HOWEVER NIK, YOU TORE YOUR ACL, IS EVERYTHING GOOD NOW?
Nik: It’s all okay, yeah. I had surgery but I’m all good now.
Zac: He’s a trooper.
IF YOU COULD PLAY ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD IT BE?
Zac: My elementary school. I would want to have a big show on the street I grew up on with people on the baseball fields and stuff.
Nik: That would be cool. I think I would want to go to Greenland or Iceland, I would love to go check that out. I want to go to Alaska to, that would cool.
Zac: Places I’ve never been I want to go. Brazil, we’ve never been there. I would like to go to Johannesburg.
Nik: We get asked to go to Brazil a lot. So we’re going to try and make our way over there sometime.
SO NEXT WEEKEND YOU GUYS ARE PLAYING PINKY SWEAR AND FURY FEST IN THE SAME WEEKEND, ARE YOU EXCITED?
Nik: Yeah, I like it because it takes a lot of the eyes from us because there’s a lot more bands to focus on. It’s not all about Man Overboard so it’s a lot more comfortable. I can breathe easier if there’s like ten bands. But then I found out we are playing last and I was like ‘shit’.
SO DO YOU STILL GET NERVOUS BEFORE SHOWS?
Nik: Yeah I still get nervous. Like Zac said, I get nervous and he gets confident and then if I don’t get nervous he gets nervous. But I always get nervous, every show I’m like ‘shit, shit’. That’s all I say over and over.
Zac: I go ‘what’ and he goes ‘I’m nervous, man’.
Nik: I think we said one time, we were just kids, if we were going to play a show with a bigger band, I would get nervous and I wouldn’t want to do it so I asked Zac what he would do. He said ‘I would drag you, beat your ass and throw you on stage’.
Zac: (laughs) I remember that.
IF YOU COULD PLAY WITH ANY BAND WHO WOULD IT BE?
Zac: The Cure. That would be a crazy one we would never play with. I would like to say AFI or Coheed but I like to believe those are bands we could potentially play with one day, we just haven’t yet.
Nik: I would take Rage Against the Machine. Even though we would look like idiots. Like, ‘this song’s called Love Your Friends Die Laughing, Rage Against the Machine’s up next’, it just doesn’t work.
Zac: Metallica. It would be awesome to play with Metallica. Morrissey.
Nik: The Rolling Stones.
Zac: Guns N’ Roses.
Nik: We’ve been on a book kick. We’ve been reading a lot of rock ‘n’ roll biographies.
WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN READING? IS THAT HOW YOU PASS THE TIME ON THE ROAD?
Nik: Yeah. Wayne’s been reading about Led Zeppelin. Led Zeppelin’s tour manager wrote a book and he was telling us all these stories from it.
Zac: I’ve been reading lots of books about wrestling honestly. What do you read about, Nik?
Nik: Keith Richards.
Zac: Wayne also read the Morrissey thing.
Nik: We’ve got a book club.
Zac: It’s called the clean plate club. You’ve got to finish your book to be in the club and if you’re not in the club you get treated like a second-class citizen on the bus when we drive.
DO YOU FIND IT BORING ON THE ROAD OR IS IT QUITE FUN?
Zac: We’re all pretty funny. We all think that we’re funny so we entertain each other pretty well.
Nik: Night time is the funny time. We all get in our sleeping bags and then someone says something funny and it just rollsat like four in the morning or something, going at it.
DO YOU GUYS ACTUALLY LISTEN TO A LOT OF POP PUNK?
Nik: No, not really (laughs).
Zac: No. We’re not dissing it, it’s just that we’re a few years older in general than most of our our fans. When most of our fans are our age I think that they will move on to a different sound too. It’s all good. You play the type of music you feel you can play best or expresses you the most. Sometimes it’s like a thing of if there’s a restaurant I love and I go get a job there it’s probably not going to be my favourite restaurant anymore. I’ll still like the food and think it’s great but it might not be where I go eat in my free time. Just go with the flow, just keep stimulating yourself. It's normal if you’re an intensely musical person the same sounds aren’t always going to do it for you forever and you’ve got to keep it going. You can’t like the same stuff forever or you’ll fall into a rut where you remember when you used to like music.
