Playing shows is all a part of being in a band, and Vic Fuentes, Mike Fuentes, Jaime Preciado, and Tony Perry, better known as Pierce the Veil, know all about it. The San Diego, California natives have toured different parts of the world with bands including Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Four Letter Lie, Emarosa and Mayday Parade, and when the offer to play this year's Taste Of Chaos tour came up, they knew it was too good to refuse. I had a chance to speak with Mike, Jaime, and Tony at the Milwaukee, WI stop of the Taste Of Chaos tour.

Amy: Could you please state your name and your role in the band?
Jaime: Yeah, for sure. My name's Jaime, and I play bass.
Tony: My name's Tony, and I play guitar.
Mike: I'm Mike, and I play drums.

A: Taste of Chaos started about ten days ago. How has it been going so far?
M: Sweet.
T: Great.
J: Awesome. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Normally you start tours and you have to meet everybody and kinda there's always that awkward couple of weeks of just kinda like getting into the swing of things, but luckily, we've toured with a couple of the bands, or met them on the road or stuff so it's kind of cool. The only band I think we didn't meet was Thursday?
M: Yeah.
J: Which is one of our favorite bands so it was really cool.
M: Right off the bat, the first day we met them and hung out.
J: Yeah, their super nice guys. This whole tour's been so buddy buddy and like everyone's already high fiving and having a good time. So yeah, we're having a good time, for sure.

A: How were you feeling when you were asked to be a part of the tour?
M: Jaw dropping
J: Jaw dropping, yeah. We were on another Kevin Lyman tour, the warped tour in 08, and didn't he like invite us into his bus?
M: Yeah.
J: Yeah we had like a little meeting with him and stuff and we were like freaking out like, "oh my god we're going on Kevin Lyman's bus" which by the way, there's like a humongous 50 inch TV just chilling and they were watching The View or something with Katy Perry on it, and it was insane. He was just like, "You know what. I just want to let you guys know that I want you guys to come out on the Taste Of Chaos if you guys are down." We were just like YEAH. We were actually supposed to write a record now. Weren't we supposed to be recording right now?
M: Yeah we definitely should be in the studio right now but we can't pass up this tour. Thanks to Kevin Lyman for that one.
J: Yeah, thank you Kevin. But yeah, it's definitely been only so far ten days in and it's awesome. We're having so much fun.

A: How does this tour differ from the other tours you've been on?
T: There's a huge amount of production for this tour and I mean, it's the same thing they had for warped tour only now it's more focused on a few different bands. You kinda get more attention and tighter with all the bands that are actually on the tour, where warped tour is kind of separated.
J: I also like the fact that we're playing clubs and not like arenas like Taste of Chaos is known for Arena tours, you know.
A: Yeah, the last two years it was upstairs in the big room.
J: Yeah like last year they played with like ten bands and all the bands could have sold out the place by themselves, you know. I think this year's is kinda cool. The venues aren't as big, but the bands are still, like they're all great bands.
M: It's cool though too that they can charge a cheaper ticket price.
J: Yeah and the productions still there. It's still the Taste Of Chaos. They still have vendors come out. They still have the crazy stages and production

A: Do you think that Taste of Chaos is helping or will help increase your fan base?
J: I hope so. I think we all hope so. I think the magnitude of the tour, considering the fact that it was just on the AP Magazine, and that's like a huge deal you know, I was surprised when they put out the Taste Of Chaos magazine.
M: I've had a lot of kids in like one tour come over to me and say they've never heard us, they dug it, and they had a good time, so it's definitely happening.
J: We've been touring for literally almost two years straight and the fact that kids are still coming up and are like, "I've never heard you guys before the last couple of days and I'm stoked on you guys and want to buy your record." It's insane. Keep them coming. Especially when we're due for a new record, so it's kind of cool that we get those kids kind of hyped up.

A: "A Flair For The Dramatic" was recorded with just you and Vic right? (to Mike)
M: Correct
A: Is the new album going to have all of you on it?
T: Oh yeah
M: Yes.
J: That's gonna be another thing we were thinking is gonna be a fun process, because the first record was done with just Vic and Mike and they're brothers and stuff, so it'll be kinda cool to throw in our two cents and write as a band. It'll be something different I think for all of us. It should be fun.

A: If you could collaborate with anyone on your new album, who would you choose and why?
J: That's a good one.
M: Are we talking anybody anybody, or realistically.
J: Realistically. Anybody, I could be like, I want Gandhi to be on this record. That's a good question. That's a really good question.
M: I know Vic would probably say Freddie Mercury or MJ.
J: Realistically though, let's think realistically. There's so many. We love to collaborate with people on the road. I wouldn't be surprised if we got something going with some of the dudes on this tour.
M: Anything that happens though, we'll see.

