Allschools: Hey Jonathan, thank you for your time with this interview. You are currently on tour with SECRETS, CROWN THE EMPIRE, ASKING ALEXANDRIA and of course you guys. Tell us how it is going so far?

Jonathan: Yeah, it´s been awesome so far. We are like a week into the tour. We didn´t really know a lot of these guys before this tour. They are all good dudes, the shows have all been awesome. We just came back from Sweden and are excited to play Germany tonight.


Allschools: You have a record out soon called „Dear Youth“, which drops on November 17th on Epitaph. How can we imagine your setlist now? Are you going to play a lot of the new stuff or stay with the old? You have a lot to choose from now.

Jonathan: No, I don´t think that we´re gonna play a lot of new stuff. We are gonna play the songs that we put online, we won´t play the other songs on the record that nobody knows, that doesn´t make sense at this point of time. But yes, we have a song „Avalanche“ and the title track „Dear Youth (Day 52)“ that we´re gonna play on this tour and we´re off pretty good with that, so..


Allschools: Alright, can you give us a brief preview of what will hit our ears soon with the new record? How would you describe the music?

Jonathan: I think, for us, we just tried to write the best record that we could. This record was really different, because we were on tour a lot, so we did it in parts. We did a week or two here on tour, another week or tour there on tour and writing the songs during that time. So we really had some time to sit with the songs and make them the best we could do and we are all very proud of it and we think that this is the best record from us, definitely.


Allschools: What is it about lyrically? Is this album meant to give something to us, the listeners?

Jonathan: Lyrically, this album is a little different. Whereas in the past, our songs were rather positive and uplifting. And on this record, things are a little frustrating and things that I saw and I didn´t like so I really wanted to write about. It´s a little more angsty I guess and less like „Everything´s okay“. I mean, there are songs like this, obviously, but I think that this record has a really different vibe than the records we pre-released.


Allschools: Today I recognized that your base player actually also does the tour managing part as well as he plays base. So I wondered how much you are a self-made band and how much you let go to other people?

Jonathan: Yeah, we are a band that likes to be self-sufficient and that likes to do its own things. And the reason why we have Jim doing the tour managing is because he used to be a tour manager before he came into this band and it´s one less body that we have to bring on tour and he´s smart and he likes to do it, so that´s good.
Of course we have management and booking agents and we cannot really do this on our own, but for the rest, I think we are very self-sufficient and we are all adults and know what we do so I and take care of ourselves.

Allschools: What about the sign/logo you guys have? Any meaning behind it?

Jonathan: There is no real meaning behind it, we just wanted to have somehting to corrolate with our band. It came out for „Get What You Give“, so we used it since then obviously. I think it´s just a very cool icon to use for our band and it´s not just some text and very recognisable, so we have it.


Allschools: After this tour, you guys will tour America with ARCHITECTS, EVERY TIME I DIE, BACKTRACK and HUNDREDT. This is a pretty heavy hardcore tour, are you stoked for this?

Jonathan: Yeah, it´s gonna be fun. It´s quite different from a tour like this. On this tour, we never toured with one of these bands and on the other tour, we toured with all of these bands, so it´s gonna be instantly hanging out together. This tour as well, I mean, ASKING ALEXANDRIA is a very very big band and they have a lot of younger, girl fans that we don´t really have, so we play to a lot of new fans on this tour, but I think when we get back to the states, we´re gonna play to more of our normal fanbase. And also soundwise, it´s gonna be completely different, so it´s really cool to mix it up and do both.


Allschools: So as you tour this much and as you said being adults already, have you been thinking about what you would do if there wasn´t the band?

Jonathan: Honestly, I have never really thought too much about it. Of course, I know that this band won´t last forever and I´m not gonna do this until I´m 100 years old.
I don´t know.. I always just wanted to do this with my life, being in a band and touring the world.. probably it will be something in the music business, whether it´ll be working with bands, managing bands, being a booking agent, something like this.


Allschools: Jonathan, thank you very much!

Jonathan: Cool, thank you!