Earlier in the summer we here at Lemonade Magazine named Against The Current our “new favorite band”. Thankfully I was able to catch their show this August during the Seattle/Auburn stop at Vans Warped Tour, as well as chat with them about their debut full length album, In Our Bones, as well as the tour.
With that said, here is my interview with Against The Current…
Brandon: How have you guys enjoyed Warped Tour so far? I know it can be kind of grueling, but how are you feeling down the final stretch?
Chrissy: We are in high spirits, because we go home tomorrow!
Everyone: *laughs*
Will: We’re ready to finish this thing, you know? End it with a bang.
Chrissy: Ditto! *laughs*
Brandon: Now I know we may be a tiny bit late to the party, but we here at Lemonade did name you our new favorite band recently…
Chrissy: Thanks!
Will: Never too late.
Brandon: I’ve been listening to both of your EPs, as well as the new full length album, In Our Bones. Sometimes in this era of music, bands release a bunch of EPs and build all this excitement for the full length and then it kind of disappoints. Yours, however, is awesome…
Chrissy: Thanks! I thought you were going to be like, “It was alriiiiight, but the EPs that’s where it’s at.”
Will: Right?
Brandon: *laughs* No, no, no, I absolutely love the full length! The sound is a little different from the EPs. What has that growth been like?
Chrissy: It’s going good.
Will: Growth is going good.
Chrissy: I was about 4’9″ a couple years ago and I now have hit 5’1 3/4″.
Will: I am on the way down actually.
Chrissy: Gained a couple pounds. Gained my woman weight. After turning 20, it really just hit me.
Brandon: *laughs* I stopped growing at like, 10.
Chrissy: Yeah, I stopped growing at 12 or maybe it was like, 11. Whatever you are in 7th grade.
Brandon: The new album though, it still has some punk sounds, but it even has a bit of that new sound we’re hearing in acts like Halsey. What are you most proud of with In Our Bones?
Chrissy: I think just the fact that – and maybe some people will disagree with this – but in our opinion, there are no deep cuts. You know, every song has its own story and stands for itself and has its own sound. There are no two songs that sound alike. That’s what we wanted to do. We wrote over 40 songs for the record and one of things we did when we were shaping the record was like, “Okay, we have three songs that are all kind of doing the same thing, which one is the best? That’s the one? That goes on the record!” and then everything else is irrelevant at that point.
Brandon: Your music videos are all very well executed. There is a lot of cinematography in each one and many different themes. How do you guys go into each video shoot? Do you have some ideas? Do other people bring you ideas?
Brandon (left) and Against The Current
Chrissy: We’re usually crying because the day is going to be 14 hours and it’s probably raining or snowing or cold, so yeah, we’re usually crying. But no, we work with the directors – we have a bunch of directors – on the treatments. We don’t tell them our intentions first, like we kind of want them to get their first impressions of the song and what comes to mind first. In the case of a video such as “Wasteland,” which we put out a couple months ago right before this tour, the director sent us a treatment that wasn’t what we wanted. So we told him exactly what we wanted and he wrote a new treatment, so that’s how it came to be.
Brandon: We’re all dog lovers here, how excited are you (Chrissy) to see your dog after Vans Warped Tour wraps up?
Chrissy: I am so excited! I mean all three of us have dogs, so I am sure everybody is pumped. Dan, are you excited to see Rex?
Dan: Yes.
Chrissy: What do you call Rex?
Dan: Precious…
Chrissy: He has many names for his dog, among them being “Sir Tootsie” and “Precious”.
Brandon: *laughs*
Chrissy: And then Will has a giant version of my dog. Well basically I have a Goldadoodle, he has a Golden Retriever named Dexter. A bigger version of my dog. My dream dog is a Golden Retriever, but my mom is allergic, so we got the hypoallergenic.
Brandon: That makes sense. Well she’s adorable. You carry her in at the end of one of your YouTube videos, I don’t know how you did, she looks big, but it must be all the fluff.
Chrissy: Yeah, she’s like 55 lbs. She’s a little bit heavy…little bit, little bit. About half my weight, but yeah it is a lot of hair. When she’s wet, like when we give her a bath or whatever, she’s suddenly a skeleton.
Brandon: What are you guys up to after Warped? I know you want to chill obviously.
Will: We have a few weeks off and then we start our “In Our Bones World Tour” in Asia actually. Asia goes right into UK/Europe and then we have a breather, we have a couple more weeks off and then we’re doing the final leg of it.
Brandon: No rest for the wicked huh?
Will: No.
Brandon: Who have you guys enjoyed on Warped?
Will: The Maine.
Chrissy: Yeah The Maine is great. Also like, on our stage, The Heirs and Sykes have been awesome. We’ve toured with Sykes before…
Brandon: Yeah, Sykes was great.
Via Against The Current’s Instagram. Photo by Joe Brady.
Chrissy: Yeah, we got to tour with them in the UK, which was really cool. The Heirs are awesome too. They’re really cool. I think The Heirs, Sykes and us kind of have this – we understand them – because we don’t really fit into Warped Tour. You watch them and you’re like, “This isn’t a Warped Tour band”. I think a lot of people get that from listening to us as well.
Will: We started a group, the “Warped Tour Outcast Group”.
Chrissy: Yeah.
Will: Yeah, totally.
Chrissy: The Main Stage has the classic bands that have been through the Warped Tour ringer. Pretty much every band on that stage has been on Warped Tour at least twice it seems. On our stage you see a lot of new, different bands. Up and comers and things like that, so it’s really cool to see that diversity.
Brandon: Ok, last question… What is the secret to getting through a tour like this without any breakdowns or are there just a lot of breakdowns?
Chrissy: Getting off site some days. On your off days, doing fun things. Maintaining whatever normalcy you can.
Check out Against The Current‘s debut full length album In Our Bones below via Spotify!
