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"She don't care about books or school. No, she just wants to rock and roll. Baby, she's no fool. You're so cool" - Will Hoge
"You choose a path in life, and when you do, sprint. Don't stroll down it." - Kevin Lyman

Showing posts with label july. Show all posts
Showing posts with label july. Show all posts

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!

Marmozets Interview at Warped Tour in Nashville 7/29/14


Marmozets was a band that came across my path earlier this year while I was listening to Octane Radio, where I one day hope to work.

I had the opportunity to interview Becca and Jack at the Nashville Warped Tour date.

So here it is! Enjoy!

Introduce yourselves

I am Becca. I sing.

I am Jack and I play guitar. Collectively we are the band Marmozets. We are from England West Yorkshire where it is always sunny.

Is this your first time in America?

Becca: It is our first time touring in the USA. It is our second time in America. We came over once to do recording in New York.

What has been your favorite moment from touring so far?

Jack: My favorite moment was when it was raining heavily and we had a show in the rain. It was me, Becca and Will. We took a shower in the rain shower. There was another day involving rain as well we were in the van and then Big Daddy, our tour manager came running along because he had all the beer and we started packing everything up and one person yelled “OPEN
THE FREEZER!” I cried hysterically with laughter throughout I think it was about 9. 6 minutes exactly. I mean my stomach is still hurting now. That was awesome.

What is your favorite moment from the tour?

Becca: My personal favorite every single day is completely different every crowd is different. There is a variety of chaos. It gets me pumped up. It makes you do your best.
We've been blown away by bands that come out here and do their own thing. It is awesome and now we get to be friends with them for life. Yay!

What is it like being in a band with your family members

Becca: It is the best thing ever. It is all we know

Jack: We don't know any different. It’s all we’ve ever done. People are normally surprised by that.

[Kelen from The Story So Far walks past and the band and he start talking. He recognizes me from last week. He walks off to get food and the interview continues.]

Updates on new album?

Jack: September is when. September the 29th is the date. We are excited to get it out. We recorded it in like November and December of last year.

What are your plans after Warped Tour?

Jack: We’ve got lots of European festivals. Leeds, Reading in England. We’ve been there a few times as fans and played them once so it was awesome. Touring with Taking Back Sunday.

[I proceeded to explain to them the concept of Roll Tide and how it is used as a greeting.]

Anything else you want to add?

Jack: Thank you for doing this lovely interview.

Becca: We will see you soon! 

Friday, July 25, 2014

Warped Tour Atlanta, Georgia 7/24/14

Although I have been to Warped Tour five times, this year was the first time I was ever part of the press. With a little bit of luck and a lot of determination, I ended up with press passes for the Atlanta and Nashville shows.

After arriving in Atlanta, I checked in at the press tent. I ran inside to buy my band schedule. I am glad I did not waste time because the first band of the day that I wanted to shoot was The Story So Far. They put on one of the best pop-punk shows I have ever experienced. It was even more awesome because I was in the photo pit for the first three songs. They played

Quicksand (People were crowd-surfing to the front and Parker Cannon threw the microphone over to this guy who screamed the bridge of the song.)
Things I Can't Change
Roam
Right Here
Daughters
Empty Space
All Wrong
Swords and Pens
Stifled (Parker asked the audience who had their shitty first EP.)
The Glass
High Regard

After TSSF, I looked around the press area and found out some band interview times. I headed over to see a new band from England, Marmozets. I recently heard them on Sirius/XM Octane. I was stoked that they were going to be at my Warped dates. Their energy is contagious and their singer, Becca Macintyre has a voice similar to that of Renee' Phoenix of Fit For Rivals. They played

Particle
Why Do You Hate Me? (So Awesome)
Is It Horrible?
Born Young And Free
Captivate You
Move Shake Hide
Vibe Tech

Next, I ran over to shoot The Devil Wears Prada. I had not seen them since Warped Tour 2009. They have improved so much over the last few years. This was the best I have ever seen them. 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

They were fun to shoot and their audience was on point. The amount of crowd surfers falling on me in the pit was astronomical and that made their set ten times more memorable.

At this point, the bottom fell out and it rained for over an hour. Throughout that hour, in my mind, I had two near-death experiences. During Neck Deep's set, their singer, Ben Barlow's microphone flew out of his hand and almost hit me in the head. When I looked at him, he looked mortified. But I made sure he knew it was more than fine. (You can see what happened in the pictures below). They played

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

While it was still raining I went over to catch Attila. This was their home Warped, so the place was going off. I started out in the back of the crowd behind the Van's tent facing the direction in which the crowd was about to run. Fronz, Attlia's singer told the crowd to start a circle pit around the entire stage and take it behind the merch tents. I got caught in a stampede. I froze and could not go anywhere. This big, burly guy ran, picked me up, and moved me out of the way. Which was great until I realized I had to go in the direction of the crowd. If you can't beat them, join them. I inadvertently ended up in this circle pit and getting slapped, kicked, punched, and stomped on. Oddly, it was a great feeling knowing I was a part of the Attila experience. They played

Callout
Middle Fingers Up
Party With The Devil
Shots For The Boys
Rage
Payback
About That Life

After Attila, I went back to the press tent and interviewed Kelen Capener from The Story So Far. It was "shmeeb" (Check it out here)

Then I ran over and caught Yellowcard just in time to hear them close with Ocean Avenue.

Of Mice & Men's started immediately on the adjacent stage. They played
Public Service Announcement
The Flood
O.G. Loko (I go hard in the mother fucking paint remix tag)
Feels Like Forever
Bones Exposed
Would You Still Be There
The Depths

OM&M is another band that gets better each time I see them. Their crowds get larger and more rowdy. The mosh pits are moshier and the crowd surfers multiply. If there is one band you need to see on Warped the rest of this summer, it needs to be them.

The last band I covered was Less Than Jake. They are one of the longest running bands to ever play Warped Tour and tomorrow in St. Petersburg, Florida will be their 365th Warped show. That is a year's worth of touring just on Warped. They played

Sugar in Your Gas Tank
The Ghosts of Me and You
Last One Out of Liberty City
The Science of Selling Yourself Short
Landmines and Landslides
Do The Math
All My Best Friends Are Metalheads
Plastic Cup Politics
Look What Happened

During their set, I even saw Kelen Capener from The Story So Far run and jump on top of the crowd and surf his way to the front. That might have been one of the funniest things I saw that day.


This Atlanta Warped was definitely an experience to remember. I will be covering Nashville's Warped too, so check back for more updates, pictures, and interviews.