Interview: Defeater

Having interviewed Defeater twice before, there’s one thing that I’ve learned: you’re in for one lengthy chat, and this interview was certainly no different, as I caught up with frontman Derek Archambault ahead of their recent headline show in London, where we got talking in-depth about the release of Empty Days and Sleepless Nights, the story behind ‘The Wave’,  and a ton more in this 4,500+ word mammoth.

Faye: So, how are you today?
Derek: I’m well, I’m a lot better than I was when I woke up. I slept in the van last night and I forgot to take my sleeping bag out, so I slept in 30F weather, so it was fucking freezing, but I’m good. We had a great meal here, some garlic tofu.

Faye: I last interviewed you in April last year, what has Defeater been up to since then?
Derek: We got home from that tour and then we took the whole summer off, and then Andy was gone with Green Vans for Warped Tour and then he came back, and Jay and him started thinking about the record and what we wanted to do with it. Andy was just recording drums at Jay’s studio and then Jay would kind of edit it down. We started the real recording process and then Jay had to go to Australia for a recording thing with Marty from Carpathian. We did a tour around the Fest and that was really, really awesome, it was with All Teeth, Living With Lions and Make Do and Mend, so that was just a fucking blast. It was cool touring with friends’ bands that have a lot of hype about them right now – we love them, so seeing all the amazing reactions they were getting was really awesome. Then we came home and I did lyrics and recorded, and then we started thinking of ideas for the layout and we came up with the idea to do the book with Chris – it’s not a full book, it’s just lyrics and pictures and explanations from my friend Michael who does photography. After we finished the record, it was kind of a waiting game to do this tour and then when we get home from this, we play our record release show and then we flight down to South By South West and do a few shows in Austin, Texas and from there we do Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii, so it’s been a crazy few months, with all the crazy stuff going on with our personal lives and Jay having to record bands all over the country, and Andy doing Green Vans all over the country, me and my ex-fiancé breaking up and Mike’s always gone with Make Do and Mend, so it’s been a wild six months, but we’re all doing really, really well for the first time in the band, everybody is happy and healthy. A lot of the time when we’re away, someone just got dumped or someone was having family issues back home, but we’re at the most mentally stable place we’ve ever been, so that’s really great. Mike and I both met these amazing girls that we just fell for, totally unexpected. Just out of nowhere, these two girls walk into our lives, like I’ve been fucking up for the last five years and I meet someone who gets me, so that’s nice, and Jay’s getting married, so, yeah, that’s what we’ve been doing – touring, getting married, writing a new record. The responses so far have been really, really nice, like we played the Netherlands last night and kids knew lyrics to new songs that just got leaked the night before and that’s fucking wild. Like the first time you and I did an interview, like all the comparisons that you made, saying that kids are eventually going to see us in the same light as our friends’ bands, I was like, ‘Nah, that’s not going to happen, we’re just a bunch of nerds from Massachusetts that got lucky for a little while.’ But to actually be touring this much and having the response that we’ve gotten from the new record is, again, just so mind-blowing. We just try to make something that we would love, like back in our teenage years, and it’s crazy that we’ve gotten this far. It’s just wild that we can tour the way we do.

Live Review: Flood of Red – Trillians, Newcastle, March 6th 2011

Coming all the way from Essex seems like quite a trek for a small Newcastle show; nonetheless, Tomorrow Belongs To Us have made said trek, and go on pretty much straight after doors. While their music is pretty bog-standard by any stretch of the imagination, it’s worth noting vocalist Rob Maddison has a mad hefty roar in his lungs. Surely he’d be a lot better suited to a metalcore band that this somewhat bland hybrid of A Day To Remember-esque easycore. It’s not that the band do anything particularly wrong at all, but they pull out a mixed box of songs that sound like it’s all just been done before, and the quintet need to really find their sound to progress any further.

Live Review: My Chemical Romance – O2 Islington Academy, London, February 24th 2011

Ok, so, this is a bit of a weird one, as tonight is the exclusive video shoot of My Chemical Romance’s Planetary (GO!), which although was only announced the day before, naturally sold out in a matter of minutes.

Live Review: Defeater – The Underworld, Camden, London, February 21st 2011

Returning to The Underworld yet again are hardcore innovators Defeater on the cusp of releasing their new record, Endless Days and Sleepless Nights.

Live Review: The Wonder Years – The Peel, Kingston Upon Thames, February 20th 2011

Following their big rock star support slot on the Kerrang! Tour, Philly’s The Wonder Years return to Kingston for a show that’s a lot more suited to them; tonight, it’s all about stage dives and high fives.

