Urban Vinyl Magazine-Issue VII (Vans Warped Tour 2016)

URBAN VINYL Issue VII-Vans Warped Tour

The Maine • The Heirs • The Summer Set •

• We The Kings • Ghost Town • Tonight Alive • Young Guns • State Champs • • Waterparks • Sum 41 • The Story So Far •

About

Founded and launched in February 2016 by Sophie Hsu, Urban Vinyl Magazine is an independently-run outlet that harmonizes a passion for music and food. Started in New York City and now currently based in the San Francisco Bay Area where both music and food are at their best, the artists and restaurants featured on the site and the upcoming issues are individually handpicked in order to reach a diverse spectrum of sound and taste. Created by a music lover and a foodie, the aim is to provide high quality content for fellow music lovers and foodies.

LISTEN. EAT. EXPLORE.

Sophie Hsu • Founder • Photographer •

Thank You

• Danielle • Kevin • Mike • Heather • • Editor-In-Chief • Writer • Layout & • Chelsea • Tanner • Design • Content • • Nick • Samantha • • The Maine • • The Summer Set • • The Maine • • Young Guns • • Shoreline Amphitheatre, • The Heirs • Ghost Town • Mountain View • • We The Kings • Young Guns • • August 6, 2016 • • State Champs • Waterparks • • Sum 41 • The Story So Far • • And most importantly, my family and friends for always supporting urbanvinylmag.com my photography and my love for @urbanvinylmag music. • @urbanvinylmag

On the Cover

Stay Connected

• And of course, to my readers! You For booking and inquiries: make this happen! • sophie@urbanvinylmag.com • All social media icons by Good Stuff No Nonsense •

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• This issue would not have been possible without all of you! •

Contents Vans Warped Tour

Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View, California August 6, 2016

Main Artist • The Maine • 13-18

Featured Artist

Featured Artist

• The Heirs • 3-8

• The Summer Set • 23-28

Live Shots • We The Kings • 9-10

• Ghost Town • 11-12

• Tonight Alive • 19-20

• Young Guns • 21-22

• State Champs • 29-30

• Waterparks • 31-32

• Sum 41 • 33-34 • The Story So Far • 35-36

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• Poseidon Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre • @TheHeirsMusic @theheirsmusic /TheHeirsMusicOfficial

Featured Artist • The Heirs •

theheirsmusic.com

With their young ages and rapidly-growing buzz, it is easy to say that The Heirs inherited distinct talent marked by artistry and creativity, which show in their stylish sound and fashion. The story of The Heirs begins with Brandon (lead vocals, guitar) and Savannah Hudson (lead vocals), who grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, sharing their love for music on America’s Got Talent in 2013. Moving to Los Angeles, California soon resulted in The Heirs, which features, aside from Brandon and Savannah, Alex Flagstad (guitar), Eian McNeely (bass, keys), and Brennan Benko (drums). Fresh, but quickly emerging from the up and coming artist realm, they released their debut EP, Ecliptic, just a little less than a year ago on August 28, 2015, via Capitol Records; it includes the hit single, “Alright Goodnight.” They have toured with artists such as The Big Pink, and have also performed at festivals like SXSW. The Heirs shared unbeatable style and sound on the Vans Warped Tour this summer, which marks their first time on the tour. Prior to stopping in the Bay Area, specifically the Poseindon Stage, the band kindly gave some of their time to discuss the process of creating their latest single, “What You Want,” recommend a bunch of places to eat back home in LA, and even what the “The Heirs” chocolate bar would feature.

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What’s the story behind the formation of The Heirs?

BRANDON: The Heirs was initially created as an “escape from reality” project; it started with Savannah and I creating electronic beats and writing over them. Not long after, we decided we wanted it to be more than just a project. We wanted to become a band, so we welcomed in some of our best friends, Alex (guitar), Eian (bass/keys) and Brennan (drums). Growing up as young adults/late teenagers in this big scary music industry run mainly by adults, naming our band The Heirs was a way for us to feel like we held an important role as well, even at our relatively young ages.

What was the first instrument (musical or non-musical) you started making music with?

