Jeremy Bolm - Touché Amoré (04/07/2011)
Touché Amoré have just released their second album, been signed to Deathwish Inc, and are finally making their long overdue debut trip to Australia in September, playing with Title Fight.
I spoke to vocalist Jeremy Bolm about the new album, The Wave, his love of Thursday, and how much Leonard Cohen influences him lyrically.
Hey Jeremy, how’s it going?
It’s going alright, how are you?
Yeah, not too bad dude. Thanks for your time.
Yeah, no problem.
First thing’s first. Congrats on the new album, it’s incredible, and I think it’s done better than anyone expected.
Yeah absolutely, thank you so much.
What’s it like being signed to Deathwish? That’s a pretty massive thing for the band, and to have them do a massive promotional campaign for the album must have been huge for the band.
They’ve gone above and beyond anything we’d ever expect from anyone, and it’s been incredibly overwhelming. We’re super thankful for their hard work. It’s been a pretty crazy experience all together these last few months.
Before Parting The Sea came out, they did a massive promotional campaign for the album. Most bands as small as Touché don’t really get a chance to work with labels as big as Deathwish.
Yeah definitely. They’ve been really really good to us.
What do you think of the reception to the new album? Are you happy with the reviews so far, or have you seen some negative criticism?
The majority of what we’ve seen has been pretty popular, but you know, you can’t expect everyone to like what you do, so of course there will be negative things, but you can’t let that get to you. We’re just taking it all in. You can’t please everyone, but we’re really happy how it’s turned out.
Personally, how did you think the album turned out?
It turned out exactly how I wanted it to be, I couldn’t be more proud of it. Everything happened how I want, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
It’s an incredible album man, and I think it’s tied with Thursday’s new album for album of the year so far.
(Laughs) Well thankyou. I agree, their new record is one of my favourite records this year for sure, I think it’s exactly the record they needed to put out.
Yeah, definitely. It shows how much they’ve matured in the last couple of years, and it’s probably the best record they’ve put out since Full Collapse.
I completely agree with you.
Speaking of Thursday, how was working with Geoff on your first album, when he did guest vocals?
It was awesome. I was thrilled with the idea of doing it. The song that he sings on, History Reshits Itself, it was about California and gay marriage, and things like that. He was actually the first person who told me when the law ended up not getting passed, so I know he had a lot of strong feelings about it too. When I told to him that I was writing a song on the album about it, I mentioned that he should sing on it, he said he was behind it a hundred percent. He’s been behind our band one hundred percent since we had a demo, and he was really supportive and helped us out a lot. We’re pretty much forever thankful to him, and the whole band.
Vocally, who are your biggest influences?
Yelling it, I can’t really say, I don’t really know, kind of whatever comes out of me comes out of me. (laughs) I’ve never tried to mimic anyone, if anything; I’m just trying to be as clear as possible while still yelling. Lyrically, tons of things. For this record I would say my biggest influences would be everyone from Leonard Cohen to Matt Berninger from The National. The National are actually a huge lyrical influence on this album. There are tons of people I actually appreciate. John K. Samson from The Weakerthans is one of my favourite writers. I always appreciate and admire a lot of sincere, honest, straightforward lyrics, like hardcore punk bands, but it’s never been a huge influence for me. I prefer writers who take big chances, and are very straightforward with what they do. That’s why Leonard Cohen has always been such a big influence for me, because he’s super dark and he’s never really held anything back, and he said a lot of things that at the time were probably pretty risky. I would probably say that he’s top of the list for me.
Your lyrics have always been completely honest and open, and this new album is no exception.
Yeah, I kinda went a little overboard with this one, more than I had before. I appreciate that (laughs)
Especially with songs like Method Act, the lyrics seem a lot more vulnerable and open than some of the songs you’ve written before.
That song in particular was the one that I was most nervous about actually recording, because it’s pretty direct towards people at home, things like that, and just how I feel about being home in general and how it’s just become monotonous and draining and how I can’t really deal with it with a smile on my face anymore. That song was kind of the one that when the record was coming out, that I was most nervous about.
That song is probably one of the best on the album. The lyrics are so relatable to a lot of the fans, so I think it was well done.
I appreciate that, thank you.
By the end of the year, we would have seen most of The Wave tour Australia, by the time you tour. What do you think of the fact that in a few short years you’ve gone from being a small band, to being able to tour internationally?
