Real Fake News – An Interview With Hard Times Co-Founder Bill Conway

I still remember when I discovered The Hard Times. It was a satire site, like The Onion, or New Zealand’s own The Civilian, but aimed at punk/hardcore culture. It was both incredibly funny and familiar. (This article hits so close to home, after I stopped working so I could join my friends Ranges on tour). As with any satire site, the humour lays in the premise being rediculous, but almost plausible enough to be true. And when you have material like ska music and straight edge to work with, the stories virtually write themselves. The Hard Times really nailed their niche, and as testament to this, virtually every article they post gets shared by my musician friends accross social media, even musos who aren’t directly part of the punk scene.

The Hard Times has blown up considerably since they began four years ago, earning millions of hits online, expanding into gaming culture, and branching into booking shows, publishing a book, a TV show, and now podcasts. I jumped at the chance to interview Bill Conway, who had co-founded the site with Matt Saincome.

Will Not Fade: Hi, how are you? I love your work and find The Hard Times hilarious and relatable. My friends and I are always sharing your articles, even the musicians in non-punk-affiliated music scenes. I’ve just listened to the first few episodes of your podcast and quite enjoyed them too.

First of all, congrats on your success to date. 2.3 million views in the space of a month is a lot of traffic. And the podcasts are great. What have been some of your highlights of the past four years?

Bill Conway, The Hard Times: One highlight was getting to go to beautiful Columbus, Ohio for the AP Awards. We were asked to write a lot of the copy for the presenters of the awards so it was a real joy to see the rhythm guitarist of some band I never heard of butcher a joke we wrote.

And at what point did you start considering yourselves sell-outs?

Once we got verified on social media, total sell out move.

But in all seriousness, I think that it’s cool, not only that you’ve got this far, bu also that you pay your contributors. [I’m not even in the position that I can pay myself!] Matt, is there a tension between freelancing for other sites, and hiring freelancers for your own site?

I’ll take this one Matt. Basically through The Hard Times, Matt developed a platform called Outvoice to make paying freelancers easier. No longer will freelancers have to beg to be paid, instead the publisher pays them as soon as an article goes live. Matt forced me to be a cheerleader for him.

You’ve had podcasts and zines and a writing career as precursors to The Hard Times. Why did you decide to take a less serious route?

You can either keep working for other people or try to carve out your own space. We didn’t start The Hard Times and expect to be “a thing” but we have been pleasantly surprised by the response and are very grateful people still pay attention to what we do.

The climate for dedicated satire sites wasn’t as prevalent back when you started. The Onion is perhaps the most well-known, but is usually fairly lame. Wunderground tackles music, but focuses on EDM. You mentioned Above Average and College Humour in a recent podcast. Were you trying to emulate any other sites when you started The Hard Times?

My teenage years were spent obsessing over The Onion. This was still when they had hard copies in newsstands and if I had a friend visiting New York I would make them bring me back a copy. I had every book they ever released and couldn’t get enough of them. That dry satire sense of humor was sort of embedded in me because of that and I think it helped us shape our own voice. I can say with absolute confidence that no other satire or general comedy sites had any influence on us. We figured out what worked as we went along.

I once wrote an article inspired by The Hard Times which involved calling my friends sellouts for writing songs that lasted longer than 3 minutes. Do you think I have potential?

As long as you don’t mention anything about “vegan pit beef,” “Keith Morris getting Locks of Love shutdown after donating hair,” or how many members a ska band has then you will be fine.

Tell me about your punk background. Who were the bands of note for you in you local scene? Who ran the shows? What were the venues like?

I grew up outside of Boston. Matt and I have talked about the different scenes that shaped us. Boston was basically built around fighting. Dumbass rival crews and a bunch of nonsense. Every VFW hall was a venue on the right day.

How was that scene unique, compared to DC, or New York, for example?

I will just go ahead and answer on behalf of Massachusetts. I started really going to shows around 2001 and it was a great time and a horrible time for Massachusetts hardcore. You had legendary bands like American Nightmare and Have Heart, and then garbage “mosh core” bands like On Broken Wings and Black My Heart. There was a lot going on. Filling this out reminded me to go back and listen to The Red Chord, who a lot of people consider like grindcore, but man they ripped. Great live show.

I’m really interested in this because the population and geography of New Zealand means we can’t sustain strong scenes the same in the way America can. I remember reading about places like CBGBs as a teen, and was super stoked that I managed to get to a show at Triple Rock in Minneapolis a few years ago. Americans are great at doing the DIY thing, and geographically, there are so many more cities you can visit if you want to tour. By comparison, here in New Zealand, a “nationwide” tour involves a shows on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with a drive home Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, we have great bands and venues, but it just feels so limited by comparison.

Yeah man, we take everything for granted here.

Do straight-edge kids get much flack where you grew up? Here in New Zealand we tend to give them a light-hearted ribbing and repeat the same lame jokes at their expense all the time.

I am straight edge, I will always be straight edge. Nobody ever really gave me too much shit. Boston is a drinking town, normally if you tell someone you don’t drink they assume you are a recovering alcoholic and leave you be.

On a side note – I went to America for a holiday when I was 20. I went to a gig – Mark Lanegan I think – and they X’d my hands because I was underage. I thought that was so cool that there was provision for underage kids to be able to access live music even at places where alcohol was served. Here in NZ you basically just miss out until you’re 18 (legal drinking age here) because most bands play bars and pubs and there aren’t many all age venues/shows.

When I was under 21 a venue X’d my hands and on the drive home we got pulled over and the cop saw the X’s on my hands and was like “Are you straight edge?” and I said “yeah but I didn’t draw these weak X’s.” I am not sure why he asked, but at that time straight edge was considered a gang by law enforcement.

What’s your best tour story?

I personally don’t have any. I was never in bands and I like being in bed early.

Full disclosure: I’m far more involved in the post-rock community than punk. The hard style pose for group photos has really taken off in that community in recent years (probably encouraged by The End Of The Ocean). Do you see this as cultural appropriation?

Yes, I will send you my Venmo to make up for this.

Punks love DIY. From zines, to making clothing, to home job tattoos and piercings, to booking tours and printing merch. Is there anything that you think we should leave to the pros, instead of trying out for ourselves?

Dentistry, and surgery are the only two things. Everything else is far game.

I presume that you’re familiar with Penelope Spheeris’ The Decline of Western Civilization. The first and third documentaries by in that series were centred around punk music (the second focuses on heavy metal). What genre do you think Spheeris would look at if she were to make a fourth entry these days?

