Kansas City trio Beautiful Bodies have recently been over here doing their first proper UK tour, supporting Mayday Parade. We had a chat with the band – Alicia Solombrino, Thomas Becker (formerly in The Get Up Kids) and Luis Arana – to find out how their first proper UK touring experience is treating them, how their new album has been going down, and how much they love castles.
Hey guys! This is the second date of the tour. How did the first one go?
Alicia: Really well!
Thomas: The kids in the UK are awesome, they’re so rad.
Alicia: Do a lot of American bands say that?
Thomas: We genuinely mean it. There’s still this punk ethos here – I dunno, maybe I’m making this up – but I feel like kids here are genuinely excited about bands and are super energetic. In the US they can be fun too, but everyone’s a little too cool for school…
Alicia: I don’t think that! But I do think that the kids here are a little bit more receptive to new music maybe.
Thomas: I don’t think they’re too cool, but the difference is that in the US people stand pretty still…
Alicia: I will say that it is a make or break over here, because you guys are so much more receptive. If our first show didn’t go that well I would be worried about the rest of the tour. I feel like you guys are make or break for American bands, because if you guys don’t like a band then a band’s done. You guys are the challenge. You have a lot of power over here. If you guys are really receptive and you don’t like us then we have less of a chance in America.
Is this the first time you’ve played over here?
Thomas: We played Warped Tour UK before. We played in a palace [Alexandra Palace]! It was sick. it was the most royal thing I’ve ever done in my life. It’s really pretty, one of the prettiest venues I think we’ve ever played. It was fun.
Alicia: But this is our first proper UK tour. Our baby tour.
Well, I guess you haven’t been together that long…
Thomas: It’s been a couple of years. Well, we had a really interesting start where we jammed together via different countries. I lived in South America and they lived in the US, so we were playing together for several years but we weren’t really actively pushing or touring as a band, it was just like ‘Oh, here’s a song I did’. But then we decided we should do this for real a couple years ago.
I love your album so much. I actually gave it a 9/10.
Alicia: Really? Well now we’ve won.
How has the album gone down since you’ve released it?
Alicia: Really well. This girl in the UK gave us a 9/10.
Thomas: She’s got a great name.
Alicia: And she kind of boosted our egos. But the album has been doing really well. We’re releasing a new single, ‘War Inside Your Heart’, while we’re over here. The video looks great, but we needed you in it. We sent a request but you didn’t respond.
Alicia: Sorry, I’m already losing my voice. I talk too much. This being our first time over here, we really didn’t know what to expect. There could’ve been one person like, ‘Can I get an album?’, but we had people coming up before we played, people during the show singing our lyrics, and we were like ‘Wow, that’s cool’, and then after our set I went to the van because I wasn’t expecting – I mean, maybe I’m modest, but I thought I’d just go to the van to get changed, and I was taking off my knickers – just kidding, I just wanted to say that word – I was taking off my tights and Thomas was like, ‘We have a line of people who’ve come to talk to us so you need to come right now’ so I was like ‘Oh ok’, so I put my clothes back on and talked to the fans and then the next band came on and we still had people talking to us, and then on the third band people were still talking to us and we had to break to do an interview. It was overwhelming! And then we talked to them after the show, and then – this is how much I love it over here – there was a party in the parking lot, like with all the fans. People were offering things and we’re like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna get back in the van’, and they’re like, ‘Add me on Instagram and Snapchat’. I mean, we do talk to our fans a lot but it was awesome.
Thomas: It was surprisingly cool.
Alicia: I mean, we were like, ‘Meh, maybe we’ll sell a record’, and then we sold loads and we thought, ‘Maybe we need to talk to the label about sending us more stuff’. It’s nice to be able to make friends and see which songs on the record they like, which lyrics. It’s really cool to get to know people.
What have you got coming up when you finish this tour?
Alicia: We’ve got the Europe leg of the tour, and then we’re doing another tour in the US and then we might come back over here.
Thomas: Yeah, we’re probably coming back but we’re not allowed to talk about that yet. We may be sneaking our way back here in the near future. We’re excited.
Alicia: In the near festival future.
Thomas: Do you know what’s rad? We definitely wanna come back more, because we’re nerds. We’re tourists. Yesterday we went to Stonehenge and today we went to some castle in Wales. We’re like little kids. Can we go on a castle trip of Wales with you next time we’re over? Our GPS has a ‘no tolls’ section, so a 20 minute drive ended up taking us a long time. Alicia was asleep and she wakes up after an hour and a half and is like, ‘Where is this damn castle?’
Alicia: We saw some sheep in Stonehenge! And I stepped in some sheep shit. That’s not okay. It was literally a hurricane.
Thomas: We can see her far away with her hat blowing off and then stepping in shit.
Alicia: Literally my hat flew off in a field of sheep shit, and I was like, ‘I’m going after it’. It was cold, windy, and there was a hurricane in Stonehenge, but I wanted to get a picture in Stonehenge.
Thomas: Gotta show momma you’ve been there! We didn’t do the proper tour though, we went punk rock DIY.
Alicia: And then it started raining, and then the wind came, and I was like, ‘This is what it feels like to be in a hurricane’. The wind was pushing me over, and on the way back I spoke to the lady on the bus and I was like, ‘Please, I’ll do anything. Can I get on this bus back? I need a ride or I’m not gonna make it.’ And she was like, ‘Ok, you can get on, Silly American.’ I hope I don’t get her in trouble because she saved my life. I wouldn’t be here right now. Seriously, I would’ve passed out. Fallen asleep on the gravel road. I shut down. I just wasn’t prepared.
Thomas: I feel like we’re really ADD in interviews. Straight into sheep shit.
Alicia: We talk too much. This is why I’ve been single for so long.
Any last words?
Alicia: Go watch our video for ‘War Inside Your Heart’.
Thomas: We’re going to Wales soon for a castle tour: Punktastic exclusive.
Alicia: But seriously, we’ve enjoyed our time here, drinking tea and hanging out with the fans. And the shows have been awesome. We’re excited to come back.
Thomas: It’s gonna be so much fun.
LAIS MW