Another tour, another interview done by writer Kristyn Shannon. With Confidence finally made a comeback for another U.S. tour, opening for State Champs. Check out the chat that two of the band members had with one Kristyn about Harry Potter – because when isn’t it with Kristyn? – Australian football, and favorite songs.
(PS: Thanks for letting Rob Damiani, lead vocals for Don Broco, crash the interview, remembering me from Warped Tour, and that beer.)
MEB: Okay! Hi, I’m Kristyn.
Jayden [Seeley]: Hi Kristyn.
Luke [Rockets]: Hello, I’m Luke.
Hello.
Jayden: Jayden.
Hi. I’m not actually positive that you remember me; I interviewed you at Warped Tour.
Jayden: Oh yeah.
Luke: I was gonna say you look so familiar and I’m like, I feel like a dick right now being like “hey, what’s up” ‘cause I swear we’ve met before, but I’m just gonna do this in case.
Nope, that’s me!
Luke: Ah, cool cool. We were sitting outside at a table near catering; I remember this interview, yeah.
I was actually dying. I was afraid that I would miss the interview, so I ran from the opposite side of Warped Tour to backstage.
Jayden: Nuts.
Yeah, I’m really out of shape.
Luke: I remember that day.
He remembers that day, why don’t you remember that day, Jayden?
Luke: They all blur into one after a while. *Laughs*
Everyone loved the interview, so I thought we’d do a follow up! I wanted to know what you’ve been up to since leaving the Warped family?
Jayden: A lot, actually. We’ve basically been non-stop touring since Warped Tour. We’ve had maybe a few weeks off here and there, but.
Luke: Not much time at home. Done a bunch of touring at home. Done a bunch of touring over in Europe and the UK. After Warped Tour, what’d we do? We went to the Philippines. We’ve gone to a bunch of crazy places we never thought we would.
Jayden: Around Asia. The album, Better Weather, came out during Warped Tour or just before, so when Warped Tour finished, it was our chance to sort of do the headline tour around the world. So, we did our headlines in Australia, obviously, for the tour. We did our UK/European run for Better Weather.
Luke: A whole bunch of support tours.
Jayden: Then, yeah, just a bunch of support tours around. Now we’re doing our first venue tour in the States, which is really cool, with State Champs.
That is really exciting! I saw this tour and needed to go; I’ve been emailing people for the past month for this show.
Jayden: That’s sick!
So, you’ve been home, back to Australia, to do a headlining tour. How’d that turn out?
Jayden: Awesome.
Luke: Headlining in Australia was very cool to see the growth between where we were at a year/year and a half ago, to after the album has come out and after we’ve done all the international stuff. It’s cool to see the fans that have been there since day one, since the beginning, still coming back and all these new fans coming out and discovering the band. That was cool as fuck ‘cause we got to bring out ROAM from the U.K. to come support us on that. They’re some of our best friends; they were on Warped Tour as well.
Jayden: That was sick.
Luke: So yeah, the Australian headline was dope. We do enjoy being home from time to time, which is cool.
From time to time.
Luke: It’s nice to be on the other side of the world, but it is nice to be within at least a couple hour flight from your bed, not a 20 hour flight from your bed.
I feel that. I’m a long way from home. I drove here from Jersey.
Jayden: Joisey.
What’s the one thing you miss most about home? And no, it cannot be family or pets because I feel that.
Jayden: I don’t miss my family or my pets. I miss my bed, to be honest. I miss my big, I think it’s a queen size bed, just sitting there, lying down, reading a book, watching Netflix, playing guitar. Just chilling out in my own space. I miss that ‘cause we don’t really get a lot of time to ourselves on tour.
Luke: I miss Jayden’s bed too.
Jayden: *laughs* Yeah.
Luke: That’s it.
Alright, that’s a good answer. I’ll accept that one. This next one is a really curious question, and I’m sorry if it’s out there. But, since I’ve worked at Disney, I’ve made a lot of Australian friends and they’ve talked about this little thing called Australian football.
Jayden: Ah, AFL, okay.
Is there any way you could describe it?
Luke: I don’t even know what the fuck that is. I hate sports. *laughs*
Jayden: So, Luke doesn’t like sport at all; he doesn’t get involved with sport at all. I grew up watching rugby league. I guess it’s more popular on the east coast of Australia. But, I dabble in AFL; I follow the Swans. The best way to describe it is… It’s kind of like if you put football and Quidditch together with less brooms.
