Let’s take a walk down the Shoreline with Kingsland Road’s Connor – Part Two

Last week saw Part One of our Interview with Connor from Kingsland Road! (If you haven’t read it check it out >>> here)

Part Two has even more laughs, what the boys would be doing if they weren’t in a band, Cats and the best of YOUR fan questions.

Kingsland Road AlbumOnce again, check it out and let us know what you think.


 – Brumotions: You will soon be heading on a US Tour what are you most looking forward to out there?

Connor: Just going to America, I’m excited to get on a plane, leave and get to the US. Like there’s big burgers there which is cool, going to a couple of theme parks which is going to be awesome oh and I’m hoping I’ll get to go and watch an American football match… but I doubt I will.

 – Brumotions: We will be really jealous if you do.

Connor: I know I want to go and watch, but I highly doubt that will happen. We are just really excited to get to a different country. We’ve done gigs in different countries before but not in America, we’ve had some American fans from right at the start so they have been waiting for a couple of years for us to go out there, so it will be really nice for us to see them and see how they feel about our music and see if we can gain some new fans whilst we are out there.

 – Brumotions: Have you ever had any interesting fan experiences?

Connor: Uhm yes, let me try and think… we’ve had bra’s and different things thrown on stage, things I can’t say. We get given some decent presents too and some funny ones, someone got me a mirror with Leonardo DiCaprio’s face on it and someone got Josh a ken doll but with his face on it and people have waited in our flat to give us pictures and stuff, yeah they have managed to get their way into our flat and things like that.

 – Brumotions: We aren’t quite sure if that’s cute or a little scary.

Connor: It was a little scary actually. It’s really hard to remember things that have happened, funny things always happen to us but we forget when we need to tell them.

 – Brumotions: If you weren’t in Kingsland Road what would you be doing?

Connor: I always wanted to be in the Marines when I was a kid, so that’s probably what I’d be doing right now, I think Matt…Well Matt was a builder so he’d probably still be laying bricks and stuff. Josh, this is actually what josh would want to be doing, he’d probably be like, I dunno, a lifeguard, let’s just say a lifeguard and Thompson would work in a kennels…cause he likes dogs.

 – Brumotions: Is that just a guess or have they actually told you this?

Connor: Nahhh that’s what they’ve told me.

 – Brumotions: Alright then, we believe you.

Connor: Yeah you’ve got to believe me.

 – Brumotions: Are there any advice or motto’s that you live by?

Connor: I’ve got cool sayings which I’ve heard people say that I like, but nothing that I kind of live by there’s things that as a band we tell people if they ask us – just not to give up and things like that and if someone tells you that you can’t do it, prove them wrong kind of thing, that’s probably the nicest thing being told you can’t do something and proving them wrong and being successful kind of knowing yourself and having the faith in yourself to do it and you do and that’s really nice a good feeling… Josh is the man for this, josh has like this app on his phone and everyday he reads us out like this little quote, it’s like quote of the day, he’s very sad like that and likes that kind of thing. It’s like horoscopes but it’s like a saying from like a president in the 60’s or something.

Fan Questions:

 – Brumotions: So we have a couple of questions from your Klanders.

Connor: Go on then, hit me.

 – Brumotions: @Elliee_Rixton wants to know who you would love to do a collaboration with?

Connor: I’m really obsessed with a couple of bands at the minute, Royal Blood and Catfish and the Bottlemen they would be sick to collaborate with, Adam Levine would be quite cool… Thompson would say Bruno Mars cause he’s obsessed with him …I think collaborating with Eminem would be cool as well, like a rapper or Tinie Tempah that would be cool.

 – Brumotions: @MollieFinch1234 wants to know if you could date any one of the lads in Kingsland, who would it be and why … you can pick yourself we won’t judge.

Connor: Uhmmmm me, I dunno yeah, probably me, that’s a bit biased though isn’t it.

 – Brumotions: Why would you date yourself?

Connor: The other lads annoy me sometimes and I don’t annoy myself, so I feel like that’s my best bet really, I’d never argue with myself, but I would argue with the other boys. So I’m going to say I’d date myself.

 – Brumotions: Would you not find it boring being exactly the same?

Connor: But I suppose that’s what’s good, you have to be similar to be compatible with someone, we’d be the perfect couple we’d get married.

