Had this been six or seven months ago, you may have never even heard of an England-based quartet by the name of Enter Shikari. But nowadays it seems that they’ve become a far more common name amongst Rock and Post-Hardcore fans alike. Originally forming in 2003, Enter Shikari built up their initial support base in their very own United Kingdom. Once they picked up buzz on the formerly popular networking site, Myspace, they were able to broaden their horizons and eventually receive so much feedback that they landed a spot at the Download Festival 2006 in Derby. Just one year after playing their first festival, they appeared on the lineup for some of the biggest festivals in the United Kingdom including Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury and Give It a Name.  It was festivals like this that boosted their popularity and brought them recognition overseas to the United States. Now they’re quickly becoming one of the more popular “foreign” rock bands recognized today.

In April of this year, Enter Shikari went on a cross country tour as support for A Day To Remember. If this isn’t popularity boosting, then nothing is. On this tour they played sold out crowds of 5,000+ people and even if they weren’t headlining, these crowds are amongst the biggest they’ve ever played. On that tour they played songs from both their releases, Common Dreads and Take To The Skies, as well as their ever popular single “We Can Breathe In Space, They Just Don’t Want Us To Escape.” They’re the kind of band that you don’t need to necessarily be familiar with in order to enjoy their live set, for the energy they put into their entire performance, no matter how short or long it may be, is one that you don’t always find in bands out there today. After their run with A Day To Remember, Enter Shikari joined 50+ other bands on the annual Vans Warped tour, a tour that without a doubt raised the public’s awareness of the bands existence in the United States. If it hadn’t already from being on the TourSick tour, Enter Shikari were now more than ever stuck in the heads of teens and young adults alike.

What distinguishes Enter Shikari from other bands is their mix of genres. While they do have both clean and rough vocals, they are not a “screamo” band.  While they have guitars and drums as well as computer synthesized beats, they’re not just a Rock band. Enter Shikari is more than just this or that. They’re a genre defying, out of the box, chameleon band. They’ll appeal to fans of bands such as Nine Inch Nails or The Prodigy just as much as they’ll appeal to fans of bands along the likes of Silverstein or The Devil Wears Prada; that’s all the better for them because it enables their fan base to grow from all sides to form one diverse group with one known thing in common: Enter Shikari.

In less than two weeks, Enter Shikari will take a step that shows true success and begin a short tour in Australia. Following that, they’ll return to the United States to do their first headlining tour across the country with Haste The Day and Sleeping With Sirens (dates for the tour, which you don’t want to miss, follow).  By the end of this year it’ll be hard to find a Rock fan that doesn’t know of Enter Shikari because come November, they’ll be on tour with the largely famous  Los Angeles based Rock band, 30 Seconds To Mars.  For Enter Shikari, although they’ve been quite well known in the UK for some time now, things are just getting started here in the US. They have a new single to be released in the next few weeks called “Destabilised” and it’s expected that there will be much more to see from them in the coming year.  What is known for now, however, is that Enter Shikari is far from your average band.

