August 14, 2005
[interview by Alexa]

Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the band?
Kris My name is Kris Coombs and I play the guitar.

Estrella: So you're from the UK, how many times have you been over to the states now.
Kris: Oh Christ, we've been coming over here for about the last two years and it seems like last year we played like 127 shows here, so we come here a lot. We travel all over. It's kind of unbelievable, like the distance from New York to LA is the same as distance from London to New York.

Estrella: What's your favorite state?
Kris: Favorite state? Well I love New York. I really love New York. Everything's just cool in New York City, everything you want you can find but you can get lost very easily as well. Another good one is also Seattle, we spent about two months in Seattle with all the rain. The weather and the people over in the west is very much like the UK, it's very similar.

Estrella: When you recorded Hours, how long did you say it took you to record, two months?
Kris: Yes, we spent two months in Seattle recording and mixing.

Estrella: Who writes most of the lyrics in the band?
Kris: About all of write the lyrics. It doesn't make sense for just one person to write the songs, you know what I mean? You don't get into something that's someone else's words.

Estrella: I've noticed that your band has gotten very big in a short amount of time and I was wondering how does it feel to be received so well in the states?
Kris: It's insane cause we know to people back home we're a good band then we come over here with all of our hard work and promotion and we gained a following, it was amazing. Like we see bands like Coheed and Cambria and Taking Back Sunday which are real big bands to us and sometimes we're compared to them, we're so lucky. It's so amazing. The time difference between then and now, it's insane and we've also been considered as many different genres for our band.

Estrella: Have you been on the entire Warped Tour?
Kris: We came on a little bit later, it's a shame but hopefully next year we'll be able to do this. This tour is a lot of hard work but it's amazing. This time we had a bunch of little shows lined up and the Warped Tour, so we did as much as we could. Warped Tour is just really fun.

Estrella: So you played a show at CBGB's the other night, how was that?
Kris: The show was with Saosin and Hit The Lights.
Estrella: Hit The Lights?
Kris: Yeah, them.
Estrella: They've been getting quite a buzz lately.

Estrella: Best Halloween costume you've ever worn.
Kris: The best had to have been when I was about 7 or 8 years old, my mom made me like a Count Dracula costume with a cape and I loved it. That was probably the best.

Estrella: You know what Myspace is right? How has it effected you?
Kris: As an individual it's really nothing but as a band it's been amazing because you can get all your messages from your fans just through like a laptop. Recently, I've thought about getting into my own one even more, but as for right now I'm mostly on the band's account and I heard Myspace has even been sold..
Estrella: Yeah, it was sold for a few million dollars.

Estrella: Do you remember your set from Skate and Surf last year, how did it feel to play that set? Because I remember being crammed in a doorway.
Kris: You never know what to expect at the festival shows, you never know who shows up. Sometimes we have like 10 people at one of our sets or then there's a lot of people crammed watching us.
Estrella: I'm pretty sure it was past firecode during your set.
Kris: It was insane. We didn't know what to expect. It was the same way as the Bamboozle this year.
Estrella: I remember your stage being way off at Bamboozle, trying to walk all over the place looking for it in time.

Estrella: I noticed there is quite a few bands from the UK on the tour that you may be friends with like The Fight and I wasn't too sure who else.
Kris: The Fight, yes. Also, there's a band called Skindred, who are actually from the same area we're from - Wales and a band called The Dead Sixties, they're good guys.

Estrella: Are there any bands that you suggest from the UK?
Kris: Hell Is For Heroes, they're really good friends of ours. The UK is kind of strange, there's so many good bands! It's fun to play a lot of shows with each other when we're home.

Estrella: How did Atlantic find your band? Because you had been signed before Atlantic.
Kris: When we started touring and stuff, we had made a lot of good moves apparently because a lot of people were approaching us. It was strange because magazines started coming up to us at shows asking for interviews and stuff, so we had made a lot of good moves. A couple of labels had came to us and then twe had a show and Atlantic was at a showcase we played, so we became in contact with them. We had talked to them about how we didn't want a company to change us, etc, and we have a fantastic relationship. The reason they signed us is because they liked what we were doing and how we were doing it.

Estrella: Would you have any advice for bands who are trying to get their name big and out there?
Kris: When the band first started, we just played shows nonstop, wrote new songs, we know it's all about the music. We had to get our name out there, keep doing things to get noticed. Best advice I could give to anyone who's in a band - Take all of the opportunities that are given to you like for shows, for instance there's people there watching - labels/reviewers, not everyone's going to like your band but play for you.

Estrella: Do you have any closing statements?
Kris: I'm going to wrap up by saying check out our records and thank you.
Estrella: Thank you.