Probably Juggalo shit, and after being immersed in that group for more than a few weeks she would probably scrap the whole project and live out the rest of her years in solitude on a farm trying to forget the atrocities she witnessed.

I’m really intrigued by the images you use to accompany your articles. Some are clearly photoshopped. Are the rest bought stock photos? Do you photograph yourselves, or your friends? And do you ever use friends names in place of fictitious names?

A little of everything. We have a stock photo account and a photo editor that can edit things together. We also have lots of friends pose things, and recently we started a Patreon and one of the perks is at a $10 a month level you can be featured as the photo of a Hard Times article and we will tag you on Instagram and all that good stuff.

President Trump brought the concept of “fake news” to the masses, in a time when so few are critical of the content presented to them. Did you face any backlash when the concept of “fake news” came to light?

For the most part we haven’t had any backlash. The whole “fake news” thing has been weird on a social media algorithm level, because Facebook is always tweaking what people see, and satire is supposed to be “protected” content, but it doesn’t always end up working that way.

You must get a load of hilarious comments from people who think that your articles are legitimate. Can you provide some examples of your favourite responses from people who clearly didn’t understand?

For my own mental sanity I stopped reading comments. The most common thing we see is people being like “this is unbelievable” then someone pointing out the fact we are a satire site, which always prompts the original person to say “well satire is supposed to be funny.” Like we are going to get insulted by that. But I try to avoid comments sections like the plague because that is where the worst aspects of humanity goes to jerk itself off.

Are there specific bands you’ve managed to offend when running parody articles on them?

We do an article “Iron Chic Shouts Drive Thru Order in Unison” and the bass player apparently didn’t like it too much. We did a few Dropkick Murphys headlines this past week and the singer of the band tweeted at us saying he liked them, so for the most part we get positive feedback, but people are sensitive sometimes and I get that.

What have been your more controversial articles to date?

“Warped Tour Stage Moved Back 100 Feet to Comply With Sex Offender Laws” created some rumblings and we had heard the Warped Tour people weren’t too happy with us. Any headline that has to do with guns or cops usually get people fired up. Americans love their guns man.

You’ve also had some overwhelming positive responses, as indicated by the mad traffic coming to your site. Brian Baker ordered a t-shirt. Do you know of many other celebrity endorsements?

At one point Chris Rock followed us on Instagram, but he unfollowed us and I really wonder what article is the one that made him do that.

Are there any topics that are untouchable? Bands too sacred to cover? A bad taste line that can’t be crossed?

I don’t think there are any truly untouchable topics, but we want to make sure we are always on the right side of history. There are definitely no band’s too sacred, everyone is fair game. But as far as bad taste, it really just comes back to not punching down.

Skinhead punks have been associated with Nazis at times, and you’ve posted plenty of articles ridiculing Nazis on your site. Do you consider this a social obligation, or just do it because it’s funny and topical?

I would say a little bit of both. Anyone that takes themselves too seriously needs to be taken down a peg. Matt and I are both straight edge and we make fun of straight edge all the time.

You branched from hardcore/punk to gaming. Can you see yourself spreading into new territory again? I don’t think the quirky stay-at-home-mum-posting-recipes blog had become too saturated yet.

We are always looking at ways to expand. Part of it is noticing gaps in the content market, and part of it is having the right team of people to fill those gaps. Thankfully with Hard Drive we had some home grown talent that was able to use our established system and make a great product.

Why the shift to podcasts?

Pretty simple answer, Matt and I wanted to talk with cool people we like. We figured now is a good time to kind of come out from behind the curtain and let the world know who we are.

Is it a hassle pressing all the podcasts to vinyl for the purist fans? 7 inch records can’t even fit that much on them!

It can be a pain in the ass, normally an episode is about an 75 minutes long so that equates to about 8 records per podcast, it can get expensive but it is worth it.

And now a book and a TV show? At what point does your empire cease to grow?

Matt and I won’t stop until every second of every day is filled with some sort of work, because we are stupid broken people.

So when are you going to form a new political party? Will Jello Biafra be an member?

We will need more grassroots funding so we can make a run for mayor in a small market. I do not think Jello will be on board, I have heard he is not that much of a fan.

How does the booking shows fit into The Hard Times brand? I was looking through some of the gig posters and you’ve had some seriously sweet lineups.

We actually have a live events coordinator named Nick Dill, he goes by Nick Bane. He is a Bay Area show promoter and has been doing it for years. He is an old pal of Matt’s and a huge fan of the site and he puts together some great shows.

Photo: Senny Mau

And for some silly fun at the end:

Please list your top 5 albums that you think my readers need to know about.

In no particular order:

Minor Threat – Complete Discography

The Gaslight Anthem – 59 Sound

Cave In – Beyond Hypothermia

At the Gates – Slaughter of the Soul

Saves the Day – Through Being Cool

Do you think that any of those albums would survive if we added a brass section to each?

I think Cave In has the most potential and it would sound very evil.

Do you have go-to throwdown/mosh moves? Favourite stage dive techniques?

I will be turning 35 in a few months so I have been in mosh and stage dive retirement for years, which is a good thing.

What is the best thing to use to spike your hair up?

2 part epoxy with with a bond strength of at least 3,300 PSI.

How hard are you?

Without question as hard as that one unpopped kernel in a giant mouthful of popcorn.

Would you rather fight a Danzig sized toddler, or 5 toddler sized Danzigs?

I was under the impression Danzig is already toddler sized just a bit more spooky, so I will go with the Danzig sized toddler.

The Hard Times links:

Website: https://thehardtimes.net/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehardtimesnews

Instagram: Thehardtimesnews

Twitter: RealPunkNews

Podcast: https://thehardtimespodcast.libsyn.com/

Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/thehardtimes

Joseph James

“The Punk Rock Kids Of Post-Rock”- An Interview With The End Of The Ocean

I befriended some of the members of The End Of The Ocean at dunk!USA when I was touring with the band Ranges last year. Their set was standout for a variety of reasons, but I’ll share a story of my personal connection.

I was at the front of the stage in the photo pit, taking pictures. Trish and Tara were both head banging as they played and I was trying to capture some shots of their hair flicking about. Tara got a bit too into it, and somehow lost balance, knocked her keyboard over, and fell over herself. I jumped up to help her reset her instrument, at the same time worried that I’d get in trouble for going onstage.

Tara was super grateful, and bought me a lot of drinks when we came through her home town of Columbus a few nights later. In all honesty, I can’t remember the all of exact details from Columbus, but I think I became a bit of a handful after too many beersies. I’m told that I got kicked out of a pizzeria, with someone from one of the bands carrying me away over their shoulder, quoting Lord Off The Rings while doing so.