HOW DO YOU GUYS PICK A SETLIST FOR YOUR SHOWS? YOU HAVE A GOOD MIX OF OLD AND NEW SONGS.
Zac: He’s (Nik) setlist guy.
Nik: I just wing it. Actually I don’t, I just write it twenty times over and rip it up and then I start another one. I look at Spotify (laughs) to see what the most popular songs are and then it’s just trial and error really. We play songs live and if they don’t go down well we just cut it and out and add another one in there. We play How To Hide Your Feelings every night and there’s one part of the song where we look at each other. It’s the bridge and we all look at each other like ‘is this cool?’.
Zac: And Justin plays the lead there too, so we roll our eyes a bit. I’m just kidding, actually no I’m not.
Nik: You’ll see us do it. If kids are bored then we’ll cut the songs.
Zac: There might be a song that they’re bored by tonight and if we were in San Francisco, for example, it would be popular. We have to just try it out. We're like 'this one doesn’t do as well here as at home and stuff but this one does and no one cares at home'.
HOW DID THE SPLIT WITH SENSES FAIL COME ABOUT?
Nik: We’ve been friends with them for a long time.
Zac: They were the first band that we listened to and I really looked up to Senses Fail in high school and they were like the first band that paid attention to us, that ever contacted us.
Nik: We played here with Senses Fail, they headlined. It was our first or second time here.
Zac: I think our second time here, it was like 2010. I’ve had two birthdays on tour with Senses Fail. We were a pretty new band and Buddy emailed us and was like ‘you’re cool and you're from New Jersey’ and whatever and that was the best thing ever. That was a long time ago. So flash-forward, we were on tour with Bayside and Senses Fail and we were like ‘why not do a split and cover Senses Fail and whatever’ and we thought it would be fun. We had nothing else to do.
HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHAT SONGS YOU WERE BOTH GOING TO COVER?
Zac: We just picked one and they picked one.
Nik: Well Justin said it was a seven inch and there’s only a certain amount of time on a seven inch so I basically had to look down the list and pick like any song that was two minutes and something. Any song that was over two minutes we couldn’t do because there wasn’t enough time. So that’s how we picked the song. We did it (the song) exactly how they did it.
WHAT DID YOU THINK ABOUT THEIR COVER OF REAL TALK?
Zac: We loved it. It’s awesome.
Nik: We freaked out when we heard it.
Zac: To hear Buddy sing our song is insane, so insane. Thinking about it, it’s Chris Hornbrook from Poison the Well playing our song and that was awesome. We’re tickled to hear them play our song. It’s crazy to us.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE ARTWORK IDEA?
Zac: I think that was my idea.
Nik: Was it? I thought it was my idea.
Zac: I think it was meant to be like the Brady Bunch originally. But then Justin said ‘well they’re just going to be looking up and we’ll just be looking down’ and I was like ‘okay, whatever, not really the Brady bunch’ but then when I saw the record it looked liked the Brady Bunch so it was kind of the Brady Bunch.
Nik: I think I’m going to start a band called the Brady Bunch.
Zac: We were going to make it like some emo-ass thing of a boy and girl holding hands on a bridge and I was like ‘no let’s just have fun with it and be smiling on the cover’. That was cool.
Nik: The bridge thing was my idea.
HAVE YOU GUYS GOT ANY PLANS TO RECORD/ RELEASE NEW MUSIC IN THE NEAR FUTURE?
Zac: We don’t stop. He’s (Nik) got his own recording studio and we frequent it.
Nik: Yeah we always write songs. Life keeps on rolling and we keep on writing about it so that’s just the way it is for me and him.
SO HAS A LOT OF THE STUFF YOU'VE RELEASED BEEN RECORDED IN NIK'S STUDIO?
