Hi Ned, I'm from "Allschools Network". How has the tour been so far?

It's been great, second last show tonight. We've been in Germany for little over a week now. Up till then, we had a bigger week in England, Czech Republik, Austria and France. We got to a bunch of places. All shows were packed - really cool. All the bands we are on tour with are awesome bands and also great people.

Since "The Last Thing You Forget 7-inch" you toured your ass off. In October 2009 three of you dropped out of school to be able to go on tour. Besides touring and hanging out, what else have you been doing since? Did anybody do any further study or did you work on and off ..?

I worked a little on and off, I worked at a Pizza place for five months and then quit - It sucked. But mainly our folks have been with the band and we've been a lot at home, practicing a lot, write and record something, the rest of the time we just tour - so, we are fortunate enough that our parents kind of taking it easy on us. We still live at home. Doing a litte bit of stuff on the side, doing a little bit of money doing whatever kind of random work we can - for the most part we are focused on the band.

What is your favourite European Band?

Justice! And Basement, too.

Do you know a German band?

No, sorry.

Is there a personal background which has an influence on your lyrics?

Yes, all lyrics are very personal. It's what is going on in our heads at the time writing the songs, anything from outlook on the world to personal relationship with somebody and anything between.

Last year in December you played in the "Undeground" in Cologne. It took me a lot of effort to come to this show, but I came out because I feared I'll never be able to see you without barriers - being on the same label as "Big D and the Kids Table" or "Anti-Flag" can lead to different kinds of shows. You played mainstage on Vans Warped Tour. Can you unfold your stage intensity without touring small venues in which there is no security and barriers between you and the crowd?

Yes, its a big thing for us. That's kind of what we grow up doing. Going to shows without barriers and security. That's how we want to continue, these are the shows that we wanna play. We'll do bigger tours and are open for other bands and get to deal with that, but when we go out on our own, we try to play this way. La Dispute does it the same way. This was their Tour and they set everything up and made everything perfect, neither one barrier nor any other problem did occur.

Has the writing process for you guys changed in the last years?

Nah, it has always been the same. There is definetely a progression, but it's still the same. We are not trying to be different just for the sake of being different. We are trying to write intresting music for the sake of writing music that we like and to push ourselves.

Which new opportunities does SideDummyRecords open for Title Fight?

Yes, first big label that we dealt with. They've done things like a "Gaslight Anthem" tour. I guess big names on the label and bigger shows introduced us to people who have not been able to listen to us before, which is cool. We want everybody to have the opportunity to listen to us and we want the opportunity to play to as many people as possible and at as many different places as possible. The label is very understandable with that and much into that, and helps us with that as much as they can.

That's how it should be. I'm a huge fan of "Cold World". Any chance I get some insider-info here about the new album that was annouced for this year's late summer?

I have no idea when it comes out. I asked my brother one time. It's almost done. It takes because they all live so far apart now and are pretty busy with their own stuff. It's kind of taking a little backseat but it'll get done. Hopefully 2013.

You're Tour in Japan was well-visited as I got to know. Do you recognize any differences between shows in Asia, Europe, America? I heard other bands stating that Europe would have a more intensive crowd and in Asia the so called "scene" is much more an underground thing than anywhere else.

Not really. I think it's pretty similar. Shows in Japan were smaller than the ones in Europe. Kids were quite similar, thats the coolest part - even though we are in very different places people seem to be the same.

It's not supposed to be a bad thing, but I heard in America all shows are more local.

In what way?

When a band from town is playing, everyone is going even if its the 10th time seeing this band in this certain venue. Supporting friends and family has priority.

We have a venue at home and when theres a show we just go. Thats what we do. Especially when it's a local band or a friend's band. I think thats the most important thing - support. Taking every opportunity.

Any special places you visited while being in Japan?

We went to a buddhist temple in Nara and it was crazy. It's really hard to explain. A huge old buddhist temple. A lot of cool statues and stuff around the temple. Deers are confiding. Literally deer all over the place and they would walk right up to you and it's not like they run away. This was a very special experience compared to what we experienced at any other place in the world.

Which future releases are you looking forward to?

New Free Spirit. New Cold World, obviously. La Dispute are doing an album sometime. New "Balance and Composure"!


Where do you think the connection between different genres is? Aside from Pop-Punk you guys are obviously into Straight Edge Hardcore, NYHC, Screamo and classical Punkrock also. Did you just grow up in an area in which all of those are spread? Personally I get stoked for music like "Dead End Path", "Minority Unit", "Touche Amore" and "The Menzigers" on the same level. Where is the connection between those?

Emotional Mentality. You can play a different stlye of music: the way "Touche Amore" plays guitar is the same way that Dead End Path plays the guitar, but just the sound is diffferent. They both have the same emotions, but the chords and the tone they choose are different. I think it's a big thing that people kind of having an issue with. People get wired - they say, I like this kind of band, so I have to wear this kind of shirts to this kind of shows. We like bands across the board. Its not making a statement. That people don't understand why some people listen to different kinds of music just seems...childish.

In Turkey, Syria, Spain and Greece - A lot of politically rather complex problems came up. In general, are you intrested to understand those ongoings? Does it piss you off how the media presents those topics? As for myself - I'm young and try to get hold of my own life. What do you think about this?

I feel a lot of mixed attitutes. I try to figure out my my own things, but at the end of the day we have to realize that as a human we have kind of a responsibility to look out for other people and to make the future better for people that come next. Especially now, more than ever, Im trying to be aware of politics and stuff, although it's not my favourite thing to learn about. Its important. I think you can learn much by lookign at how people behave in different regions of the world. You see a lot of people persecuted for their views, whether it is religion, sexual orientation or even the way people dress or express themselves. I feel fortunate that I have never had to deal with this and that people accept me for what I do, The fact that this exists in the world - that they can't say what they want and they can't pratice their belief whatever that might be, that is so ridiculous.

I've never toured but it must be a great feeling to be independent.

Yah! It's a good thing to experience. And if we can, in any way, shape someone by performing, by influencing or helping people to realize that, we appeciate it. Bands might even be able to help someone to overcome his problems. These are important things, which bands can do.

Before we come to an end - Anything you might want to tell the public, or something you recommend to check out? Something music-unrelated, a TV-Show, a movie or a certain book?

I'm really out of the loop with movies. My brother texted me the last day that I have to check out the film "Looper" with Bruce Willis. So I guess I'll recommend this, based on his recommendation, without having seen it.

Thanks for your time Ned, appreciated. See you on stage!

Thanks, see you later!