So anyway, I think that The End Of The Ocean are pretty cool. Their music is great, and they’re fun to hang out with. After a long break, they’re back with two new singles, an upcoming album put out through the label Equal Vision, and an upcoming tour with my friends Tides Of Man.

What follows is an interview that probably contains too many stupid in-jokes, but I hope it illuminates who The End Of The Ocean are, and gives you insight into a great band with a great sense of fun.

The End Of The Ocean at dunk!USA 2017. Image: Will Not Fade

Joseph (Will Not Fade): What inspired the video clip for “bravado”? Slipknot’s “Before I Forget“?

The End Of The Ocean: We compiled a list of wacky ideas and randomly selected three elements that we liked. Our original idea for the video was to have a food fight in our animal masks whilst blowing firecrackers at each other (firecrackers are a normal staple in our van when we’re on tour.) Kris Herrmann, the videographer and director for the “bravado” music video, had a less messy vision in his head with a lot of fantastic suggestions, including a stylistic nod towards Slipknot’s “Before I Forget” video. We are very pleased with how the music video ultimately turned out.

Does your music have a message?

Of course. And it’s up to each individual to decide what that message might be.

What sets this new music apart from your previous output?

During the writing process we accepted that we could not bear the burden of fans’ nostalgia from our previous releases, which left us unafraid to probe our inner space and musical capabilities more freely. Individually, we were all dealing with a series of blows that life threw our way. The emotions and growth we all experienced forged a different fury and wonderment that we hadn’t tried to express musically before. Our new album is a bit more straightforward in some parts, angry, hopeful, even a little playful, and peppered with enough blast beats throughout for every man, woman, and child.

Tell me about working with Mike Watts. How did this partnership come about?

Mike is the man. His previous work speaks volumes on it’s own (producer for The Dillinger Escape Plan, Glassjaw, As Cities Burn, Hopesfall, etc.) and we were lucky enough that Equal Vision could hook us up with him. Mike was super intuitive to how we wanted this new album to sound, and he hit it out of the park.

The End Of The Ocean at dunk!USA 2017. Image: Will Not Fade

I’m intrigued by the album name -aire, could you explain the meaning of it?

The concept of our album stemmed from examining and discussing our humanity, what a strange trip it is to be alive, and the intense elements of our experiences that make us who we are. -aire is a suffix that forms nouns denoting a person characterized by or occupied with that named by the stem. We thought this suffix communicated all of these questions we were asking ourselves beautifully and abstractly.

Also, one of our bandmates is obsessed with the John Wick series and got part of the inspiration for the album name from one of those movies.

How have fans reacted to the two singles (“Bravado” and “Desire”) so far?

Our fans have always been ridiculously generous and supportive of our music. The response so far has been super. (Thanks, dudes!)

How has your approach to writing music changed since you started The End Of The Ocean?

This is the longest held lineup we’ve ever had in this band. So, basically, we argue less during practice and writing?

Generally speaking, we write most of our music together and historically that’s how our band has always done it. Not much has deviated from that.

I think that it is so awesome that you have two women in the band. What message have you got for any girls wanting to get into music?

Trish: Go for it. Just do it.

Tara: There’s nobody holding you back but you.

Do not enter this musical world with a victim complex. It’s boring and will only make you a sorry sack of excuses for not putting in the work.

If you’re a woman, you already know how many opinions and stereotypes with which you have to contend on a daily basis. Transcendence is harder than resigning yourself to other people’s’ opinions, but it makes you mighty. No wilting. No whimpering. Jump in head first and get ready to laugh at yourself often!

From Tara and Trish: If you’re a woman at one of our shows, please feel free to approach us if you’d like. We’re constantly in the midst of a sausage party when we’re doing band stuff, and it’s nice getting small breaks from all that. Sisterhood, unite!

I remember hearing that you’ve signed to Equal Vision when I was in Columbus last year. Has it been hard keeping this a secret?

We pretty much told all of our friends immediately. The only thing we didn’t do was post about it online until the label gave us the green light for the official announcement. Heh.

The End Of The Ocean at dunk!USA 2017. Image: Will Not Fade

In the past you’ve done DIY packaging for making your CD’s. Do you think this has helped you forge a closer connection with your fanbase? Do Tara and Trish really kiss the tshirts and CD’s?

It was a cool feature, but we aren’t aware of it making a deeper connection to our fans. Ultimately, the DIY packaging set the stage for us to develop minor carpal tunnels syndrome, watch cool movies together while folding and stamping the sleeves, and for Tara to make fun of Kevin for how much Type O Negative he listens to on a regular basis.

Tara and Trish do not kiss any merch. Sorry, guys and ghouls. They have, however, accidentally sneezed on or briefly worn some of the merch. Who doesn’t like laughing hysterically at a child-sized woman trying on a XXXL shirt? (Obviously referring to Trish. Tara is sizeably more like an average-sized man.)

Are we ever going to hear a split release with The Ocean Collective? Or We Lost The Sea?

Who?

Kidding. We’d bet $5 they’d probably respond the same way about us.

How about a HIM or CKY split, yeah?

I remember during your soundcheck at dunk!USA you promised Nickelback covers. Have you ever followed through on such threats?

Don’t be afraid. Keep coming to our shows to find out. Maybe we’ll throw in some Creed too.

It was a fantastic set that really stood out. I loved the extra touches, like throwing beach balls into the audience and the Walking Dead sample. At a post-rock festival like dunk!, many of the bands sound similar, and struggle to appear unique. How do you come up with ideas for making your shows interesting?

Thank you for the generous compliment. We just like to have fun as a band and don’t take ourselves too seriously. Most of our ideas come from us joking around in the van because we’re bored. The props for dunk!USA were a fun idea until the smokers in the band realized the joke was on them and they had to blow up all the beach balls by themselves. Yadda, yadda, straightedge revenge or something? Thanks a lot, Wes and Kevin.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Man Mountain (@man_mountain)

Shown above is one of the beach balls from the dunk!USA set. The guys from Man Mountain added some creative touches and gifted it to their tour buddies Ranges.

Tell me your coolest nautical related story.

That ferry we took to get to dunk!USA in Vermont was pretty siq.

Wes, what is the secret to keeping your flesh beautiful?

Pringles. Red Bull. And the most diverse array of gas station delectables you could possibly imagine.