Nik: Yeah a lot of it. This Passing Ends EP was recorded there.
Zac: We have things but we can’t quite say what. We have things. Nik: We have a lot of things. Sixty Things.
That thing turned out to be Man Overboard's new album which they have since announced will be released on June 30th. Check out the newest single from Heavy Love, Cliffhanger, below:
If you're looking for some new pop punk to listen to over the summer months, you have come to the right place. Manchester four-piece, Get Up Go, are just about to release their sophomore EP, You Jump, I Jump. The EP consists of three songs which incorporate raw energy, infectious melodies and thrilling riffs. We asked Get Up Go a few questions about what we could expect from their new EP...
HOW ARE YOU GUYS?
We're fantastic with a capital F! How could we be any lower? I mean, we just dropped a new video, we have an awesome new EP coming out and we are still rocking out with every waking breath.
HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE NAME FOR YOU JUMP, I JUMP?
Anders. It's always Anders. He comes up with the names we just pick one that we like. He probably has some sort of soppy meaningful reason for it, or its a line from one of his favourite rom-coms but we all liked it. It's kind of a reminder that being in a band is the epitome of teamwork and if any of these guys said jump, the rest would ask "how high?", no matter what.
TELL US A BIT ABOUT THE RECORDING PROCESS...
It was really fun, as per usual. Granted, we had a couple of late nights and struggles with arrangement and such but on the whole we really love the whole process. We also noticed how much better at it we had gotten since last time. We were a lot better rehearsed and much more relaxed going in. It shows through in the recordings. We had no stress and lots of laughs.
IF YOU COULD SUM UP YOU JUMP, I JUMP IN 5 WORDS, WHAT WOULD THEY BE?
If you're looking for a statement we'd say... Fun loving, good time tunes!
Or were you looking for separate words? In that case Big, fast, bouncy, uplifting, singalong.
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM YOU JUMP, I JUMP AND WHY?
Collectively I feel it's 'BK, Like OMG!' Hence the reason we chose to shoot a video for it. It's about something we all hold dear to our hearts and that love will never EVER die. Not ever!
HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT PICKING THE ARTWORK FOR YOU JUMP, I JUMP?
We did what we always do, butt heads for about a week before someone says "Let's do this!" Then we all agree. We made it ourselves. We like to put that extra touch into the releases because we're proud and we want to show our creativity within every aspect of what we do.
You Jump, I Jump is out June 1st. Check out the video for BK, Like OMG! below:
Two years ago, Birmingham based band, Light You Up, recorded their first full-length album at The Panda Studios with Sam Pura (Basement, The Story So Far, State Champs) in Fremont, California. At the beginning of the year the band finally released their debut album 'All We've Ever Known' to a warm reception. Following the release, the band embarked on the Pure Noise Records tour alongside Forever Came Calling, Hit The Lights and Four Year Strong. We spoke to Tom Napier (vocals), Drew Masters (guitar) and Rob Taylor (guitar), about their time with Sam Pura, their thoughts on meet and greets and all things tour related.
HOW ARE YOU GUYS TODAY?
Tom: The whole tour thus far has been sweet. It's the fourth day and I feel like we've been doing it for two weeks. We’re absolutely knackered but we finally got a good night’s sleep last night. Glasgow was a messy one, there was a lot of floor sleeping and stuff like that.
WE’RE REALLY INTERESTED TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR TIME WITH SAM PURA, WHAT IS HE LIKE?
Drew: He’s like the most unique person.
Tom: He’s super, super passionate about making a perfect record. It was difficult sometimes, he was like ‘yo, come on, we've got to get this done’ but it definitely pushed us to get the best sort of sound. Pre-production was really useful as well and not really something we’d done before with previous records and stuff. So the song, All We've Ever Known sounded hella different to what it does now. Like now, it’s got quite a traditional song structure, whereas beforehand there was some like weird bridge between and a couple of verses before a chorus would come in and stuff and Sam was just like ‘yo, guys this doesn't make any sense at all’. So there was kind of a lot of passing the songs. He was like ‘this doesn’t need to be there and it’s kind of irrelevant’ and whatever. So that was a real big learning curve for us.