Article by Clarisse Hansard

Photos by Ali Carcache

USA/ Canada Headlining Tour Dates

feat. Haste The Day, Sleeping With Sirens, Ms. White + LightsGoBlue

Sat 02 Houston, TX – Shadowplay Lounge

Sun 03 Metarie, LA – High Ground

Tue 05 Orlando, FL – Social

Wed 06 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Culture Room

Fri 08 Tampa, FL – Orpheum

Sat 09 Atlanta, GA – Seven Venue

Mon 11 Richmond, VA – Canal Club

Tue 12 Baltimore, MD – Ottobar

Wed 13 Philadelphia, PA – Church

Fri 15 NYC, NY     - Gramercy

Sat 16 Providence, RI – Club Hell

Sun 17 Montreal, QC – Underworld

Mon 18 Toronto, ON – Wreckroom

Wed 20 Detroit, MI – Eagles Theatre

Thu 21 Cleveland, OH – Grog Shop

Fri 22 Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge

Sat 23 Minneapolis, MN – Station 4

Sun 24 Winnipeg, MB – WECC

Tue 26 Edmonton, AB – Avenue

Thu 28 Portland, OR – Hawthorne

Fri 29 Seattle, WA – El Corazon

Sun 31 Dallas, TX  - Frisco Dr Pepper Arena

Mon 01 San Francisco, CA – Slims

Tue 02 Sacramento, CA – Boardwalk

Thu 04 Los Angeles, CA – Troubador

Fri 05 Anaheim, CA – Chain Reaction

Sat 06 San Diego, CA – Soma

Sun 07 Phoenix, AZ – Nile Theater

Tue 09 Austin, TX – Emos

Wed 10 San Antonio, TX – White Rabbit

Since 2008, Rockstar Energy Drink has brought metal fans with the most high energy shows of the summer. The Mayhem Festival has, in the past, included main stage acts such as Marilyn Manson, Slayer, Disturbed, and Slipknot, as well as side stage acts like Underoath, Job for a Cowboy, and Whitechapel. The Mayhem Festival has two side stages and one mainstage. This year, the side stage bands were Norma Jean, Winds of Plague, Shadows Fall, Chimaira, Hatebreed, 3 Inches of Blood, In This Moment, and Atreyu. This year’s main stage, started off with Five Finger Death Punch – who in the pervious year were on the side stage, Lamb of God, Rob Zombie, and headlined by Korn.

The night was filled with true metal fans and tons of mayhem. The side stages brought high energy and high hopes for the rest of the night. Despite the heat and humidity of an August day in Washington, DC, that did not stop fans from coming out to see the opening bands. As the day went on and the side stage acts had ended, Five Finger Death Punch brought an amazing performance, that had proven why they had been asked to join the main stage this year. Virginians, Lamb of God made the locals proud, playing hits such as “Redneck”, “Laid to Rest”, and “Hit the Wall”. Rob Zombie, which all the fans would say was probably the best of the night, came out from a robot and with flames and theatrics brought the crowd to it’s feet. Finally, ending the night was Korn, who covered a Metallica song and played their hit, “Twisted Transistor.” In my opinion, the band was not up to par with what many fans came to expect from Korn. Despite a bit of a letdown, Mayhem Festival brought the ruckus and uproar to Washington, DC, just like it has in past years.

The Dreaded Diamond took some time out before their show at Luigi’s Fun Garden to speak with Preach Electric about, well, everything.

Interview conducted by Kristin Allen

Photo by Alina Edwards

]]> http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/30/the-dreaded-diamond-interview-not-finished/feed/ 0 http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/24/this-century-interview/ http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/24/this-century-interview/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:46:32 +0000 Kaitlin Higgins http://www.preachelectric.net/?p=1462
Just before their show in Foxboro, Massachusetts in support of The Maine, Joel Kanitz and Ryan Gose of This Century sat down with PreachElectric to spill about the tour, zombie apocalypses, and band mate Sean’s strange fear of birds.

PreachElectric: Could you introduce yourselves, please?
Joel Kanitz: I am Jo-el, and I sing.
Ryan Gose: My name’s Ryan and I play drums, and we play in a band called This Century.

PE: How has the tour been going so far?
Joel: Amazing!
Ryan: Splendid!
Joel: Splenda! It’s been awesome, nothing but good times, the best tour that we’ve ever been on, for sure, because… I mean, we’ve known The Maine for quite a while now, and Austin Gibbs, who’s also on the tour. So it doesn’t really feel like your normal tour where you have to meet the bands and try and become friends and lie and say you like the same bands as them, or secretly steal their catering…
Ryan: Yeah, we actually do like the same bands. And the fans are incredible. The Maine’s crowd is amazing, and they actually seem to like us and are they’re very receptive to our music.