 – Brumotions: @JoshZareIsMyMan asked if you could be any other celebrity for the day who would you be and why?

Connor: Someone interesting who’d have a really interesting day, I’d want to be somebody like Cristiano Ronaldo because that would be cool to see how good he is at football, like actually how good he is.

 – Brumotions: We wonder whether that would change his talent if it was you that was playing football.

Connor: Nah I’d be better … no I wouldn’t really, that’s why I’d want to be him to see how amazing he actually is … and he’s very very very rich so that would be cool to see his house and stuff.

 – Brumotions: @BethRitchiexxx wants to know what are you looking forward to most on tour.

Connor: Singing our new songs that’s going to be amazing and our London tour date for reasons I can’t say that will be really cool and to see all of our fans.

 – Brumotions: @mattcahilltho_ wants to know if you were a superhero, what power would you have and what would your name be?

Connor: I’d be amazing at cleaning up and I’d be called Consuela, which is a little family guy joke if you get it… I’d usually say something like healing the wounded but then the lads would laugh at me for being really cringy so I’ve had to change my answer recently.

 – Brumotions: And the last question from the Brumoters is, if you could be any animal what would you be and why.

Connor: Uhm a penguin cause they are really cool and they can swim in the ice water without getting cold and they are really cute as well, either that or a dog, I wouldn’t want to be a cat cause they are mean, I don’t like cats.

 – Brumotions: But you could just change the way of cats… you could be a nice cat.

Connor: I don’t think they exist.

 – Brumotions: You could be the first one…

Connor: I could be… no, cats are different you can’t breed like a nice cat, i’d have to breed with another nice cat and me being the only nice cat wouldn’t create a nice cat if you know what I mean.

 – Brumotions: It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into that actually.

Connor: I have, its true though isn’t it, if I was the first nice cat, I couldn’t then breed with a horrible cat because it would be like, it wouldn’t be horrible or it wouldn’t be nice, it would be an average.

 – Brumotions: Yeah make an average cat.

Connor: Yeah an average cat, who’d want an average cat that would be boring.

 – Brumotions: Before we finish, if you have any last words for the fans that would be awesome.

Connor: Come and watch our tour, buy our album, let’s get in the charts cause I said that if we do I’ll run down my street naked… there we go last words.



So there you have it!

You guys heard Connor – If ‘We Are The Young’ charts he’ll run down his street NAKED! (You can purchase the album from online retailers including: Google Play, ITunes and Amazon, as well as your local HMV store)

Let’s take a walk down the Shoreline with Kingsland Road’s Connor – Part One

… Or maybe not, a trip to the Gym will do!

 Earlier this month we got the chance to chat with the lovely Connor from Kingsland Road to get to know the band a little better and see what they have planned for the future.

Kingsland Road Album

This interview has plenty of laughs, Tour Gossip, The Queen and King Con… you heard us right! Check it out and let us know what you think.


 – Brumotions: Hello

Connor: I’m in the gym at the minute so I’m just going to go find somewhere quiet…two seconds… alright I’m somewhere, I’m cool.

 – Brumotions: So for those who don’t know you guys, what makes Kingsland Road, Kingsland Road?

Connor: I don’t think there’s anything that defines us. I don’t know how to answer that one… we’re always late, not for important things obviously, we are weirdo’s, which is one of the main ones and everybody has beards … apart for me…. I don’t think there are any other boybands with beards.

 – Brumotions: …Actually no they don’t do they.

Connor: I think they like having beards because it makes them feel like they’re in a man band rather than a boyband… I’m comfortable not having a beard.

– Brumotions: If you could describe your sound in three words what would they be?

Connor: Weird, Funky, Pop… I don’t know.

 – Brumotions: So your debut album is coming out March 15th, how does it feel?

Connor: It’s really weird, the official statement that I said myself was that if someone had said to us two years ago, when we were first starting that we would have an album we’d slap em in the face and laugh at them.

I don’t think that we ever realised that it would happen and now that it has and its full of our own songs that we have written ourselves and spent a lot of time on, it feels a lot better so it’s cool.

 – Brumotions: So at the moment is it still very surreal?

