Mikey and Dan of Set Your Goals took some time out of the day for an interview while they were on the AP Fall Ball Tour. Read more after the cut

How has the AP tour experience been so far?

Dan: It’s been good, we’ve been playing some really different crowds but it’s been pretty good overall.

What do you aim to bring people with your music lyrically? Does it reflect your morals?

Mikey: Real life stuff. I don’t know, I don’t write the lyrics but that seems to be the overall theme.

For anyone who doesn’t know, who does write the lyrics?

Mikey: Our two singers Matt and Jordan. We have two of them… which is kind of weird.

Dan: A lot of our stuff is mostly geared towards just positivity. Not necessarily overly sappy, obviously but more just living your life.

Mikey: We try to not focus on girl topics.

Dan: Yeah, nothing cheesy. The new album definitely touches on a lot more topics though. There are actually a few specific themes. Like, “Gaia Bleeds” is about the way that human beings are depleting the earth’s resources and we have another song about capital punishment so we kind of got a little more in depth but there’s still a general ‘good times’ idea going on in our lyrics.

When did you decide you wanted to play music professionally?

Mikey: Are we professionals? (laughs)

Dan: About as close as we can get, I guess. We don’t have normal jobs.

Mikey: For me it was when I graduated high school which was in ’05. That’s when we started touring full time because I’m the youngest one so it was hard for me to get away but I got the parental stamp of approval and we’ve been running with it since. That was kind of all of our turning points.

Dan: As far as me, I’ve always wanted to play music ever since I started playing guitar when I was fourteen. I mean as you get older you kind of have to weigh out what you want to do with what you need to do and I actually quit Set Your Goals in 2005 right before they signed to Eulogy Records. I just didn’t feel like I could commit myself to touring full time due to work related issues and not being able hold a steady job at home. Then they asked me to fill in on a couple of tours and I ended up just sticking with it and I rejoined as a permanent member.

Mikey: We took him to Australia his first tour back so it wasn’t so hard for him to say yes.

How do you feel on this tour? Do you feel you fit in considering there are so many different genres?

Mikey: Not at all. It’s just the strangest bill we’ve ever been on. Lucky for us everyone has been really receptive. The shows have been great. It seems like they all keep getting better as we move around the east coast. The crowds been receptive even though we knew coming in we’d be playing crowds that the majority wouldn’t have heard of us and that’s what touring’s all about.

How do you feel about being looped in with both Hardcore and Pop-Punk bands? Where would you place yourself?

Mikey: We’re like one of those chameleon bands. I guess we take influences and listen to all kinds of bands in the spectrum. You pick up our iPods and you’ll be pretty shocked I’m sure.

Dan: I think it really benefits us because it creates that much bigger of a spectrum that we can tour in. If you look at hardcore bands, they pretty much tour with hardcore bands and anytime they try to break out of the hardcore scene, it’s really a struggle for them because it stands out so much.  Trying to get a Metal crowd to be receptive to a Hardcore band isn’t always the easiest thing.  For us it’s like because we have so many influences and because we’ve toured with so many different bands, it’s easier for us to just kind of go with a different flow on every tour. With our last tour it was kind of just all our friends’ bands and before that it was the New Found Glory tour. We’ve toured with Terror, there was Warped Tour.

Mikey: Metro Station was on the Saves the Day tour. We’ve toured with Anti-Flag. We’ve kind of dipped into everything. I’d definitely say we got lucky with that.

What do you love to see at your shows as far as the crowd or the atmosphere?

Mikey: Interaction. Any kind of response from the crowd makes us go off more. The hardest thing for me is when the crowd isn’t responsive and we’re still trying to perform. It never really was about “performing” per say, you know like some bands do. We’ve always, since we’ve started, have just thrived on the crowd interaction. It was vital to our performances.

What song would you say means the most to you to play?

Mikey: I like “Our Ethos” which is the last song on the new record just because I think it encompasses the reasons why I got into music and sonically I think it’s awesome, it’s fun to play, it covers all my bases I guess.

Do you play it on the tour?

Mikey: It’s been in and out of our set list so I’m not sure if we’re playing it tonight. We decide that literally two minutes before we go on stage.

So if you could only play one song live the rest of the tour, would it be that one?

Mikey: Oh well I don’t know if this would be the song that would win people over but it’d definitely be the one I’d have the most fun playing.

Dan: I’d probably stick to an older song because it’s an old standard that people sort of know the words to. That’s a tough one because our set is really dependent on older and newer songs.

Mikey: Yeah we just had our record come out in July so we’re still transitioning with new and old songs because there was a long time gap between our last release and this one. So for us we were kind of burnt out on playing all the old songs but those seemed to be ones the fans enjoyed and knew the words to.

Dan: Yeah we couldn’t just dive right into the new ones.

Mikey: Yeah we always hated that when we’d go to see bands we liked and we’d see them the tour after their latest record came out and it’d be all new songs that you wouldn’t know the words to yet and you’re just like ‘come on…’

What’s your opinion on bands in the industry nowadays that are in this for the wrong reasons?

Mikey: They’re plentiful.

Dan: There’s always going to be somebody in it for the wrong reasons. More often than not though, light tends to shine on those reasons and people kind of find out and they end up just dying. It comes full circle, it really does. If you’re in it for the right reasons, you know, for what you want to do and playing music then you’ll end up lasting.

