Following their European Tour with The Story So Far, The American Scene graced Slam Dunk Festival with their presence, opening up on the Macbeth Stage for early punters. We caught up with guitarist, co-vocalist and expectant dad Jeffrey Wright immediately after their set up North.
YOU’VE LITERALLY JUST WALKED OFF STAGE. HOW DID IT GO?
JW: It was really fun. It’s a bigger room than we’ve been playing on the whole Europe Tour, so we haven’t been used to doing that for a while. Everyone had a lot of fun; it seemed to go really well. We feel like we’ve played one of our better sets.
HOW WAS THE TURNOUT FOR YOU?
JW: Turnout was good. It was really dark so I couldn’t, like, see. I’m pretty sure there were a lot of people in the room. I couldn’t really give you a headcount though. We’re definitely happy.
HAVE YOU HAD MUCH CHANCE TO SEE ANYTHING SINCE YOU GOT HERE, OR WAS IT STRAIGHT TO THE STAGE?
JW: Pretty much so far we came from the hotel, loaded onto the stage. We were running a little late, so we loaded our stuff, sound checked, played about 20 minutes after doors.
NOT MUCH TIME TO RELAX THEN… ANYONE YOU’RE EXCITED ABOUT SEEING WHEN YOU DO GET THE CHANCE?
JW: I really wanted to see Gnarwolves and Transit, but Transit is playing right now and Gnarwolves were on at the same time as us, but otherwise, I want to see Deaf Havana play. I hear they are really good live from our tour manager.
DOES SLAM DUNK HAVE MUCH OF A REPUTATION OVER IN AMERICA?
JW: I’d never heard of it before we came over here, but apparently it’s a big deal over here. From what I’ve seen it’s a big deal over here. It looks like a great thing to do. Having this many good bands on a bill can never be wrong.
WERE YOU PLEASED TO FIND OUT YOU WERE ON THE LINE-UP WITH THESE BANDS?
JW: Yeah definitely. But then again I didn’t know what it was really. When they told us we were playing Slam Dunk we were like, [sceptically] “yeah cool,” then went on the internet to look it up. It was cooler after I figured out it’s a really big deal over here.
YOU’VE JUST COME BACK FROM MAINLAND EUROPE WITH THE STORY SO FAR. HOW HAS THE TOUR BEEN GOING?
JW: It’s been crazy. It’s been extremely fun touring with The Story So Far and Gnarwolves. Gnarwolves dropped off half way through, but when they were there it was great. Touring with The Story So Far is so easy because we’re friends back home. We like 10 minutes away from each other so we hang out back home as well. It’s cool to go across seas. Even if we weren’t playing music it would be cool to go overseas with all your friends. You can just fuck off every day and do what you want. In that sense it’s been really cool. The shows have been really fun. A lot of them have been sold out. It’s great to come over and do a tour like that for our first time over here. We’ve got a lot of exposure that way.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE ASSOCIATIONS WITH BANDS LIKE THE STORY SO FAR AND MAN OVERBOARD IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MUSIC YOU PLAY?
JW: Not necessarily – we started out more in their realm. As time went on we all got older and weirder, and now we are pretty weird. I don’t see anything bad about doing shows with those bands but I wouldn’t put us in the same genre, you know. We’re not as straightforward I guess.
THE NEW ALBUM COULD BE DESCRIBED AS REFRESHINGLY OLD FASHIONED – IT HARKS BACK A LITTLE…
JW: That’s what everyone has been saying. None of us had that in mind when we were writing it. Now that I listen to it I can see how a lot of people say there’s a lot of cool 90s influences there. We listen to a lot of 90s stuff but it’s not our main thing. We also listen to a lot of post-rock like Mogwai and dream-pop and stuff like that – weirder stuff usually. He knows [points at the tour manager].
TM: I’ve had a little bit too much of it, yeah.
JW: And he only got the light stuff. That’s the stuff when he’s in the car and we are trying to be nice. It’s cool; I’ll take the 90s. The 90s were a great time. I was probably not old enough to realise it was a great time but when looking back on it, it was one of the greatest periods of music. The things on the radio you would never hear on the radio today… well at least not in the US. I’ve heard some pretty crazy things on the radio in the UK.
I wouldn’t say it was consciously in our blood, but I dig it.
WHERE DO YOU DRAW THOSE INFLUENCES FROM THEN?
JW: We live in the San Francisco Bay area. We all have different jobs, and we all live pretty separate lives, but the one thing cool about the Bay area is the eclectic music scene. There’s not like one scene that does really well. There’s a bunch of different styles of music that do really well in different places. To be able to go out on any given night and see jazz, then go and see post-rock, then go and see pop-punk, then hardcore… I work in a venue that does that.
We pull from the culture in the bay area a lot, and from the eclectic music scene. That’s one thing we draw inspiration one. That and growing up – it sucks. It sucks having to pay bills. It sucks having to pay rent, car insurance; you have to have an outlet.
THE WARPED TOUR IS COMING UP…
JW: Not full band. Our singer is doing the acoustic basement. He is releasing a split with the dude from The Tower and the Fool, and it’s out in June. He’ll be playing songs off of that.
BEEN TOLD TO PLUG HIM?
JW: Not at all! He would never do this. He would just be like, “yeah I’m going on tour,” and that’s it. I feel like someone has to plug him… That doesn’t sound right.
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE BAND. WHAT’S THE FUTURE GOT IN STORE?
JW: Well we have Warped Tour. When he’s gone we’re not going to do much.
RELAXING?
JW: I’m actually having a son. I’m going to be doing that. We are also going to write a little. It depends on what we get offered in the fall. We don’t have anything on the table yet but otherwise we’ll probably write. That should take the year.
We released the album last August and have been doing some pretty heavy touring on the album since. We’re really excited to see the outcome of all of this. It was just a different pace to take from our older stuff – the response has been phenomenal. We thought people were just going to hate it, so we’re really excited to see what we can do after we’re done with all of this heavy touring.
SO, NO WRITING AT THE MOMENT? JUST FOCUSING ON THE TOUR?
JW: Just the touring really. It’s really hard to write when you’re constantly moving. It’s really nice if you get 2 or 3 hours in the morning to yourself before you leave to the next venue. I can’t imagine filling that time with the people you’ve been hanging out with for the last 3 months.
Not to say that we wouldn’t – I just think we’re better when we get time off and we’re all doing our own thing. That’s the way we do it.
DO YOU THINK BEING A FAMILY MAN WILL CHANGE YOUR FOCUS?
JW: I don’t know. I don’t think so. I’m pretty much a career musician guy. A lot of people think that once you have a kid it’s a negative reflection on you if you’re in a band as well. People think it’s an irresponsible thing to do. As long as you handle your shit back home, and have an extremely cool girlfriend or wife like I do, it should be fine. As long as you don’t go out on a stupid tour – something that’s not useful to you at all. Everything needs to be a step in the right direction. We can’t just do whatever we want when we want. It has to be the right thing at the right time.
BEN TIPPLE