The venue faintly smelled of sweat, and reeked of dust kicked up from the stage in a frenzy of rocking out. The stage lights and a disco ball at the center of the room danced wildly with the audience to the music and static pumping through speakers. Not even three full rows lined the stage. However, the excitement of the audience was not hindered by its size, an almost equal amount of guys to girls; a colorful mixture of high school and college kids. The crowd was a single entity, moving together but with separable parts stirring to the pace of a pop-rock crunch fused and delivered by Sing It Loud.
Sing It Loud is a young pop and electronic inspired rock band born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are comprised of Pat Brown, Nate Flynn, Kieren Smith and Christopher “Sick Dog” Lee, the latter member having recently replaced former drummer Dane Schmidt. Pat and Kieren are step-cousins who used to be in rival Minneapolis bands. But after both bands broke up, they decided to form their own group. To date they’ve toured with acts such as Cobra Starship, This Providence, We The Kings and All Time Low. In 2008 they released a self-titled EP and a full-length album titled Come Around. Both records were produced by Josh Cain of Motion City Soundtrack and mixed by John Trombino (who has worked with the likes of Blink-182, Sugarcult and Jimmy Eat World). Come Around reached #44 on Billboard’s Heartseekers Chart in 2008.
The band spent the day in Eugene on April 8th with The Summer Set, Artist Vs. Poet, The Morning Light and The Friday Night Boys on their first headlining tour entitled the Guys, Guys, Guys Tour. Prior to the Wednesday night show, only Artist Vs. Poet had had the pleasure of playing for
I had the pleasure of sitting down with lead-singer and guitarist Pat Brown and bassist Nate Flynn of Sing It Loud after the concert. They were able to discuss the history, direction and personality of their band as well as the Eugene show. Two fans, Kari and Ary, as well as Drake, who was selling Sing It Loud’s merchandise, were present at the interview.
Alex Roland: Are there any questions you guys hear a lot in interviews that you’re really sick of getting asked?
Pat Brown: I oftentimes get asked how tall I am, which is six and half feet, er [I mean] six feet and three and a half inches tall.
Nate Flynn: He’s 6’6.”
PB: That would be crazy, right? And um, is my hair naturally blonde, which it is not. It is another question I get asked pretty freaking often.
NF: My least favorite thing that I always get asked in interviews is: was I really one of the actors in Die Hard 1? And obviously it’s “no” because I wasn’t born yet. [Laughing] Actually, I don’t know.
AR: Alright. Come Around has been compared to Bleed American [by Jimmy Eat World].
PB: It has?
NF: Really?
AR: Yeah.
PB and NF: That’s awesome!
PB: That’s like… Jimmy Eat World is like one of our favorite bands.
NF: Collectively, as a band we enjoy Jimmy Eat World.
PB: Yeah, we like Jimmy….
NF: They could take us out on tour. “Tor,” sorry. [Referring to an earlier discussion on accents.]
PB: Take us out on “tor!”
AR: So I take it you’re happy with this comparison?
PB: Yeah, that’s awesome! Absolutely awesome.
NF: I’ve never even heard that before.
PB: I love Jimmy Eat World. I’m like obsessed with them.
AR: The comparison was made by Tim Sendra on allmusic.com. He wrote a review of your album.
PB: On allmusic.com? Oh damn, that’s cool. Thanks Tim.
AR: So you guys are signed to Epitaph [Records].
PB: Yes.
NF: That is correct.
AR: Yeah, and why do you think that an A&R scout would even think to pay attention to your band?
PB: Well the reason why they paid any attention to us was because of a band called Motion City Soundtrack that’s from our hometown. We got like a really cool opportunity to open for them and it was our fifth show we ever played, I think.
NF: Yeah.
PB: And it was August 9th of ’07. And their guitar-player Josh [Cain] watched us and was like “I really like what you guys are about and I think you guys have a lot of potential. I’d love to help you guys out and help steer you in the right direction and help you guys with song-writing and stuff; help you guys develop as a band.” So we started meeting with them and then he eventually pitched us to Brett [Gurewitz], the owner of Epitaph. Brett was like, “This band’s awesome.” And Josh was like, “Hey, you have to sign this band. You have to come out and see them.” So he flew out to see us and then he signed us. So we had a lot of help from them. So “thank you” if they ever hear this.
AR: And do you think Epitaph, based on their experience with you, is going to want to expand the types of bands that are on their label?
NF: Definitely.
PB: I mean, they already are. They signed New Found Glory. And they signed like, I Set My Friends on Fire, which is like electronica, like crazy kind of music. They’ve got like, Bring Me The Horizon, which is like hardcore. They’ve got so many different kinds of bands and they were like the first people who put out Atmosphere… you know Atmosphere, like the hip-hop artist?
AR: Yeah.
PB: They did stuff with him. So they’ve done a lot of really cool stuff. And just recently they’ve really started branching out and doing a lot of really cool stuff with their label, which is really cool. They’re becoming more of like a major label rather than like an independent label, which is pretty rad.
AR: Really?
PB: Yeah, but they’re still an independent label. But they… it’s cool; it’s like a major label run like and independent label, which is really sweet- for us.
AR: So yeah, do you think you’re going to get some major label benefits?
PB: I hope so. But like, they have a lot of diversity and a lot of bands and they pay equal attention to all of them and they’re really…
NF: It’s like going to high school with there being kind of like a hundred kids in each class instead of having your graduating class of like a thousand.
