This time around, Chris Conley from Saves The Day has taken on the task of answering our Soundwave questions. Check out the questions below. Stay tuned for more Q&As in the lead up to the big day.
First up, what are you most looking forward to about the Soundwave Festival this year?
I always look forward to playing Australia because they have the best fans in the world. Soundwave is also a great tour for bands because there’s a lot of camaraderie and community backstage and everyone goes out of their way to watch each other’s sets. I’m looking forward to spending some time in the sun with my good friends and great fans, and also playing the side shows with Thursday and Circa Survive.
Who are you looking forward to checking out on the line up and why?
I’m excited to see my friends play in I Am The Avalanche, Thursday, River City Extension, Dashboard Confessional, Circa Survive, Fireworks, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Underoath
What made you say yes to playing on Soundwave this year?
I’ll say yes every year if they ask us to come play! We played Sounwave ’09 and it was one of my favorite touring experiences so far. I’ve been dying to come back ever since.
What is your earliest memory of a music festival?
I went to a jazz festival when I was 11 or 12 with my Dad and we sat on the lawn and watched all the acts come and go. It was a blast. The highlight of the day was seeing Lionel Hampton play the vibes and do a killer version of “What A Wonderful World.”
Where is the worst place to be at a music festival? Where is the best place to be?
The worst place to be at a music festival is probably in the center of the main field with no shade and no water. You can get hit by heat exhaustion without ever seeing it coming. I suppose the backstage is the best place to be, with all the people mingling about and the ever flowing beverages; it can be quite fun.
What is the best advice you could offer a music festival goer?
Pick the bands you want to see before you get to the festival site, then get your hands on a schedule as soon as you get to the gig, and try to hustle between sets running between the stages to make sure you catch the whole set of your favorite bands.
Favourite food to eat at a music festival.
If I can find it, the veggie burger is a safe bet at a festival. Since I have to play a long set, I try not to get too bogged down with heavy foods during the day. The best thing you can put in your body at a festival is water, and lots of it.
How do you change your setlists for playing festivals?
We play mostly fan-favorites and upbeat songs. While we play the deep cuts at headlining shows, we learned a long time ago that it’s best not to slow things down at a festival, since the crowd wants to jump up and down and scream.
Is winning over new fans an important part of festivals and how you perform at them?
Yes, we’re always looking to turn on new fans, and playing a festival is one of the best opportunities for a band to win over new fans, since there are thousands and thousands of people who haven’t heard of every band on the lineup. In terms of our performance though, we change very little, since we put every ounce of passion possible into every show we play.
If you could change the name of your band to something else, what would it be?
Good question! How about Forever Changes. It’s hard enough to think of a band name as is, but that’s all I have off the top of my dome.
What’s it like to be on tour with your band? Craziest tour story…
I love being on the road with my band. We all get along and hang out together all day and into the night after the gig. They are some of my best friends in the world. The craziest thing that happened to us on the road was Rodrigo getting his nose broken and his face bashed in by a biker in Toledo, Ohio after trying to defend a fan who was being harassed by the biker and his gang. Rod stepped in to help, and wound up in the emergency room till two in the morning. It was an interesting night, to say the least.
What is one thing that no one else knows about your band?
Claudio, Arun, and I all have birthdays within one week of each other in the last week of February, and Rodrigo is really a goat.
What is your dream festival line up?
Radiohead
Queens Of The Stone Age
Sunny Day Real Estate
Peter, Bjorn and John
Green Day
Foo Fighters
Post Soundwave, what’s next for you and your band?
We’ll be heading home for a couple months before doing a headlining tour of the States in the spring. After that, we’ll work on new material in the fall and hopefully record a new album in the winter.
After a brief hiatus (due to me having a nasty cold) we’re back!
Daniel from Underoath was the unfortunate victim of our Soundwave Q&As this time around and his are one of our more interesting set of answers so far. Check them out below!
First up, what are you most looking forward to about the Soundwave Festival this year?
I’ve always had such a great time touring in Australia. So I’m just really excited to be able to come back, especially during your summer months. It’s going to be super fun to be on such a good tour, with a bunch of my friends’ bands.
Who are you looking forward to checking out on the line up and why?