PE: So do you think you’ve acquired a lot of new fans while you’ve been on this tour?
Both: Definitely.
Joel: I think a lot of these kids have heard of the band because The Maine have talked about us before, but they’ve never really taken the time to check us out. Now us being here playing shows for them… I think it kind of gives them that extra, you know, little nudge.
Ryan: Yeah, totally.

PE: Speaking of The Maine, they’ve recently released a new album, [Black & White]. What do you think of it?
Joel: I love it.
Ryan: I think it’s awesome.
Joel: I love it. I don’t want to say I like it better than their first one – I liked their first one – but this one it has a more mature sound. It’s more up my alley.  A lot of it has a classic rock feel, which is really cool.

PE: What have you been doing to keep busy on your days off?
Joel: We had a day off in Boston yesterday. We went clubbin’, you know. We learned a little bit about the people in Boston.
Ryan: We saw a man do 40 pushups in 25 seconds.
Joel: I bet this guy that he couldn’t do 40 one-handed pushups in under 30 seconds, and he was like, “All right, give me five bucks if I do it.” He did it so I had to give him five bucks. I remember saying like, “Dude you should fight someone. I bet you could fight anyone.”

PE: If you were a character in the movie Inception, what would your totem be?
Joel: I know exactly what mine would be.
Ryan: Mine would be… Why don’t you go first?
Joel: My totem would be my stuffed animal that I’ve had since I was a baby. And you know how they get beat up and kind of worn down? It just has this specific feel to it… Yeah, mine would probably be the stuffed animal.
Ryan: I just remembered, probably my favorite item of all time that I keep in my safe deposit box is a 1992 Pogs slammer. It was given to me by my great grandfather.
Joel: Passed down from generation to generation?
Ryan: Yeah.
Joel: They were big on Pogs during the Great Depression.
Ryan: It’s made out of platinum and I can’t let it leave me. That would be it. Yep, Pogs slammer.

PE: What’s one of the places you’ve always wanted to travel, or tour, even?
Joel: Australia. Sydney, Australia.
Ryan: Japan.
PE: Do you think you’ll get a chance to go there?
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Without a doubt.
Joel: I think we’re pretty determined to get there.
PE: Do you know of any fans that you have there?
Joel: Yeah, we have a good grip of Japan fans, and Australian fans, too, and New Zealand, I know.
Ryan: You can’t even hold them all in your hand.
Joel: Yeah, we definitely have fans in both countries.

PE: Do you have any guilty pleasure music, or music that you might be a little bit ashamed to admit to having on your iPod?
Joel: The song playing right now. (Indicates “Shake It” by Metro Station, and begins singing off-rhyhtm). Shake it, shake it, shake it!
(Both begin singing.)
Joel: Oh wow. I don’t even know if I have any guilty pleasure bands anymore. I’m pretty open about what I’m listening to. I used to have guilty pleasure bands like Nsync, but I mean, I jam Nsync every once in a while, a little Backstreet Boys. I appreciate a good pop song.
Ryan: Yeah, I don’t have anything that I think would be guilty pleasure music. I mean, I like a lot of different music.
Joel: You name it, I probably like it.
Ryan: Or hate it, actually.
Joel: Ryan’s really big on Bowling For Soup; he really likes that band.
Ryan: Yeah, the first time I heard that band…
Joel: Yeah, they’ve just got it all. They’ve got the sound, the look, everything.
Ryan: They’ve got the girls.
Joel: Yeah!
Ryan: Yeah. Who’s Bowling For Soup?
(Both laugh.)

PE: If you woke up one morning to find the world in an apocalyptic, zombie-infested state, what would you do?
Joel: Oh wow. Uhm…
Ryan: Plane to a deserted island. I would have to… I wouldn’t know how to fly a plane, so actually I would have to take a boat. But I figure if I can like… Oh, I would go to an island with a small population, so they…
Joel: How fast are these zombies that we’re talkin’ about? Like normal, your standard zombie that kinda walks slow? Oh, uh, well I mean, I guess if it was like, if I was like, walking around the city, you know, and all of a sudden I saw zombies, I think it would be by foot, and then I’d probably head home and try and figure out a game plan, with maybe helicopter somewhere?
Ryan: I’d pull a Bill Murray and uh, paint my face like a zombie, go golfing, just pretend like I’m a zombie when I walk around with them.
Joel: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Nice!

