Sunday 28 September 2014

Me Vs Hero Interview





During the month of September, Me vs Hero embarked on their first UK tour since the release of their new album I'm Completely Fine. We caught up with Sam, Bobby and Mike in Nottingham to ask about the tour, the new album and if their new song Heisenberg has anything to do with Breaking Bad...

PPUK: YOU'RE FIVE DAYS INTO YOUR TOUR HOW'S IT BEEN GOING, A 10 OUT OF 10?
Bobby: Good, I'm not going to lie and say 10 out of 10 but like, I don't know, people are there [at the shows]. 
Sam: 11 at least. No, it's probably been as we expected it would be, maybe a little bit better than what we actually expected really to be fair.
Bobby: It's been good. Newcastle was sick, Manchester was amazing, Leeds was amazing, it's been good.

PPUK: DID NOTTINGHAM LET YOU DOWN?
Bobby: No, but people didn't seem to like stage dive or get that into it. I was saying to Mike the other day though, if I go to a show or if I used to go to a show or whatever, I wasn't the type of person that would get to the front and get involved anyway, I'd rather just stand at the back and sing and enjoy it. Which is fine, people enjoy shows in different ways.
Sam: People wanted another song so I guess they were enjoying it.
Bobby: Nodding, saw loads of nodding so it was fine. 

PPUK: HOW'S THE REACTION TO I'M COMPLETELY FINE BEEN?  
Bobby: Awesome I think. I've not seen anyone say it's shit.
Sam: No. I think the only problem is that we need to get it out to more people. If we had the backing to get it out to more people it would be great because every single person who's posted about [I'm Completely Fine], that we've seen, and we do look [at social media]...   
Bobby: We check twitter, social networking all the time...
Sam: We do like to keep up to date with everything and speak to our fans and everyone's who posted about it's been absolutely fantastic. There's been nothing even semi-bad, it's just been all positive and really amazing. We didn't get that with our first album, so yeah it's been great and absolutely fantastic so far.

PPUK: DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE POSITIVE REACTIONS ARE EVEN BETTER DUE TO THE FACT THAT I'M COMPLETELY FINE NEARLY DIDN'T HAPPEN?
Bobby: Yeah, to get it out is, you know, great anyway.I've seen people on Twitter say it's a masterpiece and stuff and that's just like amazing. We spent a lot of time writing and recording that album.

PPUK: SO, YOU GUYS DID ALL THE RECORDING YOURSELVES?
Bobby: We ended up doing all the recording ourselves. 
Sam: Essentially yeah. We actually recorded everything ourselves.
Bobby: We hired a studio for the drums but we still did it ourselves and like we were still there ourselves.
Sam: We actually set up the microphones and recorded it. We did vocals in a high-rise council estate flat. It was horrible.
Bobby: Sam and Grant did their guitars at a farm in Cumbria. 
Sam: It was very, very stressful. there were chickens... 
Bobby: He's got 25,000 chickens Grant, our guitarist. They didn't like those guitars.
Mike: We didn't mix it though right? 
Bobby: No, no we sent it off to Romesh.
Sam: He does Kids In Glass Houses, he's done a bit of Motorhead, he's done Funeral For a Friend, Save Your Breath, The Blackout..
Bobby: He did an awesome job of mixing it.
Sam: He did our first album in entirety, recorded mixed and mastered our first album so we went back to him after we were getting robbed by other people.
Bobby: He saved us.
Sam: Yeah, he saved us.
Bobby: I remember when we were in Japan, we got sent one demo mix of a song and we were like 'thank God'.
Sam: We were on tour with The Wonder Years in Japan and our label, the guy who signed us in Japan he was on the tour bus with us at the time as well and we showed him and he was like 'yeah it's great'.
Bobby: We passed it around The Wonder Years and stuff it was cool. 

PPUK: WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE SONG FROM I'M COMPLETELY FINE AND WHY?
Bobby: I think its Opposites actually.
Sam: I like them all really, I'm proud of writing them all but I think Hang In, which is an acoustic song, and a bit different to what we usually do. It's about me being homeless for 3 months. 
Bobby: IRL. 
Sam: What does that mean?
Bobby: In real life. 
Sam: In real life yeah, it actually did.