That’s a good way to explain it. See, my friend didn’t explain it like that.
Jayden: Yeah, that’s basically it. *laughs*
Luke: I’d explain it as buff guys in short shorts falling all over each other.
Jayden: No, dude. AFL players aren’t buff. That’s the best part. They’re tall, lanky dudes.
Luke: Okay, well. Hot boys in short shorts running after a big red ball.
Jayden: *laughs* Thanks for indirectly calling me hot. I’ll take it.
Were you able to follow it with your touring schedule?
Jayden: No, I don’t really keep up. I kind of lost track over the years doing this. I like watching sports. I like going to a game, it’s pretty fun. But I’m not the type to keep up every single week.
My friend did. He came down here and y’all are what? 12 hours ahead of us? 14?
Jayden: 14, I think. Yeah.
He stayed up until 2 o’clock in the morning to watch the finals.
Jayden: I guess the finals, though, that’s fair. It’s like the big game. It’s kind of like the Super Bowl, but not as big.
I’ll accept that; I don’t really question what he does. How many days were you able to stay in the Orlando area?
Jayden: We’ve been here for –
Luke: Two!
Jayden: Two days. So, we went to Universal Studios yesterday.
Luke: I saw Blink last night!
Jayden: He saw Blink last night; that’s really fucking cool. We’ve definitely enjoyed our day off here. Today we got the show, but we’re out at 2 a.m. and we’ll be heading to Philadelphia. Usually it’s a day or two at most.
At least you went to Universal!
Jayden: I love that place. I’m like the biggest Harry Potter geek in the world. I wrote a song called Voldemort. So, it was really cool being able to see Hogwarts and Hogsmeade and stuff.
Do you have a tattoo of Harry Potter?
Jayden: I don’t have any tattoos, no.
Because I do.
Jayden: You have one? What is it? I’m always happy to see a HP tattoo. Mischief managed and the deathly hallows, very cool. You’ve been to Universal, obviously? They have the Marauder’s map with the little walking things, it’s so sick.
I know the last conversation we had was about “Voldemort” and Harry Potter.
Jayden: Yeah.
Not that you remember.
Luke: *laughs*
*laughs* But, how did you like The Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts?
Jayden: Okay, so I haven’t read The Cursed Child. It kinda lost me a little bit. I had a lot of friends that read it and they were like, “look, it’s not up to scratch with the books.” No one was really stoked with it. I did watch Fantastic Beasts and thought it was great. I read that book, y’know, the spin off book, that and Quidditch Through the Ages, I read, obviously. But, it was a pretty fucking cool movie and I’m stoked that they’re still linked to the Harry Potter universe, keeping it alive still.
Yeah, they’re making, what? Four? Three?
Jayden: Three of them or something. And I’m hoping that because there were two spinoffs, that and Quidditch Through the Ages, they might make a Quidditch Through the Ages after that. Movies about Quidditch would be sick. More sports based, kind of.
Luke: Why not just introduce the game in real life?
They have.
Jayden: They do. A lot of colleges here have Quidditch teams.
Luke: Why aren’t we using the fucking flying technology for –
They don’t fly.
Jayden: They don’t fly; they hold brooms.
Luke: I bet they get laid.
But yeah, The Cursed Child wasn’t good. I had to read it on my way down here ‘cause my family only bought one book. So, I had to get it back to them. I read it and I was like, “Mom, this is horrible, take it back.”
Jayden: And the fact that it was a script and not a book. I will read it, but it’s not a priority.
The play is coming to New York City, I saw that.
Jayden: Yeah, I saw. It was coming out soon in London last time we were out that. I wanted to see it.
That’s when it first came out, it was in London. But now to get back to the music related questions: do you have anything new up your sleeves in regards to songs or albums?
Luke: Always!
Jayden: Always, always. Me and Inny, literally before this interview, were sitting in the back of our bus and he showed me an idea and I was like, “fuck, this is sick.” Then I showed him another idea that I wrote yesterday and I’m really stoked. We’re just constantly writing and it’s sounding a lot better than it did in the past. I think it’ll be a bigger album, for sure.
Luke: It’s a matter of finding time to go record with this crazy touring schedule, but it’s in the works. It’s slowly coming together.
What’s it like to be getting a bigger fan base and playing to bigger crowds here in the U.S.?
