-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