Drew: That pre-production side where we spent a week going through the songs ripping them apart, we’d never had someone external, as in someone not in the band, who comes along and gives their opinion into our dynamic which was great. He made a big difference. The album wouldn't sound how it does without Sam. Sam’s definitely got his way of working which we kind of had to learn and work together in getting at. We’re really proud of how the album's come out, a big part of that is him. On top of that, it’s not that publicised that we also had Romesha guy from Wales. He mixed the record and he also had a huge impact in making the album what it is. The combination of those two were a perfect storm for us. So it was really cool.
HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT PICKING WHO YOU WORK WITH? DO YOU PICK THEM OR WILL THEY COME TO YOU?
Tom: We picked,kind of I guess. It was a case of we were looking at doing the full-length or whatever and we we could have gone with Romesh. A big part of it for me was that I wanted to record somewhere out of the country because I wanted to be away from home-life distractions and stuff like that and really immerse ourselves in the recording process. So, being in a different country was kind of the big selling point for me.
Drew: That ended up becoming a really important element, being away. We lived in the studio for a month so it meant that even when Sam wouldgo home, we would still practise until like 4 or 5 in the morning and we could because we were there. Whereas, we’d normally go home if we were back in England. That was really important. At the same time, once we’d kind of shortened down the people we’d like to work with, the thing that really stood out about Sam was that he really, really wanted to work with us. As a young new band you don’t know if you’re ever going to make a record and when you do you don’t know if you’re ever going to make another one. So we wanted to make this one everything it could be and we wanted to work with someone who wanted to work with us and Sam really stood out for that, you know.
WHAT WAS YOUR DAY-TO-DAY LIFE LIKE AT THE PANDA STUDIOS? WAS EVERY DAY DIFFERENT?
Tom: Yeah definitely. The whole thing was a wicked experience. Sam would take us to go and see some cool places around the city and stuff. In the evenings he would be really conscious of if we wanted to stay and write or if we wanted to go and have some down-time and have some beers and see some cool places and whatnot. There was definitely no routine and I thrive off that sort of thing.
Drew: It was an energised environment. We were so excited to be there. Sam was hyped on the songs. During pre-production, we were in a room together playing the songs, recording the album live at the time so that we could listen back and kind of tweak things and change parts of the songs. You've got Sam like jumping around the room in excitement and you just feed off the energy, it’s an amazing thing. So we did have some kind of routine in a way, that about 7 in the morning, every morning, he would burst into our room and dive on all of us and wake us up, singing songs, singing our songs to us. So I think that vibe is something that we’ll never forget. He’s the most energetic person I have ever, ever met.
Tom: From sun up, till sun down he was jacked up.
Drew: While there was some sort of routine, it was the most unpredictable atmosphere I've ever been in. Which made it another cool experience.
DID YOU GET TO SEE A LOT OF THE AREA WHEN YOU WERE OUT THERE?
Tom: Unfortunately not, we saw bits but the studio was in Fremont which is like the country side of San Francisco. So it was a good hour, hour and a half to the city center. But he took us out we saw some cool places and stuff. I think if I went back there’s definitely a lot more of the city I’d like to see but that definitely didn't dampen the mood of the recording process for sure.
Drew: What we did see was awesome. Over near Fremont there’s like San Jose and Palo Alto. There’s Google and Pixar. It’s a really amazing place to be. Twice a week we’d maybe drive into the city and go to a bar or something. We didn't get to see as much as we’d like to, but we weren't there to do that. We tried to make the most of that but we were also trying to make the record but it just cool to be in such a different environment.
DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD WORK WITH SAM AGAIN?
Drew: We've talked about bringing him over here to make a record and I think we maybe know a bit more about what we want now. I think he helped guide us really, really well to get to what the record ended up being but I think we know about more about what Sam is now and a bit more about what we’re about, so I think we’d be able to use Sam a bit more to our advantage as well as him helping us so much.