PE: You recently released a new single called “Hopeful Romantic.” Could you tell us a little bit about it?
Joel: Yes! We are hopeful romantics. We’re all just a bunch of hopeful romantics. But the story behind it is, uhm, it was a guitar riff that Sean had and like a little falsetto-y kind of melody, and then we kind of put it on the back burner for a little while. We went in to record – which, by the way, we probably wrote about 80 songs and threw ‘em all away – and we finally got to the studio and Hopeful Romantic, that riff, came back and we dug it, and our producer dug it and we decided to kind of work on that song and develop it and it became a really fun, quirky, flirty little song, and we’re really happy with the way it came out.

PE: You could say that the “scene,” for lack of a better term – whatever “scene” you would put yourself in –
Joel: (laughing) I would say, grindcore, metal, hip-hop, country…
PE: So, this music scene has blown up quite a bit in the past couple of years. How do you set yourselves apart and stay grounded?
Joel: We started out kind of a grassroots band. I mean it was more about musicianship over, you know, just what we look like and neon pants and stuff like that just wasn’t our thing. And we started out as a sort of jazzy band, so we still have a little bit of that element.
Ryan: We’re always trying to find new, interesting ways to present a song and Sean’s really big on trying new sounds and riffs, guitar riffs, and stuff, and it just kind of opens up…
Joel: Yeah, we’re constantly trying new, crazy ideas, even if they’re not good. We still try, and I think that kind of shines into the music. Hopefully that sets us apart. I’m not sure if it’s enough, but I hope it does.

PE: What social networking sites do you like/use the most to keep in touch with your fans?
Joel: I love Twitter. I LOVE Twitter. I am tweet crazy, honestly. I thought it was stupid at first, but…
Ryan: I recently started telling fans to come to a website I like to use called eHarmony. It’s a great way to meet people.
Joel: Ryan just goes on dates with all our fans.
Ryan: I’m big on Facebook, Formspring, and Twitter.
Joel: (laughing) Those are the three Fs! We do MySpace, too, just because you’ve got your music player on there, and it’s just something you can’t get anywhere else. Tumblr is another huge one. Reblogging and all that stuff is great. Our fans love to do that.
Ryan: We’re REALLY big on Yahoo.com.
Joel: We’re really big on MSN, the front page of MSN. We’re on there a lot. CNN, the news… (Laughing) We’re trying to figure out Facebook. We’re still new to the Facebook band thing.
Ryan: Oh, wait! Also, on tour, one thing we’re doing is, since we’re not home to look in our P.O. boxes for letters, we have a mailbox that we keep on our merch table where fans can give us letters.
Joel: Yeah, we have pieces of paper on our merch table and a pen, and they can just write up a letter right there, or they can write it ahead of time and drop it in the box and then we literally scan it and respond on Tumblr. And then people can actually read the hand-written letter and then read our response.

PE: If you were in charge for the lineup of your dream tour, which bands would it consist of?
Ryan: The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us would be my dream tour.
Joel: I would love that. If it was John Mayer, The Killers, Third Eye Blind, and us… Oh my gosh, I could die happy.
Ryan: After the tour I’d probably kill myself because my life would just go downhill from there.
Joel: No, it would be awesome to just be on that tour. I’m surprised we didn’t say The Beatles. The Beatles would be awesome just to see the insanity that went on at their concerts.

PE: If you could pick any decade, aside from the current one, to live in, which would it be?
Joel: The 70s. Actually, no, I would say the 40s.
Ryan: Do I maintain my current knowledge? ‘Cause I’m gonna go back like, hundreds of years. I’m gonna be a king.
Joel: I wanna be a pharaoh. A pharaoh would be cool.
Ryan: I’m gonna say nineteen… nineteen… Actually, I like this decade.
Joel: I think that the 40s were cool, and then the 70s. 1944 era would be good, I think.
Ryan: Real smart, Joel.
Joel: What?
Ryan: World War II, man!
Joel: That’s why I wanna live there.
(Both laugh.)

