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Interview & Photos by: Kayla Saliman | October 8, 2022
KAYLA: So why don't you guys just go around and say your names first and your role.
JONAS: This is Jonas and I play guitar.
JOSHUA: My name is Joshua and I play guitar and sing.
JUICE: My name's Juice and I play the drums.
KJ: My name's KJ and I play the bass.
KAYLA: Beautiful. Okay, so what is the first album that you guys remember loving as a kid and how has this shaped the way you make music now?
JOSHUA: My first album that I ever bought, like myself and wasn't just something that was already on my parents' computer was El Camino by the Black Keys, and I bought it on iTunes, and I was absolutely obsessed with it for quite a few years. I feel like that definitely instilled a love for guitar music. Before that I was, and I always have been, obsessed with the Beatles, but I just didn't really know as a 13 year old that there were like, new bands making music that had a very like classic sound, and it was very guitar driven, and it was just like so exciting to me that there was this band that was like still doing this and it opened a lot of doors for me in my mind.
JONAS: I think my first favorite album as a young child was the All American Rejects.
KJ: Yo, I actually love that album too.
JONAS: I think that, uh, planted the like emo roots for me and then I went from there.
JUICE: The first time I was really impressed by music, at this moment. I'm thinking of My brothers, they had Beatles CDs all the time and they would just play it on their little CD, portable CD players with their little headphones. I would take it sometimes and listen too.
KJ: My first record, I don't think I bought it. I think it was just in like our CD collection in my family's house, but it was Thriller, the Michael Jackson album, and I was really into like hip hop dancing and like dancing in general and I'd like watch videos of Michael Jackson and like put the CD in our CD player and like try to moonwalk and like I had the glove and everything.
KAYLA: Did you get it? Could you moonwalk?
KJ: Yeah, I got it down.
KAYLA: Wow. Okay. So how do you guys keep yourselves motivated while you're on tours at festivals and things like that?
JONAS: Sometimes just like showing up, getting up, and doing it is the best thing. Especially on tour, the little things like that you do at home that are easy to keep a routine, like waking up at a specific time every day. The stuff that sometimes you take for granted. I function best as a person when I'm like, when I have a consistent thing going on.
JOSHUA: I just wanted to say sometimes it's like, for some reason, easy to lose perspective on why you're out on the road and like, you miss home a lot and feel a little bit directionless, just kind of being like part of this mapped out route in the country. For me, just sitting down and reminding myself, what this means to somebody that bought a ticket and is gonna be there watching us play, and really going out there and giving it every single ounce of what we have is like very inspiring. Today, I'm feeling pretty exhausted and tired and ready to go home, but I'm honestly so excited to play just because I'm really excited to share something that we care about with people.
JUICE: Like Jonas was saying, it can blend together on the road, and so you gotta have a good mix of doing extracurricular activities outside of just doing the mundane, like the routine. Also, spending time for me personally, just like spending time on my own even, and just kind of just chill by myself and decompress.
KJ: I honestly listen to motivational podcasts all the time, but I do that when I'm home too. It's just like a part of my motivation. I'm just like, I gotta hype myself up, you know? So that helps me out.
KAYLA: So, you guys have an upcoming album. How would you describe the energy? How would you describe your inspiration and the vibe?
JONAS: It was like we were exploring a lot on this new album. I think that was a really long process and in some ways, The making of it was long, and in some ways it was meticulous, but I think we had a lot of fun trying new things and trying to continue to just be ourselves and just be genuine.
JOSHUA: I feel like in terms of energy specifically, a big part of this album was just kind of realizing, it wasn't necessarily like a conscious realization, but we really do have a very intimate side to our songwriting and you know, when we play live it's generally like pretty loud and energetic and crazy. But I think on this album, and for albums to come, we've really found a new side of ourselves that is a lot more soft spoken and intimate and, um, introspective in that way. And I think we embrace that a lot in terms of energy. And, just going back to what you were saying, like it really felt like going on an adventure, like in a way, setting out, not knowing where you're gonna go, but really feeling motivated that you're gonna complete this journey. And I think that so much unexpected stuff happened, and we grew a lot and it was really fun and like really hard and really intense as well.
KAYLA: So the last one, the last question I have is a silly one. If you could only wear one color for the rest of your life, what would it be, like your shirt, your shoes, it all has to be one color?
JUICE: Probably black. Stone cold. I'm wearing all black.
JOSHUA: I would choose red like a burnt red. I don't know why, but I've been drawn to the color red recently.
JONAS: I would choose blue.
JOSHUA: Jonas is a blue guy. I think it's funny. We're all choosing what we're wearing. It's very telling.
KJ: I would probably choose cream. It's kinda whimsical and godly.