Connor: Yeah, still very, very surreal because obviously we started out just to gig and write music and we didn’t realise eventually we’d have all of the songs we’ve written on an album, on iTunes. Everything that’s happened in the past couple of years has been unbelievable really and we have kinda surpassed our own expectations and it keeps happening which is amazing, we couldn’t be happier at the minute.

 – Brumotions: What can we expect from the album and which track is your personal favourite?

Connor: We are proud of all of the tracks as we wrote them all which I think is quite rare nowadays that every album that is released is written purely yourself which is the case of ours, every song we wrote, drawing from different things and stuff that happened to us. All the lads would have a different favourite, mines probably ‘Freedom’, it’s one of the first songs we wrote when we came from The X Factor and I just like it, I feel a connection with it.

I think every track is different that’s the thing, we listened through the other day together  and every track is just really different, we didn’t plan just to go into the studio and write different sounding tracks, it kinda just happened and its really cool and organic, normally albums have 1 sound throughout and ours kind of has different sounds which is cool .

 – Brumotions: We are really looking forward to it.

Connor: I’m glad.

 – Brumotions: So you’ve also got a tour coming up soon can you give us any spoilers?

Connor: No spoilers, I know there’s one very exciting thing happening in London, which we are working on at the minute, I can’t give too much away but we’ve been practising and its awesome … it’s just going to be a really cool tour. It’s the tour before we head to America so we want to give the UK a massive musical hug and kiss before we head off out there for a bit and then obviously come back but it’s going to be amazing. We are very excited to tour and we love touring, that’s where we like being the most, on stage, so we are excited to see all of our fans from around the UK.

 – Brumotions: What are your favourite tracks to play live?

Connor: Some of them we haven’t played live yet off the album but my favourite to play live … I don’t know I just love performing live all the time. I know the rest of the lads love performing ‘Shoreline’, I know like Josh and Thomps they like ‘Shoreline’ live I like ‘Walk Away’ which is one of my favourites, I just love how rocky it is and ‘He’s Got It Coming’ which is on the album, which we performed on our last tour but we have revamped it a bit there’s a new tune to it and there might be a little rap to it … who knows… there’s a little exclusive for you guys don’t tell anybody.

 – Brumotions: Can you give us some gossip on what it’s like to tour with you guys are you all work and no party?

Connor: Its smelly… well not THAT smelly, its tiring and you know what, we are party animals sometimes but when they’re tired we do NOT party. I think the last tour we didn’t really go out, it was the same time as our EP and our single launch so we were shooting from Glasgow to London to do Lorraine and it was a bit mental so we didn’t actually have time to go out and party, we had a party on our last night, which was when we released our EP and we were in the club at like one o’clock at night and it went live and we were at number two in the charts on iTunes so we were buzzing and we got absolutely smashed, it was amazing. Yeah we do like to party but at the same time we are serious about music and performing so we don’t like to get so messed up that we can’t sing and perform as that’s the main thing we like doing.

 – Brumotions: So is partying crossed off your list for this tour too then?

Connor: Yeah, I think it is actually, especially in America as well, it is very cramped as well, the last tour we had we were in a car as our tour van broke down, so we were in a 5 seater car and we were so rammed, it was horrible.

 – Brumotions: Speaking of tour and live shows have you ever asked for anything ridiculous on a tour rider?

Connor: NO, aha we’re alright actually with our riders we only ask for like beer and sandwiches oh and towels and that’s it cause we get really sweaty. The other lads like to have a beer before they go on and I just get hungry so I like sandwiches before I go on that’s it, that’s all we ask for.

 – Brumotions: You should start asking for outrageous stuff.

Connor: We’ve been to gigs before where all the riders have been laid out on a table for the artists and we had the smallest by far, we’ve never got used to that so we’ve never took the mick out of it, it’s just the simple things that we need.

 – Brumotions: This is a question we ask everyone we interview, if you were to take the queen on a date where would you take her and why?

Connor: I reckon I’d take her to Buckingham Palace because I don’t think she’s ever been there; I don’t think she lives there does she?

 – Brumotions: I think she lives there sometimes…

Connor: It would be cool to take her somewhere like Buckingham palace where she SUPPOSEDLY lives but…. Surely she doesn’t live there, with everybody watching her all the time. I’d take her on a tour of London as I think she’d appreciate that, as I’m sure she never gets to see the proper dingy parts, I’d take her to Soho.

