|
Estrella: Could you please state your name and what you do in the band.
Tim: My name's Tim, I sing and play guitar for June.
Estrella: How has tour with 30 Seconds To Mars and your labelmates the Audition been so far?
Tim: This is the third day in and it's been awesome so far. We've been on tour with the Audition before in January and we've known them long before that, so it's always fun going on tour with people you know and we get along with them, they're like our brothers. As for 30 Seconds, we didn't really get to hang out with them too much on the first day but yesterday we barbequed and stuff before doors and got to meet all of them and they're awesome guys, so we'll definitely be hanging out with them a lot more on this tour.
Estrella: Do you have any plans on recording a new album soon or have you started the writing process yet?
Tim: Yes, we started the writing process... I mean, we always our constantly writing, we don't necessarily cut out a certain amount of time, we're just writing a lot. We're going to focus on it a little more around September, we have two weeks off in August, we'll probably write some more then. Also then in September, my family has a home in Wisconsin and our drummer has some family in Florida, so we'll probably go out there and have that escape and write. We're probably record before the end of the year, definitely. So, not sure with who yet or anything like that.
Estrella: Do you take in any inspiration for writing while you're on the road?
Tim: As far as what I write about, I guess it depends on what's happening in my life or people around me and close to me, you know like I write some of the lyrics, but AJ writes a lot of lyrics, our bass player, and what he does is that he takes in everything about himself and then about others and then say something happens like with our last record me and my dad were going through a lot and he put himself in my shoes and wrote, so it's like from first person's point of view, like him putting himself into this situation. But I helped a lot on that with writing, as far as lyrics go. Then on this record, he has a notebook full of lyrics and I'm doing the same and I think we're going to collaborate together and just kind of see what we're writing about. Some of the stuff we write about is really personal and when people ask us about it, we just like generalize it, and some stuff it's just like whatever. So it all depends on what's going on in our lives at the time and what we really feel passionate about because if you just write to write, it's not as good I don't think, as opposed to when you're from a meaning.
Estrella: What is your view on the current scene?
Tim: The music scene is awesome.
Estrella: And do you see a huge difference between east and west coast scenes?
Tim: Not really, I mean I guess there's certain markets that enjoy certain types of music like when you break it down into brackets and stuff like hardcore and stuff like that, there's certain cities where you can definitely tell that a lot more heavily based off of that kind of music, but like either way there's plenty of people around. I feel like no matter what you write, you'll find that group of people into it. I know a lot of people think that right now that some of the bands that aren't getting huge and some of the bands are getting their break, which is kind of joke, if you know what I'm saying. It's all about writing the music you love or whatever the reason is for wanting to write that music and going out there and having fun and connecting with the people and I view it the music scene as when I play music with the band and everything, as long as we go to shows and we're having fun on stage and the crowd is having fun with seeing the band and everything, that's all that matters. No matter what kind of music you play, no matter if you're writing music strictly to make money or writing music to do what I just said. There's people out there who will just write music to strictly to get their paycheck. But I mean fuck it, it's going to happen, no matter what you know, so I don't think there's anything wrong with the music, I absolutely love it right now. There's a lot of great bands out there that do deserve more recognition, but they will at a time I think.
Estrella: How do you feel about the sudden burst in Chicago bands? Like The Audition, Spitalfield, Plain White T's, Academy Is..., yourselves?
Tim: I think it's awesome, Chicago is a huge market, it's cool for local bands in Chicago because there's so many people there that you'll have a chance to at least vocally get your name out there and then I think it started with bands like Fall Out Boy, Spitalfield...
Estrella: Alkaline Trio, Allister...
Tim: Oh yeah Alkaline Trio, if you want to go that far back... but yeah like Hey Mercedes, they're a lot of bands from Chicago. All those bands did the touring thing and back when I was in high school, like The Academy Is... was me and our bass player and our guitar player were in a band with a couple dudes from that band. It was all the bands right now from Chicago but put in different bands. Like the drummer of the Plain White T's was in a band called Knockout.
Estrella: Yeah, with old TJ from Spitalfield.
Tim: Exactly and there was Tom from The Academy Is... was in a band called 504 Plan with a guy from Wax On Radio in Chicago.
Estrella: And like Jon in Panic.