(Joseph, it’s hilarious you remembered us mentioning this while we were all hanging out at dunk!USA. Side story to fill everyone else in: When we were on tour a number of years ago, our drummer Wes was sitting outside the venue we were playing in Tempe, Arizona. We didn’t realize the adult bookstore next door was also a known glory-hole hot spot. So, as our sweet little Wesley was killing time by himself before our set, a suspect man approached him from the aforementioned adult bookstore and said with a thousand yard stare, “You have beautiful flesh.” The man, while creepy, isn’t wrong. Wink wink)

The End Of The Ocean at dunk!USA 2017. Image: Will Not Fade

I remember hanging out with Tara and Bryan in Junius’ hotel room after dunk!USA. A few of the guys from Caspian were there too. That was a big moment for me, realising that my small music blog had been a catalyst for travelling around the world and hanging out with some musicians I held great admiration for. Do you ever have moments where you have to step back and take stock of how far you’ve come?

That was a fun night! And yes, we have those big picture moments all of the time. Band life is absurd, so when you approach this lifestyle with a spirit of humility and gratitude, it isn’t difficult to get smacked squarely in the face with awe when stuff gets really meta.

You frequently do the “hardstyle” pose in your photos, and this has begun to spread within the post-rock community. I’ve been in a bunch of said photos with the likes of Ranges, Man Mountain and Cloud Shelter . Do you know where the hardstyle pose originated, or how it became popularised?

Prison. Hardstyle posing was also known as a “prison pose”. The tough guy hardcore scene is a sub-group that adopted this photo pose. And we took it from the hardcore scene and brought it to post-rock.

Our very own Kevin Shannon is also the originator of the #dailyhardstyle hashtag on Instagram. Bless.

What rules do you have in place for staying sane/healthy on tour?

Headphones. Sleep whenever it’s possible. Drink lots of water and juices. Bring a good book and keep feeding that noodle so it doesn’t turn to mush.

What is the best pizza flavour?

Trish – Pineapple

Kevin and Wes – All pizza is good pizza. No slice left behind. (Only it it’s vegan.)

Tara – Your dad’s b-hole

Crazy riders belong in the pantheon of rock mythology, with hilarious stories from the likes of Ozzy Osbourne and Van Halen. That said the greatest rider I’ve ever seen was yours from dunk!USA. Where did you find such inspiration?

One of us was bored one night and just started compiling the list. We wanted David Zeidler [the dunk!USA organiser] to know what he was “in for” when we rolled through town for dunk!USA. If you aren’t laughing, you ain’t living, my friend.

David Zeidler called you the “punk rock kids of post-rock”. Do you think you deserve this title?

We love it. We’ll take it.

The End Of The Ocean dunk!USA hospitality rider

What have been your career highlights to date?

Definitely playing the main stage at dunk!fest in Belgium. We still talk about it almost every single time we’re all together jamming or hanging out. It’s one of the best festivals out there to date.

And how about the worst moments?

Not having AC in our van for a six and a half week tour in the summer of 2012. Vinyl seats are no bueno in that type of scenario.

As you know, I talk funny because I’m a New Zealander, and Jakob are one of the best bands from my country. Did you befriend them when you both played dunk!festival 2015 in Belgium?

Unfortunately, we never had the pleasure of meeting them. Jakob is great, though!

Which bands are your faves for playing/touring with?

In most cases we’d say the heavier, the better. Our live performance is a bit of a tempest, and we just love performing with other bands with similar energy.

Some fantasy tours: Kevin – Bruce Spingsteen, Type O Negative, Bush Wes – Behemoth, NIN, Sigur Ros Trish – Thursday, Thrice, The Story So Far Tara – Bjork, Die Antwoord, The Misfits

Usually a new single signals an upcoming album, and then a supporting tour. What plans do you have in the works?

Our new album “-aire” is coming out January 18, 2019 through Equal Vision Records! We are also hitting the road for a headlining tour with Tides of Man in tow. Check the dates below and we look forward to seeing you guys soon!

Image: Bee Gats

THE END OF THE OCEAN -AIRE TOUR

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TIDES OF MAN

JAN 18 COLUMBUS, OH AT ACE OF CUPS

JAN 19 CHICAGO, IL AT BEAT KITCHEN

JAN 20 DETROIT, MI AT EL CLUB

JAN 22 TORONTO, ON AT LEE’S PALACE

JAN 23 MONTREAL, QC AT CASA DEL POPOLO

JAN 24 NEW YORK, NY AT SAINT VITUS

JAN 25 ALLSTON, MA AT GREAT SCOTT

JAN 26 PHILADELPHIA, PA AT MILKBOY

JAN 27 BALTIMORE, MD AT OTTOBAR

The End Of The Ocean links:

Pre-order link to the album: https://theendoftheocean.merchnow.com

Website: http://theendoftheocean.com/

Bandcamp: https://theendoftheocean.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theendoftheoceanband/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/endoftheocean

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theendoftheocean/

Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/artist/4AXRViJcT2cJ0x1CxSSldW

Joseph James

Stayin’ Gold: An Interview With Lookin Up’s Luke Cooper

New York hardcore legends Gorilla Biscuits came to New Zealand back in 2015. A group of us from Wellington all pitched in to rent a van and drove up for the gig. It was a great trip, with positive vibes and fun times all round. The show was a total blast. It was also where I first saw Lookin Up play, who had a supporting slot.

Lookin Up also played at Declaration AD’s final show, which was also an amazing night. It was bittersweet, because Declaration AD had been a huge part of my life for the past five years, and this show signaled the end of an era. But it was also the best night, with so many people coming together to celebrate their legacy.

And I’m sure I’ve seen Lookin Up a few other times – sometimes with a line-up of smaller NZ hardcore bands, and sometimes opening for bigger names like Turnstile. But those shows I just mentioned are the two that stand out for me. Every time I saw them, I remember being impressed by the intensity, positivity, and the sheer fun nature of their sets.

Lookin Up are releasing their second album, Gold, on Friday 5th October, so I had a chat with Luke Cooper to hear about recent changes the band have gone through, the new album, and touring around the world.

Will Not Fade: Lookin Up have dropped off the radar for a while. Now you’re back, with a new album and a different lineup. Talk me through what you’ve been up to.

Luke Cooper: Oh man, we have been up to so much. A few days after the Rise Against show in December 2015, Rowan and Levi told us they were leaving, so we knew the Turnstile tour in January 2016 will be our last shows with that line up. Jamie and I were thinking about whether or not we wanted to carry on and decided to take the rest of 2016 off to reset. I continued to write and by the end of 2016 we were ready to go again. We spent most of 2017 building the band up again in the rehearsal room and at the start of this year we had over 20 songs that we were proud of. We were ready to get back to playing shows again, so we booked the NZ tour and then headed off to Europe to record the new songs and play a bunch of shows.

