bandoftheday.com - Interview
Mattias and Dave-Os - March 12, 2006
Today's a good day. Why? Well, it's cuz we've got another great interview for all of you. The BotD is Relient K, who we were fortunate enough to see on two seperate occasions: at last years Warped Tour and when they recently came into town with Maxeen and The Rocket Summer. It was a great concert and lemme just say that the crowd loved them so much that it was kinda scary. Listen to the card and you'll see where all the love is coming from.
Brought to you by the letter K
Relient K is a band that’s not afraid of being a little optimistic in a pretty pessimistic world. The whole positive outlook on life has been something that’s drawn a huge following for this band and their popularity is still growing. On February 24th, we interviewed David Douglas and John Warne of Relient K when they came into town with Maxeen and The Rocket Summer for The Matt Hoopes Birthday Tour. So, without further adieu, we proudly bring you John and Dave from Relient K, interviewed by Matt and Dave from Band of the Day, in…
10 Questions with Relient K
1. What single band has inspired you the most and why?
D: I guess as a band, I would have to say that because Matt Thiessen does pretty much all the writing, and his favorite band is The Beach Boys, I suppose that you’d have to assume that The Beach Boys would be one of the bigger influences.
J: That’s a boring answer. What’s YOUR favorite? What’s your most influential band?
D: I really don’t know…I really don’t know.
J: Be honest Dave.
D: Ok…Stryper.
J: Alright!
Mattias: How about you John, Who’s your biggest influence?
J: I like the Beatles. The Beatles are great.
D: Everyone likes the Beatles
J: and Travis Barker
Dave-Os: He’s like your idol Matt.
Mattias: Yeah, I love Travis Barker too…
D: I was just saying that last night, he’s one of my favorite drummers, but it’s a little bit embarrassing because EVERYONE loves Travis Barker.
2. You guys have a pretty big fan base. What’s the craziest story you can that you can think of that involved a fan?
D: Hmmm…craziest story with a fan…
J: There was that one time this girl couldn’t get a hold of us, and she actually doused herself in lighter fluid and lit herself on fire. It was right in front of the bus; it was cra…
Dave-Os: Whoa. Is that really true?
J: No, it’s not. That’s not even remotely true. Sorry.
D: That would be pretty awesome though, wouldn’t it? I mean not really. But I’m just saying like as for a story…
J: That would be a great story.
D: Not a good thing to happen really.
3. Who have been the best bands to go on tour with and why?
D: We’ve been really fortunate actually for virtually every tour. I’m trying to think of a band that we kind of wish we didn’t go on tour with and I can’t think of any. Every tour I feel like we’re all sitting around being like “Man, there’s just a great group of people on this tour. We love these bands. We love these guys.” I feel like we’ve been really fortunate to tour with bands with really good people in them and people that make good music.
Dave Os: Do you have any favorites?
D: I love the guys in the band Mae; It’s always fun to be around with them.
J: The Evan Anthem are great guys as well. It’s hard to pick out any.
4. If you could get the fans to take one message out of your music, what would it be?
D: What do you think John?
J: I think the overarching theme seems to be…
D: You’re right.
J: Well I haven’t even said it yet.
D: You’re probably going to say something about realizing your mistakes and knowing there’s redemption around the corner…
J: You are right.
D: Like you can always stop and say “Hey, I’m gonna change”…
J: That’s right.
D: “I’m gonna turn over a new leaf… So if I would have said that, I would have been right. I feel like you [John] would have said it a little bit better.
J: No, you’re a very eloquent person. Anyway yeah, that’s a great answer right there.
5. In the “Sadie Hawkins Dance” song, did the girl really like your sweater?
D: I mean that’s the big mystery of the song. That’s what brings you back to listen to it another time because you’re just wondering, and you’re trying to pick out clues. There’s really no clues to be had.
Mattias: I know what you mean, I’ve got like notebooks and notebooks filled with notes…
D: Yeah, It leaves you wondering. That’s the beauty of it. The beauty…of it.
Dave-Os: So what’s the answer?
D: There’s no answer. It’s one of those “Choose Your Own Ending” stories. You have to write a sequel yourself.
6. Have you considered what you might want to do 20 years down the road if you can’t play music anymore because someone broke all your fingers and vocal chords?
J: Well that limits what you can do in life. If you don’t have any fingers and you can’t talk…
Dave-Os: You could talk, but it would be scratchy, but not the good kind of scratchy.
D: Well personally, if that happened, and even if that didn’t happen, I would like to work with other bands, like producing. I would love to sit around and pretend like my ideas had some amount of validity to them and tell other people “That’s good! Oh that’s not good!” and have them think that I know what I’m talking about. That’s one thing that I would like to do at some point.
Dave-Os: How about you [John]?
J: I would like to be a mechanical engineer at this point. I was on my way to it before the whole band thing happened. I’d like to get back into it. I’m kind of a nerd.
Mattias: I dropped out of Biomedical Engineering. So I guess we’ve got something in common there.
J: Wow, well there it is!
7. If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
D: Probably a peregrine falcon because they fly really fast.
Dave-Os: I heard up to 100 miles per hour.
D: Yeah, I think it’s close to that. And when they dive, they can go almost double that speed, which is pretty awesome.
J: I’d probably be something that’s big enough to eat a peregrine falcon. Like maybe a hawk or double Hawk even.
D: A double hawk…(*laughs*)
8. What would be worse? Being thrown out of a plane, or pushed out of a submarine?
J: Submarine for sure.
Dave-Os: Yeah? Why’s that?
J: Because people survive actually – some people survive if like your parachute doesn’t open. Plus it’d be fun.
D: It would be fun for a few minutes yeah.
Dave-Os: What if there were sharks in the ocean?
J: That’s much worse! Unless you really like sharks.
D: Even if there weren’t sharks, if you’re at any reasonable depth for a submarine, you’re just going to be dead instantly.
J: You’ll just be crushed.
Dave-Os: So Submarine, eh.
D: That is far worse. [With the plane] you might have a chance of landing on snow, or some conifers…
9. So you guys were nominated for a Juno Award (“the Canadian Grammys”). How did that happen considering that you’re not from Canada?
J: *Canadian Accent* Oh doncha know?
D: Because we don’t know either really. Matt Thiessen is Canadian. That’s how that happened. He moved to the States when he was 8, but he’s still a Canadian citizen. He just has a Green Card. So that’s how that happened.
10. Who would you like to see next on Band of the Day?
D: I feel like we have to promote someone we’re on tour with currently. Do you guys know The Rocket Summer?
Mattias: Yeah, Bryce Avary? He’s awesome.
D: Yeah have they been band of the day before?
Mattias: We were going to talk to him today.
J: Oh Excellent.
D: Geez, well look at that. Let’s just say that we convinced you to do that. (*laugh*)
Mattias: Alright, so The Rocket Summer’s your official pick?
D: Yup, The Rocket Summer.
Dave-Os: How about you [John]? Same thing?
J: Yeah. Or Maxeen, I happen to like their show quite a bit.
D: Good Band.
As you can see, these are a couple of funny guys. A quick thanks to the fellas and the people that made this interview possible. The whole “what if there were sharks in the ocean” thing didn’t really make sense considering they already said that the submarine would be worse, but what’re you gonna do. We’ve got another great interview coming up really soon, so make sure you don’t miss that baby either.
Until we meet again, peeps,
The BotD Team