PPUK: SO, THE SONG HEISENBERG? ARE YOU GUYS BREAKING BAD FANS?
Bobby: Very much so, all of us are. 
Mike: Bob's got a tattoo.
Bobby: I have got a tattoo.
PPUK: Can we see it?
Bobby: Yeah it's not anywhere weird *gets out Walter tattoo on leg*
PPUK: Did it hurt? 
Bobby: No, it was alright.
Sam: Tattoos always hurt, he's such a liar.
PPUK: What does it say?
Bobby: Kiss the Cook. No it wasn't that bad, like that Caspar one *shows tattoo of Caspar the ghost on leg* absolutely killed, I had to make her stop halfway through.
Mike: As you can see because it's half done.
Sam: He's also got bees on his knees.
Bobby: I have got bees in my knees.

PPUK: DO YOU GUYS WATCH GAME OF THRONES?
Mike: Yeah.
Bobby: I love Game of Thrones.

PPUK: IF YOU COULD CHOOSE GAME OF THRONES OR BREAKING BAD, WHAT WOULD YOU PICK? 
Bobby: That is such a hard choice.
Sam: That is a very hard question. Maybe Game of Thrones because it's not finished yet and I've seen all of Breaking Bad.
Bobby: Am I allowed to put another series into the mix anyway?
Sam: Don't do Boardwalk Empire.
Bobby: Boardwalk Empire, it's my favourite.
Sam: Oh don't do Boardwalk Empire, nope.
Bobby: Boardwalk Empire's my favourite over all of them.
Sam: Well yeah, I mean I love them all equally. 
Bobby: It was those three to pick from it would definitely be Boardwalk Empire.
Mike: I can't even choose.

PPUK: IF YOU WERE CHARACTERS FROM GAME OF THRONES WHO WOULD YOU BE?
Sam: Tyrion.
Bobby: Yeah Tyrion, the best guy ever. The god of tits and wine.
Sam: *laughs*
Bobby: That's what he says he is. What's his dad called?
PPUK: Tywin.
Mike: I think I'd be Deanerys Targaryen.
Sam: So you could look at yourself in the mirror all the time?
Bobby: Tywin's cool but he's harsh.

PPUK: I'VE GOT TO ASK ABOUT YOUR APP, HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT IDEA?
Bobby: It was all Grant, I thought it was a terrible idea and it turned out to be fantastic. Everyone really liked it and it was actually a great idea. But when he was talking about it I was like 'what the hell are you talking about?'
Sam: I loved it from when he mentioned it. It was gonna be a great idea.
Mike: We should have made it a virus and you have to pay to get it off.
Sam: To my knowledge, we are the first band that has ever done that.

PPUK: DO YOU PLAY IT YOURSELVES?
Sam: I've played it a couple of times yeah, it's not the best game. 
Bobby: It's a pretty crap game. Sometimes you can't actually do the things it wants you to do and our drummer's girlfriend gave it a one out of five on the itunes store. 
Mike: You can't lose though so it doesn't matter.
Sam: It's just a good way to premiere the album and its not been done by anyone else
Bobby: When it all came out and stuff I thought it was amazing. Download it, app store or android store.
Sam: and it's free.

PPUK: FOR ANYONE WHO'S NOT LISTENED TO I'M COMPLETELY FINE YET, WHY SHOULD THEY? 
Mike: We'll find you and kill you if you don't listen to it.
Bobby: Its had lots and lots of effort put into it by five not so young gentlemen. Loads of effort and money has been thrown at it and the lyrics mean a lot to Sam here.
Sam: I mean I'd say it's a very relatable album. I think a lot of the stuff on the album is relatable.
Mike: It's because you wrote it. 
Bobby: Of course it's relatable to you.
All: *laughs*
Sam: I can really relate to it.
Mike: Really speaks to me, it really gets me.
Sam: I really get it, I understand it completely.
Bobby: We said it loads aswell when it first came out, it's an honest album as well. It's pretty down to Earth. I can understand it aswell.
Sam: All lyrics are genuine about stuff that people go through, like work, fucking money and shit, all that stuff.
Bobby: Everyday struggles.
Sam: As you get older it's really shit. You just wait 'till you're my age, 21.
All: *laughs*

I'm Completely Fine is out now.
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