Sit down with Black Tide

Imagine having to be moved from a stage because it was sponsored by Jaegermeister and all of your band was underage. At the ozzfest, where they opened for acts like Ozzy Osbourne himself and Slipknot, Gabriel Garcia, Austin Diaz, Zachary Sandler and Steven Spence, caused a little controversy yet hype because all four members had reached this level of success while all under 21 with two members even still in high school.

Black Tide was originally formed in 2004, starting out in Miami, Florida. They are signed with Interscope Records and released their debut album with the label in 2008 "Light From Above" and even won the Kerrang! Award for Best Newcomer.

Recently, I got the chance to sit down at Warped Tour with Zachary Sandler who plays the bass and helps out on the vocals in the band. We talked everything from how they have done a Kevin Lyman tour in the past but never thought that they would be playing Warped Tour to the bands he was excited about seeing on the tour.

I believe it's your first year of Warped Tour. Am I wrong?

Well, it's our second Kevin Lyman tour we've done. We did the Mayhem Fest last year which is just a metal fest. It was fun.

So, you've known Kevin for a while.

I don't like, 'know' him, but I've known of him. Oh yeah, I've known about Kevin Lyman since I was like eight. I was like, 'Warped Tour?'

So, is it kind of like a dream then?

You know, it's like one of those tours where, at least I never saw myself being on it. So to be on it, it's kind of cool, it's just. I've always associated our music with, you know, Ozzfest, more of that kind of stuff like Mayhem fest, more of the hard rock tours so to be on Warped Tour, I was like 'Really? That one?' But it's working out so far. The audiences are kind of there?

Kind of?

Yeah, we kind of expected that. We're one of those bands that are different. We're just working through it one day at a time. You know, like today, I was surprised that there were all these kids there who had like never been here in our audience was unbelievable.

Like I've been talking about before with other bands, I really think Warped Tour is becoming something that's just one genre. It's something that brings all types of music together.

For sure. Personally, I'd like to see Warped Tour become something more like Lollapoolaza. You could have like Red Hot Chili Peppers play with someone like Metallica. I'd love to see it become a little broader.

Good idea. Is there any advice that you would have liked to hear coming on to this tour that maybe you didn't have?

Well, we got a little bit of advice. Like, for actually, words of wisdom. For most it was like "oh man? you're playing warped? That sucks.' They were like 'You're going to hate it. Dragging your equipment across these fields, it's going to be raining half the time, you're going to have to wait an hour to get food. They were right.

And it's only two weeks into the tour, there's still a while to the end.

It already feels like the end.

Another band that's on tour with you was just saying the same thing, Westbound Train. How they are only on day five and already feel like it's been weeks.

Oh, after the first day, I was just like 'I don't know if I can do this anymore'.

But you're still here and that's the important part. Are there any bands this year that you're actually kind of excited to see play?
Sort of like I'm excited to see Bad Religion, they're really cool. Just for the sake of being able to watch Bad Religion. A lot of the other bands we know and have toured with before like Escape The Fate, Attack Attack, like it's cool to be able to kind of steal from their crowds. Especially to steal from Attack Attack. They were a small band that is really blowing up.

If no one has been to see you guys play before, how would you describe your set to them to try and get them out in the crowd?

If you're coming to warped tour?

Yeah.

They're not gonna like us but still come out and see us because we're not your average warped tour band. I think that's what makes us somewhat special (laughs) a little more than others.

Do you have any music plans we should look out for after Warped Tour?

Our plan right now is to go into finish writing a new record, hopefully record it with our label, then might put it out early 2010 and start touring as soon as possible. I hate being home. There's nothing worse then sitting at home with nothing to do.

I think that's how most bands are feeling these days.

Yeah, like NOFX can do tour for six months then take a year off and nothing will change but that's not for everyone.

Did you have any major music inspirations growing up?

Um, yeah. I guess in our genre, it's the average ones in Van Halen and Guns &Roses, but also just growing and being on tour, I just started taking influence from every day life and just living. I mean, you really start to learn more about the person you are and who you want to be, going around the world, being alone, touring where you can't speak the language, have questions.

Do you know any french?

Not at all, so walking around, kids come up to me talking and I'm like-

Woah buddy, slow down.

'You got to slow down'

Do you know how to say hi?

No.

Bonjour?

No. Yeah, sure. It's too confusing for me, in all honesty. But, you know, that's half the fun, half the challenge.

*As a huge clap of thunder happens during our interview*

Sorry, way too many distractions.Too much lightning.

That's ok. It's funny, actually last summer Underoath was on the Vans festival during our signing and lightning struck their stage, so we were just like-

That's horrible.

Well, no one got hurt, it hit the top of the stage but we were all, 'Aren't they a christian band? (laughs)We were like 'Hmmm'.

Haha, that's bad. How do you see the Canada scene versus the US on the Warped Tour? The fans that come out?

Uh, kids here are a little more open. I noticed everywhere outside the US, kids are more open to it. Like in Toronto, we had this great crowd, we were on pretty late in the day. We were like, oh man, nobody is gonna watch us. A ton of kids came out, we were all digging it, buying merch, just wanted to hang out-just awesome. Same thing today. Like, we've really seen just a ton of kids come out for just us.

That's awesome.

So excited.

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You can find more of their music here on their myspace.