Are you still playing Reborn material, or did that era of the band finish when Rowan and Levi left?

Yeah definitely, we still really like that album and all of those songs are fun to play, so I don’t think we will ever stop playing at least a few of them. We wrote the new songs to intentionally integrate the 2 albums into our set and all the new songs are a natural progression from what were we doing in Reborn.

You’ve been through a number of lineup changes over the past few years. What were the key things you were looking for when trying to find new members to join the band?

Yeah, we had a really good dynamic and understanding with Rowan and Levi. When we first started the band, we set some goals and achieved every single one of them. This got us to a point where we either had to start investing a lot more time and finances into international touring or to just call it a day. Rowan had already been there with a bunch of other bands and he and Levi both didn’t want to commit in the way that they knew they needed too. Jamie and I still believed in what we were doing and saw potential in it, so they encouraged us to keep going.

Since we had already done over 4 years of ground work, we needed to find people who were ready to take the next steps with us. This has taken a few different combinations of people to really work out, but with Chow on board we are good to go.

Dylan’s nickname is Chow Ming. I remember this being super confusing when I first met him. Have you got any funny stories about this?

Haha yes it was very confusing. I remember when Chow changed his name on Facebook and lost hundreds of friends because no one knew who Dylan Stubbins was. Back when he was in Blameless and they toured with my old band Punisher, we played in Christchurch and took the ferry down. On the ferry ticket I listed his name as Chow Ming, because I was so used to calling him that, and he had to get a note from his mum saying that he although his ID says Dylan Stubbins, he is Chow Ming also hahaha

Do you ever dress the same to be cool onstage? Just wondering if a Brave Sons influence rubbed off.

Oh yeah man, Brave Sons are the reason we started playing music.

You recorded Gold in Norway. Why Norway?

Once we had an albums worth of new songs, we started looking at recording options. I have a studio at home and it would have been really easy to just record it there and do what we have always done. But we wanted to try something new, so I typed into google “Cool recording studios” and a picture of Ocean Sound Recordings popped up. It was one of the most insane things I had ever seen. I contacted the studio manager, it turned out to be affordable and we started to plan our year around that. Since we were already in Europe, we decided to play some shows so I reached out to a bunch of promoters and booking agents and made it happen.

How long are your sets? I have 23 minutes of Lookin Up music on my computer. How much music do you need (duration-wise) to warrant touring?

Haha with Rowan and Levi our sets were about 15 mins of pure carnage but that was enough for those sorts of shows. With the new album we have built more of a sustainable set and can play up to around 45 mins if we need too. I think that if you are supporting a show and can cram 9 insane songs into a 15 min set, it helps people remember your band without burning everyone out before the headliners come on.

What happened to the 2017 demos? (“Break” and “Proud”).

Oh yes, we got restless for a month or so and with the line up we had at the time, we recorded those 2 songs and booked a few shows. That line up didn’t last very long so we took them down and re-worked them. A new version of “Proud” is on Gold

I’ve tagged along with bands on tour around NZ, America and Europe. All offered vastly different experiences. Can you tell me about your favourite places to play, and why?

My favourite place to play was Aarhus in Denmark. The venue was a youth building, a lot like Zeal and we had driven 6 hours from Netherlands to be there. We weren’t expecting much but it was one of the best responses we have seen as a band. We ended up getting about 100 Euro for the show and didn’t have to eat stale bread and apples for dinner again hahaha

I’m sure that you have played a wild range of venues. Are there any unusual ones that stand out?

We played a café in Prague where the show was free and the café was open to members of the public. People brought their dogs and children in to get dinner and had to deal with some of the loudest most aggressive music you can imagine. The toilet was right next to the stage and I remember young kids and old people walking right past me terrified and blocking their ears all night. No one spoke English either so it was really interesting working out what to do in between songs.

A world tour of 100 shows is a big commitment. What strategies do you have in place to stay sane on the road?

There will be a whole lot of kick boxing sparring, a whole lot of jiu jitsu a whole lot of bombs [I assume Luke means jumping into water here] and a whole lot of Astrid S and Sigrid in the van. If everyone in the van gets in a routine and eats well, its pretty easy to stay sane on the road.

Image: Dylan Gerschwitz

Luke, are you and Jamie brothers? How does this affect the band dynamic?

Oh yes we are, its one of the worst things you can ever imagine. I definitely would not recommend it.

Is music a viable career in 2018? Can you break even – or better yet – make a living as a musician? I know that you are an engineer, and do recording and mixing for a living, Luke. What about the other guys?

I think a career in music is more viable now than ever. Bands definitely aren’t selling as many albums as they used too but they are all making way more money touring than ever before. Like every industry in the world, you have to work hard and make wise choices. At the moment we all have other jobs that enable us to pay our bills, fund the band and generally be functioning members of society. But we wont need to do that for much longer and we have every intention of making this as financially viable as possible.

What has been your highlight to date? And what are you most looking forward to?

That trip to Europe on the whole was an incredible experience. We learned a lot about our selves and what is actually possible as a band and we came back from it with a defined sense of direction. Writing and recording an album is a massive strain on time and energy so we are really looking forward to playing as many shows as possible in as many places as we can.

Tell me about Gold.

Gold is 11 bangas that we have been working on for the last year. There are some songs that will confuse people and some songs that are reminiscent of the Reborn era. We got our friend Greg Haver to help produce the songs, his engineer Brendan Davies came with us to Norway and was an absolute wizard. Tom Lord Alge mixed the 3 singles and helped me out with the remaining songs and Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound mastered the album. Everything sounds exactly as we intended and we couldn’t be happier. We can’t wait for people to hear it.

I really dig the two singles I’ve heard so far. “Don’t” has a mean groovy riff. And I love how the vocals on “Enough” alternate between sounding strong and distant. It’s quite moody but at the same time direct. Neither song is as heavy as your early material, but I am thoroughly enjoying them.

Thanks man, we spent a lot of time working on structured song writing and arrangement of those songs and wanted to record them as well as possible. Recorded, they aren’t as trashy as Reborn but live they are some of the heaviest songs we have ever written.

What is the key message that you hope people hear as they listen to your music?

We just want people to leave our shows feeling better about their lives in general. We focus on positive messages with our lyrics but everything is open to interpretation.

Do you ever get the urge to have Joel Little produce you so you can become the next Lorde? [Rowan who used to sing for Lookin Up was in the band Goodnight Nurse with Little]

Hahaha absolutely, watch this space…

Can you please list your favourite dog breeds?

