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Push to Fire Interview: Forever the Sickest Kids
This is the third visit to the UK for the band but surprisingly it’s their first time not headlining a tour over
here. “Yeh, it was weird,” Kent explained. “I think we were all really nervous about the first time, but it was such
a warm welcome that after that we were excited to come over any time since then. We were surprised on the first tour
about the size of the venues we were playing and the amount of people there. We owe a lot of the success of that tour
to the bands we played with though, All Forgotten and Kill the Arcade. They really helped us out a lot and kinda led
the way for us.” “Most of the first tour actually sold out,” Kyle added.
The band have found that there is a noticeable difference between the fans in the UK and those of the USA when it comes
to their reactions and enthusiasm at the live shows. “I think in the states it’s got to a point where they see shows
every night of the same American bands over and over again, but in the UK they only get the American bands once or twice
a year maybe so they’re way more stoked. They get the one chance that one night so they’ll cancel school or work to
come along.”
Not only do the band notice fans’ efforts during the live shows but they also believe there’s a big difference between
how they react to the music generally as Kent offers that “they seem to care more about the music here and the songs
we play during the show than, like, meeting us as well. The states has more of a defined scene where you’ll see the
same kids come out to every show. In the states though, we’ll play the same city four times a year sometimes. We’ll
do about two full US tours a year, and then we’ll do a couple of other small tours around them with one-off shows and
things like that.” This is a similar difference to that which UK bands experience when they branch out to mainland
Europe, but the effect was similar for FTSK when they toured out there a year ago. “It was really fun and the crowds
were real excited,” Kyle remembered. ”Even though there’s a language barrier they sing along really loudly, it’s
incredible. The ‘doo doo’s and the ‘la la’s especially. We should write more songs with just syllables,” he laughed.
Anyone who has witnessed a live show from Forever the Sickest Kids would know that no energy is spared by either the
band or the crowd during their set. They’re keen to get everyone involved and excited the whole way through as those
are the types of shows that they find the most fun. “The more memorable shows for us have been when the crowd is just
as energetic as us, if not more energetic,” Kyle explained. “Like, sometimes when we’re on stage our energy compliments
the crowd’s as they’re going so insane and it makes us have even more fun. Even if we’re playing awful, if strings
are breaking and I’m dropping drumsticks and things are getting unplugged because the crowd’s falling on the stage.
Those are some of our favourite shows.” “You can tell usually within the first minute of the set too,” Kent added.
“I mean, in the UK sometimes right when we hit the first note you can tell it’s just gonna be chaos. We’d rather see
faces than colours, like when you play an arena you just see a sea of colour. I mean you can see the first few rows,
but once you look beyond that you can’t see them and can’t even tell if they’re having a good time. In small rooms
you really feel the energy from like everyone.” Kyle said that he couldn’t be happier about the fact that they were
playing the Borderline that night as they were told how intimate a venue it was, as he asserted that “sometimes I’d
rather play the smaller clubs like that for the die-hard fans rather than play a 10,000 person room.”
With FTSK gaining more and more success and fans as a result, they will gradually need to play more shows in larger
venues to accommodate the growing number of people wishing to see them. For a band that thrives in intimate venues,
they don’t wish to lose sight of that as a result. “We’ll still wanna do one-offs and small shows for the die-hard
fans too because it keeps us motivated. I mean, sure, there’s like no pay in it but that’s not why we’re doing this.
We do it because it’s fun. We need to keep in touch with the same kids we’ve been playing to for 3 years. If we get
an offer to play anywhere, we’ll go do it.” This declaration by Kyle probably comes with a “within reason” disclaimer,
but the sentiment is a heartfelt one. “Literally, we have played pretty much the worst places you could play, and
we’ve played birthday parties and in people’s backyards. You name it, we’ve been there.” We don’t ever wanna be
that band that says ‘we’re too big to play that venue,’” Kent added.