 – Brumotions: What about the London Eye?

Connor: Yeah exactly, and take her on the tube and stuff as I think she’s been deprived of that, then we’d go to McDonalds and have like a Big Mac as I bet she’s never had one.

 – Brumotions: Would you pay?

Connor: Yeah, I suppose, and then we’d head to the cinema or something, but we wouldn’t go in the deluxe seats, we’d go in the proper rubbish seats and give her the experience of living like us… she’d love that, it’s like a Romcom where a rich girl goes out with a poor kid and he romances her with all the poor things he could do, I think I’d win her over and I’d be the future king if that happened.

 – Brumotions: King Con, it’s got a bit of a ring to it hasn’t it.

 – Connor: Exactly, King Con.


#Klanders, keep your eyes open for PART TWO which will be posted later this week!

It has even more laughs , Josh as a lifeguard, Cats and YOUR fan questions!

Kingsland Road’s debut album ‘We Are The Young’ is out NOW and can be purchased online on ITunes OR at your local HMV.

The band are also currently on tour  – Tickets can be purchased at:  http://www.livenation.co.uk/artist/kingsland-road-tickets

What’s On… March 2015!

8th March:
Fozzy + The Dirty Youth – Wolverhampton: Slade Rooms.

9th March:
Clean Bandit – Birmingham: O2 Academy – SOLD OUT!

10th March:
Idlewild – Birmingham: Institute.

11th March:
Royal Blood – Wolverhampton: Civic Hall – SOLD OUT!

12th March:
Room94 – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

14th March:
Kodaline – Birmingham: Institute.
X Factor Live Tour – Birmingham: Genting Arena.

16th March:
Andy Jordan – Birmingham: Institute.

17th March:
Papa Roach – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

18th March:
Placebo – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

19th March:
Kingsland Road – Birmingham: Institute.
Paloma Faith – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

20th March:
Nathan Grisdale – Birmingham: Institute.

22nd March:
Sam Smith – Wolverhampton: Civic Hall – SOLD OUT!

23rd March:
Kiesza – Birmingham: Institute.
Sam Smith – Wolverhampton: Civic Hall – SOLD OUT!

24th March:
Usher – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

25th March:
Train – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

26th March:
Fuse ODG – Birmingham: Institute – SOLD OUT!
Blue – Wolverhampton: Civic Hall.

27th March:
MiC Lowry – Birmingham: Institute.

28th March:
McBusted – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

29th March:
McBusted – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

BREAKING NEWS: All Time Low AND You Me At Six – Co-Headline Tour

English rock favourites You Me At Six are teaming up with American pop punk mega stars All Time Low for a co-headlining UK arena tour later this year.

ymas_tour

The two rock giants will play 5 UK venues in February, starting in Cardiff on the 9th and ending at London’s O2 Arena on the 14th, with the Birmingham show slotted in between on the 10th, at the newly named Genting Arena.

 Meaning it’s exactly one month away!

This tour is highly anticipated as one of the most exciting tours of 2015 and tickets are on sale NOW, from most reputable ticket sellers!

Full tour dates can be found below:

9th February: Arena, Cardiff

10th February: LG Arena, Birmingham

12th February: Hydro, Glasgow

13th February: Phones 4 U Arena, Manchester

14th February: O2 Arena, London

What’s On… January 2015!

15th January:
Aaron Carter – Birmingham: Institute.

16th January:
Funeral For A Friend – Birmingham: Institute.
Alex Goot – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

20th January:
Gerard Way – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

23rd January:
Hozier – Birmingham: Institute – RESCHEDULED!
Queen & Adam Lambert – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

27th January:
Charlie Simpson – Wolverhampton: Slade Rooms.
Jessie J – Birmingham: O2 Academy – SOLD OUT!

30th January:
Wiley – Birmingham: Institute – RESCHEDULED!

What’s On… December 2014!

2nd December:
Michael Buble – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

3rd December:
Basement Jaxx – Birmingham: Institute.
Michael Buble – Birmingham: Barclaycard Arena.