Like I just mentioned, I’m stoked to see all of my friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in a long time. Some of the bands I’m looking forward to seeing are Dillinger Escape Plan, Mastodon, Bush (my first concert when I was 12… 1995), Meshuggah, Thursday, and Slipknot. I want to see some of them for different reasons… Some of them I’ve never seen, some are super nostalgic, and some of them I just love.
What made you say yes to playing on Soundwave this year?
I don’t know why anyone would say no to Soundwave, ha.
What is your earliest memory of a music festival?
Probably a festival in Atlanta, GA called “Big Day Out”, which obviously borrowed their name from the Australian “Big Day Out”. I went a few different times when I was like 12 or 13, and saw a bunch of different bands… It’s all sort of a blur now. I know I saw Snoop Dogg, Tool, Korn, Foo Fighters, Silverchair, etc.
Where is the worst place to be at a music festival? Where is the best place to be?
I think the worst place to be at a festival is somewhere in or near the desert, in the summer… I have memories of playing festivals during the summer in Arizona and New Mexico, and even Oklahoma (which isn’t the desert at all), and barely even being able to play. It’s horrible.
Actually last July or August, we played a festival in Oklahoma called “Hotter than Hell Fest”. We played mid-afternoon, and I think it was like 115 degrees Fahrenheit. All of our gear was overheating and shutting down. We barely made it through the set.
What is the best advice you could offer a music festival goer?
Try to watch some new bands. Get up front for the bands you want to see. Drink lots of water.
Favourite food to eat at a music festival.
Corn dogs!
How do you change your setlists for playing festivals?
It really depends on the festival. If we’re playing a festival where we know a lot of the folks will know who we are, we’ll play a set of a mixture of songs that we want to play, as well as songs that we know people will want to hear. If we’re playing a festival where it is a whole new crowd, we’ll most likely play just the songs that we’re really stoked on at the moment.
Is winning over new fans an important part of festivals and how you perform at them?
As a band, you always want to put on a great show, and hope that people enjoy it, and it’s even better if the person hasn’t heard you before… But I don’t really go out with the intent of “winning people over”. We typically just want to do what we love to do, the best that we can, and if people get stoked on it, that’s great.
If you could change the name of your band to something else, what would it be?
I’d have to think about that for a while. Since I’m fairly new to the band (compared to the rest of the guys), I’d most likely leave that up to them.
What’s it like to be on tour with your band? Craziest tour story…
There are always crazy stories, but I can never remember them when this question comes up. The first thing that came to my mind is from our last tour, it’s more of a tour adventure than a crazy story.
We had a day off in Albuquerque, NM, so we rented a mini-van and drove a few hours out into the mountains in search of some natural hot springs (one of my favorite things in the world). After walking around for hours in the mountains, we were finally pointed in the right direction by a local ranger… the hot springs were three miles up the steep mountain trail (with Bear and Mountain Lion warning signs). So even though it was super late in the day, we decided to make the hike (without flashlights or proper hiking shoes, etc).
An hour or so later, we finally made it up to the hot springs, huffing and puffing from exhaustion, just after the sun had set. We gathered wood from the forest and built a fire next to the hot springs. We spent an hour or so up there in the water… probably would have stayed longer, but the hot springs actually turned out to be luke warm springs, ha. When we put out the fire out, it was pitch black dark… you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. We ended up having to use our cell phone flashes, to navigate in the dark, back down the crazy trails to the van. Thankfully we didn’t encounter any bear or mountain lions. It was one of my favorite days of that tour.
What is one thing that no one else knows about your band?
We eat lots of cereal.
What is your dream festival line up?
Pretty much take the best bands from Coachella 2012, and you got it. Radiohead, Godspeed you! Black Emperor, At the Drive In, and Refused… what more could you want?
Post Soundwave, what’s next for you and your band?
Directly after Soundwave, we’re doing a tour through Asia. Then we’ve got a tour booked for South America in May. After that, just some summer festivals in the States, and writing some new music.
Thanks!