Bonobo Chimpanzee

Lookin Up are releasing Gold on Friday October 5th, with a NZ tour taking place in October and November, and international tour to follow.

Lookin Up are:

Jamie Cooper – Lead Vocals / Bass
Luke Cooper – Guitar / Backing Vocals
Dylan Stubbins – Drums

Lookin Up links:

www.facebook.com/lookinuplookinup
www.instagram.com/lookinupnz
www.youtube.com/channel/UCcr6h3zhC8ojBAfLZET5z6Q/videos
www.lookinup.bandcamp.com
https://open.spotify.com/artist/54bc4MYPlOY1WdwmiAbfGS?si=r4kRMnh_QIqixWO-e8e1DA
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/artist/lookin-up/1406543174

Interview by Joseph James

Photos by Dylan Gerschwitz

Infinite Ceiling: An interview with Tides of Man

I befriended Florida-based Tides of Man last year when they played a handful of shows with the band Ranges, who I was on tour with. We fast became friends, and hearing them play unreleased songs every night raised my expectations of upcoming album, Every Nothing.

They called me by my nickname of Baggins – a New Zealand/ Lord of the Rings reference that Ranges started – and we shared some great times on the road. It was a ridiculously fun week involving lots of beer, Taco Bell, sleeping in tour vans and listening to great music. I was fortunate enough to see them again half a year later, when they played dunk!festival in Belgium this May.

Their last album, Young and Courageous, stands as one of my favourites. And Every Nothing follows suit as a well-crafted, emotionally charged masterpiece.

I interviewed guitarist Spencer Gill to find out what Tides of Man have been up to in recent years, and to learn a bit more about the new record coming out.

Spencer at dunk!festival 2018

Joseph James (Baggins) – Will Not Fade: First up, congrats on the new album. I know you’ve put a lot of time into Every Nothing, so it must feel good to see all that effort coming to fruition.

Let’s go back a bit to start with. Tides of Man started off as an entirely different sounding project. To me, your earlier albums sound like Coheed & Cambria. Then Tilian (vocals) left, and after failing to choose on a new singer, you decided to continue without one. How did your old fans react to Young and Courageous being an instrumental album?

Spencer Gill – Tides of Man: Our old fans were very open to our new sound. We had overwhelming support on our crowdfunding campaign from our existing fanbase and a lot of people were very happy with the transition. Of course there were people who didn’t appreciate the transition, but that’s completely natural in any big change I think.

How does writing instrumental music compare to writing music that features lyrics?

It’s definitely different. You can’t rely on a Verse/Chorus structure, and you have a lot more space to fill than if there were vocals there. I think each part has to be chosen carefully and you have to keep the melody interesting. The feel of a build, or the tone of an individual instrument suddenly becomes very important when it’s not sitting back in the mix underneath vocals.

Does your music have a message? What inspires the songwriting process?

We like to be subtle with our message. We feel that music (especially instrumental) has a lot to do with the listener’s personal connection to it. We definitely have a certain theme in mind for each album, but we like to leave a little interpretation there for the listener.

Inspiration for us comes from so many different things. Dan could be listening to a new record and really like the tone of some guitar and then we kind of pull from that and write a whole new song. We could be jamming in the practice space, and all of the sudden Alan and Josh just lock into some cool groove out of nowhere. A lot of our songs start off like this, then we quickly record them and rework them until we are completely happy.

I know that a lot of people I’ve talked to discovered Tides of Man through Audiotree. Tell me about the experience of recording an Audiotree session.

That was full-on nerve racking. But the guys at Audiotree made it so smooth, and were very nice to us. They guided us through the whole thing.

We thought it turned out great, and the recording quality was unreal! We are super thankful to Audiotree for having us on there, and we have definitely noticed that as one of the top ways that people have discovered our new music.

It has been four years since you released your last record. Talk me through what you’ve been doing since then.

Writing, jamming, re-writing, scratching everything all together, fully second guessing all of our ability to write anything again, then re-writing again. In the end, we are finally happy with our new record and proud to put it out. We have put a lot of late nights into this album and we made it a point to never compromise if we didn’t like something. We kept working at it until we were happy.

Dan at dunk!festival 2018

This is your fourth studio album. How have things changed since you released your first EP ten years ago?

Ha! We are better musicians for sure. We know our way around a studio now, and can really focus on getting great tones and making the studio make the song even better. Before, we were scared of the metronome, and had no idea what we were doing as far as amp selection, drum selection, production, etc. But I think every band goes through that transition of getting familiar with the studio and then using it to their advantage.

Are emo fringes ever going to come back in fashion?

Did they ever go out of fashion? Is this because we used to rock that haircut?

Haha maybe…

You used crowd funding when recording Young and Courageous. Why didn’t you opt to do that again for Every Nothing?

The last crowd funding campaign was awesome, but we always intended to make the band support itself as a business. Putting out Young and Courageous on our own without a label allowed us to make that a reality. We wanted to make the band do Every Nothing on it’s own dime. It forced us to make decisions with our money and be responsible not only as musicians, but as a business.

Alan at dunk!festival 2018

On a related note, how does recording and releasing an album independently compare to when you were signed to Rise Records?

There’s a lot more work involved to be short. When you are on a label, you get booked in a studio and show up to record your album. They take care of marketing, packaging, design, distribution, etc. That’s all on us as an independent band.

We are involved in every aspect of the release of the record, right down to arguing about what exactly should be on the center label of the vinyl.

A Thousand Arms are awesome, and I love those guys so much, but is there an easier option for ordering the record for those of us who don’t live in America?

We are in the works of setting up European distribution of vinyl.

Every Nothing sounds a lot heavier than Young and Courageous. Was this a conscious decision you made when songwriting?

I think it was a natural progression that just sort of happened. The quiet parts are quieter, and the loud parts are louder. That’s how we felt at the time of writing these particular songs.

Tides Of Man setlist from their US tour last year

I notice that the song names written on your setlist from tour last year differ from the new album track names. Have you renamed them, or are there some b-sides in the works?

We have horrible working titles for our tracks, and we have them for so long that we tend to remember them as that title rather than the actual title on the record. A B-Side or two may be in the works, but no promises.

Joel Frieders discovered that on your last album, the track “Hold Still” starts like the Yo Gabba Gabba song by the same name. Have you hidden any Easter eggs like that on the new record?

Ha! That was an absolute coincidence. Someone told me the other day that it apparently has a train noise in a section of it too.

As far as we know, there are no similarities to any children’s tv shows in our music, but we would be happy to find out after the fact that we accidentally ripped off Barney.