BRANDON: For me personally, I was given a little blue nylon string guitar for my seventh birthday. I really loved disappearing into the things I would make on it, so I stuck to it.

You recently released a latest single, “What You Want,” just last month. What was the process of writing, recording, and producing it?

ALEX: “What You Want” came about after a solid few months of nonstop writing. We finally felt comfortable heading to the studio with what we knew would be our single, and we were finally able to let loose and experiment with a bunch of different sounds to find what we thought represented us the best, as a band. Our producer on the track, Bram Inscore, knows us really well and also seems to know how to push our sound to exactly what we hear in our heads. Personally, I recorded tons of different tones and pedal combinations when we went to the studio–we all went a little crazy–so the most important part of the process became cutting and sculpting everything we had recorded in order to fit the song the best.

Which song (released or unreleased) are you most proud of?

“What You Want’ and our song “Lungs” were just recently recorded a couple of months ago, so those are currently our proudest tracks. We’ve begun to write a couple of cool melodies and song ideas over the past couple of months that I’m really excited to dial in on once we get home from tour. We are excited to put more music out and share it with everyone.

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What happens before you go onstage? Is there a The Heirs pre-show ritual?

We like to do group huddles as much as possible, but because of the very short transitional periods between sets on Warped Tour, we’ve been settling for pre-show high fives and backstage jumps.

Out of all your songs, my favorite is “Lies.” Can you touch on the inspiration and creation of that particular song?

BRANDON: “Lies” is a song that was originally written on a little drum machine that I found used in a music shop. We liked the way the melodies matched the sounds. Lyrically, we based the verses off of separate poems Savannah wrote along with some lyrics and concepts I had. We love playing that song live; we end our set with it, and it’s always a lot of fun.

What’s your favorite restaurant and/or food in San Francisco? Any places back home in Los Angeles?

I don’t know if we’ve eaten at enough restaurants In San Francisco to pick a favorite, but we look forward to going there soon to hang out.

Back home in LA, there are so many great places to eat. Micelli’s is a really fun Italian restaurant where all of the employees sing. Sushi in Hollywood is really good, as well. Cole’s in DTLA (Downtown LA) is a favorite, and we also dig a bunch of spots in East LA–Fred 62, Best Fish Taco, The Morison in Los Feliz, Masa of Echo Park, Millie’s, and Pine and Crane in Silverlake. We all love going out to eat, so these are just a few of many favorites.

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If there were a chocolate bar with the name “The Heirs,” what type of chocolate would it be, and what would it have?

Between all of us, it would be a coconut peanut butter almond caramel white chocolate bar. Yeah.

What can listeners expect in terms of upcoming projects and/or shows?

We will be working on releasing tons of music very soon, as well as touring a lot more as the fall approaches. We really can’t wait to record more music and travel more.

What’s a question you have wanted to get asked in an interview, and what’s the response to it?

SAVANNAH: feel like the boys and I like gear questions, or questions about odd experiences we encounter on tour. Our favorite tour stories are always ever changing, so it all depends on the day.

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• Journey’s Left Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

We The Kings • Bradenton, Florida • • Danny Duncan • Hunter Thomsen • Travis Clark • Charles Trippy • Corey O’Toole •

@WeTheKings @wethekings /wethekings 9

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• Cyclops Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

Ghost Town • Los Angeles, California • • Kevin McCullough • Alix Koochaki • Manny Dominick •

@GhostTown @ghosttown /officialGhostTown 11

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• Journey’s Right Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre • @themaine @themaineband

/themaine

Main Artist • The Maine •

wearethemaine.net

Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop. Black & White. Pioneer. Forever Halloween. American Candy.

