We caught up with Cyrus and Ian from New Found Glory when they were in the UK for Warped Tour for a chat about the anniversary of Sticks and Stones, Touring with their friends and Ian’s love of Carly Rae Jepsen.
How has this UK tour (Road to Warped Tour, featuring Less Than Jake, Man Overboard and The Story So far) been going?
Cyrus Bolooki: Awesome, we’re really goo friends with Less Than Jake and we’ve toured with them a whole bunch of times, it’s always fun when your on tour with your friends. It’s not just about playing shows, it’s about hanging out.
Ian Grushna: We’ve toured with Man Overboard too.
It seems all the bands on this tour have toured together in some way, is it more fun doing it this way?
Cyrus: We do that a lot, we try to pick bands that we’re friends with or y’know not just bands where it’s like ‘oh, you’ll draw a lot of people’ it’s all bands we wanna hang out with.
Ian: The first time you tour with a band, say if you’re out for a month with them, by the time you get to the third week everyone is comfortable with each other and you’re having a good time and then the tour ends. So, when you get to tour with those bands again, and you’ve already went through that part and established those friendships, it makes touring a lot more fun.
Out of the bands on this tour, who’s the most fun to tour with?
Ian: For me, it’s Less Than Jake, and I’m not just saying that because they’re standing next to us. We haven’t toured with them in fucking ages…
Cyrus: Yeah, they’re right around the corner in the dressing room, It’s really fun getting to see them play live every night and then hang out with them.
Ian: Chris Demakes from Less Than Jake taught me how to be an asshole. Haha
How important is it to you guys to play such a big part in Warped Tour returning to the UK, being part of the actual event as well as the build up tour?
Cyrus: It’s awesome, we’ve done it so many times in the US, so people associate us with it. I wish we could do it all over the world, y’know? It’s cool that its back over here. It was a no brainer. We needed to be a part of Warped Tour in the UK.
Would a full scale UK Warped Tour work?
Ian: I dunno, it’s harder financially for American bands, because everything in the UK is more expensive. In the UK as well, you’ve got so many established festivals…
Cyrus: …Download, Reading, Leeds…
Ian: Maybe it’d be harder for Warped to compete with them, since it’s a bigger name in the states than it is here.
Would it being indoors in the UK take away from the charm of the tour?
Ian: No, that might make it better. In the states it can sometimes be hard on the fans being outside, it’s hard on the bands too since there’s no dressing rooms or anything.
Cyrus: You can still do stuff like skate ramps and multiple stages even though it’s inside. Warped can still be Warped here, just a little different.
Pop Punk has had a resurgence in recent years, do you still feel part of the scene?
Ian: We’re definitely still part of it, we’re friends with all the bands doing it now. These young bands doing well helps bands like us who’ve been around forever. There are people who have heard of those younger bands and never heard of us, and they’ll hear us thorough them. It’s great seeing new bands start out that have the same ethics and outlook that you had. It’s pretty awesome to still be around and still be relevant while all these new bands are happening.
What made you want to play Sticks And Stones in full on this tour?
Cyrus: Well, we did it with the self titled album two years ago but didn’t make it to the UK. And when we announced the Sticks and Stones US tour everyone was like ‘Oh my god I wanna see that’ so we though, alright lets do it in the UK too. It’s a special thing, we’re probably not gonna do it again.
Anniversary tours seem to have become popular recently, why do you think this is?
Ian: I think the first band I saw do it recently was Jimmy Eat World, and since then a whole bunch of bands have done it. For me, if I was at home and a band I liked was playing a show like this with a record that I liked, I’d be like ‘fuck yeah man!’. You get to hear songs you’d maybe never get to hear, like The Great Houdini, after this tour we’ll probably never play that song again.
Was it hard relearning songs for these shows?
Ian: me and Cyrus practised for this tour once.
Cyrus: Haha. It’s like riding a bike. It was cool to actually listen to sticks and stones, I usually don’t do that ever. It’s fun for us to remember what it was like to record that record and remember what it was like when that record came out.
Ian: listen to your own record ten years after it came out is pretty strange. It’s like ‘man I don’t remember that part being there’
Cyrus: Do you remember that little thing where you hit the first two snare hits on The Story So far and I did the first bass notes?
Ian: Oh yeah, on The Story So Far the first two snare drum hits were me, and the first ‘doo doo doo doooo’ on the bass was him. Nobody ever knew that. That’s awesome.
What has been your favourite album of 2012?
Ian: I’m gonna have to say the Carly Rae Jepsen record, Kiss. It’s just so fucking catchy man. The new Taylor Swift record is good too. But yeah, the Carly Rae Jepsen CD man, If you got a 45 minute drive, you pop that thing it’s like… yeah! I just like undeniably catchy shit. And I like love songs. And I like sad songs, like Elton John style.
