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SEAWAY are currently on the road with Knuckle Puck and Neck Deep on the Intercontinental Championships Tour. Our man, Siôn Roe, caught up with them shortly before the Bristol show….
Hey guys, how you doing?
“Good man. We’re pretty awesome, thanks.”
How’s the tour been so far?
“It’s been awesome. Everything’s run pretty smoothly so far. Yeah, it’s the first time we have been over here. It’s been great.”
What has been the biggest difference between playing shows here in the UK and home, in the States?
“Younger crowd, for sure. I mean, like, it’s still young back home, but it’s visibly younger over here, which is pretty cool. It’s great to see younger kids getting into this kinda music. It makes the shows better too, because the young kids don’t care about what’s cool and what’s not, they just like what they like, whereas back home, the older they get, it’s just like ‘Ah, I’m not gonna move for this band.’ Too cool kinda thing.”
How is it touring with Knuckle Puck and Neck Deep? Is it nice having familiar faces on tour?
“Yeah. Most tours, it seems like the first week or two is awkward, getting to know each other, and sharing a vibe, but this tour, everyone is already friends, so its great. We just got really into it. We’re playing with Trophy Eyes and Neck Deep on Warped, so it’ll be sick to see them all Summer long. I’m sure we’ll be doing something in the future with the rest of them.”
How hard is it for American bands to get to tour over here in the UK and mainland Europe?
“It’s just expensive! It’s easier, as far as work visas go, for us to get over here than for UK bands to come to America, but it’s just getting the flights and transportation is a little bit tougher, and the scene is so strong here, that its not unrealistic for a lot of bands to just come here as a first tour but like, from the US, I dunno it just seems like a lot of people are stoked on the small local bands that are just getting started over in the States and in Canada.”
You released your new EP, ‘All In My Head’ back in November. How have your fans reacted back home, and across the world?
“It’s be great. It’s been pretty overwhelming overall, because it was our first release with Pure Noise Records, which we were really excited about. They really helped us out, and it kinda just took off.”
You mentioned just now about being on the Warped Tour for 2015. Who are you most looking forward to playing with?
“Riff Raff. Haha!
I don’t really know who’s been announced, but we have a lot of friends that we’ve toured with before, Have Mercy is on it, Neck Deep, Trophy Eyes, some other friends that haven’t been announced yet. Yeah, were looking forward to playing with those guys.”
What has it been like touring with Neck Deep on your turf, compared to coming over and touring on theirs?
“It’s much bigger over here. It’s pretty much the same guys having a good time, doesn’t really matter where, but the shows have been much crazier. It’s been a much bigger scale.!”
You’ve gone from playing 100 capacity venues, to now playing in front of a couple of thousand. How has this impacted on you?
“Yeah, I don’t think we have changed much from our set, but I think it’s a lot more fun to play these shows. Having that many kids, that are that stoked on our music, is really cool. It’s easier to get excited about it when you’re on stage and everyone else is just as excited, if not more excited. Intimate shows are cool because it’s a little more personal and more interaction, but also it’s just as crazy when there’s 500 kids just jumping up and down to our songs. Crowd participation is huge. It completely affects the show… the whole vibe of the show. If the crowd’s not into it, then the show’s not as much fun, whereas these shows, the crowds have been insane. For most tours, the first kinda band, or the first two bands there’s very minimal crowd reaction, and then the headliner or co-headliner and support get a really good reaction, but here, as soon as the lights go down for the first band, its pandemonium. It’s been really cool. Nobody really cares if you are opening or headlining, they’re just here to see the bands, so they treat them all the same. You open a show at home, you can expect half of the amount of kids that will be there for the headliners. A lot of the tours we have done back home have been with older, more established bands, so fans are usually there for them and not the support, whereas on this tour, they’ve kinda marketed it as this Intercontinental Championship Tour, with all the bands from different countries, which means the kids are getting excited about all the bands. It’s really cool to see, I think.”
Did you expect it to be so successful in such a short amount of time?
“We definitely didn’t expect it to go this far. I think, when we started, if you told us we would be playing this venue in the UK, we’d be like ‘No way!’ Just the fact that we are even here is completely mind-blowing. We have been very lucky, and we’ve made a lot of cool friends who’ve helped us out along the way. It’s been crazy, for sure. It’s cool to think that a year-and-a-half ago we were doing a summer tour with Knuckle Puck to 40 kids a night in small DIY basements and bars in the States, and now were here, with the same guys. It’s pretty humbling.”
What is the plan for the rest of 2015?
“Pretty much, we have three weeks off when we get home, then were heading back to do a full US tour with Bayside, Senses Fail and Man Overboard from March. Then we’re heading straight to the studio after that to record a full-length, and then we have a couple months off before Warped Tour. So that’s pretty much what’s happening for the rest of the year so far.”
Any final words that you would like to say to fans in the UK and Europe?
“Thanks for coming early and checking us out, and thanks for the support… hanging out. We’ve met a lot of cool people already, and people will come and say they have flown over from like France and Spain to come and see us so like, that’s insane. Yeah, for fans in mainland Europe too, we’ll hopefully see them soon, we’re always trying to organise something to get over there.”
So, a busy year ahead for the Seaway boys. Keep an eye out on their Facebook page for any up coming show and tour announcements.
Read my review of the Bristol show here.
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