Nine years later, The Maine have released five records, along with nine EPs, and have performed on the Vans Warped Tour during three summers. Formed and based in Tempe, Arizona in 2007, The Maine showcases the talents and dedication of (according to photo above) Garrett Nickelsen (bass, vocals), Kennedy Brock (guitar, vocals), Pat Kirch (drums), John O’Callaghan V (lead vocals, guitar, piano), and Jared Monaco (guitar, vocals). Their current unending journey began with the two EPs Stay Up, Get Down and The Way We Talk, both released in 2007. They then released Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop in 2008, first making their name on the Vans Warped Tour that same year. Not only have they toured in numerous countries besides the United States multiple times, they have performed both electric and acoustic. Since the band’s beginning, they have performed alongside acts such as Mayday Parade and Boys Like Girls, in addition to The Technicolors, Beach Weather, and Night Riots.

As mentioned above, this year marks The Maine’s fourth time performing on the Vans Warped Tour, making stops as a headliner. After their memorable set at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Garrett and Pat shared some of their time and thought to chat about the band’s formation in detail, the process of creating “(Un) Lost,” and what “The Maine” candy bar would have. The band also kindly posed for a quick portrait.

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What’s the story behind the formation of The Maine?

PAT: Garrett and I were playing in bands together for a while in high school, and one night, I got a phone call from John at about one in the morning. I had known him for probably five years since he was a friend of my older brother. I had no idea that he sang or played any instruments; he was on the baseball team. He called me and said, “We should be in a band.” I thought he was joking, and I was like, “Well, come over tomorrow, and record something so I can hear you,” and he did. I was like, “Ah, that’s cool.” I burnt it onto a CD, and I drove over to Garrett’s house; we listened to it for five hours in a row in loop, and then a week later, we had our first band practice.

What was the first instrument (musical or non-musical) you started making music with?

GARRETT: I did the pots and pans thing. I went and saw that movie That Thing You Do! I brought pots and pans out to my driveway, and I was doing the doo cha cha.

PAT: I would watch that movie every day when I got home from school and put on sunglasses, and kind of tap along.

You released Covers in June. What was the process of selecting which songs to cover, in addition to recording and producing?

GARRETT: It was definitely more for fun; we tried to not take it too serious.

With the first chunk of songs, we just picked tunes from the 90s, ones that we liked growing up. The second chunk were more recent songs we thought were good songs and could do something cool with them.

PAT: I think we just took it as an opportunity to do things we generally wouldn’t do. We did the Drake cover, and we just covered it as if we were The Killers or The Strokes. So, kind of just a way to do whatever we wanted and play songs in ways we generally would not on our albums.

Which song (released or unreleased) are you most proud of?

GARRETT: For me, it’s probably “Good Love.” I remember when we wrote it, it felt like something we had never done before. I remember writing it, and it was just this prying moment of our band when we were just writing whatever we wanted to. It was just something completely crazy cool; I regret us not putting it on Pioneer. It’s probably one of my favorite songs we’ve ever done; it has an interesting structure.

What happens before you go onstage? Is there a The Maine pre-show ritual?

PAT: We do this clappy, chant thing and we say, “We like to party” a bunch of times. We’ve been doing it for ten years; I don’t know why.

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Out of all your songs, my current favorite is “(Un) Lost.” Can you touch on the inspiration and creation of that song?

GARRETT: That song’s out there only because of these two people [Garrett and Pat] right here.

PAT: John wrote it, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t think it fit with what we were doing; we kind of pushed for it to get made. It was on the verge of not making the album as well; it was kind of a last second decision. I think the words kind of touched me right away, and I thought it was something interesting. I think it’s pretty different from everything else on that album, and we just wanted to take that as a chance to branch out and give the record a different texture compared to the rest of it.

What’s your favorite restaurant and/or food in SF? Any places back home in Arizona?

GARRETT: Banh mi.

PAT: There are a couple places that we’ve been that have all been great; I don’t know what they’re called.

GARRETT: There are too many.

PAT: We like going to a place Aloha Kitchen (it’s Hawaiian); it’s like where we go as a band before band practice or something.

If there were a chocolate bar with the name “The Maine,” what type of chocolate would it be, and what would it have?

GARRETT: It wouldn’t be chocolate because Pat hates chocolate.

PAT: It would probably be gummy bears or gummy worms, but made into a bar.

GARRETT: That would be so gross. I don’t think that would be very good. I would do gummy worms, though.

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What can listeners expect in terms of upcoming projects and/or shows?