4th December:
Ben Howard – Wolverhampton: Civic.
Boyz II Men – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

6th December:
Turbowolf – Birmingham: Institute.
Professor Green – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

10th December:
Bombay Bicycle Club – Wolverhampton: Civic.

11th December:
Taking Back Sunday – Birmingham: Institute.

17th December:
Hozier – Birmingham: Institute.
Heffron Drive – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

18th December:
Wiley – Birmingham: Institute.

We’d cross Bridges for EofE!

On November 15th, EofE returned to Birmingham for their very own headline tour, much to the delight of their dedicated fans, most of which waited over 8 hours to see the lads perform.

The Black Country based band came to perform a sold-out show in Birmingham as part of their Unleashed Tour, which comes after the lads supported McBusted and The Vamps only month before.

eofe

The group, consisting of Luke, Nicky, Tom, Reece and last, but certainly not least Dan (Left to Right), entertained the highly dedicated group of fans in the sold-out, packed venue with a range of original and cover tracks, including ‘If Only Your Boyfriend Knew’ and Adele’s ‘Rolling in the Deep’.

However, before the young pop rocks graced the stage with their incredible performance and addicting stage presence, Of Kings and Captains, The Fuse and McFly’s Danny Jones’ sister VIX, all of which wowed the ecstatic crowd with their support sets.

The venue became completely deafening when the lads finally emerged on stage, kicking off with their debut single Lust, which reached number eight in the UK rock singles chart.

The lads energetic set featured a number of incredible tracks, all of which seemed to be fan favourites, judging by the crowds reactions as they erupted into cheers at the beginning of each track and proceeded to scream the lyrics back to the boys throughout.

SAM_0057

The incredibly talented band made sure that the crowd were thoroughly entertained with a short rendition of Fall Out Boy’s ‘Sugar, we’re goin’ down’ straight after their lively performance of their own track ‘Kiss me like you mean it’ and a number of other tracks!

EofE rounded off their amazing performance with their newest release ‘Bridges’, which is available to download for free on the bands website – So make sure you check that out and download it while you can!

We definitely recommend going to see the EofE lads live as they have a bright future ahead of them, with a possible debut album on the way and an already impressive arsenal of tracks; no doubt it’ll be an incredible night much like this one!

4 mics

Brumotions give their performance 4/5 Microphones!

What’s On… November 2014!

1st November:
Twin Atlantic – Birmingham: Institute – SOLD OUT!
Klaxons – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

4th November:
Royal Blood – Birmingham: InstituteSOLD OUT!

5th November:
Lacuna Coil – Birmingham: Institute.
Billy Idol – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

6th November:
Band of Skulls – Birmingham: Institute.

8th November:
Loveable Rogues – Birmingham: Institute.
La Roux – Birmingham: Institute.
The Blackout – Wolverhampton: Slade Rooms.

13th November:
Lady Gaga – Birmingham: NIA.

15th November:
EofE – Birmingham: Institute.
The Kooks – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

17th November:
BANKS – Birmingham: Institute.

18th November:
Passenger – Birmingham: O2 Academy – SOLD OUT!

21st November:
Example – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

22nd November:
Mallory Knox – Birmingham: Institute.
Paloma Faith – Wolverhampton: Civic.

24th November:
The Pretty Reckless – Birmingham: Institute.

26th November:
Lily Allen – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

27th November:
Enrique Iglesias – Birmingham: NIA.

28th November:
Tonight Alive – Birmingham: Institute.
Hollywood Undead – Birmingham: O2 Academy.

29th November:
Coasts – Birmingham: Institute.
Free Radio Live 2014 – Birmingham: LG Arena.

Don’t Stop The Maine Now – Part 2!

So yesterday, you were all able to see PART 1 of our hilarious interview with The Maine’s bassist Garrett Nickelsen and lead guitarist Jared Monaco. But due to a long interview, you’re all able to check out the rest of our funny chat with the lads in PART 2 below!

The Maine live


– Have you ever asked for something ridiculous on your tour rider?

Jared: In the states, when we were doing a radio campaign for a little while – each time when you go to a radio station, you have a different rider than you would for most of your shows – and we decided to make it as ridiculous as we could.
Garrett: I don’t remember exactly… Oh, it was something like one and a half cigarettes.
Jared: Yeah, one and a half cigarettes, a baby-sized business suit and a collection of nice things.