PE: What are your plans for after this tour?
Joel: We’re probably gonna take a band hiatus and kind of just search for our inner peace.
Ryan: We’re gonna go to India and do some soul searching, but after that we’re gonna be going on a fall tour, which we’re gonna announce probably around the end of this tour. We’re gonna release another new song from our album, and the album.
Joel: Yeah, tour, record. Tour at the end of this year. We haven’t picked an official release date yet but it will be coming, I would say, in a couple months. Possible music video, maybe?
Ryan: There’s gonna be a ton of new stuff.
Joel: A lot of new stuff. And the India thing isn’t happening.
Ryan: Oh, really? It got cancelled? I’m bummed out.

PE: Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Ryan: Oh yeah, interesting fact about the band: our guitar player Sean is petrified of birds. He is so scared of birds.
Joel: Yeah. He has this insane fear, he has an insane phobia of birds, which I don’t even know what that’s called.
Ryan: Birdaphobia.
Joel: I know there’s a different word, like…
Ryan: Birdphelia.
Joel: I don’t know, I can’t remember, a phobia of birds. So if fans could bring bird Beanie Babies, or bird sculptures, or stuffed animals or pictures to Sean -
Ryan: We’re trying to get him out of his fear.
Joel: Other than that, new record, new stuff. Check out our MySpace. Keep up with us, ‘cause we’re pumping out a lot of new stuff.

Keep up with This Century:
www.myspace.com/ThisCentury
www.twitter.com/ThisCentury
www.thiscenturyband.tumblr.com
www.thiscenturymailbox.tumblr.com

Interview and photos by Kaitlin Higgins

]]> http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/24/this-century-interview/feed/ 0 http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/11/the-wonder-years/ http://www.preachelectric.net/2010/08/11/the-wonder-years/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:50:27 +0000 Stella Ng http://www.preachelectric.net/?p=1371

Hailing from the pop punk airwaves of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Wonder Years have recently been the band of interest for crowds that are searching for something “new”. This something may have been found with The Wonder Year’s most recent full-length, The Upsides. First released with No Sleep Records, the deluxe edition of The Upsides is soon to be released through Hopeless Records. The band itself has recently finished a tour with Streetlight Manifesto and is now on tour with New Found Glory trekking across parts of the United States.

The Wonder Years first started off early in 2005, but did not construct their first full-length album until 2007 with “Get Stoked On It!”. Sporadically, throughout 2005 until now recently in 2010, The Wonder Years have released several EPs within that timeframe. In early 2010, The Wonder Years had finally released their sophomore album, The Upsides. The Upsides has gained successes numerically on charts and units, but it’s the story and theme behind The Upsides is what makes the album so unique and successful. Consisting of 12 seamless pop-punk tracks, The Upsides conveys a message that mirrors its title. Opening with the noted track “My Last Semester”, the album punches in with “I’m not sad anymore…” and it’s this phrase that jumpstarts the whole album. Encompassing, and yet sticking to the back-story of looking at the upsides of life; “It’s Never Sunny in South Philadelphia”, represents how grounded The Wonder Years are to their Philadelphia roots on this album. Within the album, The Wonder Years drives through each and every single song with a pop punk foundation as seen in tracks alike “Everything I Own Fits In This Backpack”, “Dynamite Shovel”, and “Melrose Diner”. Concluding The Upsides, “All My Friends Are In Bar Bands” finishes The Upsides in full circuit. The Wonder Years were able to package and tie-up The Upsides in a well-composed and fitting manner. The Upsides takes you on a pure pop-punk journey, that from beginning to end, The Wonder Years never loses their essence.