PAT: This is the last tour for a while. We’re going to go make a new record, actually kind of in this area (we’ll be recording about an hour north of here).

It’s kind of early to tell what it’s going to be like, but we’re very excited. We know we need to make something really important for our band. I think it needs to be a defining album for us.

GARRETT: I think we’re the most confident we’ve been at any point.

PAT: I think we’re going to take things in a different direction and continue on the path we’ve been on. At this point, I don’t think we’re afraid to do anything, and I think you’re going to hear that on the new record. The last one, we were a little bit afraid and at a point where we felt a lot of pressure. Now, we feel a different kind of pressure, only artistic pressure.

GARRETT: I think it may have seemed more confident than we were, but that was the least confident we ever were in recording the last record. I think the support we’ve gotten on this album is way more than we could have ever imagined. I think the confidence is there; we want to do something big, something different than what’s happening right now. We’re very excited. It’s like a cloud. It’s here and I can’t feel it, but I know we’re going to get there.

What’s a question you have wanted to get asked in an interview, and what’s the response to it?

GARRETT: Where does your band name come from? No, I don’t want to answer that ever again.

PAT: I was going to go with something ridiculous, but I’m trying to think of an actual question.

Why are there so many songs on Pioneer? There are too many. We recorded 28, and were like, “Might as well put 14 on the album.”

PAT: Favorite pair of socks? I mean, I don’t think I could pick. I have like 500 pairs, and I think I might hold the record for the most number of socks for one boy.

GARRETT: Dave Ghostman came out of...I used to smoke pot and was stoned and thought of it. I recorded it within like 30 minutes, and that’s why there’s probably no more Dave Ghostman because I don’t smoke pot no more! 4/20 free! Has anyone said that? I just made that up! First one!

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• Journey’s Right Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

Tonight Alive • Sydney, Australia • • Whakaio Taahi • Jenna McDougall • Matt Best • Cameron Adler • Jake Hardy •

@TonightAlive @tonightaliveofficial /tonightalive 19

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• Poseidon Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

Young Guns • London, England • High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire • • John Taylor • Chris Kamrada • Gustav Wood • Simon Mitchell • Fraser Taylor •

@YoungGunsUK @younggunsuk /younggunsuk 21

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• Journey’s Left Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre • @thesummerset @the_summer_set

/thesummerset

Featured Artist

• The Summer Set •

thesummersetband.com

Combining their warm and charismatic personalities and their colorful and catchy tunes, The Summer Set paint a bright sound and image bound to capture the heart and ears of any individual. The Summer Set brings together brothers John (guitar, vocals, piano) and Stephen Gomez (bass, vocals), while connecting them with their friends Jess Bowen (drums), Brian Logan Dales (lead vocals, guitar, piano), and Josh Montgomery (guitar, vocals). After putting out three EPs, they released their debut full-length album, Love Like This, in 2009, via Razor & Tie. Soon after, they embarked on the AP Tour in the spring of 2010, quickly followed by the Vans Warped Tour that summer. They then supported All Time Low on The Dirty Work Tour, and released their sophomore record, Everything’s Fine. Leaping forward in 2013, they put out a third album, Legendary, launched Half Moon Kids, an online community and forum connecting their fans, and performed at the iHeartRadio Music Festival and the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Taking some time off and almost parting ways as a band, they realized that there was a still a spark—”Figure Me Out”—which came to be the first single of their newly released record, Stories For Monday. Earlier this year, they went on the road with Handsome Ghost, Royal Teeth, and Call Me Karizma to share new tunes.

After their much-loved set as a headliner this year on the Journey’s Left Foot Stage in Mountain View, Brian generously contributed some of his down time in the afternoon to reflect on the process of making Stories For Monday, share how he gets ready to hit the stage, and also, what 23 the “The Summer Set” granola bar would have.

What’s the story behind the formation of The Summer Set?

John and Stephen Gomez, the two brothers in my band and Jess, our drummer; have been playing in bands together. They sort of grew up and learned their instruments together, and played in bands periodically throughout middle school and high school.