So would you say that’s the greatest issue with the music industry nowadays? If not, what do you think it is?

Mikey: That you don’t actually need to play your instruments to play a live show and have kids like it. The average music fan doesn’t really know what goes on behind the scenes and the mechanics of it all. If a performer can make it seem like there’s all this going on by just blasting stuff on the PA, it’s just too perfect nowadays. I’m not going to go into specifics…

Dan: It’s the age old debate of substance vs. style and that’s what it all boils down to and I think that’s always going to be an issue in music. There’s going to be bands and musicians that are making it big only because they look good and they sound good and it’s all a load of ear candy but they really don’t have substance. They’re not really saying anything meaningful, like he said they’re not playing their instruments and it’s just a bunch of fluff and this kind of sensationalism that ends up blowing over. You look at bands in the past that made it huge but it’s just sensationalism and  it’s all just an act and they were never really there for anything meaningful at all and anybody who was behind them was probably aware of it and just used them to make a few quick bucks. Once that flame died out they just get pushed aside and some other piece of manufactured nonsense gets put in their place and it just starts all over again. There’s always going to be the kind of off to the side bands and musicians that really focus on playing from the heart for their fans, for the people who care about them and they may not get the limelight as much as some of the poppier, fluffer nutter bands but they’ll end up lasting longer and making more of an impact in the long-run. That’s what I think.

How was the recording experience and working with some of the guest vocalists on your new record?

Mikey: This one was draining. Not the guest vocalists’ part, that was great.

Dan: That was probably the easy part.

Mikey: It was just three years in the making and it got to the point where like, all we’d done for the past three years was tour and we hadn’t written a lot or made a lot of headway into what the next record was going to be so we had to step off the road and just focus on writing. It was really concentrated. Jordan and I, our other singer, were the ones who kind of started the process and then everyone was brought in. There were a lot of ups and downs, a lot of emotions but I feel like the more we put into it, the harder it was to make, the better the outcome. That seems to be the overall consensus, everybody make their own sacrifices in their own way and we got through it and I think we can do it again. It’ll probably be easier this time, especially if we keep the momentum going. We want to just keep writing in our off time and have a record out earlier rather than later, another record. You know, try to survive.

Does having two singers ever pose as an issue?

Mikey: When they run into each other on stage.

Dan: Their chords get tangled.

Mikey: Its cool, I mean it something that people aren’t really used to seeing and you know, having a second voice to do various vocal jobs makes it easier on the other. I guess they can kind off bounce off each other and do each other’s harmonies. It’s double the vocal strength and excitement I guess.  It’s one more person on stage though, that’s the only downfall, when we play smaller stages.  Like last night at Toad’s Place. Usually you’ll have a drum riser with the headlining bands set and then their backline and then everyone kind of lines up in front of them and the opening band plays on the floor. Well last night there was just one stage, no drum riser and they still had two kits on stage and the second kit was almost all the way in the front and we have five other people in that line and everybody was just kind of stationary jumping around. We make it work though.

What are some small bands that you would recommend to listeners?

Mikey: Well we’re trying to think about all sorts of small bands right now that we potentially want to take out on tour next year.

Dan: Title Fight

Mikey: Yeah Title Fight, they’re great. Cruel Hand, Trapped Under Ice, those are a little heavier but they’re great. My brother plays in a band called The Story So Far and I’ve been listening to their new demos a lot lately. They’re all seventeen but they’re pretty talented.

So you’re headlining next year?

Mikey: Yeah at some point we will. In the spring, probably sometime before the summer. Nothing’s finalized yet because we’re looking at a few other tours but there’s your exclusive information for the interview!

So are those your immediate plans for after this tour ends or do you have any plans before that?

Mikey: We’re going to be going to Europe and England like ten days after this tour. We’ll be home for Thanksgiving and then we’re going overseas with Fireworks and Broadway Calls. We’ll be there for two and a half weeks and we’ll have some time off in January and then we’ll be out again on the road and I can’t tell you who with* and then after that… we’re just going to stay on the road as much as possible. [*Set Your Goals will be touring with Motion City Soundtrack and The Swellers early next year.]

Dan: Yeah you’ll be seeing plenty of us on the road.

Mikey: It’s all we do. The only time we’re off is when we need to be writing, demoing or recording. The rest of our time is spent in this thing and on the road playing shows.

Lastly we have a little cliché word association. You have about a second and a half to answer otherwise you’ll get voted off the island… if you catch my drift.

Mikey: Oh man this is dangerous. We have filthy minds. Lay it on us. [Dan] You’ll go first.

Twilight.

Mikey: Whack!

Timon and Pumba.

Both: Awesome.

Cagefighting.

Mikey: Cool.

Dan: Eh…

Slayer.

Both: Awesome!

Neon.

Mikey: Bad!

Dan: No.

Bro.

Both: Never.

Cheeseburger.

Both: Yeah! Road Noms*! [*http//:roadnoms.tumblr.com]

Billy Mays.

Mikey: Dead!

Epilepsy.

Mikey: Sucks.

Clark Kent.

Mikey: Cool! Yeah, he was my childhood idol, there you go.

Interview by Clarisse Hansard