Jayden: Craaaaazy. It’s like – I feel like I’m talking too much, you want to say anything?
Luke: No no no, you’re summarizing this well, man. It’s awesome ‘cause it’s something that I guess every young band aspires to have one day and we’ve been touring on the road now, including Australia, for like, 3-4 years, quite a while.
Jayden: We’ve been touring for close to 3 years.
Luke: About a year and a half internationally. But like, seeing that growth slowly over time is one of the most rewarding things to be able to come back here to America after Warped last summer. Every night on stage, I ask people “who caught us on Warped Tour?” I see a bunch of hands go up. And then ask them, “Who’s seeing us for the first time?” And a bunch more hands go up. We’re gaining fans at an awesome rate and we couldn’t be happier.
Jayden: It feels exponential, which is the coolest thing. In Australia, it felt like we really had to push for our fanbase. Every bit of effort we did, we saw a little bit more and it would grow and we would try harder and it would grow. But lately, it feels like it’s less in our hands and something else has taken it. It’s just growing and growing more than we’d ever expected it.
Luke: I think our fans are so awesome too because they are really into sharing bands with their friends and promoting and helping us in ways that we don’t even see necessarily. We have the greatest fanbase in the world. And we’re very happy about that.
Is it wild hearing people singing along to the songs you wrote during shows?
Jayden: Yeah, it’s pretty crazy. There are parts in the set where it’s just a kind of sing along thing and sometimes I just stop singing with them and let them take it. They nailed it so loud every night. It’s the coolest, craziest thing to hear on the other side of the world, hundreds of people just screaming your lyrics at you together. It’s magical.
That’s gonna be me. I’m not even sorry.
Jayden: No, that’s good. I like that.
[Tour Manager walks in with set list.]
Luke: Set list?
Jayden: Yeah.
“Tonight” isn’t on there.
Luke: “Tonight” is not on there.
Jayden: We had to cut it; we’ve been playing it too long. We’re pushing the newer songs for this tour.
Luke: We figured which ones we played on Warped Tour and we’re like, “okay, we’ve given America a taste of some of the old ones; we gotta rotate some shit.” That’s why we have this song that’s literally “Whatevz” for whatever song we feel like playing at that point in the set.
Can you chuck “Tonight” in there?
Luke: Usually we do one of the new album tracks that isn’t a single, but we’ll talk to the other guys and see how we do.
I’d probably die. It’s my favorite song, no offense to the other songs.
Luke: We’ll figure it out tonight and chat with the boys.
What’s one of your favorite lyrics you ever sing?
Jayden: All of our lyrics mean something to us. Like, myself or Inigo. Some of my personal favorite lyrics are the bridge to our song called “Higher” actually. That was a weird one ‘cause we didn’t have a bridge and we were in the studio. I walked into the vocal booth and – the boys will probably hate this if they read this – I literally walked in and we didn’t have anything. Our producer, Stevie, was just like, “Come up with something” and then he was quickly mixing stuff. I came up with the lyrics to the bridge straight away. It was something that felt like it came together so quickly and naturally and it just felt right.
Luke: Were you drunk?
Jayden: I feel like I was a little buzzed. I drank a lot of wine.
Luke: It’s our producer’s technique. Before he sings, just have like seven drinks.
I feel that. I told my friend I was really nervous to come back here because I literally came here straight from work and he was like, it’s fine, just take like five shots. And I was like, oh my god, I can’t do that.
Jayden: You should’ve.
I should’ve. He’s probably yelling at me right now for not doing it. But, is there anything else you’d like to say to fans at Mind Equals Blown?
Jayden: We just want to thank you for any support you’ve given this band. Listening to our music, coming to our show, buying our merch, connecting with us. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you. All of the generic things that actually mean a lot to us.
Luke: And hopefully we’ll be back sooner rather than later. So, hopefully see a bunch of people at the next tour.
We’ll probably be doing this again. I’ll be back.
Jayden: Perfect.
Thanks for dealing with me and my weird questions.
Jayden: Ah, they were great. They’re good questions.
I try to be unique with my questions to not bore you guys.
Luke: It definitely breaks up the monotony of some interviews.
Thanks again for everything!
Luke: Thank you very much. We appreciate your time.
Jayden: We appreciate it!
As the U.S. tour came to an end, the boys are now on tour with Mayday Parade for their 10th Anniversary Tour of A Lesson In Romantics across Europe and the U.K.!
No Comments