Forever The Sickest Kids
Forever The Sickest Kids have been on tour in the UK this month, and will wrap it up tomorrow night in London.
We caught up with bassist Austin Bello at the Manchester date of the tour to talk about the live shows, moving away from Sony Records, their new album, the pop-punk genre and the challenges of touring.
-Are you glad to be back in the UK?
I love it here. I think it's our fourth or fifth time back. Every time we come here, the crowds are just incredible. It's awesome.
-How's it been going in terms of the crowds' reaction then?
Good, man. We've done two shows so far. Both of them have been ridiculous. As a band, we feed off the crowd. So, the better the crowd is, the crazier we are on stage, and the more I've woken up with a sore neck.
-The tour has quite a diverse line-up. Was that intentional, to get that variety?
Yeah. When we were growing up, we all listened to hardcore music. We have a variety of spectrums put into our music. We just like to incorporate every style into our band.
-How have your fans reacted to the new, self-titled album?
Really good, man. This is our first time to perform new songs from that album over here. I think we're playing three or four songs from the self-titled, and they're singing every word! They already know it, it's awesome.
-With bands like yourselves and New Found Glory, the pop-punk scene seems to be thriving at the moment. What do you think of it, worldwide?
Growing up, New Found Glory was one of my favourite bands. We actually got to do a tour with them in Japan a few years ago. We all grew up on pop-punk music. You know, pop-punk jumps you see in the music videos and stuff. That's something we take into our own music, and especially our live show, with the energy.
-Moving back to the self-titled release, it started off as an EP. What made you expand it?
Well, as you may know, we recorded an EP called Friday, and then we were going in to make Saturday and Sunday. We did five songs, and afterwards we were like...man, this is some of the best stuff we've come out with.
So, instead of releasing it, we waiting three more months, recorded the other stuff and released it as a full album. I'm glad that we did it that way, so that it's viewed as a full album, not as a little EP.
-Well there's a focus, particularly more in mainstream music, on a hit single, and cherry-picking songs. Do you think there's still a vital place for an album in that kind of landscape?
Sure. You get those singles from a lot of pop artists and radio stuff, where people won't buy any of their albums, but they'll buy this one song they heard on the radio. We wanted it where you'd put the album in a car or whatever, and listen to it start to finish, and be enthused the whole time, not just for one song.
-Did you have any second album worries going into this record?
I guess there always is, to some extent, but...to us, it's just making the songs we love, writing the stories we love, making the sound that - when we listen to it - we love. If it's something we like, normally it translates to the fans liking it.
-It seems to be working so far - the album has sold over 125,000 copies in the US alone.
That's cool, I didn't know that - that's awesome. I didn't expect it to be that much, but that's good!
-In the past, you've spoken about connecting with the fans. Do you think it's important to be accessible to them?
Absolutely. In our day and age, we'd go see a band, and never get to meet them. Now with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace - all the social networking - they want to actually see you, and take a picture with you.
It's not just going to a show and seeing it, it's taking a picture and seeing what you're like. The fans really do care about us, so we try our best after shows to meet as many fans as we can.
-Does it ever get hard, if it's been a bad day or it's on a long tour?
Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I'm tired and I just go to bed, then I wake up and feel guilty in the morning.
-The last time you were in the UK was last year, when you toured with Bowling For Soup. How was that tour?
Man, they are the coolest guys, the funnest dudes. Also, the World Series was going on, and we're both from Texas. The Rangers were in the World Series, and we were on each other's buses every night trying to watch the game through the internet. Everyone was freaking out, it was a good time.
-You've got a tour coming up with another big pop-punk band, when you hit the road with Simple Plan. Are you excited for that?
Oh, I'm so excited dude! That was one of the bands I admired growing up. Actually, recently me and Jonathon [Cook, vocals] looked at all their music videos from their old albums. It's another one of those bands we can mark off and say "Yes! We've toured with this band".
-There's been some rumours about the band getting some major label attention. Is there anything you can say about that?
We are currently not with Universal Records. We loved the label, they had some complications in the way it was run. We talked about it and easily split ways.
Currently we're independent, and we have had some more major and indie labels contact us. We're kinda just liking being independent. There's no pressure except for ourselves.
-Has it been challenging?
It's been a breath of fresh air, not having anybody jumping down your throat, telling you to dress like this or whatever. It's good, we're actually really excited about it.
-So it looks like you'll leave the major label deals for a while and stay independent?
Yeah, for a while. We're going to see how long we stay excited about it. We kinda run our own label ourselves, you know?
-Does that add stress to it, or do you like having that control?
No man, we love it. We do everything ourselves - t-shirt design, album cover, music videos, press. We're doing our own online stuff, we don't have some guy at a desk saying "Hey, check out Forever The Sickest Kids' new song" - that's us. We're very personal with it.
-You've had a couple of members leave at various times this year, starting with Kent Garrison in January. How's that been for the band?
It has been hard. There've been times when we've got together and been like..."Hey, is this the end of us? What are we going to do?" Kent left on good terms. You know, touring is for some people, and other people get sick of it.
Marc [Stewart] actually got married, so he's with his wife. Both ways, it was an easy part. It's not just about being in the band, we love them as friends.
