This is my interview with Matt Hires at his show on October 27th in Akron, OH. He is an awesome musician and after seeing his show, I am definitely a fan. Here are links to his videos for his radio hit “Honey, Let Me Sing You A Song”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzA_0fbeNh4 and “You in the End”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicRqEGAHHc. Check out this interview on the BRAND NEW JBRINLINGINTERVIEWS HERE: http://www.wix.com/12brinlingj/jbrinlinginterviews#!__matt-hires

 

How are you?

I’m doing good.

 

Are you enjoying the tour so far?

I am. This will be the third night of the tour. But the first two nights have been great. So it’s been fun, good shows.

 

When you are on tour, what do you do to stay busy?

Usually there’s plenty to do with like driving, loading in…

Me: Hunting down your merch bags. (Matt had accidently left the bags at the venue the night before)

(Laughs) Hunting down my merch and stuff. But I do read stuff and watch TV shows on my computer and on our days off we usually do something fun.

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

The best advice I can give is to practice as much as you can and try to be as good as you can at whatever you do, play, or sing or whatever.

 

If you could give yourself advice 5 years ago, what would you say?

I would say to make sure you don’t quit and keep at it because there have been a couple of times when I almost threw in the towel.

 

If you could co-write an album with anyone, who would it be and why?

Tom Petty would be great and why…because he’s freaking Tom Petty. (Laughs)

 

Do you have a favorite song to play live?

That’s a tough question because I like playing all of them. I like playing “Out Of The Dark” a lot because it has a whistling part that I like to do.

 

Do you have a favorite place to play?

There are a lot of fun cities. I had a lot of fun in Chicago last night. Chicago is always a fun time. San Diego and New York and there are a lot of good cities around.

 

Who’s your favorite band or artist that you’ve toured with?

A band called Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers. They’re actually playing in Cleveland tonight. Yeah they’re really good dudes and they make good music too.

 

Is there a song that you wish you performed live?

There’s this song by The Belle Brigade that I’ve been into lately called “Losers.” Actually, Rachel and I almost covered on this tour but we did…before going on this tour we put a poll up on Facebook of four different songs for people to choose from.

 

Are you glad “All These Things I’ve Done” is the winner?

Yeah, we were hoping that it was going be The Belle Brigade song but it turned out that The Killers song is fun to play too. So, I’m okay with it.

 

You also recently posted a photo with your van and its name possibilities. Have you decided on a name? Have you compromised?

We think it’s going to be “Van Gogh.” I think that’s what we landed on (Laughs).

 

Is it strange to hear “Honey, Let Me Sing You A Song” on radio and some of your other stuff on radio and TV?

Yeah, it always is. The first time I heard it on the radio was a weird thing and then the first time I heard it out somewhere, I think it’s the only time I heard it out somewhere, it was in an airport in somewhere in California in some small town like Bakersfield or something like that.

Me: Did you start freaking out and go ‘this is me!’

(Laughs) No, I didn’t. I was just by myself flying somewhere. I stayed calm and listened. But yeah a lot of those TV shows have been pretty cool too. It’s always fun to hear it on that.

 

What’s your greatest memory in music so far?

Well my best memory so far has been playing my first big nationwide tour. I was out with Eric Hutchinson and we were traveling in the same bus together, it was him and Meaghan Smith who was supporting and I was opening acoustic and we all traveled in the bus together for two and a half months. It was really great because we all got really close. Everyone was really cool. It was a fun tour to be on.

 

What are your plans for the future?

Keep on making music and after this tour I’m going into the studio to start recording album number two and hopefully put that out summer of next year.

 

This is my interview with Matt Whipple (left, bass/vocals), Matthew Miller (2nd from right, drums), and Joseph D’Agostino (right, vocals/guitar) of Cymbals Eat Guitars on October 23rd in Cleveland, OH. I love this band and it was great to meet them and see their fantastic live show. Here are links to the band’s songs “Wild Phoenix (Live)”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1JBTSz0Liw&feature=relmfu and “Cold Spring (Live)”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sge_9AUVtbI&feature=relmfu.

 

How are you guys?

Joseph D’Agostino: Very tired.

Matthew Miller: We are tired

Matt Whipple: Sorry, we’re a little bit punchy. This could be a weird interview.

 

How has this tour been so far?

JD: Pretty excellent. It’s been wonderful touring with Hooray For Earth; they are great guys and an awesome live band. It’s been one of the better tours for us in that regard, probably the best. We really get along with them and most of the shows where you’ve expected to be good have been good. Some of the shows where you expected it to be bad were also good. So, it’s been really solid.

 

When you are on tour, what do you do to stay busy?

MW: Be on tour (laughs). There’s a lot of time in the van.

