Brought
to you by the letter K
Relient
K is a band that’s not afraid of being a little optimistic in a pretty
pessimistic world. The whole positive
outlook on life has been something that’s drawn a huge following for this band
and their popularity is still growing.
On February 24th, we interviewed David Douglas and John Warne
of Relient K when they came into town with Maxeen and The Rocket Summer for The
Matt Hoopes Birthday Tour. So,
without further adieu, we proudly bring you John and Dave from Relient K,
interviewed by Matt and Dave from Band of the Day, in…
- by Mattias and Dave-Os -
1.
What single band has inspired you the most and why?
D: I guess as a
band, I would have to say that because Matt Thiessen does pretty much all the
writing, and his favorite band is The Beach Boys, I suppose that you’d have to
assume that The Beach Boys would be one of the bigger influences.
J: That’s a
boring answer. What’s YOUR favorite? What’s your most influential band?
D: I
really don’t know…I really don’t know.
J: Be
honest Dave.
D: Ok…Stryper.
J: Alright!
Mattias:
How about you John, Who’s your biggest influence?
J: I like the
Beatles. The Beatles are great.
D:
Everyone likes the Beatles
J: and
Travis Barker
Dave-Os:
He’s like your idol Matt.
Mattias:
Yeah, I love Travis Barker too…
D: I was just
saying that last night, he’s one of my favorite drummers, but it’s a little bit
embarrassing because EVERYONE loves Travis Barker.
2. You
guys have a pretty big fan base. What’s
the craziest story you can that you can think of that involved a fan?
D: Hmmm…craziest
story with a fan…
J: There was that
one time this girl couldn’t get a hold of us, and she actually doused herself
in lighter fluid and lit herself on fire.
It was right in front of the bus; it was cra…
Dave-Os:
Whoa. Is that really true?
J: No, it’s
not. That’s not even remotely
true. Sorry.
D: That would be
pretty awesome though, wouldn’t it? I mean not really. But I’m just saying like as for a story…
J: That would be
a great story.
D: Not a good
thing to happen really.
3. Who
have been the best bands to go on tour with and why?
D: We’ve been
really fortunate actually for virtually every tour. I’m trying to think of a band that we kind of wish we didn’t go
on tour with and I can’t think of any. Every tour I feel like we’re all sitting
around being like “Man, there’s just a great group of people on this tour. We
love these bands. We love these guys.” I feel like we’ve been really fortunate
to tour with bands with really good people in them and people that make good
music.
Dave Os:
Do you have any favorites?
D: I love the
guys in the band Mae; It’s always fun to be around with them.
J: The
Evan Anthem are great guys as well. It’s hard to pick out any.
4. If
you could get the fans to take one message out of your music, what would it be?
D: What
do you think John?
J: I
think the overarching theme seems to be…
D: You’re right.
J: Well I haven’t
even said it yet.
D: You’re
probably going to say something about realizing your mistakes and knowing
there’s redemption around the corner…
J: You are right.
D: Like you can
always stop and say “Hey, I’m gonna change”…
J:
That’s right.
D: “I’m gonna
turn over a new leaf… So if I would have said that, I would have been right. I
feel like you [John] would have said it a little bit better.
J: No, you’re a
very eloquent person. Anyway yeah,
that’s a great answer right there.
5. In
the “Sadie Hawkins Dance” song, did the girl really like your sweater?
D: I mean that’s
the big mystery of the song. That’s
what brings you back to listen to it another time because you’re just
wondering, and you’re trying to pick out clues. There’s really no clues to be
had.
Mattias:
I know what you mean, I’ve got like notebooks and notebooks filled with notes…
D: Yeah, It
leaves you wondering. That’s the beauty
of it. The beauty…of it.
Dave-Os:
So what’s the answer?
D: There’s no
answer. It’s one of those “Choose Your
Own Ending” stories. You have to write
a sequel yourself.
6.
Have you considered what you might want to do 20 years down the road if you
can’t play music anymore because someone broke all your fingers and vocal
chords?
J: Well that
limits what you can do in life. If you don’t have any fingers and you can’t
talk…
Dave-Os:
You could talk, but it would be scratchy, but not the good kind of
scratchy.
D: Well
personally, if that happened, and even if that didn’t happen, I would like to
work with other bands, like producing.
I would love to sit around and pretend like my ideas had some amount of
validity to them and tell other people “That’s good! Oh that’s not good!” and
have them think that I know what I’m talking about. That’s one thing that I would like to do at some point.
Dave-Os:
How about you [John]?
J: I would like
to be a mechanical engineer at this point.
I was on my way to it before the whole band thing happened. I’d like to
get back into it. I’m kind of a nerd.
Mattias:
I dropped out of Biomedical Engineering.
So I guess we’ve got something in common there.
J: Wow, well
there it is!
7. If
you were an animal, what animal would you be?
D: Probably a
peregrine falcon because they fly really fast.
Dave-Os:
I heard up to 100 miles per hour.
D: Yeah, I think
it’s close to that. And when they dive, they can go almost double that speed,
which is pretty awesome.
J: I’d probably
be something that’s big enough to eat a peregrine falcon. Like maybe a hawk or double Hawk even.
D: A double
hawk…(*laughs*)
8.
What would be worse? Being thrown out of a plane, or pushed out of a submarine?
J: Submarine for
sure.
Dave-Os:
Yeah? Why’s that?
J: Because people
survive actually – some people survive if like your parachute doesn’t
open. Plus it’d be fun.
D: It would be
fun for a few minutes yeah.
Dave-Os:
What if there were sharks in the ocean?
J: That’s much
worse! Unless you really like sharks.
D: Even if there
weren’t sharks, if you’re at any reasonable depth for a submarine, you’re just
going to be dead instantly.
J: You’ll just be
crushed.
Dave-Os:
So Submarine, eh.
D: That is far
worse. [With the plane] you might have
a chance of landing on snow, or some conifers…
9. So
you guys were nominated for a Juno Award (“the Canadian Grammys”). How did that
happen considering that you’re not from Canada?
J: *Canadian
Accent* Oh doncha know?
D: Because we
don’t know either really. Matt Thiessen is Canadian. That’s how that happened.
He moved to the States when he was 8, but he’s still a Canadian citizen. He
just has a Green Card. So that’s how that happened.
10.
Who would you like to see next on Band of the Day?
D: I feel like we
have to promote someone we’re on tour with currently. Do you guys know The Rocket Summer?
Mattias:
Yeah, Bryce Avary? He’s awesome.
D: Yeah have they
been band of the day before?
Mattias:
We were going to talk to him today.
J: Oh Excellent.
D: Geez, well
look at that. Let’s just say that we
convinced you to do that. (*laugh*)
Mattias:
Alright, so The Rocket Summer’s your official pick?
D: Yup, The
Rocket Summer.
Dave-Os:
How about you [John]? Same thing?
J: Yeah. Or Maxeen, I happen to like their show quite
a bit.
D: Good Band.
As you
can see, these are a couple of funny guys.
A quick thanks to the fellas and the people that made this interview
possible. The whole “what if there were
sharks in the ocean” thing didn’t really make sense considering they already
said that the submarine would be worse, but what’re you gonna do. We’ve got another great interview coming up
really soon, so make sure you don’t miss that baby either.
Until we
meet again, peeps,
The BotD
Team