It’s crazy. None of us ever, ever thought that we’d get an opportunity like that. When you step back and really look at it, we’re kids who are just screaming into the microphone for fifteen to twenty minutes, and we’re getting an opportunity to travel and see things that we never thought we would get to see in our lifetimes. It’s the most exciting thing in the entire world for us.
I was talking to Derek from Defeater after they played here earlier in the year, and he was just excited that they finally got to tour Australia.
We toured Europe and the UK for the first time last year, and apart from Canada, that’s the only time we’ve ever been out of the States. When we got the offer to come to Australia all of us were just so excited.
Do you know much about the venues you’re playing down here?
All I’ve heard is that some of them are pretty big (laugh)
The Melbourne venue in particular fits around a thousand people, has a barrier, security and a big stage, so it’ll be a bit odd seeing you guys there.
Yeah, that’s obviously not ideal for what our band does, I mean, we come from house shows and basement shows, just small venue shows. We’ve done tours with Converge and Thursday and bands like that, venues with are barrier with bigger stages, and you’ve just got to work through them and play extra hard to make it a little more intimate. You know, I understand there are certain things that we don’t have much say in, so we’re just happy to be going over there and making the best of it. If an opportunity comes up to play somewhere smaller, we’ll embrace it (laughs)
So that means there are no plans as of yet to play a house show or warehouse show?
Not at the moment. I mean, it’s still so far away, and we’re currently on tour right now, and we’re touring until then pretty much, so it’s pretty hard to plan things when we’re constantly mobile. Like I said, if something comes up and it’s doable, and it doesn’t affect any kind of business agreements that could get us in trouble, we would totally do it, you know.
The Melbourne venue is 18+, so I know a lot of your fans aren’t happy about missing out on your first ever Australian tour.
Yeah, I’m pretty bummed about that.
You’re touring here with Title Fight; you’ve been touring with them recently haven’t you?
we just got off a six week US tour with them. We’re off to Europe and the UK soon with La Dispute.
When you tour with La Dispute, do you make an effort to play the songs off your split release with them, and get Jordan Dreyer up to sing with you?
If we’re in the same place at the same time, we’ll play our two songs from the split, and get up for each other’s sets.
At the moment, would your set be mainly songs off Parting The Sea, or are you trying to have an even spread of all your releases?
We’re definitely trying to have an even spread. Our set list at the moment is seven songs off Dead Horse, six songs off Parting The Sea, and both songs from the La Dispute split. That’s about 15-16 songs all together, so that’s about a 25 minute set (laughs)
That’s the good thing about having songs that are around two minutes long.
More like a minute and a half. We try and have a good mix of songs from both albums. In the last few weeks or so, we’ve been noticing that the new songs are getting a better reaction than the older songs, which is the coolest think you could imagine. You want people to be excited about your new songs, and actually having them excited about them, it’s pretty awesome.
Too many times you see bands play too many new songs live and it alienates the crowd if they don’t really know the songs, but if the kids are loving the new songs, you might as well put as many new ones in the set as you can.
Yeah, we always thought about because we’ve been playing those same older songs for like two and a half years now, with us consistently touring.
Do you think you’ll be playing a similar set list when you tour Australia, or will you change it up because it’s your first tour here, or is it too far away to even think about yet?
We haven’t thought about it really, but I imagine we’ll play a longer set when we come out there, seeing as it’s our first time visiting. We’ll probably play the majority of the first record, and a good chunk of the new record.
What are you most excited for in Australia?
I’m going to say everything, to be honest with you. I know that sounds like such a general answer, but since we’ve never been there, I honestly don’t know what to expect, you know. I’m kind of going in with the attitude of just embracing everything from the people, to how beautiful everyone says it is. Everyone says the women are beautiful, that sounds like something I have to look at. (laughs) Everything really, it just sounds like the best place, and we’re all really excited about it.
Well if you enjoy it, hopefully you’re able to tour a little more regularly (laughs)
Yeah, I can’t wait. I hope we can come back as often as possible.
With the new album, what was the writing process like? Is it like you write the lyrics and someone else writes the music, or is it more of a collaborative effort?
Musically, it’s definitely a huge collaboration. Someone will usually bring an idea or a guitar riff or something like that to practice, and then everyone joins in. everybody in the band plays guitar and I play drums. Everyone can play all the parts, and they have a good idea of what they have in their head for a part, so we all get the ideas and get excited, and then work on it. We usually record it with a video camera, take that home and just write to that.