MM: Video games, reading, that’s about it for me.

MW: Video games, reading, that kind of thing. Just like…

JD: I zone out. For hours.

MW: Staring at iPhones.

JD: Because I don’t have the energy to read something or watch something. So I’ll just stare at the front seat.

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

JD: I would say that it is easier than it has ever been to make a good sounding record so do that and maybe you can get some attention.

MW: Just focus on your craft, song-writing, and don’t worry about all the internet bulls**t just write as many good songs as you possibly can and then start a band and put them online and stuff. I think a lot of people…

JD: Get ahead of themselves.

MW: They get ahead of themselves. That’s exactly right.

 

If you could give yourself advice 5 years ago, what would you say?

JD: Take a vocal lesson. Seriously.

Me: I think your voice is fine.

JD: Well now it is sure…

MM: Five years ago, my advice would be to slow down. That’s what I would tell myself.

JD: Relax actually, relax, loosen up.

MM: Yeah, I guess that’s pretty right.

MW: I would tell myself to cut loose. (Laughs)

MM: I would have told myself to finish college.

JD: Yeah, I think that’s about all…finish college.

MW: Oh, I was going to say quit college. (Laughs) I would have been a senior at the time so it would’ve been pretty important.

JD: (takes a drink) I would have told myself five seconds ago not to drink this s**t.

MM: Yeah, that’s just awful.

 

If you could co-write an album with anyone, who would it be and why?

MW: We have a really, really good idea for a band with Hooray For Earth, it’s called Bug Arms. They are a high school, garage, grunge band…

MM: That just doesn’t give a f**k.

MW: That just never practices and accidentally gets huge just riding a wave of bands that sound just like them. It would be like…actually I don’t want to name any names. It would be really, really s**ty though, the entire thing (laughs) but it would be really fun.

 

Do you have a favorite place to play live?

JD: The Bottletree in Birmingham, Alabama. I really liked The Slowdown in Omaha, NE, because they have washers and dryers.

MM: Saddle showers.

MW: Saddle Creek owns this venue and drink tickets for bands get top shelf liquor and you can do laundry for free and…yeah, it’s awesome. (Laughs)

JD: The Black Cat in Washington D.C.

MW: And Beloit College in Beloit, Michigan, I think.

JD: Yes, best college show we’ve ever played.

MW: Sweetest college show we’ve ever done. Those kids go ape s**t when bands come to campus.

 

Do you have a favorite song to play live?

JD: We like playing the new songs because we aren’t tired of them. I would probably say for me, “Rifle Eyesight” is the most fun to play at this point.

MW: Same here.

 

Who is your favorite band that you’ve toured with?

JD: It’s between Bear In Heaven or Hooray For Earth.

MW: Yeah, both are really amazing bands.

JD: Yeah.

 

Is there a song of somebody else’s that you wish you played live?

MW: We’ve been meaning to work out a version of “There She Goes” by The La’s. As covered by…I mean…

JD: Made famous by Sixpence None The Richer.

MW: But the original song is bada**. So, yeah.

JD: We could do a good cover of that.

 

You have been featured in Pitchfork’s “Best New Music,” as one of Beyond Race Magazine’s “Emerging Artists,” and this tour has been featured in Spin Magazine’s “Best Fall Tours.” Is it strange to see all of this hype surrounding you guys?

JD: Yeah, it’s kind of surreal but I’ve been trying to Google myself less.

MW: We had a lot of press buzz around the last record. This time around is a little bit strange because it doesn’t really equate to being a huge band like a lot of people would think it would. We played a show with some guys that were friends with the band Das Racist, dudes from Brooklyn. They’re on the cover of Spin this month and they’re not selling out shows. It’s kind of strange that there is now this weird disconnect between getting great press and…

JD: People liking you.

MW: People liking your band, yeah. (Laughs)

 

Are you pleased with the reaction that the new album?

JD: Critically, certainly, and certainly the people that come out to shows all seem to be embracing our new material and the direction we are headed in, which is great. So, yeah, we are building it.

MW: No complaints. It’s been pretty wonderful.

 

What was different in the studio working on this new album?

JD: Well, we were working with a big name producer and we were an actual band. When we made the first record, I wrote pretty much all of the parts and it was kind of like my project and now it’s a lot bigger than me. Guys have a big say in how the songs are shaped and how they turn out and we cut a lot of the stuff live too. So, minimal overdubs and more of a live band feel is what we sound like live.

What’s your greatest memory with the band so far?

MW: Opening for The Flaming Lips was pretty amazing.

JD: That was mine, too.

MW: That was kind of the high point…

JD: Standing in the audience at The Troxy Theater in London with my parents as the confetti cannons shot off at the beginning of “Race for the Prize” with tears in my eyes.