Many of you work as studio musicians. Which has more pressure: playing for other musicians, or working on your own project?

Playing for other musicians is definitely a job in and of itself, and we always want to deliver exactly what each client wants, so there is pressure for sure.

But writing your own music has so much more. It’s hard to explain why, but it feels like you are laying your identity on the line with each note, and if you mess it up you’re done for.

I know that the artwork was one of last things that you sorted out for this album. Would you care to talk about the album cover and general art direction? I know that Dan does design, and Alan is a photographer, so the visuals must be important to you.

Design is definitely important to us. As an instrumental band, all we have to communicate the feel of the record is the design and song titles, so we spend a lot of time throwing ideas back and forth on the direction and how it fits the album. On this one we wanted something that showed mundane everyday existence against pure nothingness. The album is really about the interplay between our fixation on mundane, meaningless things and the bigger picture that we forget to look at.

I should also add that the video for “Static Hymn” is great.

Thanks! Stephen Mlinarcik brought that idea to life! He was awesome to work with.

Tides of Man is based in Tampa, Florida, but Josh lives in London, and last I heard, Alan lives in LA. How do you make it work with such big distances between you all?

Luckily we all enjoy traveling. We always have a home base in Tampa, and Josh and Alan never hesitate to fly in and stay for a while. We’ve never had a problem with the distance.

I’ve seen you play at dunk!festival in both the US and Belgium and you have Arctangent coming up. Does your approach change between playing festivals and standard shows?

We try to simply play our music well and feel it with the crowd. I don’t think that should be any different between festivals and standard shows.

You’ve played with some great bands during your career. I can imagine that the Karnivool tour would have been incredible. And you were all buzzing when I last saw you in Europe after playing with EF and aswekeepsearching. Which bands have you most enjoy playing with, and who do you still to aspire to share a stage with?

Karnivool was definitely a treat to watch every night. We also really enjoyed playing with Rare Futures (formerly Happy Body, Slow Brain). Of course, touring with Covet and Vasudeva was awesome! Those guys are super talented. Ranges was also awesome to tour with. There’s too many good times to pick and choose which tour we were most grateful for. We have made amazing friends from all over the world because we are able to go out and tour. It’s just been amazing from the get go.

In the future we’d love to tour with This Will Destroy You, Russian Circles, Mogwai, Circa Survive, Thrice, and many more.

Vinny with Tides of Man dunk!festival 2018

Vinny Capitani playing with Tides of Man at dunk!USA festival 2017

We’ve all spent our fair share of time sleeping in vans. Do your wives/girlfriends get jealous that you sleep beside Vinny Capitani on tour?

They were absolutely jealous until he removed his beautiful locks. Now, not so much.

What are some of the most important lessons you’ve learnt about touring as a band?

If you don’t constantly try to improve as a band, and tackle something bigger you end up nagging at each other over stupid shit. We’ve learned this from personal experience. You always have to be pushing yourselves towards being better as a band, and you can never get stuck on the losses.

You’ve all eaten a lot of taco bell in your time, having been sponsored by Taco Bell through the Feed The Beat program. What are your top tips for making the most of the Taco Bell menu? I’m happy to hear vegan options too, seeing as a few of you are vegan.

Order anything grilled “extra crispy”
Add a lot of Fire Sauce
Get that creamy jalapeño sauce too
If you’re vegan, get on that Fresco menu. It’s great.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dan Miller (@tidesofdan)

My favourite memory of the times spent with Tides of Man was when we went on an adventure in New Jersey, exploring the “Gates of Hell” during the time between load in and sound check. What are some other memorable adventures that you’ve been on as a band?

So many amazing memories as a band! Driving all night to see Moab, Utah at sunrise. A day off at Cedar Point Park back in 2010 when we rode coasters all day with the entire tour party. Sky Diving at sunset on the coast of California. No A/C in the van for 5 days in Texas. Holding up signs at shows to find a place to stay for the night. Seeing Europe and the UK for the first time. Taking shots of “Red Death” in Tours, France. These are just a few.

Every Nothing is due out in August. What upcoming plans do you have for the band?

We are playing Fete De Lion festival August 3rd, and then ArcTanGent festival August 18th, and we plan to do a Europe/UK run in-between the two. Later in the fall we will be doing a US run.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I’m enjoying the new record and I’m sure that you are excited to share it with the rest of the world shortly. Is there anything else that you would like to mention?

Yes, thank you Baggins. Only other thing to mention is that you can pre-order our album now over at A Thousand Arms website. Check it out.

Tides of Man pre-order options at A Thousand Arms: https://athousandarms.store/collections/tidesofman

Josh at dunk!festival 2018

Tides of Man links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tidesofman/
Bandcamp: https://tidesofman.bandcamp.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tidesofman
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tidesofman/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGu5lp7dVJNbsYCEjN2Mk_A

All photos by Joseph James (aka Baggins) except a few embedded from Dan’s instagram.

The Great Silence: An Interview With OHGOD

Hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, instrumental prog-rockers OHGOD have just released a stellar début album, The Great Silence. Following from the success of this release, the quartet are about to make their way to Europe to play dunk!festival (Zottegem, Belgium) and Pelagic fest (Berlin, Germany), as well as supporting metalcore giants Jinjer on a German tour.

I’m planning on making a very similar trip myself, so I reached out to the band for an interview.

Bassist Mark Woolfrey was super stoked to hear that his music had reached my ears as far away as New Zealand, and chatted with me about the recent album, upcoming tour, and plans for the future.

Image: Laura McCullagh

Will Not Fade: I really enjoy your sound. It is a hybrid of progressive metal and post-rock yet isn’t depressing. Who are some of your key influences?

Mark Woolfrey (bass): Wow New Zealand so rad! Thanks man glad you enjoy our music, it is always cool to know our music is traveling around. Influences are always a tough one to answer. As a band, we have a very eclectic range of music. It’s also hard to answer because a lot of the time we pull fragments from all over the show, not even just bands, sometimes a single song if that makes sense. If I had to pick one band. Pick or die type vibes, If These Trees Could talk was certainly a huge influence when we started writing together.

Sorry if this question makes you groan, but did you always set out to stay as an instrumental act when you started the band?

No worries! When OHGOD was born we started just writing and at the time we didn’t really even consider having a vocalist, not an intentional choice or anything, we were just focusing on the music. Then as things started coming together we kind of all came to the same point of “do we even want vocals?” It sort of gave us a whole lot of freedom as a band without a vocalist so we stuck with it..

Tell me about the South African Metal Music Awards.

