Interview Stick To Your Guns

Artiest: Stick To Your Guns

Geïnterviewden: zanger Jesse Barnett, gitarist Josh James

Interview afgenomen op: Groezrock 2013 

Label: Sumerian Records

De Amerikaanse band Stick To Your Guns is uitgegroeid tot één van de meest populaire bands in de hardcorescene. We hadden op Groezrock de kans om een interview te doen met de zanger Jesse Barnett en de gitarist Josh James op Groezrock 2013.

First of all, I want to thank you for having this interview with Festivalblog.be. How was your concert today?

Jesse: It was good. I think especially for Belgium the most weird thing is, that every time that we come here; it’s like.. of the fucking.. off the wall? Is that it?

Josh: It’s off the charge (making a grumbeling sound of his voice).

Jesse: Yeah. Exactly! It was a little bit less than we had pretended, but of the 10.000 or so people that were there, we really felt like there was only one.

Josh: Yeah. We think we played for 9.999 people that never heard us, which is cool. Because that’s like, that’s an awesome thing about festivals. So many different types of bands, so many different types of people and we are playing early. We didn’t know what to expect and I think that tent was fully packed for the entire set.

Jesse: That’s the thing. I didn’t think or heard any laughter of it. I think they were all fully there, because many people thought "who is this band? I never heard them before".

Josh: That’s ultimately the whole point of this thing. You know what I mean?

Jesse: There are two types of Stick To Your Guns at shows. There is the kind when we walk in and it’s like ‘Okay, I can’t wait to see what this crowd is gonna do to us’ and there's the other one ‘that what the band is gonna do to the crowd’. And today was ‘us doing the crowd’. (laughs)

I heard that you were doing a split-cd with The Story So Far? Can you tell me something about this album?

Josh: It’s a split-cd 7’’ coming out on PureNoise.

Jesse: We’re both doing Warped Tour, so we decided to release it before Warped Tour. They are good friends of us. We met them on a show with us. Then Senses Fail, Make Do And Mend and we came really close with these guys, by the way really cool kids, young as fuck, the success that they are having is so crazy. But back to the thing that they wanna do this with us: we were so excited.

Josh: And we never had the thought of doing something like this before. Each band is doing an original song and one cover.

Jesse: So it will be cool!

I think that the album ‘Diamond’ is really one of your best albums you ever made.

Jesse: Thank you so much!

This album gives many ‘beliefs’ and ‘hope’ to your fans. I was really glad that you played so many songs of this album.

Jesse: Do you know, that’s what I think that’s very relieving for all of us, because when we come here with our old albums and we when came here, we had never so many success in Europe as now. And once we finally found ‘The Hope Division’, things were getting better and then we did ‘Diamond’ and everything went crazy. So it’s like, I think that we found OUR thing. You know what I mean? I think that’s really working for us and the people that we have now are like: ‘This is perfect, everything is perfect.’ So it’s like, we fixed what was broken. We're excited to do another album and hopefully we blow everybody's minds off.

What was the inspiration behind the album ‘Diamond’ for the band?

Jesse: I think it was a mixture. Like for me it’s always stressfull for after we had written ‘The Hope Division’. I was amazed about the succes we had and not at first either. Beause when we released that album we saw many reviews and did many interviews and the things that we did with the people, we don’t like this, we don’t like this at all. And then the album grew on people and we were very excited for this. That pushed a lot of pressure on us. That alone became an encouragement and motivation to write a new album, to try to do something that we thought was better than ‘The Hope Division’. And I tell you the same with the next album, because there’s even more pressure because of the success that ‘Diamond’ has. Not only in Europe, but also in the States and everywhere else.

Can you tell me something about the new album?

Jesse: Well, now that we have Josh in the band (Josh played in Evergreen Terrace), before it was just me and Chris (gitarist) and we were writing everything. And that is a little bit stressfull sometimes, but now we have Josh. What he has written is fucking awesome and it takes some of the pressure from me and Chris. Now, it becomes easier for everyone to handle, because if there are more people we can motivate and encourage each other.

Josh: So now the pressure is on me and if the record will suck, it’s gonna be my fault. (laughs)

Jesse: It’s indeed even worse for you, because before Chris came into the band we were a fucking mess. Chris helped the band to where it is now. So hopefully Josh isn't gonna fuck it up. (laughs)

Since ‘The Hope Division’ and ‘Diamond’ you really changed many lives. Your lyrics are an inspiration for many people. How do you feel about this?

