Cute Is What We Aim For is another band from the Fueled By Ramen machine, which has spawned Fall Out Boy, Panic! At The Disco, The Academy Is, and most recently Gym Class Heroes. The band, which is fashioned after a more modern take on power pop looks to continue the mantle of the revitalized genre that the Click Five started. Cute sits on our Watch List, leads the current edition of The Spotlight, and is in the Top 10 of our list of 25 artists and bands to watch out for in 2007.

Here is our exclusive with the band done by Erica, who got to catch one of the guys on Cute before their performance at a teen center in the Bridgeport, CT area.

Erica: Can you introduce yourself and tell me what you play?
Jack: I’m Jack and I play bass in Cute Is What We Aim For.

Erica: How did the name Cute Is What We Aim For come about?
Jack: It was a joke between Shaant and a couple of his friends and then it just kind of happened. The band needed a name and they thought it was kind of funny.

Erica: Well, of course everyone’s heard of Cute, but how would you describe your sound for someone that hasn’t?
Jack: I just not to describe it but if you’re a fan of Fall Out Boy, all of those more poppier punk-rock type bands sound like us.

Erica: Was music something that you always wanted to pursue?
Jack: I guess to more restate the question, if I weren’t doing this I would probably be in school. It was, but it was something that was just there waiting to happen.

[interrupted by Jeff, guitarist for Cute Is What We Aim For, coming onto the bus and sitting down to take off his shoes before he headed off to the back of the bus! Cute has a very clean tour bus might I add.]

Erica: Who are your biggest musical influences?
Jack: I listen to a lot, like the Bloc Party record and I still listen to AFI all the time even though that’s been out for awhile. It’s not necessarily bands we sound like, but bands we all listen to.

Erica: You kind of answered this a bit before, but if you weren’t in a band what would you be doing right now?
Jack: yeah, I’ld either be in school or I would probably be tour managing. That’s what I did before I was in this band.

Erica: What’s the best thing about being on tour?
Jack: Just hanging out. I mean, you get paid to just hang out and play shows for about an hour.

Erica: What has been your favorite part about this tour so far?
Jack: We already knew all the bands before we came so it was cool to have friends on tour. Usually when you tour, you play with bands that you see at festivals and stuff, but you don’t really see them that much and when you’re on tour the bands you play with are your family.

Erica: Do you have any pre-show rituals?
Jack: I have a twenty-five minute vocal warm up that I do. I have like an Ipod dock that has it all recorded and I pretty much just sit up here with my in ears in and just pace back and forth. I stretch and drink a lot of water cause heat exhaustion sucks.

Erica: Are you excited about playing Warped this summer?
Jack: Yeah it will be a lot of fun. I worked the whole thing last year so it will be cool to play it and play a bigger stage.

Erica: Who are you looking forward to see most?
Jack: Bad Religion is playing the entire tour.

Erica: Now you guys are on the whole tour right?
Jack: Yeah, we’re on the entire thing. It’s really cool cause Jeff and I talk about this all the time, we grew up listening to these punk-rock bands while we were still in high school and these bands are still doing stuff and we get to tour with them for two months. We would never had been able to toured with those bands, but Warped Tour is able to bring us all together.

Erica: What is the craziest thing a fan has ever done?
Jack: I get stuff for my cat a lot. Cause they know I have like a weird obsession with my cat. I have a tattoo of it on my foot. [shows tattoo of cat on foo] It was his birthday when we were on the Hellogoodbye Tour and so many kids brought him stuff. Just toys and some girl made him like a bling necklace for his collar. He has a myspace.

Erica: You have a myspace for your cat?! Wow!
Jack: Well, my girlfriend runs it. She’s done it for the past two years now and he has a ton of friends on it. People take pictures with their cats with signs and put it up on myspace. It’s really cool.

Erica: So how is Cute Is What We Aim For different from your experiences with October Fall?
Jack: hmm I guess shitty dudes verses good dudes. I’m not unvocal about that because I don’t like those dudes, I don’t talk to those dudes. There not a band anymore. It was just a point in my life where I was just really really unhappy with the band and I don’t know why I did it for as long as I did it. It was just one of those things where you where you look back on it and you’re kind of ashamed of it. I stayed with something that I wasn’t happy with for so long. I was doing it just because it was something to do. I never hung out with any of those dudes. They all lived at home. They all lived out in the suburbs. I lived on my own out in Chicago, an hour away from them. I would just come out, practice, tour. We were friends when it started, but it just kind of took a turn. Looking back on it, we never had any common interest. We were just a band.

Erica: Well, I’m glad you went on to be in Cute Is What We Aim For!

This or That’s

Erica: Panic! At the Disco or Gym Class Heroes?
Jack: Panic!

Erica: The Rolling Stones or the Beatles?
Jack: Stones

Erica: Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts?
Jack: Starbucks

Erica: McDonalds or Burger King?
Jack: Neither

Erica: Coke or Pepsi?
Jack: Neither

Erica: Bath or Shower?
Jack: Hmm..on tour shower, at home bath.

Erica: Winter or Summer?
Jack: Uhh

Erica: Or Spring or Fall?
Jack: Fall. I like jeans and t-shirts

Erica: Day or Night?
Jack: Night

Erica: Chunky or Smooth Peanut Butter?
Jack: Chunky

Erica: Google or Yahoo?

[interrupted by Jeff once again.]

Jeff: Did you say chunky?!
Jack: Yeah, chunkys the way to go. Except wait, in referring to what? Peanut Butter and Jelly?

Erica: hmm yeah pb&j.
Jack: oh cause we don’t do peanut butter and jelly on tour. We do[gets up and goes over to cabinet] this stuff[shows us a jar of Nutella]! You need creamy if you using that, but it your using jelly, chuny all the way.

Erica: Piercings or Tattoos?
Jack: Tattoos cause they’re still there where as my piercings aren’t.

Erica: Google of Yahoo?
Jack: Google

Erica: Vans or Converse?
Jack: Vans

Erica: East or West?
Jack: East

Erica: Britney Spears or Christinia Aguilera
Jack: Keira Knightley, but did you see the pictures?!!

Erica: Of Britney? Yeah!
Jack: I got it at like three in the morning last night and apparently she was wasted! [turns to steve, tour manager] Did you hear about what Britney Spears did last night?!
Steve: Yup, she also got tattoos on her wrists.

Erica: Well anything else you want to add?!
Jack: Nope, that’s it! Thanks!

Erica: Alright, well thank you!Z


Erica Hahn is the chief head of indie music at Musiqtone. You can e-mail her at ericahahn@musiqtone.com








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