One band led to another, and in 2007, when I was a senior in high school, we started The Summer Set, and now, here we are!

What was the first instrument (musical or non-musical) you started making music with?

Piano. I started as a piano player when I was 5 years old, and we’re finally incorporating it into our set for the very first time ever. It’s sort of nice that it’s starting to come full circle, and that learning how to play the piano was a good lesson rather than for nothing.

You just released a new album, Stories For Monday. What was the process of writing, recording, and producing it?

A lot of frustration, freaking out, going to Mexico, running away from the idea of making an album, and then it sort of just falling into our laps (just kidding!). It took a really long time; it’s weird now having put out our fourth full-length album, and I’m only 26. It’s sort of just a weird faux pas; we’d be lucky if by 25 or 26, we got to put out even one full-length album, like a lot of bands do.

We’re on our fourth one, so we hit this kind of wall after touring pretty relentlessly after Legendary. We weren’t really sure of where to go next, and it took a really long time to figure out. We always want to grow; I don’t want to just do the same thing over and over again. It took about a year and a half of a lot of soul-searching and a lot of traveling. I did a lot of traveling for the first time without having to play a show at the end of the night, just “I’m going to turn my phone off.”

I went to Alaska and Mexico by myself, and just sort of trying to figure a lot of it out on the way, just sort of accepting the idea of getting older. That translated into the songs, and then we finally finished “Figure Me Out.” I wrote “Figure Me Out” by myself on accident at my parents’ house on the piano I learned how to play piano on. That is the only The Summer Set song I’ve ever written on the piano, and it made all of the other songs make sense. The one fortunate thing that happened was by taking so long to write songs and travel, John and Stephen became very good on the production end, really harnessed their craft, and we ended up getting to make the record ourselves and producing it ourselves because we had taken so much time. So we ended up producing it ourselves, and I think it turned out to be the best thing we’ve ever done. It was very back to the basics, in a weird, cathartic sense; we made most of the record in a bedroom.

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How did you come up with the album title, Stories For Monday?

I’ve been thrown the phrase now for a really long time. I’ve always loved the concept of Stories For Monday in the real world setting; I imagine this office talk around the coffee table during break Monday morning, like a typical office sort of thing. This idea of all these people gathering around the coffee maker Monday morning, talking about everything they did over the weekend.

We’ve had this weird, fucked up sense that every day of touring is like a really long weekend, and I was trying to imagine this mentality of what it’s like for people on the other end the days of the week when they get to let it all loose. I looked at the phrase Stories For Monday, and this really crazy thing happened after we took a break after Legendary—the first real break we had taken in 9 years as a band. Reality set in really hard; it was like we went from 21 to 26 overnight, and we had real world to deal with and “adulting”; everyone was living in LA, and it was as if we had hit the pause button on 6 years of our lives when we were on tour and making records, and the minute we broke the cycle, everything had caught up to us. Stories For Monday, for me, was like the end of this really long weekend that was the first 7 years of being in this band, and now this being a brand new chapter, a brand new day.

Which song (released or unreleased) are you most proud of?

It’s hard to not say “Figure Me Out,” at this point. I think it’s safe to say it’s the song that saved our band, finished the record; I think, without “Figure Me Out,” I was having this hard time admitting these other songs on the record were good enough. They just sort of seemed disjointed and in total shambles, and it wasn’t until “Figure Me Out” when I realized the whole thing made sense.

So, “Figure Me Out” is sort of the song that made me see the light of day. The last song I wrote for the record was “Figure Me Out,” and some of these songs date back to three years ago.

“Jean Jacket” was written while we were still touring off of Legendary; it was a song I had been waiting for to really fit in. “Jean Jacket” ‘s probably my other favorite song on the record; I think that one shows an older version of this band I really wanted to portray.

What happens before you guys go onstage? Is there a The Summer Set pre-show ritual?

