How did you guys approach the writing for your EP “Guaranteed To Disagree
”? I heard that the EP came together pretty quick, is that correct?Tay: Yeah, it was all last minute. There were two songs, “For the Win
” and “Never Be What You Want,” that had already been written and released. Then we re-released them on the EP, with a few different things, like Will Pugh from Cartel sang on “Never Be What You Want
.” The other songs were very last minute. We all write as a whole and it is pretty much all five of us coming together, which takes a while but everyone is happy in the end.Do you all write lyrics?
Tay: It’s mostly me, Mike and Rob. Cameron will have ideas every once and a while, along with Jordan. It really depends though. We will come up with a topic, where one of us will say “this is what I want to say, does anyone have suggestions of maybe how to say that?”
How did you get hooked up with Will Pugh for “Never Be What You Want”? Was it completely random?
Tay: It was. We wanted to make it different because the song was already released and Will lives right down the road from where we recorded.
Jordan: We wanted a guest vocalist and we worked with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount, who did “Chroma” and their self-titled album (“Cartel”). They were like, let’s call Will up, because he’s home right now!” He came over and it was awesome! He nailed it and we are really happy with how it turned out.
Do you have a full-length in the works? Are you writing for it, or even recording yet?
Tay: We are currently writing. It has been a slow process, actually. We want the full-length to be…
Jordan: The best thing it can be. I don’t want it to be a “Guaranteed To Disagree, Part II.”
Tay: Yeah, I someone to pick it up and say “this one is awesome, and that one is awesome and I can’t pick a favorite!” I want to happen hopefully.
Do you get time to write on Warped Tour (2010)?
Jordan: We didn’t really have that much time to write.
You probably didn’t even have time for a shower.
Jordan: That is true (laughs). It was just non-stop. We always had an interview at this time, etc. The schedule was so hectic, but it was awesome. Being on Warped Tour was probably the best thing that could have ever happened to us, and it shows. We this short tour with this band named Amely, from Florida. We were going down to Naples to write and play, and during the shows kids were coming out and singing along. It was really beneficial.
Was the Warped Tour experience intense at first?
Tay: Yeah, absolutely. Coming into it, we knew that and there were still obstacles that we faced that had us saying, “dang! That is not what we were thinking was going to happen!” (laughs) It is definitely intense.
That is so crazy, because a little over a year ago you were doing the whole “D.I.Y” kind of thing. How do you guys find yourselves connecting to fans?
Jordan: Yeah, we were doing the whole “MySpace pushing,” which is pretty much dead right now. We are on our FaceBook game right now, which is pretty much all we do right now and we get on there and talk to fans. That is one of the main reasons that we are out here. We just want to meet fans, and become friends with these people so they can come out next time and hopefully bring their friends. It’s becoming less of a “professional” thing, and more like we have friends all over the place. We get to hang out with them, and it’s not like they come out just to see us, they come to hang out. It’s way more personal that other bands. We are just hanging out.
Tay: I always think it is funny when people ask that too, “are you going to meet us afterwards and hang out?” I am always like, where am I going to go? I am not trying to hide out in a closet right now, so of course!
You mentioned FaceBook and MySpace, how important is social networking to artists like you?
Tay: So important. Actually, our MySpace got hacked, and then AbsolutePunk.net posted an article about the hacking, and that is the only reason Hopeless (Records) found us. That is the only way (laughs).
Jordan: I still remembered the night Mike called me up and was like “dude, Hopeless Records want to do a conference call and talk to us.” That was all because of the hacking, and that was when MySpace was just about to go over…
Tay: Twitter is so important to us too, because of how literal and up-to-date it is. People know if I am peeing at the venue.
Or maybe things like “a turtle breathes through its butt?” (referencing their new music video for “Both Sides of the Story”)
Tay: (laughs) Yeah, I found that out on twitter.
Jordan: What is funny about that video is that all of those tweets were real tweets. We just checked hash tags like “#Ifoundout,” or “#ireallythink” It was really cool.
Do you come up with that concept yourselves?
Tay: It was a mix between our ideas, and the director’s.
Jordan: Yeah, and we were really happy with how it turned out. It has been done for a while, so it was weird being on Warped and knowing that it was done, but I’m glad that we waited to release it. It is definitely good promotion for us on this tour.
What kind of music have you guys been listening to recently?
Tay: We listen to a lot of pop-punk, like Jimmy Eat World and Reliant K, but at the same time we were listening to Bring Me to the Horizon on the way here (laughs).
Jordan: We just like listening to music. It doesn’t really matter what kind of genre it is, like we will listen to rap and hardcore music in the van. Anything that is good.
Do you find it important to listen to diverse selection of music?
Tay: Yeah, I think that if you listen to the same exact genre of music that you play, it is so easy to be influenced by it. There will be times where we are writing a song, and then realize that it songs like something we just heard on the radio.
Jordan: Yeah, we will write a riff sometimes and then realize that someone had already come up with it.
Tay: There was a while when we were writing, that I didn’t listen to music because I didn’t want to be influenced (laughs).
Windows down in your car on a perfect day, what are you listening to?
Tay: That is really funny you said that, because our whole Ep was based on that exact phrase. When people asked us what our goal was with the EP, we said that we wanted to introduce ourselves and two it is coming out in the summer so we want people to role their windows down and listen to it. That is very interesting that you said that. Personally, it depends. There is that Death Cab song “Passenger Seat,” where they literally say roll the windows down, and I remember listening to it one day and being like “I’m just going to try it.” I did it and it was amazing! (laughs) That is kind of embarrassing, but that is a good song to listen to with the windows down.
Jordan: For us, we live in New York so it is always kind of cold, so when summer time comes around I love to listen to New Found Glory. The self-titled album is perfect for when you are driving with the windows down. Literally every song on the album is perfect for that.
Tay: I remember when we were writing the album, we put New Found Glory on and said that we couldn’t wait for it to be summer. We couldn’t listen to it then, because it has to be summer to fully enjoy that band.
What’s next for you guys?
Tay: We have some offers for spring tour, but nothing is set in stone yet. We are definitely going to write through the winter and December. We are taking the holidays off to do that, and then we will see how the tours work out!
Are you shooting for this summer to release the album?
Tay: Yeah, we are either shooting for the same time the “Agree to Disagree” came out, or around September. When kids start going back to school, they talk about who they are listening to.
Jordan: The first two months of school kids are like “I just got this new record, and I have been listening to it every day on the way to school!” I remember when All Time Low came out with “So Wrong, its Right” in September and being like this is awesome. It will probably be before Warped, if we do it again.
Are you shooting for Warped again?
Tay: It all depends…
Jordan: It was such an amazing experience, because I remember going to Warped as a kid and wishing that I was onstage.
Tay: Being on the other side of that fence is insane. Sometimes you feel like you don’t deserve it.
Jordan: Yeah, why am I here? We have only been a band for a little less than two years. On Warped tour, I remember thinking that last year we were doing this (touring) in a van and we lost all of our merch in Chicago. All of these terrible things were happening, so it was definitely a blessing to be able to be on Warped. Even this tour, because we are all huge fans of these bands.
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