Thursday, February 18, 2010

They just want to be the children of Adelphia.-Skylit Drive Interview


Since the release of their sophomore album as the band they are today with Adelphia, A Skylit Drive have skyrocketed to the top of the screamo rock game and after seeing them perform to a crowd of around 1,500 kids in comparison to my last time seeing them with maybe 300 just a short few months ago, It is clear to see that 2010 will be their year. With them being on the road through May with Alesana, the hard work will definitely pay off and I knew I should take up the opportunity to talk to Jag, who does lead vocals and Joey who plays guitar in the band when I could.
Their live show is passionate and powerful yet they still have a lot of interaction with the crowd through their set including body surfing competitions and diving into the crowd (with guitar!) and I got to see it once again during their current tour on the second night on Valentine's Day where they had just come off a show with about a thousand kids to start it off right. On the last few dates of the tour, they have been selling out the shows which can only be a good predictor for the rest of the tour dates. They will be on the tour in states till March 26th but right after with only a two week break, they will be going all over Europe for over a month playing such insane places like Rome and Prague. We talked about everything from how they hope their time in Europe this year will compare to the last time they were there to what occupations may be good for Joey to take on if he wasn't in A Skylit Drive.

You drove through that massive blizzard to get to your first show in Elgin, right? How did that go as a start to your touring cycle?
Jag: It was scary!
Joey: Yeah, I'm probably the best driver in the band so I mean I handled it pretty well.
Jag: He doesn't even have his license.
Joey: Yeah.

And then last time we talked you were about to go to Europe for the first time.
Jag: Oh it didn't end up happening because he went into rehab.
(everyone laughs)
For one second there, I believed you. Now, you're going back with Alesana right after this tour. Are you excited for th
at, like going to places like Rome and Prague?
Jag: We're excited about it.
Joey:Yeah, I'm excited because last time the weather was so shitty. It was depressing because it was all this rain.
Jag: We'd wake up at like one thinking it's like four in the morning because it only went from gray to black. Gray back to black. I saw the sun for like maybe two minutes total in two weeks. It was depressing.

Adelphia. It was out for about five months last time we talked but now that it's been about eight months and kids have had a chance to really listen to it for a while, how has the reception been?
Joey: The response has been awesome. I mean, I have no complaints about it. It's good, every song we play off of it, it's just like everyone sings along. It's pretty cool!

That's awesome. I know you've been saying Joey that you're covering 'Stick Stickly' for the Punk goes Classic Rock comp
ilation. I'm pretty sure you know I don't believe you.
Joey: Yeah, I wonder if Attack Attack has heard stuff about that actually.
Jag: Yeah, but we don't want to say the song.
I totally understand, I wouldn't want to know beforehand but some kids actually believe you.
Joey: Oh yeah, definitely!
Jag: I know! People like write me on my formspring saying 'Joey told me' and I'm like 'Well, Joey told you? 90% of what he tells you is probably fabricated'.

Now if you were going to collaborate with another band on this tour, be it The Word Alive or Alesana or any of the other bands, who would you pick and what would the song be about?

Jag: I'd probably pick Of Mice and Men.
Joey: I'd pick Of Mice and Men for sure.
Jag: Just because we've been friends with them for so long. I know we could write something sick because we all have so much fun together. I mean, like we're friends with everybody but we've been really good friends for quite a while and we'd be able to hang out and write a really awesome song.
They actually said the exact same thing about you so there you go!

What was one of the first shows you went to as a kid?
Joey: My first show was when I was six years old. I saw The Beach Boys and John Stamos was playing drums.
No way!
Joey: Swear to god!
Jag: I saw Kiss on their first reunion tour in 1996 when they first put the make up back on. Good times!

Over the years, I mean since 2008 when you first got big as a band with Wires(their debut release in 2008 as a band), I think you've really gotten a lot of fans through the internet along with people listening to you on myspace. How do you think that's affected who you are
today?
Joey: Yeah, we definitely probably couldn't have done it without myspace to be honest.
Jag: I don't think anybody can do it without myspace now a days.
Joey: Yeah.
Jag:It makes me wonder how bands like Motley Crue and all those bands got that big like it makes me feel really lazy. They did it all by like busting their ass.
Joey: Putting up fliers everyday, outside of shows all the time and we just post a little thing up on myspace.
Jag: And then it goes out to like a thousand kids. I mean,definitely the music scene has really changed. That's also a good and bad thing. It's good because like even beyond talented people who maybe aren't so good at networking can still have the opportunity to make it but at the same time it allows a lot of quote on quote crap to get through you know.
Joey: Like Of Mice and Men for example. Horrible band, big on myspace.
Jag: I actually change my quote earlier saying that I would want to write a song with them because we're friends, it's just to show them how much better we are then them.
That's so sweet of you.

Joey: Yeah.

I know you've been in this band for a long time but if you weren't in A Skylit Drive, what do you think you would be doing, considering you both have side projects (Of an Era and We Are Giants respectively)?
Jag: Yeah, I'd just be in another band definitely. I mean, while I was auditioning for these guys, I was auditioning for other bands too. So, I mean I would have just gone on to the next best opportunity so I'm glad things worked out the way they did.
Joey: I'd would probably record bands because I like doing that anyways.



Now, you recently put out a video for the first single off of Adelphia for 'Those Cannons Could Sink A Ship' but if you were to do another one for one of the other tracks like 'Eva The Carrier', what would be the craziest concept?
Jag: The actual concept itself. I mean like a girl named Eva having like telekinetic powers, where she can like control people with her mind.
Joey: She can like create light out of her hands.
Jag: You know Jean Grey of X-Men?
Yeah.
Joey: She's a real person though and they actually killed her for being a witch. She was one of Houdini's friends too. She got killed by someone who thought she was one.
That's who you base Eva The Carrier off?
Joey: Sort off. Yeah, I was just reading stuff on Wikipedia and I found it. I was looking at like telekinetic stuff just because I was bored and was thinking about it and I saw this little cool. I clicked on it and her name was Eva Carrier.


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