Live Review: Four Year Strong – The Fighting Cocks, Kingston Upon Thames, February 16th 2011

Tonight’s the night… Following a mad 11-second ticket scramble two-weeks ago, we see popcore legends Four Year Strong play in an incredibly intimate setting to around 100-people while playing the album that made them, Rise or Die Trying, in full.

Interview: Four Year Strong

Following their show in Newcastle on the Kerrang! Tour, Faye caught up with Joe Weiss (bass) and Josh Lyford (keyboards/vocals) from Four Year Strong, and this time round, their drunken ramblings included: ‘random surprise wake-ups’, bigoted Norwegian girls, partying like rock stars, camping with aliens, and a lot more!

Faye: How are you today in your drunken state?
Josh: I’m fucking good.
Joe: This tour’s been fun so far, everyone’s been pretty sweet.
Josh: Yeah, pretty much everyone likes to be maniacs with us. We haven’t gone to bed earlier than 4 o’clock in the morning yet.
Joe: It’s ridiculous, even I’ve tried a couple of times and it doesn’t pan out, because I’ll go in there and just sit and here everyone talking.
Josh: The only problem with that is the random surprise wake-up, you’re like, ‘I want to go to sleep, but everyone’s awake at 6am, so fuck it, I’m going to stay awake and hang out.’ Then in the morning at like 9 o’clock, we’ve got to get up for some random stupid reason.
Joe: When I was trying to sleep one time on this tour, the bus parked next to a field and I woke up at like 8am to these tribal drums, there was like a festival going on. I had such a headache. It was crazy.

Faye: The last time I interviewed you was in June, what have you been up to since then?
Joe: Oh man, that seems like an eternity ago.
Josh: Yeah, I was probably 25 back then.
Joe: We did Warped Tour over the summer that was an excellent time. We toured with Comeback Kid, The Wonder Years and Mountain Man, that was a really good tour as well.
Josh: We’ve toured with The Wonder Years so much and now we sleep next to them, it’s like our two vans became one shitty van.
Joe: It was sweet to tour with Comeback Kid because I had been listening to them for so long, and they are literally the chilliest people.

Faye: Yeah, I interviewed Jeremy from Comeback Kid in November.
Joe: He is hilarious! That guy is the man. He’s always so pumped no matter what the situation is. I want to hang out with them in Las Vegas, because Comeback Kid is putting on this party in Las Vegas and has invited whoever to just go, and I’m temped to, but I’m sure we’ll be on tour doing something.
Josh: There was like a punching thing that recorded how hard you punched it and watching Jeremy getting so stoked and bashing the shit out of it was awesome. Although, our merch man took it down and got the highest score.

Interview: Twenty Twenty

Ahead of supporting The Saturdays in Newcastle, Faye caught up with lead vocalist/guitarist, Sam Halliday, of Twenty Twenty, grilling him on touring with one of the country’s biggest pop groups, aspirations to break the mainstream and their drama with Ten Second Epic!

Faye: We last interviewed you in January 2010, what have you been up to since then?
Sam: Flipping hell, we’ve been up to a lot, we did that Get Down Tour and then we did two kinda small-half tours for our single, Worlds Apart, released that, which got to number 72 in the charts and was one of the top indie singles that week, then we did an October headline tour to finish off the year and released a live DVD as well, that got to number 4 in the charts as well.

Faye: So, how’s this tour been going for you? It’s a bit of a weird one for you.
Sam: Yeah, and you know what? It’s been going really well, obviously, it’s a pop tour and it’s with a band where their fans probably won’t have heard of us, but it’s going really well. Honestly, we’ve been on stage every night and it’s really fun, and everyone seems up for it. They’re taking to the music really well, and before the tour, we weren’t really sure how well we’d be perceived, but everyone seems to really like us, so it’s great.

Faye: Have your own fans been coming out? Or did it sell out before they even had a chance?
Sam: It was really annoying, because we got told a few days before it was announced that we were doing it and, obviously, we’re not allowed to say anything, which I don’t think made a lot of difference, since a lot of it was already sold out. I think a few of our fans managed to get tickets, but we feel really bad, that’s why we’ve been doing meet and greets outside, because it’s only fair if we’re in their city, they can come and see us.

Review: Paige – Young Summer (EP)

It’s been almost a full year since Hertfordshire quintet Paige have been locked away with “RECORDING AN ALBUM” tacked upon their MySpace page. A trip across the pond to Philadelphia later, and the band come back with not an album, but an EP in the form of Young Summer – just in time for January.

Review: Forever Never – I Can’t Believe It’s Not Metal! (EP)

Whilst they plough the UK with their melodic-metalcore sound; Forever Never have decided upon releasing something a little different to say the least; their latest offering comes in the form of the I Can’t Believe it’s Not Metal! EP, which is pretty much as it says on the tin: a cover album that sounds absolutely horrendous on paper, let’s see how it pans out.