British pop punk rockers,
YOU ME AT SIX, recently toured the US this Oct-Nov with Mayday Parade, The Academy Is..., and more on the AP Fall Ball Tour. We caught up with
lead singer Josh Franceschi in New York City to discuss random tidbits and the band's new album,
Hold Me Down, set for release on January 11th. Download the album's new single,
here!
: How have US fans received You Me At Six?
: US fans have been like, really cool. I found that this tour has been like a really good way for meeting people that maybe would like our band but just haven't heard of us yet. And, the crowd reactions have been in general really really good and then there have been a couple of missed places but the tour has been great and we've really enjoyed it.
: What is your favorite US city?
: Favorite city so far would probably be Chicago. We played the Chicago House of Blues and it just felt like we were playing a headline show in the UK. It was just an amazing feeling that people so far away from home had heard of our band and liked it enough to be so receptive, so that was really a great show. There have been some awesome shows this tour. Portland, Oregon stands out, Orlando, Florida was off the chain and we played a venue called the Norva in Virginia on Halloween and that's an awesome place; there's a basketball court inside.
: Do you need work visas to tour in the US?
: Yea, we have to get work visas and we've have since last March because we did South By South West, that was the first time we came to America. I think they last two years, so we have to get them renewed soon. Its pretty simple, we just come in saying we're working in the name of charity.
: What made you want to become a musician?
: Before I even knew what it would be like to have a fanbase at all, the main inspiration behind being in a band was my love for music. I picked up a guitar when I was like 11 and back in the days, it was like learning Linkin' Park riffs was the most important things to me. Then I discovered this band called The Early November and Ace Enders, and Ace Enders the frontman of that band, I wanted to be that guy, wacked out farmer jackets, plaid shirts, and I just wanted to write music like 'The Early November'. So for a few years, everything I wrote was in drop 'D' and just kinda like on the 8th fret, and it was awesome cause it sounded like 'The Early November'.
: Why did you decide go straight pop punk and cut out the screams in earlier material?
: Well, that stuff was written when we were like 15, 16, so I guess it wasn't really relative to what we wanted to do as a band anymore. When I swayed away from listening to bands like Senses Fail and The Bled and went more towards like, I've always liked driving records, but as a band we decided we wanted to play music with more melody and a bit more poppy. Our new stuff is a little heavier.
: you get signed to Epitaph Records?
: We got a new management company in December of last year and we just said send out our stuff to labels in America to see if anyone likes it, to see if anyone's interested cause we did everything in the UK ourselves. So it was just like we needed to find someone in America and Brett got back to our manager Craig ans was like this is awesome, we want to get involved. Next thing we knew, we were on a plane over here and having meetings and signed up, it was awesome. I think Epitaph is the kinda label that like they worked really well for our first record, they're the kinda label that's got a lot of credibility I feel. And it really helped us on Warped Tour being associated with a label like Epitaph.
: Let's talk about the new album, "Hold Me Down".
: We went to record the 2nd CD where we actually recorded the first one but we recorded "Take Off Your Colours" in 2 weeks and the new one "Hold Me Down" we lived in Reading for 6 and a half weeks but it took 2 months to record the CD in total. In my opinion they're (the songs) are heads and shoulders apart from the recording of "Take Off Your Colours" just because rather than spending a day on one song, we spent maybe like 3 or 4 maybe sometimes 5 days tracking one song. And it really gives the song room to breathe and to add in different parts that you may have not thought of before. We worked with a guy called Matt O' Grady who used to be in like the first UK pop punk band, Fastlane. He worked on our first CD and we had a great relationship with him and John Mitchell who mixed our record. It felt good cause there's such a great atmosphere in and around the camp who were living in Reading. We lived and breathed the record for such a long time that the songs really became really important to us and it really made us want to push them (the songs) as far as they could go in terms of being chosen.
: What would you like to say to fans?
: Don't believe everything you read in forums and for the very few that do buy it (our CD) just please keep getting involved and enjoy our spread of love.
Labels: Epitaph Records, United Kingdom, You Me At Six
