Last week, I sat down with Derek from Mayday Parade just a few moments before they were to take the stage in support of Emery.

 

I asked him a bunch of questions, from how the band got their start to his favorite tunes to play on tour. He even answered questions about how the band comes up with the songs we all love, and what emo means to him!

 

He couldn't be a nicer guy. I've put the video up on YouTube, and you can check it out right here:

 

 

 

I had the chance to speak with Obi, the singer of Westbound Train, as the bad was wrapping up their US tour. Lots of touring talk, plus some news on their next album, as well as the details of how they're the first band signed for Warped Tour 2009 came about abounded. Check it out....

 

pixie: So, let’s start off with the tour – how is it going, even though it’s about over?

Obi: It’s been really great. The bands are amazing, Beacon Light and Bedouin Soundclash have been amazing and we’re having a really good time out here because it’s basically everybody taking one kind of music with different interpretations.

 

pixie: Do you have any great stories.. anything ridiculous?

 

Obi: There’s been a few of those. I’ll just say that Seattle was a pretty crazy night and I’ll just leave it at that.

 

pixie: No details?

 

Obi: Seattle turns into something like a Spring Break session somehow. I don’t know how…

 

pixie: Girls gone wild?

 

Obi: Sort of!

 

pixie: See, nobody ever admits to that! None of the bands ever say, “oh yeah, we’re getting crazy!”

 

Obi: Well, it’s not like that! We’re just having fun, you know?

 

pixie: So how do you guys travel on this tour?

 

Obi: We’re in a 15-passenger van with a trailer. It’s very comfortable. We have a loft in the back and we have captain’s chairs, so everybody kind of gets their own space. We don’t have to share benches or worry about people falling asleep on your shoulder in the middle of the night, drooling on you….

 

pixie: That limits conflict on some level, I’m sure. I’ve heard stories of people fist-fighting for benches on vans and such.

 

Obi: Yeah, yeah, definitely. When we first started touring, we traveled like that but once we went to the captain’s chairs, we’ll never go back. They’re amazing.

 

pixie: That’s classy. I like that….

 

Obi: No bus for us. We only get buses in Europe.

 

pixie: The scene for ska, reggae, and the like is bigger in Europe, isn’t it?

 

Obi: Over in Europe, a lot of people seem to be in touch with the older ska and reggae and there definitely seems to be a bigger scene for it out there than there is in the States right now.

 

pixie: Why do you think that is?

 

Obi: I think they don’t take music, in general, for granted over there. In the States, there are shows all the time, like tonight, there’s probably over 10,000 bands playing across the US. Over there, they seem to be more open to a lot of music -- not just ska and reggae, mind you, but the ska and reggae fans are super-loyal and that’s what they dig and stick to. As far as the bands they’re really into, they’re so loyal.

 

pixie: I think there are a lot of strong roots for that type of music over there, as well…

 

Obi: For sure. You have a lot of Jamaican artists and then the migrate over to the mainland and there is a lot more going on over there when it comes to that kind of stuff.

 

pixie: Of course. It’s such a different culture… Do you prefer being over there or back here?

 

Obi: I love being here… when I go over there, it makes me appreciate America that much more. It’s great being over there, it’s really incredible, but at the same time, I love being here and I love this country and doing shows here. You can’t find places like New York City in Europe. There are a lot of great places in Europe… but places like New York City and Boston? Home will always be home.

 

pixie: You’re actually from Boston, right?

 

Obi: Well, the band is from Boston and I lived there for six years. We’re a little spread out and scattered over New England these days, but the band originated in Boston.

 

pixie: Boston is the pride city.. people have so much pride in Boston.

 

Obi: This is very true. It’s a great place and a great town. It’s beautiful, with a lot going on and a lot of diversity – a bit of something for everyone.

 

pixie: So… your MySpace says you’re going to do Warped 2009… but not 2008. How did that come about? Was that your choice or their choice?

 

Obi: [laughs] Well, actually what happened was Kevin Lyman was at our show in Hollywood and he said, “you know, the tour just filled up really fast in 2008, and I wish I could give you some shows, but you have the tour in 2009 if you want.” He just really dug what we did that night, and just really loved the show and gave us the tour in 2009. It’s kind of cool to play a show and the next day, have Kevin Lyman write about it the next day and announce you as the first band of 2009…

 

pixie: Seeing as they’re not done announcing 2008 yet, I’d say so…

 

Obi: Exactly. Kevin Lyman is on top of his game. That guy is pretty incredible.