At the Modesto, CA stop of the “Kimbo Wants A Pepsi Tour” during mid-April 2010, Preach Electric sat down with The Wonder Years for a quick interview. Dan “Soupy” Campbell, the vocalist of The Wonder Years, spoke a little bit of history and environment in which The Upsides was created around, “I wrote the lyrics to The Upsides when I was living in South Philadelphia, first with my roommate and then with the girl that I was dating at the time.” Dan explains how back at home he wrote the lyrics for The Upsides, but that wasn’t the only thing he did. Teaching at various schools whilst going to school himself, Dan had to deal with the everyday situations as an adult and just felt “the weight of the world on his shoulders” of everything around him. Connecting back to Philadelphia, the details of even dealing with the unbearably cold winter at home had contributed into why the negativity circling around Dan led to the making of The Upsides. “I was getting very frustrated and very down on my life. I was getting pretty upset for really no reason.” It wasn’t until Dan started truly thinking about everything that then things started turning things around, “I had a series of small epiphanies. One when I was riding my bike down 19th street from the school that I attended to the school I taught, and the fountain at Logan Circle – which is a giant fountain in the middle of 19th street at about the parkway – turned on and something just sort of clicked and said ‘Why am I so…bummed? There’s no reason to be this bummed.’” With everything tying together, Dan succumbed to the upsides on situations instead of the downsides. “I realized that things really weren’t as bad as they seemed and that I had a great girlfriend, a great job and a nice house and a lot of good friends. I was depressed because I was letting myself be depressed and I wasn’t fighting it because I had accepted it…and that was stupid because I was only like 22 at the time. So we wrote a record about beating it.” Simply put, The Upsides is an uplifting album that is able to grace a title that reflects the meaning of the album in its entity. The Wonder Years holds praise of having a positive attitude throughout The Upsides and their live performances, and it’s that positive vibe that have helped The Upsides and The Wonder Years reach their current stance.

With future success in hand, The Wonder Years never bared to forget their message of looking at the upsides in life. Through the songs and truly boisterous and energetic live performances, The Wonder Years have accomplished many feats in their career; one noted one was of a recent Ebay auction The Wonder Years held. During early July, a fatal and tragic car accident of two fallen and devoted The Wonder Years fans had unexpectedly occurred. Through friends of the fallen fans, The Wonder Years took note of such incident, and took an initiative to help the families pay for funeral expenses. Rummaging up old and rare vinyls of “Laevenhouse” and a split press between The Wonder Years and All Or Nothing, The Wonder Years had put in effort to the fans’ families & friends during their difficult times. With the honesty and devotion underlying each and every song, The Wonder Years are a band to remain for time to tell. The true authenticity and architecture of every song on The Upsides, Get Stoked On It!, and past EPs are one to not miss out on.

–Before Preach Electric closed the books on the brief interview with The Wonder Years, Dan had a quick request, “I really want to hang out with Mark Hoppus. I say this in every interview because I know that one time, somebody’s going to read that and be like ‘Oh! Well I can make that happen!’ and then call us and then call Mark Hoppus and then we’re going to hang out and then everything will be complete! …And then we can quit being a band. But don’t put that because then they won’t let us if they like us. …We’ll write a better record! We’ll have more…inspiration from hanging out with Mark Hoppus.”

Article by Stella Ng

Photo by Ali Carcache

Goo Goo Dolls on Tour!

 With a new album coming out at the end of the month, the Goo Goo Dolls embarked on the Something for the Rest of Us Tour, with support from Switchfoot and The Spill Canvas.