Tom: It’s almost been two years since we did the record, so I think we've all grown up a lot since then and personally I think I just want to keep on working with different people. There’s a lot of awesome producers out there at the moment who I think it would be really, really cool to work with. So, as and when the time comes and if it does, to record album 2 then I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when it comes to it.
Drew: We’re already writing for the second record but once we've kind of got an idea of when that will be, we’ll figure out who’s best to facilitate that with us. But Sam’s definitely always going to have a place in our hearts.
Tom: I’m not going to forget the guy for sure.
WHO ARE YOU GUY’S FAVOURITE UP UK POP PUNK BANDS?
Drew: We do listen to pop punk but we listen to a lot of rock bands like Decade, who we think are fucking awesome. I don’t know if you would say that’s pop punk? But the UK rock scene is great right now. Decade great band, Verses great band. I mean, we’re good friends with a load of other UK pop punk bands but we’re more towards the Decade side of things, than the As It Is and ROAM side of things. However, they’re all great bands.
Tom: They’re all great bands, don’t get me wrong.
Drew: I think it’s one of those things where it’s great to be involved in all of those things right now. There’s loads of good bands, loads of good dudes, right? I’m trying to think of who else. Like Lonely The Brave.
Tom: That band man, are so good. Their most recent album is just wicked. I did a little run down on my favourite albums of last year and I’m pretty sure I put those guys at the top.
Drew: Yeah, I think you did.
Tom: Yeah that album is just really, really something special. His voice is really something.
Drew: And his style, the way he stands away from the front of the stage.
Tom: Yeah man. It’s cool, it’s really about the music, which I’m really on board with.
Drew: Moose Blood are cool, I like Moose Blood.
Tom: Definitely not a pop punk band but there’s a band called Black Peaks and their getting a lot of hype on radio one at the moment. If you don’t know that band they are weird as fuck but they’re cool. I get behind that a lot.
Drew: We do this thing where we have 10 songs each or something or 10 records each that we kind of throw around to each other, obviously not all pop punk, and it means it gives us all a chance to broaden our musical horizons so we all know the musical page each other is on. But right now, I would say there’s a lot of British bands. The British scene is really healthy right now. So we’re happy to be whatever part of it we are right now.
IF YOU COULD TOUR ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD WHERE WOULD YOU WANT TO GO?
Drew: I really want to go to Japan. We have a label in Japan who look after us really well. We can go there when we’re ready to go there. We've had a few tour offers there and we’re just waiting for the right time. Now that the records out I think hopefully we’ll be going in the foreseeable future and also the states I guess.
Tom: I would love to do the States. I think there’s so much to see and there’s so many different vibes and different cultures within one place. I’d really love to do that. Australia would be wicked to see. I just want to see lots of the world and meet lots of different people. It’s great that we can do that with the band and that would be awesome.
IS THAT ONE OF YOUR MAIN GOALS, TO TOUR AND SEE EVERYTHING?
Tom: Yeah pretty much. Personal goals, I just want to see the world and I love playing music so if we can do both of them at the same time, that’s great.
Drew: I mean, we’re not expecting to make millions doing this; we just do it because we enjoy it and it’s something different and interesting. It’s helped us as people. So I think travelling is a massive positive part of being in a band and I think we’ll always try and get to wherever we can.
DO YOU THINK A LOT OF PEOPLE MISINTERPRET WHAT IT’S LIKE BEING IN A BAND. FOR EXAMPLE, PEOPLE OFTEN THINK BANDS MAKE A LOT OF MONEY..
Rob: 100 percent.
Drew: I think that’s changing though but yes in general, the way I looked at bands when I was going to shows at 15, 16 to then realising that many of those bands that I loved and sang every word to, I thought they were rockstars, but they were actually struggling financially.