This album was recorded live to give it a more energetic feel, rather than multi-tracking all the instruments individually, wasn’t it?
Absolutely, yeah.
At The Drive-In did the same thing on their second album, In/Casino/Out, and it had the effect of capturing most of the energy of their live performances.
Yeah, well we sent the demos to Ed Rose, and he just instantly said he wanted to do a live recording, and focus on passionate takes rather than perfect takes. He just instantly understood what our band was about, and we knew it would be really good working with him. He was the top of the list of people we wanted to work with, and we were just so psyched to work with him.
It payed off, the album captures your passion and intensity perfectly. So many times you see a hardcore band, who spends too much money on a producer and good recordings, and it will kind of lose the energy that they have live.
Absolutely, I agree with you. I mean, if you have too polished of a sound, that means you cant really pull it off live. We embrace the idea of possibly being sloppy, because that’s probably how it will be live. (laughs) If you’re playing as loud, and as fast, and as hard as you can when you record, that’s how it’s going to be live. We all feel like that was the right choice, and we all enjoyed doing it too, it was a lot of fun.
Who have you been touring with recently, since the record was released?
Since the record came out, it was just with Title Fight. We went out with Title Fight, The Menzingers, and a band called Dead End Path. Right now, we’re on tour with Balance And Composure and White Wives, who feature members of Anti-Flag. From here, we’re about to do Eastern Canada by ourselves, and then we fly to the UK and Europe with La Dispute. Its home for about a week after that, and then Australia.
That’s a pretty hectic touring schedule.
I think we’re on day 52 in a row with no days off, and I think by the time we’re done with Europe we’ll have played 126 shows in a row.
That’s pretty intense. How do you guys cope with constantly being on the road?
We just embrace it. I mean, all of us, we don’t really have much going for us back home. None of us have jobs, none of us have girlfriends, so we like being out, it’s just our comfort zone these days.
Alright Jeremy, we’re just about finished. Anything else you would like to say?
We can’t wait to come over there, and even if we’re playing in big rooms we’re going to try and make it as fun as possible and give you the best we can.
Touché Amoré are touring nationally in September with Title Fight. Make sure you grab tickets to this before they sell out, so you don’t miss out on the intensity that is Touche’s live show.
Josh Mitrou
I spoke to vocalist Jeremy Bolm about the new album, The Wave, his love of Thursday, and how much Leonard Cohen influences him lyrically.
Hey Jeremy, how’s it going?
It’s going alright, how are you?
Yeah, not too bad dude. Thanks for your time.
Yeah, no problem.
First thing’s first. Congrats on the new album, it’s incredible, and I think it’s done better than anyone expected.
Yeah absolutely, thank you so much.
What’s it like being signed to Deathwish? That’s a pretty massive thing for the band, and to have them do a massive promotional campaign for the album must have been huge for the band.
They’ve gone above and beyond anything we’d ever expect from anyone, and it’s been incredibly overwhelming. We’re super thankful for their hard work. It’s been a pretty crazy experience all together these last few months.
Before Parting The Sea came out, they did a massive promotional campaign for the album. Most bands as small as Touché don’t really get a chance to work with labels as big as Deathwish.
Yeah definitely. They’ve been really really good to us.
What do you think of the reception to the new album? Are you happy with the reviews so far, or have you seen some negative criticism?
The majority of what we’ve seen has been pretty popular, but you know, you can’t expect everyone to like what you do, so of course there will be negative things, but you can’t let that get to you. We’re just taking it all in. You can’t please everyone, but we’re really happy how it’s turned out.
Personally, how did you think the album turned out?
It turned out exactly how I wanted it to be, I couldn’t be more proud of it. Everything happened how I want, and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
It’s an incredible album man, and I think it’s tied with Thursday’s new album for album of the year so far.
(Laughs) Well thankyou. I agree, their new record is one of my favourite records this year for sure, I think it’s exactly the record they needed to put out.
Yeah, definitely. It shows how much they’ve matured in the last couple of years, and it’s probably the best record they’ve put out since Full Collapse.
I completely agree with you.
Speaking of Thursday, how was working with Geoff on your first album, when he did guest vocals?