A: How does it feel to have your music featured in a "Tony Hawk" video game?
J: Oh yeah, that was sick.
M: That was totally cool. One of those things were you're like "really? really?"
J: Some of my buddies back home didn't understand, like, I'm in a band. I play music, and they're like "wait, you're in a video game now?"

A: You played Warped Tour last summer for the first time, is that correct?
J: Right.
A: How was that?
M: It's always been my dream.
J: We got the call that was like "You guys are on Warped tour" and I think we were all kind of, you know. I had to change my pants.
M: Growing up going to Warped tour every year, just going from stage to stage watching bands. Growing up just trying to learn your instrument and like finally being on a stage on a whole tour is just a trip.
T: I've always dreamed of being on Warped tour. The only thing that got scary for a little bit is a lot of friends bands that have already done it before just had horror stories. They said it was such a horrible thing to do, like you'll be playing and you'll just watch kids walk away from your set, but we were pretty fortunate to have enough kids to make it awesome every day.
J: They called it like boot camp, like the worst time you'll ever have. I wouldn't say it's the worst time but there's times when you're like "Eff this right now." You have to get up at like eight o'clock when you didn't go to bed until like 12 or 1 and you have to start loading all this gear across a mile of terrain in like Sahara hot heat.
M: Not to mention we did it without a crew.
J: We had a merch guy, that was it.
T: The thing is too, they tell you there are showers on Warped but then they don't tell you that they are always far away and there's always a line of people so if you're there you can sit for maybe 45 minutes to an hour just waiting for a fucking shower. It was insane.
J: Don't get me wrong, it was fucking awesome, but there were definitely times when it sucked.

A: Do you prefer playing smaller clubs or larger venues?
M: I prefer smaller.
J: I think it depends on the kids because if you do play, and we have played bigger rooms where say a thousand kids are there and if a thousand kids are all into it, then it's gonna be a great show regardless. But if there's a thousand kids there and only a hundred are into it, then you'd much rather play to the hundred kids. The best shows are always the ones where all the kids are there to see all the bands regardless of if it's 200 intense fans or 1000 intense fans.
T: Usually the thing that changes it for me is barriers. I could really care less about how big the venue is but I hate when barriers are really far away. Even if you're at the end of the stage, the crowd's still ten feet away.
M: I'd rather have kids on stage or around the stage.

A: What do you like to do on your days off from tour?
M: What's a day off?
J: Did we mention that we have like 36 days in a row?
M: We only have two days off this entire tour.
J: Days off during tour or while we're not on tour?
A: Either.
T: Days off during tour are usually spent getting shit done that we need to get done. Like we gotta do laundry and go grocery shopping, get this fixed, change the oil. Back home, it's different for everyone. I go to Disneyland a lot when I'm at home. I got a year pass so I go on average once every two weeks if not more.
J: The happiest place on Earth. Two days off on this entire tour?
M: Let's not talk about it.

A: What is your most memorable tour experience?
T: We went Whitewater rafting once
M: Level two rapids. People were falling out of the raft.
J: What show, I can't remember. Were we in Orlando? One show was kind of ridiculous and there were all these fights. Do you remember that?
M: No, it doesn't count.
J: I obviously can't remember it so I guess it wasn't the most memorable.
M: One show on Warped tour, it was pouring rain, and we were playing, and somehow Vic and Jaime managed to slip out and fall at the same time. They just fell on their asses on stage.
J: It looked planned.
T: Mike and I just kinda sit there and laugh about it.
M: I love it when they fall.

A: When did you first start playing music personally?
M: I was in my freshman year of high school and my dad bought me my first drum kit at a swap meet.
T: I was in the sixth grade. I played drums first, like I started learning drums, and then right when I reached high school I picked up a guitar and pretty much forgot about the drums. Guitar was in high school. Middle school was music in general.
J: I played, funny enough, laugh it off, I played trumpet. I started with trumpet. Then my uncle was like, "here" and he gave me a guitar and was like, "you're never gonna pull that out at a campfire" so I started playing acoustic guitar and just kind of learned from there. Could you imagine if I still played trumpet?
M: I hope you can still play trumpet?
J: I remember learning "Damnit" on trumpet.
M: Can you still play that on trumpet?
J: If I have a trumpet, yes I could probably still play that. I know the fingering.
M: That might get us on the reunion tour.

A: Do you have anything else you'd like to add?
J: Come check us out on the Rockstar Taste Of Chaos
M: Look out for our new video for the first song off of "A Flair For The Dramatic" called "Chemical Kids and Mechanical Brides" that should be coming out pretty soon.
J: And also a new record, sooner than later hopefully.