 

pixie: I’ve never heard anything bad about him. You hear a lot of horror stories about certain people in the business, but he really has a good name for himself.

 

Obi: He’s just a sweetheart. He loves music, and he loves helping people out. I feel like he’s always done it in the right way all along.

 

pixie: The tour really does help launch a lot of bands… when you look at the history of it, there have been a lot of success stories. So congratulations on 2009. So after the current tour, what’s next?

 

Obi: We have to make a new record for Hellcat, so we started demoing some songs when we were in California. We’re going to try to lock ourselves up, take our time, and make a new record. We have to go back to Europe in November, and some talks about tours with different bands, but the most important focus will be the new record.

 

pixie: Something for people to look forward to, then. Do you have any songs fully written yet?

 

Obi: We do. You might be able to hear some stuff… the Hellcat Web site is going to have some clips on it that might have snippets of new stuff in it.

 

pixie: And how is it working with Hellcat?

 

Obi: Great. They’re all so sweet and they’ve been really great to us. For any label to kind of take a band like us and put out their records is pretty awesome because we’re definitely not pop stars or playing pop music, according to American standards, anyway.

 

pixie: But would you really want to be doing that?

 

Obi: No, I really wouldn’t want to be *NSYNC or Hannah Montana…

 

pixie: You’d look a little funny in the wig, anyway…

 

Obi: Yeah, not my look. I like being part of a sub-culture… you know?

 

pixie: So where do you feel like you fit into the punk scene? Do you think of yourselves as a part of that sub-culture, even?

 

Obi: I think sometimes we do. We’ve played shows with punk bands like Street Dogs and those guys appreciate a lot of where the music came from with reggae… bands like The Clash… so we kind of sort of fit in. For us, we’re heading down the more old school R&B direction, so I’m not sure how the punk kids are going to take to that, but it seems like the kids always appreciate the reggae and what we do, but sometimes I could see it also being a conflict. It doesn’t happen very often, though.

 

pixie: I guess it depends on how you define “punk.” Some people are very “it’s this and this and this,” and others say it’s just being true to yourself and what you believe and want to play….

 

Obi: Yeah, exactly. In general, people just want to dance and have a good time and if we can give people good dance music and that opportunity, then we’re doing something right.

 

pixie: It makes for a good show.

 

Obi: For sure.

 

pixie: So, if somebody handed you $1,000,000 and said “make any merchandise for your band,” what would you make?

 

Obi: Oh man… does it have to be all merchandise? Can I take some of the money and buy a plane?

 

pixie: Sure, you could buy a plane if you wanted… you could make a Westbound Train plane… though that would be a little odd, now that I’ve said it out loud.

 

Obi: Yeah… I don’t know. You know what? I would start a new movement. It would be the Sammy K movement. Sammy K is our merch guy and it’s really funny because every night he gets all these girls to talk to him and the next day they’re stalking him on MySpace but he’s not sleazy about it. He’s just a good talker, you know? So I would start a campaign for him and Westbound Train would be behind him. We’d have t-shirts and buses with his face on them and try to get him to become Presdent because he has some good ideas.

 

pixie: Nice. If he’s already charismatic enough to get stalked, why not?

 

Obi: Well, he’s a little shy, but I think the Sammy K campaign would help him out a lot.

 

pixie: That’s a very generous use of the million dollars, helping someone else out.

 

Obi: I’m a generous kind of guy. I could also take the money and try to spread the wealth in general, you know, after taking at least some for ourselves, anyway…

 

pixie: So do you have anything to say to the people reading the interview?

 

Obi: Thank you so much for the support, especially the past couple of years. Our fans who come out to see us are awesome, and it’s great to come out to new places and there are people there who care about what we’re doing. If you’re just discovering the band? Just keep checking us out and I hope the next record will be able to do something for you!

 

You can check out Westbound Train on their MySpace and at Hellcat Records.

 

I had the opportunity to talk with the singer of the hardcore/metal band Vanna, Chris, about touring and the band's rather unique Webisodes. I got to hear some insane tour stories from a band known for having insane tours [maybe they shouldn't have named their album Curses?], the real dirt on their van, and also got a big scoop: they'll be recording a new album in the next few months. Get to know Chris, and Vanna, a bit better.

 

pixie: So, how's the tour going?

 

Chris: This tour has been pretty good so far. It's been probably the most interesting tour we've done so far, considering the weather and the time of the year and the areas we've been traveling through.

 

pixie: It's not worse than the Spring tour, is it?

