Having made their live comeback last month with a show at London’s Borderline venue (a show that Rock Sins’ own James and Jamie were present for as you can see from their review and photos here), Rise To Remain were last minute additions to the 2014 Takedown Festival in Southampton. They had some big shoes to fill too, as they were asked to fill in for NWOAHM heavyweights Chimaira in headlining the Uprawr stage at the festival. One half of Rock Sins’ duo on the ground at Takedown, Laura Herbert, caught up with Rise To Remain’s frontman Austin Dickinson and bassist Conor O’Keefe not long before they took to the stage….
Hi this is Laura from Rock Sins and I’m with Austin and Conor from Rise to Remain. How are you guys?
AUSTIN: Yeah really good thanks
Awesome, so how have you guys enjoyed today so far?
AUSTIN: Its been awesome, just been catching up with friends really, we’re ready to play.
Who have you seen play so far?
AUSTIN: Seen Heart In Hand, Idiom, wish I could have caught Heart Of A Coward but thank you for taking care of that.
It was bloody awesome!
CONOR: Idiom were great.
AUSTIN: Yeah they were fucking killer.
How are you enjoying Takedown so far?
AUSTIN: We’ve never been here before. This is our first time here, it’s been really cool. It’s awesome because its like definitely a lot of students here and it’s killer because you know they’re gonna go crazy and go nuts and they can bring the fucking party, so its cool.
You were drafted in for Chimaira, how have you prepared for that so last minute?
AUSTIN: Got right to it and started doing it I guess. It was amazing to be asked because we’ve been working on the record obviously and having this come out of the blue and we only planned to do one show at The Borderline and it was kind of intense to get that offer and be like “fuck yeah OK we’ll do it”.
How was the show at The Borderline?
AUSTIN: It was amazing, it sold out. Fucking crowd surfers and all sorts of shit that we wanted and we got fucking 5 K’s in Kerrang!, we’ve never had that before it’s just sweet.
CONOR: It’s more than what we expected, it was superb the way it did.
AUSTIN: I don’t think any band ever expects to get 5 out of 5, I was really happy about that.
Well done guys! You’re working on the second album at the moment, how’s that coming along?
CONOR: Yeah, wicked, really great. Very excited for you guys to hear it.
AUSTIN: Sorry, we’re so tired, we’ve been practicing since ten this morning (it’s now 7:30pm) in preparations for today, its been great though.
CONOR: Last preparations indeed!
Aw bless you guys! How will it differ from the last album?
AUSTIN: It will be better, gnarlier, angrier, it will be a lot sadder, its gonna be really fucking sad. It’s gonna be the saddest album of 2014.
Will we cry?
AUSTIN: Everyone’s gonna fucking cry and the ending’s gonna be, its gonna end very happy its gonna sound like this [Austin makes a sound like an Angel ascending from heaven “ahhhhhh”]. That’s basically what’s gonna happen so.
How should I write that down? Like “ahhhhhhh?!”
AUSTIN: How do you deal with onomatopoeias in a journalist context? Can you just be like *wahhhhhhh* with asterisk, that would be amazing. Apart from that its going great, it’s going fucking killer and we’re gonna release it later this year.
Awesome. The Borderline was a one off show as far as I know, you haven’t got anything planned.
AUSTIN: We’ve got a lot of things planned we just haven’t announced them.
Exactly! So…
CONOR: We’ve got a lot of Facebook announcements to make.
AUSTIN: Got a lot of Facebook announcements to make. We’ll be announcing all this shit soon it’s gonna be out there and everyone can see it but I kind of like the secrecy right now, but the demands there. Our single went down super well and The Borderline show flat out sold out and right now it’s kind of setting up the rest of the album campaign.
CONOR: We’re getting the promotions sides of things going and its very exciting.
Are any of the songs fully written yet and ready to be played tonight?
AUSTIN: Yes, the albums fully written now, so we’re just kind of recording it basically. That’s why it’s cool to come out and do stuff like this.
Are you playing any of the tracks tonight?
AUSTIN: Oh yeah of course!
Awesome, we look forward to hearing it! So what have you got planned for the rest of the year?
CONOR: Tour tour tour tour tour album album album.
AUSTIN: He handled that way better! I was just about to say we can’t say shit but yeah basically tour tour tour album album tour tour tour.
You guys have been quiet recently, so I’m liking the sound of this!
CONOR: We will be breaking the silence…
AUSTIN: The silence was kinda cool though, wasn’t it? We got to go away and see how everything works and then we get to come back and it’s like we never left, it’s the best thing ever!
It’s because we love you!
AUSTIN: I love you guys so much, I love everyone.
Would you like to do a shout out to everyone you love?
AUSTIN: Just you, just you. Mumma, Big T, Bubba ray, the cat from Friends, like all of you guys, thanks! [laughter]
Thank you guys!
Rise To Remain’s new as yet untitled album will be out later this year. Stay tuned for any further updates from the band as and when they are announced (and based on what they said in the interview, keep an eye on the Rise To Remain Facebook page too).