Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Interview with Jared & Garrett from The Maine at Warped Tour in Nashville 7/29/14

Introduce yourselves. Great set today, by the way. How was it for you?

Garrett: Great because I do not think there was a Nashville show scheduled originally.They scheduled it late. I didn’t know there was going to be a date here. It has been like 8 years since they've done it here.

Jared: All that aside it was an incredible set. There was wonderful energy and it felt nice. I had a great time. It’s cool because it’s good weather. We just came from Florida and it was a nightmare for Warped. So we are happy to be in the son and not melting.

How does it feel being back on Warped after five years? Atlanta 2009. Woo!

Garrett: We didn’t know what to expect because we’ve been apart from it for awhile, like you said. I think it’s gone so much better than we thought it was going to go. We’ve sold a bunch of CDs. The shows have been kick ass.

Jared: There was a little bit of hesitance from our camp because it’s been half a decade.

Five years is a half a decade. I feel so old now. 

Jared: It’s been a different group of kids that come to Warped than most of our fans. They do come, but it has exceeded our expectations. It’s been a huge opportunity for our band. We get to corral in those fans that haven’t kept up with us and we bring in new people.

How have your fans and music changed in those five years?

Garrett: Musically, we try not to make every record the same thing. Some bands get nervous and try to do the same thing over and over again. We just try to push ourselves and make a new name for ourselves. We’ve been lucky enough to where fans have stuck around. It’s been great.

Jared: We try not to make it feel forced, because it’s not. If you’re an authentic fan of the band, we can tell when you’re bullshitting. We try to do what we do best: write and record music. We recorded the last record live which gave it a little bit of a different feel. It was different for us to be in that situation. We like to put ourselves a little bit outside of the box from where we started and
it’s led us on this weird path where we are now.

Forever Halloween reissue. Talk about that?

Garrett: There are five extra tracks on that. Two were from the Pioneer sessions. Two were from the Nashville sessions when we did Forever Halloween and there is a song called Ice Cave which we had only played live before. We never tried to attempt to record before. It’s kinda a stony, spacey jam. A little bit outside of the box from what we normally do. We took songs from previous records to our studio in Phoenix and polished them up. We are selling it on Warped. Seventeen songs for five bucks. That’s a killer deal.

What do you have planned after Warped Tour?

Garrett: We have a month-ish off. Then we are going to the UK for a week. Then we are going to do some shows to wrap up this album cycle.

Jared: We are doing a show with The Replacements too.

I saw them a few months ago in Atlanta.

[We discussed the show and Billie Joe Armstrong among other aspects of that performance.]

Jared: So yeah, we are doing that show with them, then we are going to the UK like Garrett said.

Garrett: Then we are wrapping up the year and making another record

Yay!

Both: Yay!

I’ve noticed that y’all put out records a lot. It seems like it was just last year that Black and White came out. My fangirl is showing.

Jared: We are independent so we can release music whenever we want, provided the funding is there.

[I knock on the table. (Knock on wood) They follow suit.]

Jared: It’s exciting. We have free reign over what, when, where, who we do it with. I don’t really know what’s going to happen with this next one. We are still too far out to really give any info on it. We are excited to get back in the studio. We love the studio.

Well that answered my next question. So, is there anything else you want to add?

Garrett: Thanks for doing the interview.


Jared: Thank you for anyone who pays attention to our band. Just a general thank you!

Warped Tour Nashville, TN 7/29/14

My second Warped Tour press experience proved to be just as wonderful as the first. To make it better, I got to interview three bands!

My first band to shoot for the day was Mayday Parade. They were so photogenic and fun to shoot. Their crowd was fun as well.

They played

When You See My Friends
Jamie All Over
Three Cheers For Five Years
Repent and Repeat
Black Cat
Ghosts
Oh Well, Oh Well
Jersey

Since I missed The Maine in Atlanta, I made sure I caught them in Nashville (I also interviewed them later in the day. They were super nice.) They were also great to shoot too. (Looking back at my pictures, I love the ones I took of John where he is jumping, just an FYI.)

They played

Run
Right Girl
Growing Up
Like We Did (Windows Down)
Into Your Arms
Girls Do What They Want
Inside Of You

One of my favorite parts of this day and one of the best Warped Tour surprises was during For Today's set. During their opening song, Break The Cycle, the one and only Matty Freaking Mullins from Memphis May Fire runs out to sing his part of the song. The excitement of that crowd was one of the best moments of my concert experiences and I got to witness it in the photo pit. My pictures do not even do the moment justice. I even heard the moment referred to several times as Mattie and Matty, which is rather awesome.

The band played

Break The Cycle (Featuring Matty Mullins)
Foundation
Pariah
Seraphim
Fearless
The Breaker's Origin
Devastator

The Devil Wears Prada's set was just the same as it was in Atlanta. I also did not think I would see them twice in one week.

They played

Danger: Wildman
Reptar, King of The Ozone
Outnumbered
Assistant to the Regional Manager
Sailor's Prayer
Hey John, What's Your Name Again?
Mammoth

Throughout the day, I headed back and forth from the press area and I happened on an awesome band called Courage My Love. I did a spur of the moment interview with them and had a chance to shoot their set about an hour later.

I really enjoyed their set and it was refreshing to see a female fronted band and a female drummer on Warped Tour.

They played

Skin and Bone
Cold Blooded
We're Not In Kansas Anymore
Bridges
Dark Horse (Katy Perry Cover)
You Don't Know How

Moving on through the day, the good news is that Neck Deep did not almost kill me with a microphone this time. They played

Kick It
Losing Teeth
What Did You Expect?
Tables Turned
Crushing Grief (No Remedy)
Silver Lining
A Part Of Me
All Hype, No Heart
Over and Over

Today's Marmozets performance was ten times more special to me because I knew I would be interviewing them in just a few hours before I headed out of Warped. If you never learn anything from reading my blogs, just know that you need to check out this band. They have the best stage performance I have seen in a long time AND they have a female singer. Even when their crowds are small, there is never a drop in the performance level from this band.

They played

Particle
Why Do You Hate Me?
Is It Horrible?
Born Young and Free
Captivate You
Move Shake Hide
Vibe Tech

Of Mice & Men had a wonderful set as always. They played

Public Service Announcement
The Flood
O.G. Loko
Feels Like Forever
Bones Exposed
Would You Still Be There
The Depths

Yellowcard, oh, Yellowcard. They will always hit you right in the pre-teen years. They are so much fun and Ryan Key's Star Wars infatuation is one of the cutest things ever. Geek alert! There also are not many bands in the genre that can successfully have a violin player, still rock, and hold a crowds attention. Also, when your band has the security guards attention and they are all dancing around with the flying crowd surfers, you are doing something right.

They played

Way Away
Light Up The Sky
Awakening
Only One
With You Around
Ocean Avenue

What was the first band of my Warped Tour Atlanta experience, was the last band of my Warped Tour Nashville experience. The Story So Far. If I could follow this band on tour for the rest of my life, I would not complain. Their fans are the best and they never miss a beat on any of the crowd participation parts. They are truly one of the best bands around in my totally un-biased opinion. They played

Quicksand
Things I Can't Change
Roam
Right Here
Daughters
Empty Space
All Wrong
Swords and Pens
Stifled
The Glass
High Regard

So that was my Warped Tour Press experience in a nutshell. I cannot wait to [hopefully] cover Warped Tour again next year.