Rico, who was our guitar tech, is playing guitar in place of Marc right now. Everything is still in the family. We're working on new music right now, with us four being in the band. It's actually one of the most exciting times in the band right now.
-Marc left relatively recently, just a few weeks ago. Was it a shock that he left just before this tour, or did you know enough in advance?
No, we knew for a while. He told us "I've got these tours left, and I can teach whoever I need to." We knew he was getting married, and leaving your wife is going to be a hard thing to do when you're touring all the time time.
Two months out of the year you're gone, two months you're back. You can imagine how stressful that was on him. It's cool - we hang out and we're still a family when we get home.
-You just mentioned how it can be difficult on the road. Do you find it difficult?
There's definitely times, especially when you're overseas. You don't have as much communication as you would at home to talk to family, friends, girlfriends or whatever.
We've been touring for nearly five years now, so we've made our own family with us, you know? It feels like we're home, even when we're away.
-You mentioned you've started to work on new music. Where doe Forever The Sickest Kids go from here?
We're working on new music. When we get home we're going to try and shoot a music video. We're doing a lot of promo and press.
There's a lot of ideas cooking - we're going to try to do an EP or an album, and put out a single by the end of this year. Depending on our work-load, and touring, we'll do it.
It's all looking up man, we're exciting. We'll keep touring and working on new music.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
Forever The Sickest Kids have been on tour in the UK this month, and will wrap it up tomorrow night in London.
We caught up with bassist Austin Bello at the Manchester date of the tour to talk about the live shows, moving away from Sony Records, their new album, the pop-punk genre and the challenges of touring.
-Are you glad to be back in the UK?
I love it here. I think it's our fourth or fifth time back. Every time we come here, the crowds are just incredible. It's awesome.
-How's it been going in terms of the crowds' reaction then?
Good, man. We've done two shows so far. Both of them have been ridiculous. As a band, we feed off the crowd. So, the better the crowd is, the crazier we are on stage, and the more I've woken up with a sore neck.
-The tour has quite a diverse line-up. Was that intentional, to get that variety?
Yeah. When we were growing up, we all listened to hardcore music. We have a variety of spectrums put into our music. We just like to incorporate every style into our band.
-How have your fans reacted to the new, self-titled album?
Really good, man. This is our first time to perform new songs from that album over here. I think we're playing three or four songs from the self-titled, and they're singing every word! They already know it, it's awesome.
-With bands like yourselves and New Found Glory, the pop-punk scene seems to be thriving at the moment. What do you think of it, worldwide?
Growing up, New Found Glory was one of my favourite bands. We actually got to do a tour with them in Japan a few years ago. We all grew up on pop-punk music. You know, pop-punk jumps you see in the music videos and stuff. That's something we take into our own music, and especially our live show, with the energy.
-Moving back to the self-titled release, it started off as an EP. What made you expand it?
Well, as you may know, we recorded an EP called Friday, and then we were going in to make Saturday and Sunday. We did five songs, and afterwards we were like...man, this is some of the best stuff we've come out with.
So, instead of releasing it, we waiting three more months, recorded the other stuff and released it as a full album. I'm glad that we did it that way, so that it's viewed as a full album, not as a little EP.
-Well there's a focus, particularly more in mainstream music, on a hit single, and cherry-picking songs. Do you think there's still a vital place for an album in that kind of landscape?
Sure. You get those singles from a lot of pop artists and radio stuff, where people won't buy any of their albums, but they'll buy this one song they heard on the radio. We wanted it where you'd put the album in a car or whatever, and listen to it start to finish, and be enthused the whole time, not just for one song.
-Did you have any second album worries going into this record?
I guess there always is, to some extent, but...to us, it's just making the songs we love, writing the stories we love, making the sound that - when we listen to it - we love. If it's something we like, normally it translates to the fans liking it.
-It seems to be working so far - the album has sold over 125,000 copies in the US alone.
That's cool, I didn't know that - that's awesome. I didn't expect it to be that much, but that's good!
-In the past, you've spoken about connecting with the fans. Do you think it's important to be accessible to them?
Absolutely. In our day and age, we'd go see a band, and never get to meet them. Now with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace - all the social networking - they want to actually see you, and take a picture with you.
It's not just going to a show and seeing it, it's taking a picture and seeing what you're like. The fans really do care about us, so we try our best after shows to meet as many fans as we can.
-Does it ever get hard, if it's been a bad day or it's on a long tour?
Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes I'm tired and I just go to bed, then I wake up and feel guilty in the morning.
-The last time you were in the UK was last year, when you toured with Bowling For Soup. How was that tour?
Man, they are the coolest guys, the funnest dudes. Also, the World Series was going on, and we're both from Texas. The Rangers were in the World Series, and we were on each other's buses every night trying to watch the game through the internet. Everyone was freaking out, it was a good time.
-You've got a tour coming up with another big pop-punk band, when you hit the road with Simple Plan. Are you excited for that?
Oh, I'm so excited dude! That was one of the bands I admired growing up. Actually, recently me and Jonathon [Cook, vocals] looked at all their music videos from their old albums. It's another one of those bands we can mark off and say "Yes! We've toured with this band".