AR: Mhm.
N: You get paid more attention to.
AR: Yeah. What are you most excited about for Warped Tour?
PB: For Warped Tour? The thing I’m most excited about is being on a tour bus for the first time. We’ve never been on one before. I think collectively it’s been one of our childhood dreams, like ever since we were involved in music. It’s picking us up in June and driving us down to LA and then we get to hang out in it all summer. Like, I can’t even imagine what it’s like to step onto a bus and have it be cool, like cold. Like after a hot summer day, I can be like “I’m really tired. I’m just gonna go to sleep and I don’t have to drive.” Like, you know?
NF: Yeah.
PB: I can’t even imagine what that’s like. I mean, we toured with Motion City [Soundtrack] and they had a bus and we toured with Cobra Starship and Forever The Sickest Kids and they had a bus. And every night they’d leave in their bus and we’d leave in our van and like “oh my god, I want to be in a bus so bad.” So I’m super stoked to see what that’s going to be like. It’s gonna be pretty cool.
NF: I’m most excited for getting a nice tan. Just kidding.
AR: Who is the weirdest band you’ve ever toured with?
PB: The weirdest band we’ve ever toured with?
NF: What kind of weird?
AR: Like personality-wise; just odd.
PB: Personality-wise, I would have to say that the weirdest but at the same time coolest band we’ve ever toured with, I’d probably say Ludo, because they’re really good friends of ours. We’ve done two tours with them, actually. We’ve toured with… it was like us, Ludo, Steel Train and The Spill Canvas. And then, just before this tour we did Ludo’s headliner with The Morning Light and This Providence. And they’re a little bit older than us and they’re really just kind of corky dudes and really funny dudes. And their singer, Andrew, is probably the funniest person I’ve ever met. Like, he is the craziest, kookiest, coolest, funniest person ever. And it’s just cool because we’re younger and like pop-kids and they’re older guys. So it’s really cool to hang out with them. It’s different. So I’d have to say Ludo.
AR: Did you like the city? Did you get to check it out?
PB: Um, well, I didn’t really get to check it out but we are staying at the Phoenix Inn Suites and it’s got a really bombin’ hot tub. So that’s really cool. And I was really nervous that no one was going to come tonight because we’ve never been here before. But it was really cool. I mean, the crowd was kind of small, but everyone seemed to be really stoked on what was going on and everyone stayed throughout the whole night. Everyone seemed to be really excited about all the bands so that made it all worth it. It was cool.
NF: Very good environment.
AR: Yeah.
PB: And it’s actually kind of a nice thing too, and some people might disagree, but we’re from Minnesota where it’s really cold all the time, except the summer. And today, being in kind of sweatshirt [and] pants weather; rainy weather, it kind of brought me back to what it feels like to be at home. And I enjoyed that as well.
AR: Is there a big difference you noticed today between Eugene and where you’re from, Minneapolis?
PB: Honestly, I didn’t hang around Eugene…
NF: The city is a lot smaller than Minneapolis and the roads are really narrow [in Eugene]. In Minneapolis the roads are wide.
PB: That’s a good one.
NF: That’s what I noticed.
PB: Actually, I did notice that.
NF: Yeah, ‘cause in Minneapolis in the downtown-area, the roads are really wide. But here it’s really…
AR: Spread out?
NF: Yeah.
AR: So do you guys think you’re going to come back to Eugene again or not?
PB: I hope so.
NF: Yeah.
PB: I know that after this we’re going to the UK and then we’re doing the Warped Tour and then I think after that we’re recording our next album. So we probably won’t be able to come back for a while but I hope that when we do another headliner we’ll be able to come back here.
NF: And more people will come then.
Ary: We’ll bring friends.
AR: So do you have any set plans of what you’re going to do after Warped [Tour]?
PB: We’re just planning on recording eventually after Warped Tour and then I know we’re going to try and do some touring in the fall as well. But that’s not really… we won’t know what we’re doing in the fall until probably like a month from now. Hopefully it will be something cool.
AR: And I was also wondering why you decided to do the Meet The Band episodes.
PB: Oh, we just noticed that a lot of band’s websites they’ll have like, on the side it will be like “band members” with their face or a picture of them with their Twitter underneath them. That’s kind of what everyone does. We thought it would be cool, instead of doing a picture of everyone, doing a whole video so you could see what the person is like rather than just one picture. I think it adds more face value. So that’s basically the concept behind it.
AR: Definitely.
PB: And I think, I feel we’re kind of like a personality band and we all have kind of crazy, unique personalities. So I think it’s fun for people to see that brought out.
AR: I just have one more question. If you could tour with any band, dead or alive, who would it be?
NF: Um, let’s see. Def Leppard or The Starting Line.
PB: Taking Back Sunday or Jimmy Eat World.
K: Oh, we’re seeing Taking Back Sunday.
PB: I just saw them the other day; so sick. You’re gonna freak out. They’re great.
K: Are they amazing live?
PB: I’ve seen them like six times. They’re badass. They’re so good. You’re gonna freak out.
K: I will.
PB: Their singer’s the shit. I wanna be him.
AR: Well, thank you for your time.
PB and NF: Thank you.
Sing It Loud will finish out their headlining tour in March and this summer you’ll be able to catch the band in Hillsboro on Warped Tour. The next time they come to Eugene promises to be just as exciting as the April show. In the meantime, you can pick up Sing It Loud’s debut album Come Around in stores now.
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