Louder Than Word's Interview with Eben D'amico

LTW: So your tour with H2O is almost over?

Eben: Yeah we have 2 dates left.

LTW: What did you think of the whole experience of touring with H2O?

Eben: It was awesome, definitely one of the best tours we've ever been on, the H2O guys are really really great people and an awesome band, and lots of fun to hang out with, lots of fun to watch every night. We're really fortunate to be touring with them.

LTW: In the middle of the tour you guys got into an accident.

Eben: yeah actually like 1 week into the tour.

LTW: and you're all recovered now?

Eben: yeah, we crashed in Wisconsin, and we uh, missed about a week of shows, but we recovered and got back in the tour, played until now.

LTW: So it wasn't hard getting back into shows after the injuries?

Eben: Well I mean it was hard, mentally and physically. You know some of us got hurt, we felt pretty debated. But you know, it just made us feel a lot better to just get back out on the tour and get our act together and start playing together, that's what was gratifying.

LTW: When your playing with H2O, there's a lot of big tattooed guys and all.

Eben: oh yea!

LTW: How did they react to you guys? Because your not hardcore, screaming and tattooed. Are they closed-minded or anything?

Eben: No, not really, actually like 95 percent of the time H2O'S fans are awesome, I think like we share a lot of our fans, we have a pretty similar fan base. I think that sort of thing has opened up a lot of kids to our music which is really cool. Because you know, they play melodic music like us, I think a lot of the kids that like them also like our music.

LTW: Then how would you describe your music?

Eben: I like to say its rock music or aggressive pop.

LTW: So even your former label calls you hardcore, why do you think people do that?

Eben: I don't know, I think hardcore is a pretty ridiculous way to label our music. I'm not really into labeling things all you know? To me it's just music, its good music and its music I enjoy playing, but (laughing) if your going to stick a tag on it hardcore is definitely not it. Cause I mean the music the definitely has hardcore influence, and most of us grew up listening to it. But we play a much much more refined version of hardcore.

LTW: So Blink 182 asked you to join their label right?

Eben: Um, we had a lot of interests from some bigger labels, we had a lot of people calling for us, interested in us, because you know I guess we attracted some attention.

LTW: So why did you decide to remain independent?

Eben: Well, number 1 because we just don't think it would be the right time to go to a major label.

LTW: So you think you might in the future?

Eben: Well you never know what is going to happen in the future. I can't say I know what our next move is going to be. But the main reason is because Vagrant Records are an awesome label and they are very very smart about how they handle their label, they are good people and it just felt right.

LTW: What made you decide it was time to go from Equal Vision to Vagrant?

Eben: Because we sorta got the feeling that we needed a change, but we wanted it to be a natural change, we wanted it to be like a natural progression not a huge step. Vagrant seemed like the most natural progression for us.

LTW: So your next full length is going to be on Vagrant?

Eben: Yes.

LTW: So you've toured with a lot of hardcore bands?

Eben: Yeah...

LTW: Do you think that's defined your altitude or sound, or live performance?

Eben: Well every band we play with effects us in some way, we look up to all the bands that we hang out with and tour with as well as go watch play. But when your playing with a bigger band, like we've done H2O, we've done Snapcase, Hot Water Music. So we look at those bands and we see things we like about them and we learn things about them and that makes us a better band.

LTW: Alright, I think that's about it, anything else you want to say?

Eben: Nope! Just thanks for the interview.

LTW: Thanks.