It was awesome. I was thrilled with the idea of doing it. The song that he sings on, History Reshits Itself, it was about California and gay marriage, and things like that. He was actually the first person who told me when the law ended up not getting passed, so I know he had a lot of strong feelings about it too. When I told to him that I was writing a song on the album about it, I mentioned that he should sing on it, he said he was behind it a hundred percent. He’s been behind our band one hundred percent since we had a demo, and he was really supportive and helped us out a lot. We’re pretty much forever thankful to him, and the whole band.
Vocally, who are your biggest influences?
Yelling it, I can’t really say, I don’t really know, kind of whatever comes out of me comes out of me. (laughs) I’ve never tried to mimic anyone, if anything; I’m just trying to be as clear as possible while still yelling. Lyrically, tons of things. For this record I would say my biggest influences would be everyone from Leonard Cohen to Matt Berninger from The National. The National are actually a huge lyrical influence on this album. There are tons of people I actually appreciate. John K. Samson from The Weakerthans is one of my favourite writers. I always appreciate and admire a lot of sincere, honest, straightforward lyrics, like hardcore punk bands, but it’s never been a huge influence for me. I prefer writers who take big chances, and are very straightforward with what they do. That’s why Leonard Cohen has always been such a big influence for me, because he’s super dark and he’s never really held anything back, and he said a lot of things that at the time were probably pretty risky. I would probably say that he’s top of the list for me.
Your lyrics have always been completely honest and open, and this new album is no exception.
Yeah, I kinda went a little overboard with this one, more than I had before. I appreciate that (laughs)
Especially with songs like Method Act, the lyrics seem a lot more vulnerable and open than some of the songs you’ve written before.
That song in particular was the one that I was most nervous about actually recording, because it’s pretty direct towards people at home, things like that, and just how I feel about being home in general and how it’s just become monotonous and draining and how I can’t really deal with it with a smile on my face anymore. That song was kind of the one that when the record was coming out, that I was most nervous about.
That song is probably one of the best on the album. The lyrics are so relatable to a lot of the fans, so I think it was well done.
I appreciate that, thank you.
By the end of the year, we would have seen most of The Wave tour Australia, by the time you tour. What do you think of the fact that in a few short years you’ve gone from being a small band, to being able to tour internationally?
It’s crazy. None of us ever, ever thought that we’d get an opportunity like that. When you step back and really look at it, we’re kids who are just screaming into the microphone for fifteen to twenty minutes, and we’re getting an opportunity to travel and see things that we never thought we would get to see in our lifetimes. It’s the most exciting thing in the entire world for us.
I was talking to Derek from Defeater after they played here earlier in the year, and he was just excited that they finally got to tour Australia.
We toured Europe and the UK for the first time last year, and apart from Canada, that’s the only time we’ve ever been out of the States. When we got the offer to come to Australia all of us were just so excited.
Do you know much about the venues you’re playing down here?
All I’ve heard is that some of them are pretty big (laugh)
The Melbourne venue in particular fits around a thousand people, has a barrier, security and a big stage, so it’ll be a bit odd seeing you guys there.
Yeah, that’s obviously not ideal for what our band does, I mean, we come from house shows and basement shows, just small venue shows. We’ve done tours with Converge and Thursday and bands like that, venues with are barrier with bigger stages, and you’ve just got to work through them and play extra hard to make it a little more intimate. You know, I understand there are certain things that we don’t have much say in, so we’re just happy to be going over there and making the best of it. If an opportunity comes up to play somewhere smaller, we’ll embrace it (laughs)
So that means there are no plans as of yet to play a house show or warehouse show?
Not at the moment. I mean, it’s still so far away, and we’re currently on tour right now, and we’re touring until then pretty much, so it’s pretty hard to plan things when we’re constantly mobile. Like I said, if something comes up and it’s doable, and it doesn’t affect any kind of business agreements that could get us in trouble, we would totally do it, you know.
The Melbourne venue is 18+, so I know a lot of your fans aren’t happy about missing out on your first ever Australian tour.
Yeah, I’m pretty bummed about that.
You’re touring here with Title Fight; you’ve been touring with them recently haven’t you?
we just got off a six week US tour with them. We’re off to Europe and the UK soon with La Dispute.
When you tour with La Dispute, do you make an effort to play the songs off your split release with them, and get Jordan Dreyer up to sing with you?
If we’re in the same place at the same time, we’ll play our two songs from the split, and get up for each other’s sets.
At the moment, would your set be mainly songs off Parting The Sea, or are you trying to have an even spread of all your releases?
