Maika Maile, lead vocalist of There For Tomorrow took some time to talk off from the New Jersey date of their Hit The Lights tour to talk about what he was like in high school, what their future touring plans are and how high strung he thinks people can be.

Introduce yourself and your role in the band.

I’m Maika Maille and I do my best at playing guitar and singing in There For Tomorrow.

What would you say are some of the differences between the EP that your first released and your full length?

Obviously, we’re firm believers that being a person is the best way of being a musician in general so with the first EP, half the songs we wrote, we were sixteen and we were playing them until we were nineteen. With Faster we were 18-19 and we’re twenty now. It’s a couple years ahead; we’re a little more mature. It’s like a soul searching process because it is new to us. We’re talking about relevant things, not talking about like high school break ups and we’re not talking about getting drunk etc. It’s real stuff, I’m not putting down any of that but yeah I think it’s just more growth.

What do you think has been the most memorable part of this tour so far?

Every day is a memory. With Hit the Lights everything is up in the air, funny, light hearted. I’d say Orlando was a great experience.  I mean we’ve been playing Orlando since I was like thirteen so it seemed like they were getting a little bit tired of us but this time around they caught us off guard. There were so many people there, so many people passionately singing lyrics. It was a good time.

What’s something about you that people wouldn’t expect by looking at you?

I think people have definite presumptions that they’ve made. A lot of the bands that we associate with, that we tour with, they think of us kind of as just another come and go band and just another… trying to write hit songs and appeal to little girls. But we don’t try to appeal to little girls or anyone really. We just do our own thing, write what we like, we naturally graduate toward whatever… especially females.  These next few years are really just proving grounds for us.

If you could pick a five band lineup of any bands, dead or alive, which would they be?

I would say [Jimi Hendrix] but he’s not alive. Okay it would be us in the parking lot, Third Eye Blind, Jimmy Eat World, Foo Fighters and then Rascal Flatts would headline.

Is there anything that you think sets you apart from other bands?

Geez, those crazy girls out there. Jersey people are so high strung. SO HIGH STRUNG. SO HIGH STRUNG.  Anyways, what were you saying? Oh, I don’t know. I guess I could sit here and say we do this, they do that, but I think it’s just that we’ve become comfortable with letting our music speak for us.

Is there an album or artist you can’t stop listening to?

Drake! His mixtape is amazing. I’m really into dub-step music. It’s from the UK and it’s just very bass-heavy club music.

Do you have any future plans for after this tour?

Yeah Mayday Parade is right after this. We’re doing that and then, that’s B-market tour that hits places we don’t usually go to. Sorry, NJ. We’ll be back in February, I would jump the gun and tell you but you’ll know soon enough.

Headliner?

Why would we headline? We’re terrible. Ha. No. Pft.

What do you think is one of the biggest issues in the music industry right now?

Well, I mean, we’ve become very hands on with what happens but I think as of late we’ve gotten to the point where we think we know it all almost and it’s like, alright, where’s the road because I think we should start walking down that one. We’re learning a lot. The music industry changes every day and it’s all about thinking forward and that’s the risky part because you can’t see the future. It’s just kind of seeing down the path and how things are going. There’s a lot to understand but… you don’t really need all the understanding. Like, you don’t have to go to college and read, actually, go to college, but yeah just do your own thing and there’s a lot you could find along the way. Expect to make mistakes.

What were you like in high school?

I was that kid that hung out with everybody. At lunch time I was bouncing everywhere just goofing off. I took school serious in the most not serious manner. Like I just had no drive. Okay one over two equal five over I DON’T CARE. It’s not gonna matter to me because I want to be on stage. I did well in school, trust me. I got accepted to a couple of colleges, I could have done that whole thing but I knew from a very young age what I wanted to do. But I did graduate with an unweighted 3.9. I just didn’t care enough to do well.

What would you classify each of your band members as if they were to all fit into a high school stereotype?

Seriously what the fuck are those girls out there doing? They’re going crazy! Anyways, Chris was like a little skater kid that didn’t really skate. He played drums; he liked music and loved to vandalize things, just a little Blink-182 kid. Then in 12^th grade he started getting into other music.  He went to a private school and he graduated early. Christian… he was the nice, young, innocent, rabbit. Back then he was really exuberant. Jay in high school, I don’t think he took education really seriously. He’s just always, always, always loved music. We would get together at least four times a week and just play shit. I think our main education came at band practice.

How did you all meet?

I knew Chris because we played football together in fourth grade. We starting jamming with Jay and this other kid and they called me because they wanted another guitarist and I stumbled into singing.

What’s your favorite thing about performing?

Just getting… That’s like our one time to show what we can’t show. It’s our one time to be the biggest, most retarded assholes and just get away with it. Not pretentious, rock star, cock sucking assholes. We’re just having a good time and having fun. I just look forward to escaping being a normal person while I’m up there.

Do you have a favorite song to perform live?

No. Not really. It always changes. I like Deathbed. It’s one of the newer songs but other than that there are songs that I look forward to because of crowd reaction but all of our songs come from the heart so it’s hard to favorite one of them. It’s different for the rest of the band but for me, I look at the set as one whole song.

Interview by Clarisse Hansard