– Did you get them?

Jared: Yeah! I mean they didn’t get us the baby-sized business suit, but they gave us a box full of stuff – so it had movies in it and candy, it was literally a box of nice things.
Garrett: Did we ever get the cigarettes?
Jared: I think we did, (laughing) the second one was literally broken in half.


– So you’re making new music soon, what can we expect or are you keeping it close to heart?

Garrett: No, I mean, there’s going to be guitars, there’s going to be some drums, I’ll probably play some bass. John will sing and there will be a record.
Jared: We’ve been working on stuff a while, I mean we’ve been writing and we now have a lot of material ready. I can definitely say that it’s not going to be a dark and more sombre rock record like the last one, it will be… well I don’t know yet, I don’t want to say anything yet, but we do have a lot of stuff written and we’re going to possibly write some more.
Garrett: I think it’s not going to be what people expect, which is a good thing.


– Any idea of when we can expect it?

Garrett: (laughing) December… twenty, not then. No… not until next year.
Jared: Unless… I don’t know, we could die. We hope not!
Garrett: That could happen! Or we could get in the studio and be like “F*ck! How do you work this stuff?”
Jared: And never get anything done, but yeah, I think we’re shooting for earlier next year but we don’t know yet, we need to record first.


– Is there any advice or motto that you live by?

Garrett: Make sure you go to bed.
Jared: Okay.
Garrett: What was that one now…
Jared: Don’t listen to anybody… I like that.
Garrett: Uhhh… Don’t let anybody tell you that you’re doing it wrong cause you’re not, say “f*ck that”…
Jared: I’m doing…
Garrett: What’s the quote? Scratch that! Go the bed, that’s the one.


– If you could be any animal, which animal would you be?

Garrett: Duck-billed Platypus.
Jared: I’d be a T-Rex.
Garrett: That’s a dinosaur!
Jared: It’s an animal still!

– But you’d be extinct?

Jared: Yeah, but at least I’d be sleeping peacefully.
Garrett: No, you’d be oil.
Jared: I’d be oil? Oh… okay, I pick… a woolly mammoth, wait they’re extinct too…
Garrett: You should have gone to the museum! There were tons of animals!
Jared: Okay, well I want to fly so I’d be an eagle.


– If you were to take the Queen on a date, where would you take her?

Garrett: In-n-Out.
Jared: I’d take her to a Marilyn Manson show.
Garrett: Oh… F*ck yeah! I’d take her to a Marilyn Manson show.

– Watch her in the mosh-pit?

Jared: Yeah and I’d help lift her to go crowd surfing!
Garrett: I’d take her to a haunted house and then she’ll hold on to me!
Jared: You’re not supposed to scare the Queen though!
Garrett: I don’t care!


– If you could be any instrument, which would you be and why?

Garrett: Tuba!
Jared: That would be awesome.
Garrett: Cause nobody wants to play Tuba.
Jared: But then you’d have everybody’s mouth on you all the time.
Garrett: (laughing) sounds good!
Jared: (laughing) I would be… a saxophone.
Garrett: Sexy Sax!
Jared: Yeah!
Garrett: F*ck yeah!


So there you have it!

The Maine are definitely one’s to look out for next year, with a potential new album on the horizon!

We wish them all the best and can’t wait to see what they come up with next!

They’re a group of highly talented lads, with incredible tracks within their arsenal!

Don’t forget to follow the lads on Twitter and keep an eye out for our ‘OR’ game, which will be available to read later today!

Don’t Stop The Maine Now – Part 1!

On October 7th, the O2 Academy in Birmingham was packed with ecstatic fans, waiting to see two separate shows! But while a bunch of highly dedicated fans were stuck outside in the midst of all the anarchy – Our Brumoters were having a lovely chat with The Maine’s lead guitarist Jared Monaco and bassist Garrett Nickelsen!

the maine

Make sure to check out the band’s track ‘Forever Halloween’ in the video underneath the hilarious interview!


– So for those who don’t know you guys, what makes The Maine, The Maine?

Garrett: We are five boys from Phoenix, Arizona and we like to play rock’n’roll.
Jared: That’s… I couldn’t do a better job.
Garrett: Thanks man.


– Can you describe your sound in three words?

