By Cristina Carrazza-- Regional Head, Midwest
Hey Monday has come a long way in the last month since the release of their highly acclaimed debut album Hold On Tight. After opening the Why So Serious Tour alongside This Providence, The Cab, and A Rocket To The Moon, this female-fronted quintet from Florida is finishing up an opening slot on Bill & Trav's Bogus Journey Tour with We The Kings and The Academy Is. They are now gearing up for a small run of holiday shows with All Time Low. We sat down with Hey Monday before their tour date in New Jersey to get to know this promising, young band.
Cristina: Hey Monday!
Cassadee: Hey, Hey
Mike: But it’s Saturday
Jersey: But it’s like Monday. Or is Monday like Saturday?
Cristina: Let’s not get too deep there Jersey. So how would you describe Hey Monday…
Cassadee: We are just a bunch of kids – best friends, doing what we love – playing music and traveling the United States, hopefully the world someday. We’re definitely upbeat, happy people. We like to keep the enviroment…
Mike: Very drama free…
Cassadee: *laughs* Drama free for sure. I don’t know, we just love doing this and are happy to be here.
Jersey: I second that.
Alex: Yes, summed it up perfectly.
Cristina: Apart from being upbeat and happy, how would you describe the band musically?
Cassadee: We want it to capture our personalities. Basically, we want every song to be fun and catchy. A pop rock version of…
Elliot: We The Kings on steroids
Cassadee: Travis, you know getting knee surgery and shrinking four feet…
Cristina: I would love to see that, which is probably why I love you guys…
Cassadee: *laughs* well, we work on it.
Cristina: So did you all look up to We The Kings before this current tour?
Elliot: Yeah, same thing with The Academy Is…
Cassadee: Yeah, we’re all fans of those fans. New fans of Carolina Liar, of course. It’s great to be on tour with bands that you grew up listening to. I mean, we’ve all been fans of The Academy Is since Almost Here. We’re just taken back by how amazing they are as people and performance wise. They’re just ridiculous live – William is my new idol.
Elliot: I think we all have that one member in some band that we just watch and look up to.
Cristina: Seeing videos of you guys from the beginning of this tour compared to now is pretty incredible, you’ve improved tremendously as a band in such a short period of time.
Cassadee: Why thank you! I guess practice makes perfect, but seeing them every night does help!
Mike: We still have a ton of work to do though
Cristina: Well let’s backtrack. Your CD came out October 7th, a little over a month ago. And you have a pretty solid fan base and two amazing tours under your belt. That’s pretty good.
Cassadee: I mean, we like to think that for such a new band, things have just started happening for us. We’re proud of ourselves.
Cristina: How was it entering the music scene as a female-fronted band? I hate to bring up the Hayley Williams comparisons, but it’s a pretty Paramore dominated world out there, and I guess most people who haven’t heard Hey Monday would instantly start to draw parallels
Mike: People need to know that no one in this band is related, first of all.
Cassadee: True. We were actually welcomed way more than we thought we would. The crowd feedback and the album reviews were way better than what we expected. I think people want more female singers. If they don’t I guess they just won’t get our CD.
Cristina: I don’t know if you take the time to read all the FBR stuff out there…
Mike: Oh yes we do. We can’t help it.
Alex: The funny thing is that they comment on songs that aren’t even on myspace. So that means that they must have taken the time to buy or record and to actually listen to it.
Cassadee: Also some of these people come to us and they say that they feel bad for everything they’ve said. I think all of us were a little worried and skeptical about what people might say about us. Bad feedback is never fun. But to hear someone say something bad about your music is completely different than someone attacking you as people. Anyway, we swallow the pill – it’s not a big deal. But either way, you can’t help it.
Cristina: But on the other hand, you have a pretty solid fan base that has just exploded over the past month. Specially Myspace, you would all reply to my comments right after I posted it but now your page is filled with fan sites. I think I saw Hey Monday Fans From Hong Kong or something the other day…
Cassadee: *laughs* It’s awesome have much positive feedback we get on myspace. We’re pretty upset though, cause now that we’re on tour we don’t have as much time to keep up with it. Every once in a while, we try to go on there and answer as many comments as possible. I know the other day, someone replied to fifteen pages of comments.
Cristina: So it’s pretty important for you as a band to keep that connection
Cassadee: Oh yeah.
Mike: If kids are going to pay for a ticket to see our band, the least we can do is play our hearts out on stage and do whatever we can to make the fans happy. We just love to hangout, take pictures, and chill with our fans. I mean, it’s our job. It makes up happy too.
Cassadee: That’s what makes it so much fun. We could play music all we wanted but without the kids, we couldn’t do anything. Honestly, it wouldn’t be fun. Seeing the freaking out and scream the lyrics makes it worthwhile.
Cristina: So let’s talk about Hold On Tight, your debut album…
Mike: We started the whole preproduction and getting ready for the CD in the beginning of April. We were in NYC for a few weeks just working and getting a ton of things done. And then we actually recorded it in July.
Cassadee: And then it came out in October…
Cristina: that was pretty fast considering you guys didn’t get to do any press or anything. You went straight to the tour with The Cab, This Providence, and A Rocket To The Moon after that….
Cassadee: That was seriously the best time of my life. I loved that tour.
Cristina: That was a pretty good line up…
Cassadee: Did you get to see it?!
Cristina: No, it was all West Coast sadly.
Cassadee: Yeah that’s right. This is the first time we’ve been in Jersey
Elliot: well other than the music video for “Homecoming” which we shot here
Jersey: And I live here!
Cristina: Well thank you for that. In case people didn’t get it from the name…
Jersey: Don’t blame me, that was all them!
Cassadee: Well his name is Mikey, which is basically Mike’s name. So instead of making it all confusing, we threw that on him.
Cristina: Back to the tour…what made it so great?
Cassadee: I love This Providence. I can’t even explain. I’m still obsessed with them, I listen to their EP all the time. But we all have been huge fans since Our Worlds Divorce. So to tour with them was great. And we were all fans of A Rocket To The Moon, even though they haven’t been around that long. We all have The Cab’s CD and I personally listen to it all the time. So it was good.
Cristina: Just living the good life
Cassadee: For real.
Cristina: So what are you doing after Bill &Trav’s Bogus Journey Tour…
Cassadee: We are doing a few dates in December with All Time Low, Friday Night Boys, and The Audition
Mike: and Sparks The Rescue.
Cassadee: and then we’re doing a couple of dates with There For Tomorrow
Elliot: and My Getaway and The Bigger Lights
Mike: and Go Radio on a couple of them.
Alex: then we relax, and eat.
Cassadee: *laughs* Things are being talked about for after that, but we do want to keep busy. We’re a touring band; we want to be on tour as much as possible. That’s the only thing that will keep us afloat.
Cristina: So where’s Hey Monday in our follow up interview?
Elliot: With a new album and a new tour.
Cassadee: Every band wants to do bigger tours and stuff. But as long as we work hard. I know Fall Out Boy is doing a bunch of club shows. I think that’s the coolest thing ever, that no matter what we can go back and do that.
|
|