We’re definitely trying to have an even spread. Our set list at the moment is seven songs off Dead Horse, six songs off Parting The Sea, and both songs from the La Dispute split. That’s about 15-16 songs all together, so that’s about a 25 minute set (laughs)
That’s the good thing about having songs that are around two minutes long.
More like a minute and a half. We try and have a good mix of songs from both albums. In the last few weeks or so, we’ve been noticing that the new songs are getting a better reaction than the older songs, which is the coolest think you could imagine. You want people to be excited about your new songs, and actually having them excited about them, it’s pretty awesome.
Too many times you see bands play too many new songs live and it alienates the crowd if they don’t really know the songs, but if the kids are loving the new songs, you might as well put as many new ones in the set as you can.
Yeah, we always thought about because we’ve been playing those same older songs for like two and a half years now, with us consistently touring.
Do you think you’ll be playing a similar set list when you tour Australia, or will you change it up because it’s your first tour here, or is it too far away to even think about yet?
We haven’t thought about it really, but I imagine we’ll play a longer set when we come out there, seeing as it’s our first time visiting. We’ll probably play the majority of the first record, and a good chunk of the new record.
What are you most excited for in Australia?
I’m going to say everything, to be honest with you. I know that sounds like such a general answer, but since we’ve never been there, I honestly don’t know what to expect, you know. I’m kind of going in with the attitude of just embracing everything from the people, to how beautiful everyone says it is. Everyone says the women are beautiful, that sounds like something I have to look at. (laughs) Everything really, it just sounds like the best place, and we’re all really excited about it.
Well if you enjoy it, hopefully you’re able to tour a little more regularly (laughs)
Yeah, I can’t wait. I hope we can come back as often as possible.
With the new album, what was the writing process like? Is it like you write the lyrics and someone else writes the music, or is it more of a collaborative effort?
Musically, it’s definitely a huge collaboration. Someone will usually bring an idea or a guitar riff or something like that to practice, and then everyone joins in. everybody in the band plays guitar and I play drums. Everyone can play all the parts, and they have a good idea of what they have in their head for a part, so we all get the ideas and get excited, and then work on it. We usually record it with a video camera, take that home and just write to that.
This album was recorded live to give it a more energetic feel, rather than multi-tracking all the instruments individually, wasn’t it?
Absolutely, yeah.
At The Drive-In did the same thing on their second album, In/Casino/Out, and it had the effect of capturing most of the energy of their live performances.
Yeah, well we sent the demos to Ed Rose, and he just instantly said he wanted to do a live recording, and focus on passionate takes rather than perfect takes. He just instantly understood what our band was about, and we knew it would be really good working with him. He was the top of the list of people we wanted to work with, and we were just so psyched to work with him.
It payed off, the album captures your passion and intensity perfectly. So many times you see a hardcore band, who spends too much money on a producer and good recordings, and it will kind of lose the energy that they have live.
Absolutely, I agree with you. I mean, if you have too polished of a sound, that means you cant really pull it off live. We embrace the idea of possibly being sloppy, because that’s probably how it will be live. (laughs) If you’re playing as loud, and as fast, and as hard as you can when you record, that’s how it’s going to be live. We all feel like that was the right choice, and we all enjoyed doing it too, it was a lot of fun.
Who have you been touring with recently, since the record was released?
Since the record came out, it was just with Title Fight. We went out with Title Fight, The Menzingers, and a band called Dead End Path. Right now, we’re on tour with Balance And Composure and White Wives, who feature members of Anti-Flag. From here, we’re about to do Eastern Canada by ourselves, and then we fly to the UK and Europe with La Dispute. Its home for about a week after that, and then Australia.
That’s a pretty hectic touring schedule.
I think we’re on day 52 in a row with no days off, and I think by the time we’re done with Europe we’ll have played 126 shows in a row.
That’s pretty intense. How do you guys cope with constantly being on the road?
We just embrace it. I mean, all of us, we don’t really have much going for us back home. None of us have jobs, none of us have girlfriends, so we like being out, it’s just our comfort zone these days.
Alright Jeremy, we’re just about finished. Anything else you would like to say?
We can’t wait to come over there, and even if we’re playing in big rooms we’re going to try and make it as fun as possible and give you the best we can.
Touché Amoré are touring nationally in September with Title Fight. Make sure you grab tickets to this before they sell out, so you don’t miss out on the intensity that is Touche’s live show.
Josh Mitrou