Garrett: I just did, rock’n’roll.
Jared: But we can pick something else.
Garrett: Wait, I’ve got it. Rock…
Jared: Is…
Garrett: (laughing) Roll.
Jared: (laughing) Rock is roll.


– So you’ve been to the UK 9 times so far, what makes you keep coming back?

Garrett: It… seems like people like us here, like just a little amount of people.
Jared: Yeah, enough people to play a show in most cities.
Garrett: So that’s been cool.
Jared: We’ve been lucky enough to come back on a couple of support tours too, you know? We’ve been on the All Time Low tour, Deaf Havana tour and they do kind of help strengthen our fanbase over here so we’ve had these support tours, which have been great and it’s allowed us to come back and headline. It just made sense as we had some time at the end of this year and we wanted to make sure we showed our faces again.
Garrett: And we got to bring our buddies Lydia and Nick Santino over and we kind of made it like a family thing and they all seem to be excited so it works.


– Speaking about people you’ve toured with, who would you say were your favourite’s and why?

Garrett: I feel like one of the first tours we did, with Good Charlotte. They were great guys and I feel like we learned so much from them, just like from a live show and how to be on tour and how to treat people on tour. I feel like… just learning wise, that was a big one.
Jared: I really like when we toured with Taking Back Sunday, they were some of the coolest dudes ever. They were one of those bands where growing up, they were one of the reasons that I started playing local shows and to meet those people – especially Good Charlotte too – it’s good to meet those people and see that they’re awesome too and you can learn something from a band like that, who have been around for so long, so it was nice to be friends and learn so much from those guys.


– Was it a very surreal experience?

Jared: Yes, definitely. I mean, when we got the news that we were going to be on [Taking Back Sunday’s] tour], I think that was kind of the really surreal part and once we got ready really focusing on the tour, more so about business, getting out there and being ready for it. But it was definitely surreal.


– What are your favourite tracks to play live?

Jared: It’s always the newest songs that we’re playing live, at least for me. Right now we’re playing a song that is on the B-Side of our new record Forever Halloween, which is called Vanilla and that one has been really fun to play, it’s kind of fresh so…
Garrett: Yeah, that one’s been really fun. I’m going to agree with that.


– What has been your most memorable career highlight so far?

Garrett: (Laughing) I was going to make a joke… I don’t know, probably the whole Pioneer thing. That whole record process… it was f*cked up, but it was cool and just us being able to grow in that kind of way, it made us realise that we could actually be a band.
Jared: We had to fight out way off a record label so that was a whole situation for us.
Garrett: I mean, that aside, just the recording of it. Doing it ourselves and that whole thing was really awesome and proved to me that if we were put in that situation that we could handle it.


– While on the subject of memorable experiences, have you guys had any interesting fan experiences?

Garrett: Everything’s been pretty much awesome.
Jared: A guy said he was going to kill me in Amsterdam because I was American.
Garrett: Yeah.
Jared: And he got in my face and it got really bad. I really thought we were going to have to fight this guy. That was the day that we got there, before our show we were walking around downtown and we stopped for coffee and this guy just came up and started giving us all death threats cause he hated Americans so much… (laughing) and we were all wearing denim, so we all looked like cowboys… on this tour that was definitely the most stand out moment and I was like holy sh*t, hatred is still a thing in parts of the world, it was crazy.
Garrett: For me the best part was when I was playing with my buddy Jared over here on Madden and I beat him by one point.
Jared: Yeah, we set up the Xbox and started playing football on it… or I should say ‘American Football.’ Oh and I fell over and knocked over-
Garrett: Oh yeah, that was fun.
Jared: I was on stage the other night and our guitar tech Adam was kneeling down behind me as he was fixing some stuff and I didn’t see him. So I backed up, fell over him and I took out the whole wall that was behind me and I ended up on my back… I’ve never done that before, I mean you’ve taken a couple of spills.
Garrett: Yeah, I’ve puked on stage and knocked stuff over.
Jared: Well that was my very first experience belly up, so… it was pretty fun.


So that’s all for PART 1 of our interview with Garrett and Jared from The Maine!

Make sure to check out PART 2 TOMORROW!

Where the lads will be discussing baby-sized business suits, new music and going to bed!
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