Jesse: A lot of people think because of the lyrics that I write and the things that I say on stage that I’m kind of this guy who hasn’t figure it out. And I don’t. AT ALL! And the lyrics that I write are even more to myself. It’s like I am speaking to myself in the mic. It’s the person that I wanna be and it’s the person that I hopefully become. And I think that there are a lot of people who can relate to that. We have these lyrics ‘I’ll understand you’. Well, I got a note from a kid from New York City and he was saying that it helped him a lot through many things in his life and then he said to me: "You are telling everyone you understand us, but I would like you to know that I understand you too". It was like he was saying the lyrics back to me, but it was very touching too me because no one ever said that to me before, not in the sense of my friends or someone else. But a complete stranger that tells me this, that was a weird moment. The fact that so many people stand behind our lyrics is very encouraging. It’s, I don’t know.

Josh: It’s really mind-blowing. It’s very overwhelming and it’s like, you mean, I don’t think like whenever Jesse writes the lyrics he’s thinking like: (comic face) I’m gonna impact these people their lives and I’m gonna do this. It’s like for me when I’m writing music or lyrics, it’s almost like a form of therapy and it’s like the fact when you play those songs you see the strong reactions and connections. It’s really cool to see the effect on people but I do it for myself.

Jesse: Yeah, I ultimately didn’t do it for them. I did it for myself and for the people that are really close to me. The fact that people can relate to our music and on levels that I never could imagine, because there are people that have been through things that I’ve never been through. The fact that people had their support on our music and lyrics, it just fucking awesome.

Josh: We feel honored.

Jesse: Yeah, exactly! We are very grateful that we can do that. Fans are coming up to us and say "You changed my life" and so... but we also say: "No, we maybe changed it a little bit, but you changed your life! I have nothing to do with that. You are the one that find something in yourself to make that change."

You are now on tour with Hundredth, First Blood and The Haverbrook Disaster. How was the tour since now?

Josh: It has been great. We’re halfway through the tour. We have toured with Hundredth and First Blood before and so it’s cool that we kinda know everybody. Sometimes you have the break the ice in a couple of days and here the first day was like: "Hey, what’s up you piece of shit?!" (laughs) Immediately, you are talking shit too each other and having a good time. Everyone’s really back, everyone has a same kind of humor which goes a long way with us, so it’s great. Shows are fucking awesome.

Jesse: They are crazy!

Josh: Like it’s been better than we ever thought. Every band has a great reaction. Some of these places are our favorite places to play in the world, just because of how dedicated and how die hard the people that come to the show are. It’s a fun time!

Is it one of your best tours yet?

Jesse: In Europe?

Yes!

Jesse: For sure hands down. It is one of the best tours I’ve ever done!

Josh: Yeah, it’s awesome!

Jesse: When you headline a tour there is always so much pressure on you because when the show sucks it’s your fault, you know? But the real task is the UK. Every single time I’ve gotten on the ferry, I think, please, I want the fucking ferry to sink and kill us all.

Is it so bad in the UK?

Jesse: It’s so fucking bad most of the time. I like being there, but the audience is like ‘if they like you, they like you, if they don’t, they don’t’.

A little narrowminded then?

Jesse: I don’t know. It’s kinda like the US, they are really spoiled with shows, so they have so many shows through a week that it’s like you have to prove yourself to them. You’ve got to work at it. Like in Germany, they are die-hard loyal to just the music, not to the band, but the music. But in the UK you have to earn their respect.

Can you describe Stick To Your Guns in 3 words?

Jesse: 3 words? Jesus.

Josh: Really fucking cool. (laughs)

That’s 3 words. Haha! What do you think about how hardcore is these days? Are there any unique young bands that you wanna give a change to grow into the scene?

Jesse: I think that are many bands that will grow into the scene. But the scene today is like ‘we wanna go back to the old days, that were the days’ and I feel like every generation of hardcore and metal music has always the same bullshit, same politics, the same negative shit and it’s like ‘we used to be better then’. Just make now what you think that it ‘used’ to be. I love hardcore now and I think that there are a lot of awesome bands that are starting.

What are your favorite ‘newer’ bands then?

Jesse: Well, I love watching Hundredth live. I think that they are a really a great band live and we are watching them a lot.

Josh: Rotting Out is a very good band.

Jesse: Uuhm... there’s a ton of bands that are out now getting more exposure. So it’s good!

The last question of today: When will Stick To Your Guns come to Belgium again?

Jesse: The earlier beginning of the half of next year. Yeah.

Josh: Yeah, we definitely want to come back next year. Belgium is always the thing that we wanna go to. (laughs)

Many thanks for having this interview with me.

Jesse and Josh: Thank you so much and see you next time!

Photo by Zoran Zaric