Carl & Zara headed to London Underworld to speak with Drew (Guitar), Jake (Drums) and Kooter (Bass) at their gig supporting Hate Eternal at the Underworld. 

Firstly, how’s the tour going to so far?

It’s a lot of fun, there’s been a ton of bus trouble, we’re on like our fourth bus already!

And we had a day where we had vans too.

Shit has that impacted on your tour?

Yea we had to miss 3 shows, Sweden, Demark and one show in France, which sucks!

But the shows you’ve got to and played have been going ok?

Yea they’ve been phenomenal! For sure.

How are the other bands? Everyone getting along ok?

Awesome! Really Sweet dudes!

You guys are doing a mini tour of the UK after this?

Yea, tonight’s the last date of the Hate Eternal package, then after this two more bands tag on, Dead Beyond Buried and Burning Skies, and of course Misery Index and we go do a few more shows.

We do an extra 9 shows we hit Dublin as well.

You guys have toured quite extensively in the US, is there much difference in the crowd over here? Is it nicer over there?

I’d say here’s better, for the most part. This tour has been kind of weird for us specifically, as it’s been kind of a death metal tour, so there’s not been as many dudes out partying, more just standing around whipping there hair round. But the UK has always been good for us; last time we were here we played one of our most memorable shows in a little town called Huddersfield. That was probably one of the best shows for me. We still have good shows in the states don’t get me wrong, but the economies shitty there, less people drive to shows, less people go to shows. There are a lot of kids there who only go to shows to hang out, that’s it. If you’re a touring band trying to make money to eat it’s kind of hard when kids are just there to look cool.

You (Jake) only recently joined, how are you finding it?

Yea it’s fun, it’s easy, I’ve known these guys for a while now so it’s not like a totally new crowd I’m hanging out with. Drew and I sat down like a month ago to learn the songs, I had my first show in Michigan, then my second show was in Germany and we’ve just been partying ever since.

Everything going well then?

Yea of course!

Why did your old drummer leave then?

Ultimately it’s a very long story; the short version of it is that being in a touring band, you don’t have a lot of money. He had a job back home that he didn’t want to get laid off from, and he had mentioned about quitting before. We had a lot of tours coming up and Jake seemed interest. So we had this guy who maybe was going to quit, so we said to him “We’ve got a lot of tours coming up, we’ve got someone who’s interested and he’s going to stick with us.” It ended up a lot more sour than we had anticipated, but that’s a whole other story that I don’t really care to share on video!

You’re touring with bands like Aeon and Misery Index who both have very strong lyrical themes. Misery Index being very left political and Aeon being very anti-Christian…

Yea they really hate God!

(The band nod knowingly at each other and chuckle)

Do you guys have any particular message in your lyrics?

All: Party! Have a good time!

I think it’s great that Aeon are opinionated about their thoughts, and take an interest in that because I really don’t, and I respect that.

People have always asked us that, like what do your songs mean, and I just say we’re just some dudes who like to play some jams. We write songs because we think they’re kick-ass. That’s it. Always have done always will be.

Who would you say your main influences are then? I mean you’re (Travis) wearing a Municipal Waste hat!

Aw man I love Municipal Waste!

Would they be an influence?

We get a lot of stuff from a lot of different places; I mean not just stuff that we do.

Me and him (Jake) are big Blink 182 fans.

J: I love Blink 182!

D: Collectively, as a band we listen to a lot of different stuff, collectively we listen to a lot of stuff like Cursed and Trap Them, Converge, more filthy thrashy stuff like that.

J: Blink 182 for me!

D: I don’t listen to Blink 182!

J: They’re awesome!

D: His ring tone is Blink 182!

J: Absolutely! Anthem: part 2. I love it.

And what do you think of +44 and Angels and Airwaves?

(This causes some disagreement between Jake and Travis)

K: (Shaking his head) NO!

J: You know what!?! +44 is ok by me.

K: No you can’t listen to it!

J: Angels and Airwaves kind of suck. Because Tom totally thinks he’s the dopest shit ever. +44 don’t care about that, and you know what Boxcar Racer were tight! (Looks at Kooter for approval)

K: Yea Boxcar were tight!

(At this point the camera shut off so we missed a little of the ensuing debate about Blink 182 side projects)

So to sum up that conversation we can say: Blink 182 = good?

(Nods from Jake and Travis)

+44 average.

J: No awesome!

K: Sub par, sub par.

Angels and Airwaves suck.

J: Oh yea they suck!

(Nods all round)

What about the Transplants?

J: I can dig it, whatever really, Boxcar Racer are better.

Anyway, back on topic, See You Next Tuesday, obviously a euphemism for cunt. Who came up with that? Why did you choose that?

D: Me! Because it’s stupid really! Nah, before I was even in the band I had the idea that I wanted to write filthy death metal-esque grind or something ridiculous. And at the same time have this band called See You Next Tuesday that sound like a pop rock band, but is also a euphemism for c*nt, which surprisingly not that many people get.

J: Today coming into the UK the lady at the border got it; she was like cracking up to her co-worker!

D: I think a lot of people in the UK get it, I mean when we first came over here we walked up to the border all nervous cause we’d heard its really hard to get in here. We’ve heard all these horror stories about getting into the UK. So we walk up and the guy’s like “What band are you in?” we say “See You Next Tuesday” and the group of dudes were just laughing about it.

Do you guys have any particular highlights of your career so far? I know you mentioned the Huddersfield show earlier.

Man we’ve played a hand full of awesome shows and a hand full of shitty shows that we made badass! Like I said we’re just a bunch of dude who like to play music. If we play in front of 12 people who are into it that’s cool. We’d rather play to less people who are into it than 500 people who don’t give a shit. If we play to 500 people who are into it, then that’s sweet too!

Cool, thank you very much for the interview!

All: Thanks man!