Story and Photos By: Chris Martinez(Sacramento Live Performance Columnist)
Warped Tour Week With Chris Martinez - Part 5 - Forever The Sickest Kids
Forever The Sickest Kids were one of the main headliners on this year’s Vans Warped Tour, and I got a chance to talk to Kyle Burns (Drums), Jonathan Cook (Vocals) and Kent Garrison (Keyboards) before they went on to play at the Smart Punk stage. Just before Warped Tour was kicked off, they rereleased their album Underdog Alma Matter in a Deluxe Edition, which included the original tracks, and 17 other unreleased tracks which included acoustic songs, demos, and other b-sides.
CM: How’s the weather on this year’s Warped Tour? Is Sacramento one of the hottest places you guys have played at?
Kyle: This is one of the hottest places by far. The other hottest place we played at, was Florida. It was humid, right on the water, in the sun and it was just really hot.
CM: Have you guys seen any cool bands so far on this tour?
Jonathan: We’ve been on the tour for so long, we’re just trying to get through it. We all woke up a little weird today. I have bronchitis.
Kyle: We did see Bayside today, though. The story of it was, I was actually sitting in a port-o-potty doing my business, and they come out and I hear, “We’re Bayside from New York City,” so I came out of the bathroom and I saw them for a few minutes.
CM: So you guys just re-released "Underdog Alma Matter," why did you guys decide to re-release it?
Kyle: We felt there was a lot of unfinished business on there. There’s a bunch of songs that didn’t make it on the record and we’d love for the kids to hear those songs. We had “Believe Me, I’m Lying” demo, and “My Worst Nightmare” Demo.
CM: Do you guys have a favorite song from the unreleased tracks?
Jonathan: I really like the "Love Story" cover we did by Taylor Swift.
CM: I heard you guys are planning on releasing three mini albums this fall? Can you tell me something about that?
Jonathan: Yeah, that’s right.
Kyle: People think albums, and they think, “Whoa. Ten to twelve songs.” But you know, why release an album that stays on a shelf for a year and gets people hyped up? Then they have the album for a year and they start listening to new things. So, we decided to give you more music, like six tracks on a CD that released all throughout the year like, “Bam, bam, bam.” Keep the hype up for a year.
CM: When does the first album drop?
Kyle: Um, the first one is due to come out in November.
CM: Are you guys going to be touring to promote it or just putting it out?
Jonathan: We’ll definitely be touring with it. We have a headlining tour coming up in the fall and it will be released halfway through the tour.
CM: Who's going to be opening for you guys?
Kyle: I don’t know if we’re allowed to say. Can we say?
Jonathan: I don’t know. Umm...
Kyle: Maybe My Favorite Highway. There’s more, but I can’t tell you.
CM: So what’s your favorite underwear on Warped Tour. Is there any particular way to stay fresh? Ever go commando?
Jonathan: I actually wear boxer briefs.
Kent: Umm... Boxers.
Kyle: Yeah, boxers. No, never commando.
CM: How long have you guys been doing music together?
Kyle: Two years?
Jonathan: Give or take.
CM: How did you guys meet?
Jonathan: Kyle and I were born together. Yeah. Same hospital. Same day. No, that’s actually not true at all. No, really we went to High School together. Kent and Marc went to high School together and Austin and Caleb went to High School together. Caleb was home school but lived in Austin’s High School district. We knew each other since high school but formed around the last year of college.
CM: Who’s garage did you guys use most of the time?
Kyle: Good question...
Jonathan: Very good question. We used Kyle’s dad’s.
CM: Who’s your biggest influence?
Kyle: Hmmm. I think it’s so sporadic throughout the band members, you know? We’re all on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Some people are into classic rock in out band, others into hip-hop.
CM: Do you guys do any covers on stage?
Jonathan: Back in the fall we did “Men in Black.” We’ve done some Sum 41 stuff, some Avril Lavigne stuff. We do covers sometimes but its fun to have music that you write yourself.
CM: Who picked “Men in Black” for the Punk Goes Crunk compilation? You guys or the company?
Jonathan: We chose it.
Kyle: Punk Goes Crunk told us to, "Pick the Crunkest rapper you guys like," and we’re like, “There’s nobody more Crunk than Will Smith!”
CM: What’s your favorite tour you guys have been on?
Jonathan: I really liked the AP Tour with All Time Low and The Rocket Summer in 2008
CM: What’s your favorite city to go to?
Jonathan: When we come home, at the House of Blues in Dallas. The House of Blues was built when we left for tour and we were getting these emails about how they were building a House of Blues in our city. The first time we got to play it, we had a sold out crowd. And now they’re building a Hard Rock Café across the street. And going home to our hometown crowd in a new venue is really cool for us.
CM: Who came up with the album art for "Underdog Alma Matter?"
Jonathan: Kyle did.
Kyle: Yeah, I drew it. I didn’t draw the photo but I drew the rest.
Jonathan: Usually we come up with the concepts, Kyle puts it to work, and we usually don’t go to outsiders for concepts which is cool, like T-Shit designs. Kyle’s the one who does the art. He made this (Points at his shirt) I saw Kyle’s carabineer and I was like, “Sweet carabineer, think you could draw it on a t-shit?”
CM: So are you guys releasing your own clothing line?
Jonathan: We have one actually. Its called Credentials Clothing. It's out there and we’re supporting it on Warped Tour. Kyle does all the design work on it, so it’s another way for us to have another outlet whenever we’re frustrated with the music. We’re all artists, me, Kyle and Kent. If you could figure out our names, our graffiti names, you could probably get a big reward.
Kent: We’re all wanted 15-times-over by the police. Only if you look up the right name.
Kyle: Sorry, I’m not talking much. My drum company is here, Shine. They’re based here in Sacramento and they’ve been texting me all day.
CM: So do you design your own drums?
Kyle: Yeah, I do.
Jonathan: Yeah, I own the company and Kyle designs the drums. No, just playing I don’t own the company. I’ll stop messing with you.
CM: Well, that concludes our interview, thank you guys very much.
Kyle: Sweet, man. Thanks
Click here to see all of Chris' Warped Tour photos.