 

Chris: Uhhh... yeah. It's probably the worst tour we've done, condition-wise. We were in some areas we don't usually end up in, and we did the full Midwest going through Kentucky, Kansas, and once we got to Kansas, it started getting cold and we started to hit snow, and then we hit Denver and it all went to hell from there. Literally, downhill. We got into the mountains up there, and it started snowing pretty much non-stop. We were supposed to play Salt Lake City and we got midway there and then they started shutting down highways, so we had to stop. And on top of that, all the electronics in our van went out, so we didn't have headlights. So we're stuck in Wyoming, no heat, no headlights, highways shut down.... We had to backtrack to Denver, and from there, we hit every type of storm that exists. Snowstorms, sandstorms, ice, hail, rain, wind... it was insane. But we finally made it to California and now we're all set.

 

pixie: I didn't even know there were sandstorms in the United States....

Chris: Neither did we, but... I woke up at 6am and it was my turn to drive. We started going through Central California and it was super-windy, and it was hard to even stay on the highway. Next thing I know, it's louder than rain and hail and you can't see anything - everything is just brown, and we're being hit with sand. So we're driving about 20 miles an hour. I wasn't scared, I mean, what can you do? You have to just keep driving. We were trying to make the show, so we couldn't stop or we'd have to cancel. It was probably the craziest thing to happen on tour so far.

  Read the whole interview here >>

I got to sit down with Schoolyard Heroes before they played at Toad’s Place in New Haven, CT. The band, who recently released their third album, Abominations, has been playing almost non-stop since, as well as dealing with some complete nutbars who have accused them of leading a “satanic cult,” and “trying to kill your children.”

As such, we discussed exactly how they feed off the members of their cult, kung-fu fighting, the abnormal traits of the band, as well as some stuff that actually has to do with their music, believe it or not.

Follow this link to read the full interview with the band, plus watch some videos of their performance later that night. >>Read the interview.

As part of my coverage of the Victory Tour, I had a chance to talk with Josh, the bassist of A Day To Remember. The band was heading to Baltimore, MD, to kick off the tour, and he had a lot to say about touring, how dedicated the band is to their fans, and naturally, Kelly Clarkson.

As the Long Island, New York band was getting ready to set out on the huge Victory Records tour, I was able to sit down and talk with the band's lead singer Doug. Want to know what it's like to party with The Sleeping? [Note: you better have a strong stomach for Jager] and what the band does in their free time? Then I suggest you read more.

As the band was en route to the first show of the Victory Tour, I got to talk with Driver Side Impact's bassist, Teddy, about the trials and tribulations of the road, hygiene, and the ridiculous amount of theft the band has contended with this year, as well as carrying on after their keyboardist quit.



The band is currently on tour with Bayside, A Day To Remember, The Sleeping, and June.

When I Am Ghost stopped at NYC, I had the opportunity to corner both Tim and Ron, the guitarist and bassist/singer of the band in, of all places, a bathroom. Not only were they wildly personable and funny, they also officially hold the title of “only band I have ever interviewed in a bathroom.” We mostly talked about touring and what it’s like being in the new and improved, entirely not Christian I Am Ghost. And blood. Because that’s the kind of guys they are.

I’m happy to live in a world where there is an Eisley.

Eisley is a family band- sort of like the Partridge family, but without the psychedelic tour bus, sequins, or David Cassidy’s mullet. The DuPree family, fronted by an adorable trio of sisters, has blasted through the noise of the modern rock scene to establish themselves as a major label force to be reckoned with.

I caught the Eisley performance at Irving Plaza last Thursday during CMJ, and was lucky enough to sit down with the band before the show. Here's what they had to say...

Philadelphia natives The Starting Line released their third album, Direction, on July 31st, and the band has found its mainstream popularity growing thanks to the single "Island." Later this month, TSL will head out on a North American tour with Paramore and The Almost.



Guitarist Matt Watts talked with us last week about the album, the tour, his hometown and the time the band's sound guy threw up on a girl.

I interviewed Aiden's wiL Francis and Angel Ibarra outside the Highline Ballroom in NYC before their first-ever headlining show in NYC. It was pretty hectic, with what felt like everyone on earth wanting their few minutes with the boys, but they kindly answered a bunch of questions, showed off their tattoos, and even talked movies and books...

...before heading off to kick enough ass to make Chuck Norris hide in fear when they took the stage a few hours later.

Between the Buried and Me's highly-anticipated new album, Colors hits stores on September 18th. I had the chance to catch up with bassist Dan Briggs as the band prepares for the official release and their upcoming tour -- as well as talk about their unique approach to promoting the album with song-a-day visual interpretations.