Forever the Sickest Kids had an unconventionally fast signing to major label Universal as a bidding war broke out
between labels just weeks after the band posted their first song online. Kyle talked about how it felt to be amongst
all that attention so quickly by explaining that “not even four months before that we were in another band that was
getting no label attention, so to go from that to being sought after by all these labels was really humbling for us
and overwhelming at the same time. We didn’t even have any real direction at the time either, it was just us guys in
a band. Our parents took the role of being our management and I really credit them with keeping us level headed
during all of that. It was insane, we’d have one label coming in to meet us one day and then later that night we
were flying out to play for another one in LA. It was an insane time, and we only had like two songs written.” Kent
then said that “people would be flying into Dallas and we’d only be able to play them two songs, like “that’s all
we’ve got for you. We’ve only been a band for like two weeks. I think we really saw eye-to-eye with Universal though.
We prayed so hard about being on the right label, and they were the first ones to come to us actually. We were really
blessed by getting the right fit and it’s been really great so far.”
This label interest was generated simply from those two initial tracks showcasing this band’s undoubted ability to
craft a catchy rock tune, but they have also managed to garner an extremely loyal fanbase at the same time. They
mused that it was probably a combination of their touring and their personalities that helped to win over crowds.
“There’s something interesting about our music but many people didn’t get it until they saw our myspace and saw
our faces and realised the personalities behind it in our videos.” Word of mouth appeared to follow swiftly which
Kyle supports as his preferred form of promotion. “It is literally the best way. In the same way people know about
the graffiti artist Banksy, I mean I would talk to people about him because I’m interested in it and that’s the same
way people react to us. I mean of course there’s internet advertising and stuff but our band’s always been more
interested in the word of mouth from the fans.” The first track the band put online was offered to the fans for free
just so that they could give it to their friends and spread it around. “We really owe it all to them,” Kent offered
genuinely. “They’re the ones who made us successful, not us.”
When asked how they felt about being on a major label with such huge artists on the roster, Kyle replied “it’s crazy.
Like, when we got signed all our friends’ bands and all the bands that we looked up to weren’t signed to majors. They
were either on small independents, or they weren’t signed at all, and weren’t even being played on the radio. It’s
just a mind-trip to skip a few steps.” Kent continued, “we went straight from having nothing to walking in here and
seeing Bono on the wall. Back in the day, if we even got a call or an email from Tooth and Nail or Drive-Thru Records
we would have thought we’d won the lottery. But being put in the situation of being on a big label like this one
really makes us work harder I think. It’s great that our label pushes and challenges us a bit too. It keeps us motivated.”
The guys assured that the motivation doesn’t come in the form of pressure from the label, but that they are very
supportive of the band and allow them the freedom to keep making the music how they enjoy it. "We didn’t really feel
any pressure when it came to following up our debut album actually,” said Kyle. “We were thrilled with how our first
record turned out, and so was the label. They saw that it worked so they just said to ‘keep doing what you’re doing’
really. We decided not to make the next record an album because we didn’t wanna have to sit on that same album for
ages, we want to keep things new and interesting. I mean, we write songs all the time so we wondered ‘what if we could
release new music faster.’ We talked to the label and they liked the idea of us making smaller albums and releasing
them faster. So we ran with the idea and decided to release a 3-part cd album in 3 stages.” The first of these 3
mini-albums came out late last year, with the second and third issues due in the Spring and Summer of 2010.
For a band with six members, Forever the Sickest Kids have an inspiringly cooperative song-writing process in which even
the lyrics are written collaboratively by the whole band and are drawn from personal experiences that every member is
a part of in some way. “Literally every song we sit down and talk about it. I mean, we hang out so much as a band we
all relate and understand what each other’s going through so all our songs come from mutual personal experiences. It’s
always something that all six of us have in common which is great because since it’s a broad experience it reaches out
to so many more people that way. Like that “Hey, Brittany” song. Yes, there is a Brittany. We all knew Britney. We all
saw what was going on with the guy in our band who it was with so we all relate to it. It can be fun too because with
there being three singers in the band, in a lot of songs it’s like we talk to each other lyrically. Like Jonathan in a
verse will be talking to Austin and he’ll reply back. It’s real. It’s like talking to your friends in a song instead
of talking to a girl.” It’s a concept which is quite rare yet very obviously makes sense as Kent closes by asking the
rhetoric question, “what’s the point in writing songs that don’t have anything to do with you or something you care about?”
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