Tom: Your idea of making it changes so much. Like, from when I was a kid going to shows and stuff, if I was to see myself now I’d be like ‘wow dude you've made it, this is so crazy’ and yet I’m 24 years old and I live at home with my parents and I make fuck all money from this band. But, we make enough to put back into the band and to a degree, we’re self-sufficient. So I guess in that sense we've made it. I think that view's always going to change. Once you've got to the next level, you realise exactly where you’re at. I think the main thing for us is people giving an interest in our band, that’s the most important thing. It’s about getting your music out there and sharing it with as many people as possible.
Drew: I think a thing we've seen over the last few years is that, for some reason or another, bands seem to want to guard this rockstar lifestyle-like façade because they think it effects how people see them as successful or not, whether they’ll get into your band and maybe if you’re super, super young you might think differently; ‘well they look like rockstars, so they are rockstars, I want to listen to them rather than someone who doesn't’. Whereas, part of our thing that we do is that we want to let people know that the sole reason we do this is because we love to play music and there isn't anything else that we’re getting out of it other than interaction with the people that want to listen to us and enjoy playing music. Obviously we’d love to be comfortable financially but right now that’s the sole reason why we do it so why hide that, we’re proud of it.
Tom: I don’t ever want to be something we’re not and pretend to be something we’re not. My favourite thing is to come outside before shows and after shows and hang out with the people. The patrons who pay money to come see us, I want to give them something to take home. I want to get to know those people. I’m awful with names but I’m good with faces and there’s been people that, you know, have come seen our shows over the last 2, 3 years or whatever and we actually hang out as friends. They dig our band and stuff like that and I’m interested in what they do. There’s some people that we met 2 years ago who were in college, who are now going to university, following their dreams and stuff. That’s important to me too.
YOU GUYS SHARED SOMETHING A FEW MONTHS BACK ABOUT HOW FANS CAN COME AND MEET YOU FOR FREE, DO YOU GUYS HATE MEET AND GREETS?
Tom: Don’t get me wrong, I do understand meet and greets and stuff. Like Four Year Strong are doing a really cool thing this tour. It is a meet and greet, but also an additional performance, doing an acoustic set beforehand so that’s like an extra show, so I can make my piece with that kind of thing. But it’s the meet and greets where, I’m not going to name and shame any bands because I’m not about spreading hate, but there are bands who charge fans obscene amounts of money..
Drew: To have a picture where they’re an arm’s length away .
Tom: Two or three seconds of their time, that makes me sick because I don’t think you have to pay to meet someone at all. We give a fuck about the people who care about our music so we’re never, ever going to do that meet and greet thing.
Drew: The fans or the people that listen to your music, are the people that care the most about you. There’s a fine line between them supporting you and you taking advantage of that support and I think if you’re straight up with your fans or with the patrons that come listen to your band, they’ll always help you. I think that type of arm’s length, meet and greet type of thing is covering up the fact that the band is trying to maximise the amount of money they make out of it just because it’s harder to make money in the music industry now. I understand from a business point of view but there’s ways to go about that in a better way for your fans, the people that put you there in the first place. I think Tom feels very strongly about it as we all do. The post that we put out about the meet and greet was in response to seeing a lot of other bands totally unconnected with this scene, it was devoid of any emotion, of anything else apart from the fact that they wanted to make extra money.
Tom: It was like ‘oh you like our band? Sick, give us loads of money’ and that’s it.
Drew: It’s not all bands, we understand that we’re super young and naïve and as we get older we’re going to have to become more independent and I guess there’s more pressure on supporting yourself and sometimes there’s that fine line.
Tom: From a business perspective, it does make total sense in maximising your profit and whatever but then I think there’s a level of morality and it shouldn't ever be at the expense of the fans. Rou from Enter Shikari put up a really good post a couple of months ago and he was talking about meet and greets and stuff, and he was saying how you should never have to pay for being in the presence of another human being because that’s just stupid, they’re just another human being, just like everyone else. I really back that mentality.
