Interview With There For Tomorrow - 18th March 2011

Photo Of There For TomorrowJustin caught up with There For Tomorrow to talk about how the band formed, their current tour with Silverstein, the chances of them playing UK festivals, their new album and much more.

First of all can you give us a brief history of how you came together as a band?
We all came together when we were kids, like 13. I knew Chris from playing football and then he had another thing going with Jay, another good kid in town and I'd been playing guitar since I was 6 so they called me up and then we started jamming, learnt some NoFx songs and Rancid together, I stumbled into singing and here we are!

You last album ‘A Little Faster’ was released back in 2009, did it go down as well as you expected with the press and your fans?
That was our first full length so there wasn't too much expectation, we'd put a lot into it and had only just signed to Hopeless. But I think the expectation came from us winning an MTVU Woodie award for breakout artist of the year, but you know I think all that stuff is reassurance that people out there care and believe in us. So we didn't really take that to our heads too much. A little faster was it's thing, we learnt so much and we're starting to find ourselves even though there's a huge learning curve to this whole thing.

What would you say your favourite track from the album is and why?
Man that's hard because you're kind of apparent to your songs so it's hard to choose your favourite track, but the songs that really seemed to speak to people were "Wish You Away" and "Stories" and I have a real appreciation for those over the others cause of how they spoke to people and have them more of an outlook and sense of depth to our band. I think they appreciate that rather than us trying to pump out party tracks.

You released an EP called ‘RE:Creations’ back in October which featured one brand new song and many remixes whose idea was this and what response did you get from it?
We're always evolving and taking new influence, we have a new affinity for something like every month for certain artists or genres that are happening. For a while it seemed like the only genuine things that were happening were within the electronic world. I'm always behind the scenes with the music and the record process so I've kinda built my own style for producing and engineering. We wanted to take a shot after being pigeon holed at the time for our look and the bands we were touring with at the time at breaking those barriers so we tried to experiment with this remix EP and it was cool, I think people really got it. They understood that it wasn't a direction but an experiment to break away from what we were doing with A Little Faster.

I understand you are currently working on your new album, how is it going so far and what can you tell us about it?
It's done, it's over! We did it so quick and part of the whole learning curve is now thinking of how to translate these songs live. A lot of the time you can prejudge a track in its early stages and try to cover it up or make up for things that aren't there yet and up losing that raw integrity you started off with. But that's something we really wanted to keep on this record. There's not like 25 guitars happening or huge samples and synths happening. We wrote 13 songs in 7 days and just went with our instincts. They're still songs, not just crazy jams or anything, we're just trying to grown and mature. At heart it's a rock record, a modern rock record that speaks to a person in our generation coming up in the world trying to find their place because everything is so transitional now. We're excited to put it out, it's gonna be a new light. There's already the nay sayers but on the other hand we have the crazy believers who lobe the new single we put out. It's all under wraps right now but you'll probably find it leaked over the internet eventually!

You are signed to Hopeless Records how have you found them to work with?
We've been with them for a bout 3 years and put out a lot of good stuff with them, it's been great. They've been so patient with letting us cultivate our own style. They had an understanding early on that we're more of a grower style band, not a quick sensation or something. As a rock band it's hard to just come up and blow up. It's easy for some but they've really helped us grow which is priceless.

You are currently in the UK touring with label mates Silverstein and your first show was in Portsmouth last night, how did you find it?
Yeah it was a little bit of a rough start, we were missing some gear so I hope US Air is gonna be delivering it tomorrow. It's been cool, it's different for us cause this is like the first tour we've done with heavier bands. So we're kind of diving head first into a world of the unknown! It's been a pleasure to see loyal fans about the place as well, even though we're half way across the world. We had a couple of people from Italy come last night, really blown away by global out reach the music has had. But yeah it's been great so far.

Do you have any favourite venues or cities to play whilst in the UK?
We love Manchester. We played at one of the uni's and we're playing there again I think. We played last time with Deaf Havana and it was a great show, pretty wild! But with different bands we're just going with the flow and seeing how each night treats us!

