Dan Flint - You Me At Six (29/08/2014)
English post-punk/ hardcore/ whatever-you-want-to-call-it rockers You Me At Six may be a decade in to a solid career of punchy, anthemic song writing matched with exponential popularity, but their exceptionally youthful rise to prominence means an exuberant and excited approach to life inside music is far from wavering. YMAS' particularly friendly drummer Dan Flint woke up nice and early to elaborate on the ins and outs of the world according to the band just weeks prior to their upcoming Australian tour.
"I'm just at home It's nine o' clock in the morning, so yeah... just got up and had some breakfast. It's nice because we've been away so much doing festival season here across Europe. Each week we're just sort of away flying out to different countries. Last week we were in Belgium, Holland, and Austria. We've been non-stop, really. All through the summer! We've still got Reading and Leeds, and then Australia. We'll pop in to Asia for a few days before we come out to you guys which'll be fun. It's a few places we've never really visited before."
"We've been lucky to come (to Australia) a few times, and it's always one of those places we always make store we head back to every time that we can. Every time we have a record we make sure to make time for Australia."
As Dan reflects on the aforementioned festival schedule, it's cool to hear its been a largely successful one for the group. For a band that's been around the traps for so long, there certainly isn't much of a hint of tour depression or cynicism in the drummer's stories. That said, a dense, country-hopping tour run does grind after a while.
"This is the first time we've done a full, proper European festival season. It's definitely been an experience! Some festivals are much better than others. It's quite hard sometimes, because we're just flying in and flying out between the festivals. There's a hell of a lot of waking up at three in the morning, flying out to a show, playing the show, so you never get to enjoy (where you are) too much. You get to the festival site, just sitting about because there's no real dressing rooms or anything at a festival. The only bit we really get to enjoy is the hour-or-so we're on stage. That's the whole reason we're there, though, so it doesn't really bother us too much."
"It's been a good laugh, to be honest. It's been good to go out to countries that we've never visited before. We were in Latvia for the first time, and some of the shows have been amazing. It's been really cool. (Sometimes) no one has a clue who the fuck you are! We're not really too fussed. As long as we get out to a country to play, and there's a few people that like us, we're always stoked. We get to play in front of people who want to see us play? That's fine by us."
Cavalier Youth is YMAS' latest studio release, and it's easy to see that visits to new countries in the subsequent eight months since its January release marks a significant spike in global popularity for the band; a testament to the album's blistering and infectious sound. Dan riffs on naming the album, and the ideals behind creating it.
"To us it was sort of Cavalier Youth meant carefree youth. We feel like everyone has that carefree youth person inside them, where they can still pick up a record and be excited about it, and excited to listen to it. That's the power of music, it's just what it does to people. I think it just sort if sums up how we all felt while we were all writing and recording the album. We'd changed our management and label, and for a bit we were sort of all on our own. We thought its not about getting stupid emails from your management like you do every day. This is just about us five being mates again, writing music and having fun. That's what it was all about, really."
YMAS' September tour down under finds them coupled with homegrown pop-punk crowd favourites Tonight Alive, and band with which the headliners lack any unfamiliarity. Rest assured, both bands are going to be in the midst of an epic party as the tour rolls from city to city. It's worth noting that YMAS are certainly not the type of band to take their place in the world for granted.
"The first time I think we met (Tonight Alive) was while we were on Warped Tour in 2013. They came out and supported us on a US tour we did, they sort of did half of that up the east - I think- side of the US while we played our first ever headline tour. So we've met them a bunch of times. We're mates, we like the same things; going out, drinking, getting stupid, playing shows. We're all still quite young and like to have fun with it! Rather than taking out bands that have been on the road for years. There's nothing wrong with that, obviously. Some just aren't as excited to meet new people. Whereas we sort of get in the mode of 'We're going on tour... lets party!'"
"We were lucky enough that we all started at fifteen or sixteen, so we've been touring around for like seven or eight years and I'm only twenty five. Everyone's twenty three or twenty four, and everyone realizes that this job that we have - if you can call it a job - is sort of an amazing life experience. No one wants to be just moping about wanting to be at home. If you have a kid and a family or whatever, it's different. None if us are in that position, so were lucky we can just enjoy it the whole time."
Catch a doubtlessly lively You Me At Six and Tonight Alive in Australia come September.
FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER - BRISBANE, EATON'S HILL HOTEL – Lic A/A
www.oztix.com.au / www.ticketek.com.au
SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER - SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Lic A/A
SOLD OUT
MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – 18+
www.thehifi.com.au
TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – U18
www.thehifi.com.au
WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – 18+
SOLD OUT
THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER - ADELAIDE, HQ – Lic A/A
www.oztix.com.au / www.venuetix.com.au
Todd Gingell
"I'm just at home It's nine o' clock in the morning, so yeah... just got up and had some breakfast. It's nice because we've been away so much doing festival season here across Europe. Each week we're just sort of away flying out to different countries. Last week we were in Belgium, Holland, and Austria. We've been non-stop, really. All through the summer! We've still got Reading and Leeds, and then Australia. We'll pop in to Asia for a few days before we come out to you guys which'll be fun. It's a few places we've never really visited before."
"We've been lucky to come (to Australia) a few times, and it's always one of those places we always make store we head back to every time that we can. Every time we have a record we make sure to make time for Australia."
As Dan reflects on the aforementioned festival schedule, it's cool to hear its been a largely successful one for the group. For a band that's been around the traps for so long, there certainly isn't much of a hint of tour depression or cynicism in the drummer's stories. That said, a dense, country-hopping tour run does grind after a while.
"This is the first time we've done a full, proper European festival season. It's definitely been an experience! Some festivals are much better than others. It's quite hard sometimes, because we're just flying in and flying out between the festivals. There's a hell of a lot of waking up at three in the morning, flying out to a show, playing the show, so you never get to enjoy (where you are) too much. You get to the festival site, just sitting about because there's no real dressing rooms or anything at a festival. The only bit we really get to enjoy is the hour-or-so we're on stage. That's the whole reason we're there, though, so it doesn't really bother us too much."
"It's been a good laugh, to be honest. It's been good to go out to countries that we've never visited before. We were in Latvia for the first time, and some of the shows have been amazing. It's been really cool. (Sometimes) no one has a clue who the fuck you are! We're not really too fussed. As long as we get out to a country to play, and there's a few people that like us, we're always stoked. We get to play in front of people who want to see us play? That's fine by us."
Cavalier Youth is YMAS' latest studio release, and it's easy to see that visits to new countries in the subsequent eight months since its January release marks a significant spike in global popularity for the band; a testament to the album's blistering and infectious sound. Dan riffs on naming the album, and the ideals behind creating it.
"To us it was sort of Cavalier Youth meant carefree youth. We feel like everyone has that carefree youth person inside them, where they can still pick up a record and be excited about it, and excited to listen to it. That's the power of music, it's just what it does to people. I think it just sort if sums up how we all felt while we were all writing and recording the album. We'd changed our management and label, and for a bit we were sort of all on our own. We thought its not about getting stupid emails from your management like you do every day. This is just about us five being mates again, writing music and having fun. That's what it was all about, really."
YMAS' September tour down under finds them coupled with homegrown pop-punk crowd favourites Tonight Alive, and band with which the headliners lack any unfamiliarity. Rest assured, both bands are going to be in the midst of an epic party as the tour rolls from city to city. It's worth noting that YMAS are certainly not the type of band to take their place in the world for granted.
"The first time I think we met (Tonight Alive) was while we were on Warped Tour in 2013. They came out and supported us on a US tour we did, they sort of did half of that up the east - I think- side of the US while we played our first ever headline tour. So we've met them a bunch of times. We're mates, we like the same things; going out, drinking, getting stupid, playing shows. We're all still quite young and like to have fun with it! Rather than taking out bands that have been on the road for years. There's nothing wrong with that, obviously. Some just aren't as excited to meet new people. Whereas we sort of get in the mode of 'We're going on tour... lets party!'"
"We were lucky enough that we all started at fifteen or sixteen, so we've been touring around for like seven or eight years and I'm only twenty five. Everyone's twenty three or twenty four, and everyone realizes that this job that we have - if you can call it a job - is sort of an amazing life experience. No one wants to be just moping about wanting to be at home. If you have a kid and a family or whatever, it's different. None if us are in that position, so were lucky we can just enjoy it the whole time."
Catch a doubtlessly lively You Me At Six and Tonight Alive in Australia come September.
FRIDAY 5 SEPTEMBER - BRISBANE, EATON'S HILL HOTEL – Lic A/A
www.oztix.com.au / www.ticketek.com.au
SATURDAY 6 SEPTEMBER - SYDNEY, UNSW ROUNDHOUSE – Lic A/A
SOLD OUT
MONDAY 8 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – 18+
www.thehifi.com.au
TUESDAY 9 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – U18
www.thehifi.com.au
WEDNESDAY 10 SEPTEMBER - MELBOURNE, THE HIFI – 18+
SOLD OUT
THURSDAY 11 SEPTEMBER - ADELAIDE, HQ – Lic A/A
www.oztix.com.au / www.venuetix.com.au
Todd Gingell