Alright, take five. Seriously, it has taken me FIVE goes to get this thing written. I was asked back in mid 2011 if I would like to write a column on records/vinyl for No Heroes, and me being me, said yes straight up. I was seriously stoked with being asked, and I spent a bunch of time trying to collate ideas for the column, and started to write an introduction of myself.
It all started out OK, but I thought it all sounded a bit wishy washy, and then I spoke to my wife (and life coach) about what I should do, and she suggested I write about the time I crashed a van while working for a band and how I had to sell my record collection to pay for it. So I did, but it was close to 2000 words, way above what was acceptable for the column, so I will save that for another time.
So, it has come to this, I’ll get super simple for you.
My name is Craig, but for the last 13 odd years, most people have known me as Craigos. I have sung for a bunch of Metal and Hardcore bands over those years, been involved with three labels (Trial & Error, Sightline Records and now Midnight Funeral Music), have been involved with putting on shows and now spend all my spare time and money buying records. I used to run a record blog called “Good One Dick Head”, but I have let that go recently, and I have just joined the “They Still Press Vinyl” team, and will start blogging for them this week. I also love my dogs, spending time with my wife and drinking copious amounts of coffee. COPIOUS AMOUNTS!
I am often asked how big my collection is, and I answer with the same thing: “My collection is a living thing.” It grows and is then trimmed so it can grow again. I buy stuff, sell it to buy other stuff and so on. As a note though, it currently sits at around 500 LP’s and 300 7” records. I also run a distro for my label, which helps fund my addiction. And they always say don’t get high off your own supply…
I will start off writing this column monthly, and then see how that travels from there. I will talk about pressing records, looking after vinyl, where to buy/sell your records and plugging some bands/labels/shops that I like (oh, and the occasional release I am doing also)… After the first “proper” column, I will start to take questions, and answer one or two a month.
So until then, Buy records, drink coffee, support local music and live life like there’s no tomorrow. Oh, and download the Iron Reagan demo here: http://ironreagan.bandcamp.com/
Craigos.
http://midnightfuneral.bandcamp.com
http://midnightfuneral.limitedpressing.com/
http://theystillpressvinyl.wordpress.com/
craigos@goodonedickhead.com
If you’ve been to a punk show or dropped into Resist Records you’ve probably (at least) seen Mel, the brains behind the operation that will be Sydney’s first Punk Rock Flea Market. To be held at the Sando next month, it’s shaping up to be a huge and fun afternoon that everyone should head down and check out.
We spoke to Mel to get the lowdown on what the day is all about and how you can get involved and help out.
Check out the flier below for all the details, then check out the Q&A below that!
So what exactly is the Punk Rock Flea Market?
It’s basically just a place where people can sell their cds/records/tshirts, basically the stuff they would sell on Ebay or on a forum etc.
How did the idea strike you in the first place?
Basically I got back from overseas and didn’t have to go back to work till the new year. I had a whole bunch of stuff I’ve been meaning to sell on Ebay but have been too lazy to get around to it and after being at The Fest and seeing the flea markets they had I thought, “Wouldn’t it be a good idea if someone did the same thing here?” Then I was like, “Wait, I’m a someone, someone like me! I can do this.” It just snowballed from there.
I understand they’re quite a frequent thing in the US. Have you taken any ideas on what to do and what not to do from those?
Yes and no, I guess because this is the first one its really just trial and error, but I think I have everything organised. Hopefully it will all be a breeze on the day.
What are you hoping people will get out of it?
I hope people come and buy stuff and that it’s just a fun, all-round day with some sweet tunes playing over the PA. Hopefully, if the day goes well I can make it a semi regular thing. It’s always fun to find a bargain!
Is it a one off deal? Or are you hoping to make it a semi-regular occurrence?
I really hope its a semi-regular occurrence. Hopefully Sydney people will come out and support it.
I saw a Twitter post where you mentioned that you would like to take it on the road. Is this still something that you’re considering?
I would LOVE to take it on the road for an East coast tour perhaps. It’s really just waiting to see what happens with this first one, and then I can go from there.
Quite a few people in the punk rock scene have gotten behind it? Did you expect people to latch onto the idea so quickly or is it demonstrative of the friendship in the scene?