There’s a lot of tequila involved. We listen to a lot of Kanye West, drink tequila, and get really hyped up. Actually, this is in reverse. That’s the last thing we do. First, I go spend about ten minutes by myself warming up and thinking and trying to clear my head, and then I warm up by singing this song called “If I Didn’t Believe in You” from a musical called The Last 5 Years, and everyone in my bus thinks it’s the weirdest thing in the entire world. I’m just singing about this girl named Cathy, and no one understands why. I finish warming up, and then we drink some tequila and listen to some Kanye records and scream at each other, and then we go onstage.

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Out of all your songs, my favorite is “Mannequin.” Can you touch on the inspiration and creation of that song?

This is an interesting one because I haven’t talked about this in a long time. “Mannequin” is maybe the heart of it, but all of Everything’s Fine came at the end of probably the only relationship I’ve ever been in. Everything’s Fine was very much a break-up record; “Mannequin” is probably the meanest song I had written at the time. I was just really frustrated at an ex who had moved on and was dating somebody whom I sort of knew, and I think at the time, I was very angry and very bitter, and wanted to write this song, denouncing her and my ex. I look at it now, and she and I are closer friends than we have ever been,. It’s funny to look at it five and a half years later and sort of how petty break-ups are, and how sometimes, you just really have to let it out and get out to be able to make it to the other side. She and I are really good friends; she’s pretty much the only person I’ve been in a relationship with. That was sort of a song about comparing myself to the guy she had started dating, and in some sort of fucked up way, thinking that guy was just going to treat her like somebody he could show off, whereas I was going to treat her like a real human being. The real matter of fact is, now, five years later, none of us should have been in a relationship because we were really young.

It’s probably one of the heavier songs we’ve ever written. That’s from one of the heavier recordings; it sort of sounds like a rock song we’ve ever really done—it’s really that heavy. I’m always proud of that song; we try to sneak it in every once in awhile.

If there were a chocolate bar with the name “The Summer Set,” what type of chocolate would it be, and what would it have?

This is a tough question because I don’t like chocolate. I don’t really like candy; I have like no sweet tooth. My idea of a chocolate bar is one of those Kind bars, organic, boring, and awesome. I think the “The Summer Set” bar would be full of angst and protein. “The Summer Set” is probably a granola bar, just very medium, across the board. Cranberries are good, let’s put a few of those. Nuts are good; let’s get some almonds in there. So some cranberries, some granola, and some almonds.

What can listeners expect in terms of upcoming projects and/or shows?

Well, we’re going to tour in the fall. We just finished the Stories For Monday tour, and I think we had such a good time that I think we’re trying to hit a bunch of cities we missed the first time.

When we go back out and revisit that, we really like headlining because we have a lot of music, and I want to play for two hours a night. The difference between a The Summer Set show and Warped Tour is sometimes, it’s hard to get us to stop playing. I want to maybe headline again just so that we can play for 95 minutes a night; I love it.

What’s a question you have wanted to get asked in an interview, and what’s the response to it?

I wish people would ask me what my favorite song from a Disney movie is. I’m not even sure of the answer. Maybe it’s “Part Of Your World” from The Little Mermaid; that song’s amazing. Or what my favorite Kanye West album is, which is 808s & Heartbreak. Or maybe my favorite TV show I’m watching right now, which is Stranger Things.

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• Journey’s Right Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

State Champs • Averill Park, New York • • Tony Diaz • Tyler Szalkowski • Derek DiScanio • Evan Ambrosio • Ryan Graham •

@State_Champs @statechampsny /statechampsny 29

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• Cyclops Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

Waterparks • Houston, Texas • • Awsten Knight • Geoff Wigington • Otto Wood •

@waterparks @waterparks /Waterparks 31

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• Journey’s Left Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

Sum 41 • Ajax, Ontario, Canada • • Jason McCaslin • Tom Thacker • Deryck Whibley • Frank Zummo • Dave Baksh •

@Sum41 @sum41 /Sum41 33

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• Journey’s Right Foot Stage, Shoreline Amphitheatre •

The Story So Far • Walnut Creek, California • • Kevin Geyer • Kelen Capener • Parker Cannon • Ryan Torf • William Levy •

@thestorysofarca @thestorysofarca /thestorysofarca 35

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LISTEN. EAT. EXPLORE.

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