Having recently released their second full-length ‘Headspace’, Issues arrived in the UK to kick off a headlining tour, including appearances at Slam Dunk Festival. We caught up with bass player Sky Accord and vocalist Michael Bohn to talk about the UK tour and the themes of ‘Headspace’.
Welcome back to the UK! How has the tour been going so far?
Sky: Cool, itâs been nice.
Michael: The first show was solid and in London last night it was crazy.
The album has been out a week now, howâs the reaction been so far?
Sky: Overall itâs been really good.The fans are 99% super hyped and buying copies, and the press has been really responsive and seem to be really into what weâre doing, which is definitely not guaranteed.
Michael: Itâs been pretty intense and busy! Which is a good thing.
Iâve seen a few reactions that imply this record is a big change of sound. We thought it was more of a natural progression, how do you guys see this album compared to the last one?
Sky: Thatâs how we see it too. We didnât want to reinvent the wheel.
Michael: I donât think we went too left field, we just got better. We improved. We really pushed ourselves. I think Issues is left field overall, but we didnât get too crazy with it, we just refined our sound.
Sky: There is a change, weâve tried a bunch of new stuff, but itâs still the same Issues. The people who think this is a big change for us, probably saw us before as just a run of the mill metalcore band and werenât really listening to what we were trying to do. Now weâre spoonfeeding you, like weâre trying to be weird, this is a weird song, thereâs no way in hell you can say this is just a random Warped Tour song. Like âFlojoâ – that wouldnât have happened on the last album!
Your sound is a combination of so many different elements and styles, is it hard to reach an agreement on the right balance when writing?
Michael: At times we can definitely butt heads, but at the same time the outcome is usually something great.
Sky: It takes friction to make fire!
Michael: Exactly. The writing process was a little different this time. We all had a pretty decent amount of input, it wasnât just 1 or 2 people doing everything, which would be the cause of some arguments, but we all just wanted the best possible output. Weâre all passionate about what weâve put out, we werenât going to half-ass anything.
One of the really effective new additions on ‘Headspace’ is the development of your clean vocals, Michael. Was that something you definitely wanted to add this time around or did it just evolve that way during the process?
Michael: It kinda just happened! It was weird, weâve been talking about it. Iâve screamed for 6 or 7 years now and Iâve always wanted to do something different. Iâve always wanted to progress and try singing but Iâve never been confident enough to do that, so it was a big change and kinda spur of the moment. Tyler was like âdude if youâre going do it then just go for it. Get your jitters out and get it over withâ. So I did and it was cool, itâs different. Itâs fun. Itâs cool for the writing process because it meant it didnât just have to be âweâve written this heavy part, so Michael has to go over itâ, or vice versa. Weâd be writing vocal parts and if there was a part that was out of Tylerâs range, then I could hop on it.
Sky: We love contrast, so it helped a lot with that.
You recorded ‘Headspace’ with Kris Crummett again, this being the third time youâve worked with him. What is it about Kris that makes you go back for more?
Michael: He just kicks our ass!
Sky: Oh man, heâs just such a stickler with parts and he works really well with our drummer. Because heâs a drummer, and because our music is so rhythmic, it works really well. He hears the big picture, he doesnât just hear vocals like other producers, doesnât just focus on instruments like other producers, heâs definitely a big picture guy. When we first worked with him on âBlack Diamondsâ he wasnât the obvious choice for us to work with, he wasnât even the best for us, but over the years weâve grown together and heâs helped us grow together, refine our songwriting and just know what we want to sound like. Thatâs as well as just making us improve to reach his standards, because his standards are so high.
With the new record being so groove-oriented I imagine itâs all really great to play live. How tough was it to build a set list for the tour? Were there songs you just couldnât leave out?
Michael: Obviously there are the singles, but we didnât just want to leave it at that, we also wanted to put some heavy stuff in there too, so we added âBlue Wallâ. Not only is it an important message but that song goes off live, itâs really cool! There are still a couple of other songs that weâre so ready to play live
Sky: âHeroâ is one of them!
Michael: Yeah, I canât wait to play that. Thatâs one of my favourites. There are definitely songs when we listen back to the album that weâre like – thatâs going to be so fun to play live.
‘Blue Wall’ has been an interesting one to watch in terms of reaction. When you guys put it up on YouTube the comments section blew up because of the lyrics. How much does thinking about the public reaction affect you when youâre writing about these issues?
Michael: Weâre not going to write ignorant lyrics and be stupid about it, if weâve got a message to say that we feel itâs important to speak on then weâre going to do it the right way and be professional about it.
Sky: Itâs about mutual respect. Itâs like getting into an argument with somebody, if you disrespect their opinion or talk over them then theyâre not going to listen to what you have to say. So basically you have to say what you want to say in a nuanced and respectful way for them to listen. As you could see from the comments, that wasnât always reciprocated, but we did our part. Weâre such a diverse band in so many ways: musically and ethnically. When my brother was touring with us, at any one time weâd have two black guys, a Mexican, a ginger and two southern redneck gentlemen in the same band! We have so many different perspectives to portray and not all of our messages are going to be as easy to swallow for the mainstream masses, just because they come from so many different places. You try not to let if affect you while youâre writing but when it comes out youâre like, âoh wow I forgot we were so honest. I forgot we had a song about cops, now letâs talk to people and have a conversationâ. But itâs funny because it ties into ‘Flojo’, because that song is about people who just hate on everything and try and clip your wings!
During the tour youâre going to be playing Slam Dunk for the first time. How are those shows going to differ from your headline run?
Sky: You have to pack in as many bangers as you can.
Michael: If you want to see the songs that arenât necessarily the most popular, come to a headliner, but at a festival youâve got to play bangers and try to wow people. If people are walking by youâve got to draw them in.
Finally, can you tell us about the inspiration behind the album art and what it represents?
Sky: The album art ties to the title. Itâs a pigeon in the headspace of a peacock and itâs representing that potential is only limited by the headspace that you see yourself in. Thatâs how we see our music. With the ‘Headspace’ album cycle, weâve always been the same individual guys, but we see ourselves differently now as a band.
‘Headspace’ can be purchased through the bandâs merch store and you can check out our review of the album here.
MARK JOHNSON