MW: “Do You Realize?” That night brought me to tears.

 

What are your plans for the future?

JD: We’re going to make another album. We are going to start working on the songs as soon as we get home from this tour and then hopefully continue to tour as much as we can.

MW: Some more touring, some more day job working when not touring. Try to have regular lives.

JD: Regular fulfilling lives.

MW: Lives, relationships, and friends who don’t tour in bands. Not that people who do tour in bands are lesser.

JD: Well…

MW: Well, yeah.

JD: A little less.

Christopher Principe (of Hooray For Earth, fellow tour mates): Why are you looking at me like that?

This is my interview with Dennis Wilson (left), drummer, and Matt Black (middle), bass, of Every Avenue from Warped Tour 2011 in Cuyahoga Falls, OH on July 20th. They are an incredibly nice and funny group of guys and it was awesome to talk with them. Here are links to the band’s videos for “Tell Me I’m a Wreck”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD-2VsWaJo0 and their latest video “Mindset”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfNWgtKeVfU.

First off, how are you? 

Matt Black: Doing good.

Dennis Wilson: Doing pretty good.

MB: It’s nice and cool now. This is a relief.

 

Could you first introduce yourselves and say your role in the band?

MB: My name is Matt and I play bass.

DW: And I’m Dennis and I play drums. So we are the worthless rhythm section. (Laughs)

MB: (Laughs) We are the ones that no one wants to talk to but rthat also probably makes us the smartest in the band.

DW: The suave-est. The handsome-est.

MB: The most GQ.

 

How’s Warped been going so far?

MB: It’s been going well. I’ve been having a blast.

DW: Yeah, it’s more fun than expected.

Who you hoping to see play?

DW: Lucero, The Wonder Years.

MB: We got lucky, a lot of really good bands are on the same stage as us, so we don’t really have to worry about playing at the same time as them. The Wonder Years, Lucero, Moving Mountains. 

DW: Lionize.

MB: Lionize, Simple Plan. There have been a lot of really good bands. The Dangerous Summer

 

Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

DW: Play as many shows as you can. Don’t turn down any shows ever or any opportunity.

MB: And stick with it. A lot of young musicians get rejected a couple of times and then just give it up. Rejection is something that you will have to deal with every day in this industry.

DW: That’s my life. (Laughs)

MB: (Laughs) Just stick through it.

 

If you could give yourself advice 5 years ago, what would you say?

DW: Go to college.

MB: Stay away from that girl. (Laughs)

DW: I don’t know. I’m doing exactly what I wanted to do 5 years ago.

MB: Yeah, same here.

DW: Don’t be a s**thead. (Laughs)

 

If you could co-write an album with anyone, who would it be and why?

MB: For myself personally, it’d have to be Jim Adkins from Jimmy Eat World. To sit down and actually see his writing process and to be able to work with him would be amazing.

DW: I’d say The Hold Steady. They’re my favorite band and I’d love to just be a part of that whole thing. I could die a happy man.

 

Who is your favorite band that you’ve toured with?

MB: NOFX.

DW: I’d probably say NOFX too actually.

MB: On Warped ’09, we got to join them and I met them maybe once but that counts as touring with them.

DW: I watched them every day.

 

Is there a song of somebody else’s that you do not perform live and wish you did?

DW: If it was more along the lines of our band it would have to be either Saves The Day or The Get Up Kids.

MB: If I had to pick a song for us to do that was reasonable, I’d say “Holly Hox, Forget Me Nots” by Saves The Day.

DW: I’d agree with that. We’ll probably end up covering that sooner than later.

MB: At some point probably.

 

What’s your greatest memory as a band so far?

DW: We don’t remember too much. (Laughs)

MB: (Laughs) Back when I had a memory.

DW: Probably over seas and Australia as a whole. We don’t really have one night because we were always getting lost or not with each other at night.

MB: I feel like a lot of bands would say the night we got signed but I’ve never been in a band the night it got signed (Laughs). One of those pivotal band moments.

DW: I didn’t even sign on this last record. (Laughs)

MB: (Laughs) Yeah, neither of us did.

DW: (Laughs) We’re punk as f**k.

 

What are your plans for the future?

DW: Tour, tour, tour, tour, tour, tour. We just spent a really long time doing a record and we’re just ready to hit the road forever. We have the U.K. after this and then we go out in the fall. After that we’ll probably do a headline run or a Christmas run.

MB: Or maybe for all the religions, not just Christmas. (Laughs) Sorry, not just Christian.

DW: We just going to try to do lots of stuff and have fun as always while still keeping busy.

MB: we’re going to try to stay busy, busy, busy. We pretty much had about half of a year off the road so now we are all just ready and full speed ahead.