WHEN YOU’RE ON TOUR WHAT DO YOU GUYS EAT? IS IT FAST FOOD 24/7?
Tom: We try to eat as healthy as we can but it’s tough you know. Like sometimes we’ll wake up super late and we've got 3 hours until sound check and the drive is 2 and a half hours or whatever so we've got to smash it on the road and maybe we’ll pass a petrol station and we’ll have a MacDonalds. You’re like ‘we don’t want to eat crap food again but I’ve got to eat’. But there’s times like today we got here a little bit earlier and we had a bit of time to walk around Nottingham and stuff and we get some slightly better food.
Drew: It just depends on the day, we try and eat healthily. Over time we've tried to have vitamins and stuff on tour.
Tom: Berrocas every day, man.
IT’S SO LUCKY THAT YOU’RE ON TOUR WHEN IT’S MACDONALD'S MONOPOLY.
Drew: I think a few people have won some stuff on this tour. Well you know, like a free big mac.
Tom: Do you remember back in the day when it used to be half a million? Then like a couple of years ago it was like down to 10 grand or something.
WHEN YOU’RE ON TOUR AND STUFF HOW DO YOU WASH YOUR CLOTHES?
Tom: You don’t!
Drew: We try and wash our clothes at friend’s houses and stuff if it’s longer tours. I was lucky enough to do some US tours tour managing for other bands before. It was cool and it was a great experience but touring for like three weeks on this tour it’s kind of like right on the limit of getting by and wearing other band’s merch and going to a launderette maybe once or twice but as tours get longer across the states and stuff, and its hotter and you have to wash your stuff because it’s just not comfortable otherwise. But we survive don’t we? We’re still young.
DREW, DO YOU PREFER BEING BEHIND THE SCENES AS A TOUR MANAGER OR BEING ON STAGE YOURSELF?
Drew: It was a massive learning curve doing the tour managing stuff because I learnt a lot of the politics behind this type of thing. Which has made us, touch wood, avoid some pitfalls other bands fall in to. But at the same time it made me appreciate playing a show even more because I did tours for months on end where I didn't play.
Tom: You get the itch right?
Drew: Absolutely. Because you see people play every show and singing along to those words and you want to be part of that. Especially when you feel you have an outlet for that but it’s not there yet or not ready yet. So now we've obviously worked on this band and we’re pushing it and that’s what we do now. It’s fulfilling and fun. Spencer who’s our tour manager, we kind of do everything together and I co-manage the band as well. I still kind of get to fulfill that bit of the business interest and also get to play as well.
Tom: The best of both worlds.
Drew: Exactly.
HOW OLD WERE YOU GUYS WHEN YOU LEARNT TO PLAY GUITAR AND SING?
Tom: Early teens I would say.
Drew: You came out singing didn't you?
Tom: Yeah pretty much. I probably abused my voice in ways that a singer shouldn't but I feel like I get by. I understand my body to a degree. When I was like 7 or 8 years old I was really into Linkin Park and I would just try and imitate Chester Bennington’s voice and I definitely wasn't doing that shit correctly but I think because I've always sung like that my body has kind of adapted to doing that. I came off stage last night and I was like ‘oh no, I can’t speak’ but today I’m absolutely fine so it is just kind of taking it easy and knowing your body and stuff. But, I've been doing this for as long as I can remember. I started playing guitar at like 13. You guys started at about what, 10?
Rob: Yeah I was about 10.
Drew: Tom our bassist and I started guitar lessons, like classical Spanish guitar lessons when we were like 9. We learnt like ‘My Heart Will Go On’ and stuff and after about a year we both gave up because we weren't enjoying that and we both still had guitars and started teaching ourselves. We've known each other for years and I suppose it has just become something we do.
WHAT ARE FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME?