The South African Metal Music Awards is a rad initiative here in South Africa that really tries to recognize specifically metal bands for their achievements. It’s also a great concept to bring together a growing but niche scene in SA. At the end of the day it’s just great to acknowledge bands for what they put in . We have found despite not being “metal” we have managed to find ourselves accepted in the metal scene which is pretty awesome. In short it is a really cool group from across the industry who run & organise the awards, each year they grow and improve things. We are pretty stocked to have taken a few awards home through the last few.

You have an amazing European tour coming up. South Africa and Germany are a long way from each other. How did this tour come about?

There is rather a lot of ocean and land between them haha. Well a long story short our manager Calvin does a great job at networking and talking to the right people. We have worked with him for long now, we kind of let him just do his own thing and he runs with it. He did what he does and got us on the lineup for Dunk! in Belgium and Pelagic in Berlin. Then we were super happy to partner with Turning Tricks Entertainment as our international agents who did what they do best. They came back to us with a number of dates through Germany supporting Jinjer on their Cloud Factories EU Tour 2018 with the rad dudes from The Dali Thundering Concept. So it was a great combo job of a great team and agents. Both move mountains for us.

Which acts are you most excited to see at dunk! and Pelagic festivals?

How long have you got?? haha. Can we just say both festivals and all the acts. Pretty much all the bands at both are on our playlists. We are all frothing over the headliners though.

Any guesses as to who the secret headliner for Pelagic fest is? My money is on The Ocean.

Hmmm yeah that’s a tough one we have also been trying to figure that one out. Not sure where we would put our South African Rands on that one.

It looks like you’ve been earning lots of slots for festivals. Do you approach festival sets differently to a standard gig?

We have been focusing a lot more on festivals recently as a band. It is the kind of shows we want to focus on more. We have also been given so many great opportunities in both SA and overseas, we are constantly looking to take our shows to the next level or stage. I think we do spend a lot more time in selecting a set. We have been focusing on building our set with a lot more additions outside of just our instruments though. Quite excited for that!

I’m super jealous that you’ve got to play with Karnivool multiple times over the years. I’ve only ever seen them once. My friends in Tides of Man have toured with them in the past as well. Tell me about opening for them!

We have actually only ever played with Karnivool once. Again mad props to Turning Tricks for bringing them over to SA. What can one even say after watching Karnivool haha. What a band, they know how to put one hell of a show they break you brain and they’re just sonic architects. We are all huge fans of them, so without sounding cliché jamming with was like a dream. Tides Of Man you say? Now that is another band we can’t get enough of.

You crowdfunded your recent album via Thundafund. How did you find that process, asking your fans to front up money for an album before you made it?

Yeah that was mind-blowing! We received such a big response and help with our Thundafund. It was actually quiet intimidating to be honest, it really puts you out there. You start questioning it like would we hit it would we not. It really felt like a gamble. It was kind of humbling to see so many people who believed in us though, some people went all out and donated crazy amounts. Thundafund really allowed us to focus on putting out the best album out that we could. We have some of the best fans from all over.

Obviously you should be super stoked on The Great Silence. How did his recording process differ from Forest Feuds?

Well the major difference was we recorded Forest Feuds as a live multi track where as The Great Silence we did the more traditional approach of recording. We certainly learned a lot from Forest Feuds and with The Great Silence we just felt it was time to crank it up things to the next level. We wanted to put out an album that we could be like yes we are happy with that. We also had the means to put out a better album with funds and being able to work with the people we wanted for different aspects of the album. Our own guitarist David really spearheaded the recording process and Dylan Ellis from Canada took care of the mastering. Both stellar dudes who know their stuff.

What made you decide to include cello on the track “Avalanche”?

Ah man there is something so awesome about a cello. It is just a majestic instrument. We would jam “Avalanche” and just be like we need to feature something in here. This track just needs something . A little musical salt and pepper. Then it was decided, it need some cello spice and that was it haha.

The track “Axiom Falls” featured in both your 2015 EP and the album you put out last year. Why did that song in particular get revisited?

It was just a song we really enjoined as a band, we kind of felt like we never really got to give it justice as a track on the EP. We ended up changing some bits here and there but it was still such a relevant track to all of us. Plus it kind of tied in perfectly with the album concept.

Which band member spends the most effort on his hair?

I don’t think anyone spends much time on their hair to be honest. We are just wash and go kind of dudes haha. Most of the dudes rock caps these days.

I see you posted about Star Wars on May the 4th. Which Star Wars film is your fave and why?

In all honesty, none of us are like crazy die-hard Star Wars fans (Unless you ask to see our managers leg – he’s another story). Episode I – The Phantom Menace is up there though for me!

How long did you take you to make the Bob’s Burgers “OHGOD!” montage?

OHGOD…OHGOD…OHGOD… just when you think you have heard your band name enough. Such a rad series that one. Surprisingly not as long as one would think we have a fair amount of help on that one to be honest.

You’ve just dropped a killer album and have an incredible international tour lined up. What can we expect next from OHGOD?

Well we want to focus on playing more festivals and start crossing more oceans as a band. Then when we get back from the EU we are going to start looking at writing some new music. We have some ideas of our next moves but we are going to sharing those quite yet.

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. I look forward to meeting you at dunk!fest in Belgium!

Awesome we look forward to meeting you there!!

Image: Laura McCullagh

OHGOD European tour dates

11 May – DUNK! FEST – Zottegem (BE)

15 May – MUSIK & FRIEDEN, Supporting Jinjer – Berlin (DE)

16 May – ROCKPALAST, Supporting Jinjer – Bochum (DE)

17 May – JUNGLE CLUB, Supporting Jinjer – Cologne (DE)

18 May – NACHTLEBEN, Supporting Jinjer – Frankfurt (DE)

20 May – PELAGIC FEST – Berlin (DE)

OHGOD is:

David Houston – Lead Guitar

Stefan Steyn – Guitar

Mark Woolfrey – Bass

Danny Harris – Drums

OHGOD links:

Joseph James

Will Not Fade

Content for music lovers

Interviews

Real Fake News – An Interview With Hard Times Co-Founder Bill Conway

The Hard Times links:

“The Punk Rock Kids Of Post-Rock”- An Interview With The End Of The Ocean

THE END OF THE OCEAN -AIRE TOUR

WITH SPECIAL GUESTS TIDES OF MAN

The End Of The Ocean links:

Stayin’ Gold: An Interview With Lookin Up’s Luke Cooper

Lookin Up are:

Lookin Up links:

Infinite Ceiling: An interview with Tides of Man

Tides of Man links: