Justin caught up with Dan from We Are The Ocean back stage at the Academy in Birmingham to talk about the current tour, their latest album and much more.

How is everything in the Mayday Parade camp at the moment?
Derek Sanders (Vocals): Everything is all thumbs up, it’s all really good man. We’ve been over here for a little over a week now on this tour and it’s been so much fun. It’s been my favourite trip over here for sure. The Maine are awesome dudes, they’ve been so much fun to live with and share a bus with, the shows have all been sold out, so yeah, I can’t complain at all, it’s been great.

How does it feel to have travelled so far to come over here and all the shows are sold out?
It’s wild! We were just over here a few months ago with Madina Lake where we were supporting in these rooms, it’s cool to be able to come and do really good shows with just us and The Maine, it’s very humbling, it’s very cool.

Do you enjoy playing over here?
Absolutely, yeah. We definitely want to come back as soon as possible.

Would you say that it’s massively different to playing shows over in the States?
It’s not massively different, I think there’s more energy in the crowds over here for the most part, overall they’re more energetic, they sing and it’s always a good show. The partying here is insane! There’s so much more partying here than there is in the US. It’s every night of the week here, there are big nights at home, but Monday and Tuesday, they’re not big partying nights, but here it’s every single night, even Sunday! You listen to good music too, the music people listen to in the clubs here is much better than the music we listen to in the States.

As you’ve said, this tour is with The Maine, were you good friends before this tour was planned?
We actually were, we did a tour with them a couple of years ago in the states with All Time Low and really got along with them so well and bonded with them immediately, they’re the greatest dudes, we just love them and get along with them so well.

You must be spending a lot of time with them, is there a good camaraderie between the bands?
It’s always, always hanging out. We’ve been staying up very late and sleeping in a lot, there have been a lot of good times, just hanging out.

Going back a few years, a lot was made of Jason Lancaster’s departure from the band, can I just ask how the land lies now?
Everything’s good now, he’s doing Go Radio now and everything seems to be going really well for him. We’re actually doing a tour in the States that Go Radio’s going to be on and I think that will be cool. I always thought that it was neat that bands toured with other bands that had ex-members in, I think the fans will like it and they’re a good band, so it should be fun. Obviously there’ll always be some kind of awkwardness, it’s like with an ex-girlfriend I suppose, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get along and be friends.

You completed the Vans Warped Tour this summer, how did it go?
That was so much fun, I’ve really just been having the best time of my life the past year or two with touring and everything, but Warped Tour was just awesome. Y’know, I was a little ready for it to be done by the end because it’s a long tour and it’s pretty draining but I was really sad because there were a lot of great people on that tour that I met or I’d known before.

Is the schedule as gruelling as everyone makes it out to be?
It’s a lot more stressful, intense and gruelling than your average club tour, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a lot of fun, there’s just a lot more that you have to do and you’re outdoors in the heat all day and it’s hard to figure out where to shower and stuff, but it’s not that bad.

Did you get the luxury of a fancy tour bus while you were out there?
Yeah, if you have a bus it’s not that bad. It’s the bands that don’t have a bus when Warped Tour could be a nightmare. We’ve done it a few times in a van and that’s an absolute nightmare.

You’ve had a pretty busy summer, but you’ve also found time to contribute to yet another ‘Punk Goes…’ CD, is this something you enjoy doing?
Yeah, absolutely. Every time they’re doing one of those we always want in because they’re fun to do. All of them that we’ve done we haven’t really planned beforehand, we’ve just gone into the studio, the same studio that we’ve worked with for a long time, we recorded our EP there and all of our old bands recorded there, so we’ve known the producer there for years and years and we’re really good friends. It’s only two hours from where we live, so we like to go and do demos there and record our covers there. It’s fun, we go and we spend two days working it out from the bottom up and it’s fun to be creative like that in the studio and be a part of those compilations.

How do you go about choosing the songs to cover?
We normally don’t even pick until a day or two beforehand, that’s been the pattern anyway. We just listen to a bunch of the Top 40 and pick a song, that’s often the hardest part, we always disagree, there’s always people that want to do different songs, it’s hard to get everyone on the same page!

So are you going to be throwing some Jason Derülo into your set tonight?
No, I don’t think we’ll be playing it tonight! We haven’t played it live yet, but maybe after the CD comes out, we’ll see!

Have you found any time to prepare for a new record?
I definitely have, and that’s what I’m all about right now. I’ve been writing a lot for the past six months or so, and we’re just starting to get together and demo-ing some of the ideas and forming full songs out of them. So, after this tour we do a US tour and then in December it’ll just be writing and hopefully being ready to record as early as we can in 2011.

So does the writing process always begin with you, and then the rest of the band comes together to make it how we hear on record?
Yeah, that’s pretty much how it’s always been. Not every song is the same, but for the most part that’s always how it works.

Despite having a busy year so far, are you going to take a break, or are things going to remain at the same pace for the remainder of the year?
Well we’re going to finish this tour in London on the 11th I think, we fly back to the States on the 12th and the 13th is our first show of that tour. That’s a full US tour, I’m so excited about that, as much fun as I’ve been having on this tour, I know that tour’s going to be a blast because we’re playing with a lot of our good friends; Breathe Carolina, Every Avenue, Artist Vs Poet and Go Radio. When that ends we’ll have December off, we’re going to take a little vacation, we won a vacation on Warped Tour for being the most eco-friendly band by recycling the most! So they’re giving us a vacation, which I think we’re taking in December for a couple of days, so we’re going to go to the beach, so that’ll be really nice. Then we’ll be writing and hanging out with family and recording as soon as possible.

So you’re not having much time off then?
Not at all, but we like it that way, we like to stay busy and feel like we’re being productive. We like to keep things going.

Interview By Ben Connell