The Goo Goo Dolls, who have been together for 24 years, have been on this tour since April and in November will go on the UK leg of this tour. On August 3rd, the Goo Goo Dolls graced Pier Six Pavilion in Baltimore, MD for a large crowd and they did not disappoint. Even if you only know the Goo Goo Dolls from their hits such as, “Iris”, “Slide” “Broadway” or “Before It’s Too Late”, they are still a band that is worth seeing.
The show began with The Spill Canvas, who set the easy-going tone for the show. But it was Switchfoot that brought the energy early on, with lead singer Jonathan Foreman performing the first two songs in the middle of the crowd. Switchfoot played songs such as “Meant to Live”, “Mess of Me”, and “The Sound”. Finally after much anticipation, the sights and sounds of the Goo Goo Dolls brought the crowd to a joyous embrace of singing along and dancing. Goo Goo Dolls ended their set with “Iris”, their latest single, “Home”, and finally, “Broadway”, bringing the conclusion of their concert with an amazing high.
As the Goo Goo Dolls come to their 25th anniversary, there is no doubt that these boys are not a band to write off. The Goo Goo Dolls are still as energized as ever and will continue to rock on with many years to come.

Photos and Review by Sandra Sanchez

July 8, 2010 – Scream It Like You Mean It Tour in Sayreville, NJ

New Jersey brought out one hell of a crowd to kick off the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour! Starland Ballroom was completely packed; way more than usual. To match the amped up crowd, every band brought their A-game.  With special guest The Devil Wears Prada, the line-up for this tour couldn’t have been put together any better. An intense balance of screams, keys, breakdowns, and lyrics of understanding – these bands had what this generation of alternative/heavy music-lovers feed on. Specifically Dance Gavin Dance and We Came As Romans had the best performances of the night. Both had very high energy and constantly gave the crowd something to keep not only their ears, but eyes entertained. Definitely bands to add to your bucket-list of live performances to see in the future (multiple times at that).

Damien Verrett of The Speed of Sound in Seawater gave Preach Electric the inside look on the band’s roots, name, and his hopes of sounding more like…Joanna Newsom.

The Speed of Sound in Seawater is quite an eccentric name. What made you decide that it was the perfect name for your band?

Back in high school physics was my favorite subject, so the name sort of plays to that fact. That’s not where it originated though. I actually did a random article search on wikipedia once and “The Speed of Sound in Seawater” popped up and I loved it as a band name. I feel like the band will have officially made it when oceanographers have to sift through page after page of websites about us on google in order to find information about the actual speed of sound in seawater.

How did the band get started?

We’ve all been playing music together for about 5 years, just not as The Speed of Sound in Seawater. We used to be in a band called Forestry Fighters (www.myspace.com/forestryfighters). Jordan and I both had recording equipment so we’d all get together with no real direction in mind and record whatever we felt like. Some of that stuff is pretty funny. In 2006 Jordan left on a mission for 2 years and Luke moved out to Folsom, so things sort of died down. Fernando and I still wanted to play music though, so we started playing a lot with my loop pedal and made due with two people for a while. Once Jordan came back he and Luke hopped on board and really fleshed out the band.

Who writes the lyrics?

What is your favorite song to play?

How was the recording process for you?

June 20, 2010 & June 26, 2010 – Bamboozle Roadshow in Philadelphia & Long Island

With the lineups changing for every stop on the tour, it was pretty cool seeing the bands at different times in the day. Although most of the bands played the same set every night, Third Eye Blind changed it up which was awesome. Speaking of TEB, the lineup for this year’s Roadshow was a fun mix to listen to and enjoy. It brought out a wider range of ages and sent everyone back to those grade school days when Simple Plan’s “I’m Addicted” was on repeat and Good Charlotte’s album “The Chronicles of Life and Death” set sail. The best part about this lineup is the bands got the chance to play and make friends with bands that inspired themselves growing up. Based on tweets from Jack and Alex from All Time Low, this tour is something they will never forget.

That said, the general feel of the Bamboozle Roadshow was very upbeat and exciting but not to the intensity of the Bamboozle Right/Left or Warped Tour where you’re running to catch a band every 20-30 minutes. There are two stages, but once the side stage is finished, the main stage sets off. However, just like those bigger festivals, there’s a designated spot for merch, crazy lines for signings, overpriced water and food, and of course the amazing array of people. Everything just adds up to a sick tour to blog about for sure.