Tom: In recent years, Deaf Havana’s Fools and Worthless Liars.That album came out at the perfect time for me. James’s lyrics had a big impact on me and that has influenced my writing style recently. The Goo Goo Dolls put out a record in ’95. That was the first album that came out and got me interested in music. It’s the album with Iris on, everyone knows that song and it has some wicked other songs as well. Those two records are really important to me even though they’re like 15, 20 years apart. I love acoustic-y rock kind of stuff but I love lots of hip-hop as well and pop music is a big thing for me. I love pop music.
Drew:The Beatles are my favourite band ever. But at the same time that’s part of my growing up and stuff. I grew up listening to bands like that and also soul and Motown. Stevie Wonder and stuff like that. I’d probably say for me in terms of importance in writing and stuff Revolver by the Beatles and Inner Visions by Stevie Wonder are what I remember music as in terms of my earliest memories. I guess as you move towards things that shape us as musicians now, I’d probably say Bleed American by Jimmy Eat World. That was a massive album.
Tom: Page Avenue, man. That record is something weird. I didn't know the guys up until about four years ago and interestingly we were all massive Story of The Year fans when we were teenagers. We watched this DVD they had like to death, all separately.
Drew: And we didn't know each other at the time.
Tom: We've come together and everyone has been able to bond over that stuff.
Drew: Maybe another pop rock album that shaped my song writing is probably Ocean Avenue by Yellow Card. Tom our bassist and I listened to that album to death when we were like 13 and that’s always had the right balance in the way of like pop punk style and also that kind of summery radio rock vibe so that was important. It’s weird because there’s so many different records and we listen to so many different things. There’s always like those foundation albums that are important but we’re always listening to new stuff.
Tom: We just love music, man. The main thing about music is that we just love good music and that’s not genre specific. Make a good record and we’ll appreciate it.
THIS TOUR HAS ONLY JUST STARTED BUT IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC SONGS THAT GET THE CROWD GOING?
Tom: There’s stuff we put out on the Broken Jaw record which we get like a wicked fan response from. Foxfire, which was the lead single from the first EP and we re-did it for the album as well. That’s a big crowd favourite and we love and that’s a good party vibe.
Drew: All We’ve Ever Known, the new single.
Tom: As I said before, we did the record nearly two years ago so we’ve been playing these songs on and off for like the past 18 months or whatever. It’s weird, even before the record came out, because we’d played these songs however many times, people had come to see us and they knew the words before the album even came out.
Drew: We put out like maybe a 30 second preview of All We’ve Ever Known about a year ago...
Tom: On the ROAM and As It Is tour we did last summer.
Drew: And we put a preview out and about two days after we put that preview out, everybody just knew that part of that song when we played it. It was really cool.
Tom: That was crazy.
Drew: This tour’s an interesting one because we've gone from playing tiny venues to no one that cares, to playing tiny venues to a lot of people that care to now bigger venues where we’re playing early and we’re kind of like learning to get everybody into the vibe of the show. That’s a really cool thing for us. So part of it is that crowd response. But it’s also learning the songs that pack the punch in different ways. All We’ve Ever Known is definitely one of those and it’s like a compact rock song.
DOES IT FEEL GOOD WHEN YOU SEE PEOPLE SINGING BACK THE SONGS YOU HAVE WRITTEN?
Tom: Dude, it is unreal. It’s just mental you know. Myself and Drew are the ones who write the lyrics for the band, so some of the songs we write together and some of them we write separately. But the stuff we've wrote on like a balcony in Texas together at like stupid o’clock in the morning or stuff we started writing in our bedrooms just about how we feel about ourselves and the world and these situations. So, to go to these different places and meet people you've never even like seen before, knowing the words and singing the words and singing them with as much conviction as you wrote them with is the most humbling, rewarding feeling.
Drew: Lyrics, to an extent, are quite self-indulgent in the way that really you’re putting your emotions out there on paper. There’s part of your brain that knows that they might become something that you sing to people. However when you’re first writing them down, it’s personal to you. So that journey from that point to now where people are starting to sing along to them is just such an epic thing to witness and be a part of that whole journey. It makes you feel like what you’re doing is doing something. All We've Ever Known is out now!