The tour comes to an end early next week what do you have planned after it?
Yeah we go home and we have a few videos to shoot, a live session to go with the new album, a documentary to go with it and then right into Warped Tour in the summer. We just did Soundwave before coming here which was out first time in Australia. It was pretty amazing. The UK has been a great home for us as well so we're trying to work on coming back as much as possible. Hopefully after Warped Tour

The UK summer festivals are currently being announced, can we expect to see you playing any this year?
We'd love to but I think most would be conflicting with Warped Tour. Which is a shame but that's an experience in itself. It's changed a lot over the years but it's still hot as hell! But yeah it's something we'd really like to do at some stage.

If you could tour with any band past and present who would it be and why?
It's hard to say, with a lot of up and coming bands there's not a lot of pure rock bands that are happening right now. But we love a lot of stuff that's happening in the more indie world. We love Two Door Cinema Club, and of course Pheonix is amazing. Bands like that. Really cool, raw, talented. We definitely want to jump on that. See if we can appeal to that audience!

What bands and albums have you been listening to recently?
Well we all love all the Kings of Leon stuff, I especially like their older stuff, Aha Shake Heartbreak that sorta stuff. But I listen to a lot of hip hop. Mac Miller, some cool stuff like that but I kinda revert back to the classics as well like U2 - War, Foo Fighters. I listen to a lot of electronic music as well, which spurred the remix EP. A loft of cool atmospheric dustup, atmospheric house stuff like Mount Eden. Movie scores are great, I listen to Tron all the time, Daft Punk are just incredible, the sound track for the Social Network. I dunno, there's so much!

What's your take on the digital revaluation killing off the music business?
It's definitely changing everyones world. There's no set steps you have to take to get big as a band anymore. You have to really show the effort you put in and be convincing. We have a series of web episodes that we put out, just to show we live more of a lifestyle and it's not like a dramatic switch between stage guy and normal person. The internet is such an amazing outlet though and it's always been our thing because we can direct everything straight to our fans and not have this middle guy. We don't have to be in stores to tell everybody we're gonna be in town on a certain day. We just tweet something or Facebook it or whatever you can do along wit the old school moves as well. I think the digital revaluation is opening up a lot of doors for people, but its opening the doors for a lot of shit too. It's a clutter but I think persistence will pay off.

How do you feel about using Social Networking sites to get yourselves out there nowadays and have they really helped you?
Our Facebook is kind of a struggle right now cause we don't have the "There For Tomorrow" Facebook, someone created it and we can't get into it! We had to create one called "The Official There For Tomorrow Facebook Page" so its hard to direct people to the right page there but our Twitter and Tumblr sites have been a great outlet for us. Myspace has just sold out too much, it's not how it used to be.It's great to share everything we do as a band, as well as the ethics and sort of philosophy that surround us. It's cool to be able to become part of the movement, the lifestyle around all our fans.

Where do you hope to see There For Tomorrow in a year’s time?
Well by next year we'll have our album out and we just want to try and push it to the fullest and have people understand who we are. I think people will get it more next year that we're not just a sensation and that we want to stick around.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
I couldn't be a giraffe, I heard they have knee problems. I'd like to be a Zebra. I wear black and white a lot anyways, but I'd have my own design stripes though. If I could customise my stripes I'd be a Zebra for sure

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Thank you. Thank you, Thank you. Obviously if they've found this then they really understand our determination and how hungry we are for what we're doing. We can't wait to show you all the new album and build connections with more people, if you're a new comer then just come on in.

Interview By Justin Andree
 Band Members

Maika Haini Maile
Christian Climer
Chris Kamrada
Jay Enriquez
 Latest Releases
There For Tomorrow - A Little Faster
Release Date - 9th June 2009

1. The Remedy
2. A Little Faster
3. Wish You Away
4. Backbone
5. Deathbed
6. Just In Time
7. Stories
8. I Can't Decide
9. Sore Winner
10. Burn The Night Away
11. The World Calling
 Band Related Links
There For Tomorrow Myspace