Josh Moore of We Came As Romans took a break on the Scream It Like You Mean it Tour in Orangevale, California to discuss lyrics, fans, and how he feels about constantly being compared to the Devil Wears Prada.

How’s the Tour so far?
Its been really good. There has been some super long drives, like the venues on the West Coast are pretty far apart and we expected it, but we drove overnight last night… and the night before, and the night before, and i think the night before that. A lot of driving, but I mean its been fun. There are  a lot of bands on the bill so there’s always someone to hang out with.

How do you pass time during the long drives to each venue?
Sleep. I sleep. Or we watch movies. That’s about it.

Who from other bands have become your friends since Scream It Like You Mean It started?
Close To Home. That band as a whole we’ve been friends with for three years. They’re really great dudes, so I hang out with them a lot. I started making some friends in Sky Eats Airplane and thats cool because we’re label mates with them.

Do you watch the other bands sets?
I watch Close to Home a lot since they’re opening the tour and I know theor whole set. It’s always fun to watch them. I watch Ivoryline and Sky Eats Airplane a little bit. After we play, I’m already so hot from being on stage, so I don’t really want to go back in the venue and get hotter. I’ve watched Silverstein and Emery a few times on this tour.

What song do you get most excited to play?
My favorite song is the first song we always play, To Plant A Seed. Its the first song on our CD and I love playing it, its just a lot of fun.

When you guys play To Plant A Seed, I’ve noticed Dave always does a little jump and everyone seems really synchronized. Is that choreographed?
[laughs] Some of it. We talked about what we could do on stage that would look cool and kids would like, but a lot of the times we end up doing the same stuff because it feels right. Yeah, I guess, ‘it feels right,’ would be an accurate description.

Who writes the lyrics in We Came As Romans?
I do.

What do you try to express through your lyrics? A lot of people compare your writing to The Devil Wears Prada.
I think thats cool. Mike is a really good lyricist and if kids want to make that comparison, that’s awesome. The Devil Wears Prada is a Christian band, and we’re not. A lot of the time kids get confused because we are associated with them by genre and kind of our overall message. I don’t know, I like writing lyrics about things that have happened in my life that I know people can relate to. It’s always about the constant struggle to be a better person and I think that people are always feeling that way. I don’t think anyone will ever reach a point where they feel their life cannot get any better than right now. There’s always something more that could happen or something better you could be doing.

How does it make you feel when you hear fans express to you how much your writing has helped them?
Its amazing. I talked to a girl in Salt Lake City that said that she was actually struggling with depression and bad thoughts, and listening to our songs and reading our lyrics helped pull her out of that. It was really awesome to know that something I’m doing can help other people.. that our music and our lyrics have that power and that effect.  It’s great to hear that people are taking elements of our message and our lyrics because, I mean, thats the whole reason that we’re a band. We all try to live out the message that we bring to the stage, and its really really cool when we see other people trying to live that out with us.

Do you feel any pressure because you’ve all portrayed yourselves this way? Do you worry if you change what you write about or how you show yourself that kids will lose respect for the band?
Um, I don’t know. I don’t really see us changing the way that we portray ourselves or the message of our band. You know, everything changes, and we change as people as we grow up. I might grow as a writer or whatnot but at the same time, I’ll still – all of us – will still have that same foundation of what we believe in and what we try to do in life. Although little details about it might change, and beliefs about it might change, the whole foundation of it isn’t something that is just going to wash away for me.

To Plant A Seed didn’t come out too long ago, but is the band working on anything new yet?
Maybe, I don’t know, I’m not really allowed to talk about it. BUT, maybe. I’m just going to leave it at maybe.

Is there anything you want to add?
If you haven’t checked us out, check us out. Maybe you’ll like it, maybe you won’t. Give it a chance! If you’re already a fan, I encourage you to read deeper into what our band is about and hopefully come out to a show and talk to us about it. We love hearing how we can help out in anyone’s lives.

Interview conducted by Kristin Allen

Photo by Ali Carcache