Tim: And Jon who's now in Panic! At The Disco. In our high school scene, it was all those same people in different bands and then once everyone was out high school, they just like split off and went to different bands and then gave them luck. Everyone knew each other so we started taking everyone on tour before you know it, Chicago explodes. I think what happened is that a couple bands made it and started taking other bands out with them like Fall Out Boy took out The Plain White T's and you know, then The Academy Is... took out us and The Plain White T's on their headlining tour and then so on and so forth. Then us and The Audition went out on tour. So everyone takes their friends out and before you know it, everyone's catching on. It's fun though. It's awesome at the Warped Tour, we just see so many people from home either working for other bands or are in bands and stuff it's just like holy shit, it's awesome.
Estrella: I must say that Warped Tour in Maryland was weird because it was a lot of Chicago bands, like Spitalfield was scheduled to play but they weren't there and The Plain White T's were out...
Tim: That Academy Is... and then The Audition's going to be on it pretty soon after this. Bands like October Fall and The Hush Sound too.
Estrella: The Academy caught on really quick.
Estrella: Does a person's social status in a scene, effect your view upon them?
Tim: Not at all. I won't judge someone until I meet them. People always spread rumors about someone or they'll warn you about something but I try to go into things with a clean slate and give the person a chance, no matter what. There's some people that if I was warned about something about someone, it'll be either dead on or way off. Like no names but I've been told plenty of times to like, "Watch out for this person on that tour, watch out for this, they're an asshole", and it just so happens that those two people really didn't get along for some reason and then I'll go meet the person and they'll be totally awesome. I think that you really need to go into things open minded and give the person a chance because what other people tell you isn't always right.
Estrella: Craziest tour story.
Tim: AJ! SUTOR! Craziest tour story?
[Danny of the Audition raises hand]
Tim: What's up? What do you got Danny?
Danny: North Kansas.
Tim: North Kansas, we were with the Audition in January and we just had a party night but it was a crazy party night like frat style party night. We made a goal to drink a certain amount of beer because we didn' have a show the next day and we hadn't really partied in a while and you know I don't think there's anything with going crazy once in a great while, you know like having a good time or whatever and we went crazy. I don't know, it was a long night. If you read this and you're curious about it then ask us when you see us. It was a crazy, crazy night. But you know there's always stories of tour, if you get along with the bands on the tour, there's always more stories than if it's just like showing up show to show and no one really talks to each other it kind of sucks.
Estrella: Three things vital to your existence on a desert island?
Tim: I would want to fill up as many Ipods as possible with whatever music I listen to, obviously. A pilot and a plane.
Estrella: That's the first time we ever got that, that's a good idea.
Estrella: Best Halloween costume you've ever worn and you can tell about one of your friends' if it was amazing.
Tim: Last year I wore this costume that was like, they're everywhere to, but I thought it was like the greatest thing in the world, it's blow up thing of Frankenstein and he's kind of bending over and you put your legs in so you're his legs but there's also false legs, so it's like he's carrying you. I wish I had pictures of it. But it's like you're on his back and your legs are Frankenstein's legs, but then it looks like you're sitting and there's two false legs like over his shoulders, so it looks like he's carrying you around everywhere, it's incredible. Then you would run around and dance and when you're wearing it, you can't really tell how funny it is, but everyone else can't stop laughing. So that's probably my favorite, they're simple, they have like the same thing with an ostrich and they have all these different designs.
Estrella: Like the old woman carrying the man on her.
Tim: Yeah, yeah exactly, they became huge because they're awesome.
Estrella: Are there any bands you would like to plug in the interview who aren't getting enough recognition.
Tim: Definitely, there's a band As Tall As Lions from New York. They're touring and they're getting their name out there but we just took them out on our headlining tour and they are an incredibly, incredible band. Incredible musicians. They have a record coming out August 8th, I believe and I got a chance to hear it and it's amazing. I don't know, Just Surrender, the bands that we just took out on our headlining tour are the bands we really love and love their dudes and just want them to excel at what they're doing. Check out As Tall As Lions especially. I think they're going to catch quickly.
Estrella: Do you have any closing statements.
Tim: I don't know. Just enjoy our music. In a pervious interview I did people asked me if I supported downloading, one of those questions. The way I look at it personally, is however you're going to get our record, get it. I don't care, have a fight for it, download it, you know steal it from the store I don't give a shit. Numbers as far as how many records we've sold, it does mean something but it doesn't mean so much to me as how many people come to a show and sing along to it because maybe you've sold 800,000 records but then people show up to shows aren't having fun and don't know what's going on or you've only sold 35 or 40,000 records and there's a room full of people that are singing and a prime example of that would be that we just did House of Blues at home at the end of our headlining tour and there was like 1100 people singing along, that's what's more important is if you have our record, learn all of lyrics, and come sing it with us. That's the greatest feeling in the entire world.
Check out their site
|