Honestly, I really had no idea how it would be received. When I came up with the idea, I told a few people and they thought it was a great idea so it got me super excited to do it. The fact that people are getting behind it is awesome. It has actually kind of blown me away abit.
Do you have any particular items that you’ll be on the look out for?
Me personally, I don’t really but that’s the fun thing about markets you might find something you were never expecting. Last time that happened to me I found the Rival Schools Used For Glue 7-inch for $5. BARGAIN! I have alot of punk and hardcore stuff for sale, pretty much my whole CD collection (over 500 cds), plenty of small tshirts, records, badges, stickers and possibly a few skateboards.
So how can people find out more information about being stall holders or if they just have questions about the market?
They can head over to the website www.punkrockfleamarket.wordpress.com or just email me punkrockfleamarket@gmail.com If you have things you are wanting to sell, book a table its pretty cheap. If you want to help with some promo please email me. It’s shaping up to be a sweet day.
I’m pleased to announce that one of the projects that we’ve been working on over the last couple of months has been securing some rad new content to keep the website interesting in between issues. One of the ideas that came forward was the idea of having a regular vinyl column, and the only person that I thought would be suitable to take on that role would be Craig Wainwright (aka Craigos).
For those of you that have never heard of Craig, he’s a dude from Melbourne that has been in a couple of amazing bands, has been involved with some excellent labels and now runs Midnight Funeral Records. I’ll leave more of the introductions for Craig’s first column, which I’ll put live in the next couple of days.
But in the meantime sit back, relax and stay tuned to this station.
This time around one of the bands we’re most excited to see – Conditions – decided to tackle our questions.
Probably not very well known, they’re super sweet guys, an amazing rock band (check out their debut Fluorescent Youth for proof) and their singer used to be the lead vocalist for a little chaotic metalcore band named Scarlet!
First up, what are you most looking forward to about the Soundwave Festival this year?
I know all of us are definitely excited to see Australia! None of us have ever been, so getting the opportunity to see the country on such a great tour is an honor.
Who are you looking forward to checking out on the line up and why?
Lamb of God, You Me At Six, Thursday, Circa Survive, Letlive, Underoath, Hyro Da Hero, Four Year Strong…a ton! I could keep naming all of them, it’s going to be a great festival.
What made you say yes to playing on Soundwave this year?
What would ever make us say no?
What is your earliest memory of a music festival?
My first Warped Tour in 2001. I got to stand on stage and sing “Bro Hymn” with Pennywise with a big group of people. That was amazing.
Where is the worst place to be at a music festival? Where is the best place to be?
The worst place at a music festival is the bathrooms haha. The best place is up in the front row singing along with your favorite band!
What is the best advice you could offer a music festival goer?
Stay hydrated. The days are long, so plan out who you’re going to see and make sure you’re in it for the long haul!
Favourite food to eat at a music festival.
Anything that’s not overpriced haha
How do you change your set lists for playing festivals?
I don’t think we necessarily do, we just tweak our set based on how much time we’re allowed to play for. A Conditions show is a Conditions show, no matter where it is.
Is winning over new fans an important part of festivals and how you perform at them?
Absolutely! The great thing about festivals is that it’s such a great opportunity to gain more exposure. We’ve had plenty of people come up to us after we play and say “I have no idea who you guys were, but I was walking by and liked what I heard so I stuck around.” That’s an awesome feeling to win over a listener who had no intentions of seeing you.
If you could change the name of your band to something else, what would it be?
I don’t even want to take on that task. Coming up with a band name is the worst.
What’s it like to be on tour with your band? Craziest tour story…
We’re just regular guys that like to drink a lot and work out. We’re definitely fairly tame. As for the stories, I’m just going to leave that to the reader to come and see us and let’s make some new ones.
What is one thing that no one else knows about your band?
We all share the same father, just different mothers.
What is your dream festival line up?
Thrice, Foo Fighters, Deftones, Jimmy Eat World, Glassjaw, Brand New, Denali, Circa Survive, Acceptance, Paramore, Mutemath, Radiohead…
That sounds about right.
Post Soundwave, what’s next for you and your band?
We start a full US tour the day after we get back with Sleeping With Sirens.
Thanks for the interview! See you at Soundwave.
-Alex Howard/Conditions