PropertyOfZack had the pleasure of interview Transit’s Tim Landers just a few days ago to catch up with the band as they continue a nationwide tour with Fireworks, The Swellers, and Man Overboard. Tim and I discussed their current tour, their fall tour, as well as reception to their new album, Keep This To Yourself, and plans to keep writing for their next release. Read up, it’s a good one!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Transit?
I am Tim and I play guitar and sing in Transit.

The All I Have To Offer tour has been going on for a little bit now. Can you tell us about your time on it so far?
It has been really, really awesome. It’s like one big group of friends who all get along and are having a blast. All the bands are really good and it’s cool to be with three other bands that are all kind of like fit in well. Everyone likes each other’s bands. All of us sound good. It’s just been a good time. Definitely my favorite tour.

Have the kids been getting more into your set as the record continues to be out for a longer time period?
Well, it’s only been out two weeks now, but kids definitely seem to be into it. A lot of what we’re playing is older stuff. Were just really excited that the record is finally out because we put everything we had into it and were just psyched to get it out there.

Would you describe it as the tour for the next generation in pop-punk?
Yeah, I mean, I guess you could say that. It seems like all the bands are definitely doing really, really well for themselves and doing new things for pop-punk, so I could definitely agree with that statement.

Zac of Man Overboard has been filling in on drums for the band. How was that been working out?
It’s been awesome. Zac learned all the songs in like two days and he just started playing with us and we didn’t even practice really. He’s just been killing it. It’s been a blast.
POZ: Did you guys plan that before the tour started?
Tim: Our original drummer was with us, but he had to fly home because he’s 17 years old and he’s going into his senior year of high school right now, so he had to fly home to do that after about a week in the tour. We had someone who was supposed to fill in for us, but it ended up falling through. So Zac was like, “I’ll do it.” So, we worked with him.
POZ: What will you guys do for the rest of the year, drummer wise?
We’ve had a bunch of different fill-ins, so we’re just going to find someone else to work with.

I saw that Jordan and Steve of New Found Glory were into the record. Is that kind of mind blowing?
Yeah, that’s really awesome. That’s kind of crazy.

Keep This To Yourself came out on August 17^th. It’ being called the last pop-punk album of the summer. How has the reaction on the band’s side been?
No one has told me that they didn’t like it, so that makes me happy. We’re stoked to hear that so many people like it because we worked hard and put everything we had into those songs and writing them and recording them. I definitely am ecstatic to hear positive feedback. I’m happy that there really hasn’t been any negative feedback that’s been brought to my attention.

When did the writing process for the record start?
We did a tour in the winter with our friends in Make Do And Make Mend, then when we got home from that we kind of just decided that we didn’t really have any touring set up for a couple months, so we decided to just take the time and write the record. We got it done in that time period and started recording it in April.
POZ: Wow, so it was a quick process.
Tim: Yeah, things have always kind of come together pretty quick. A lot of it just comes natural to us because we’ve kind of been playing together for a while.

How was your time in the studio?
It was awesome. It was really, really cool. We got to work with Jesse Cannon and he was awesome. A big thing for us was that we actually got to live in the studio for a few weeks. So we had nothing on our plates except for recording that album and making it the best that it could be. Wake up at 11, record till 4 in the morning and just do that and repeat the process every day.

Is it kind of cool to not be on the road, but just to be in the studio?
Yeah, I love recording. It’s one of my favorite parts about being in a band, but with the amount of touring we’ve been doing I guess any kind of break is fun.

It’s been a pretty good year for pop-punk with new records from The Wonder Years, Man Overboard, and Transit. What’s your stance on the scene now compared to how it’s been in the past few years?
I don’t know, that’s a tough question. See, to me, I don’t really consider us a pop-punk band. The only thing people call us is a pop-punk band. We live in the pop-punk scene, we have a lot of pop-punk elements to our music, but I feel like it doesn’t really sound like pop-punk to me. I don’t even understand where we are in the scene. It’s just cool that kids want to hear my music.

The band will be heading to Europe with Man Overboard and All Or Nothing in December. How stoked are you to not only hit the UK but the mainland as well?
Dude, way too excited.
POZ: Is it always fun to play to new crowds?
Tim: Yeah, absolutely.

Is it comforting to be able to tour with some of your best friends constantly with Man Overboard?
We just can’t get away from each other this year.
POZ: It’s gotta be nice to not have that awkward period.
Tim: We’re fortunate enough with all the bands that we’ve toured with to never really not gotten along with any of the bands. We’ve always seemed to keep touring with great bands, but Man Overboard has been our best friends for the past like four years, even before our bands were really anything. So it’s always good to be in the middle of Texas with them.

Between the end of this tour and the European tour nothing is on the books. Should we expect some other fall or early winter dates?
Yeah, it’s not announced yet, but I don’t care. We’re doing a tour with a band called Hostage Calm, a band called End Of A Year, and Aficionado.
POZ: When should we see those dates?
Tim: Those should be released in the next couple of weeks I believe. It’s like a tour to The Fest in Florida and the Fun Fun Fun Fest in Texas.
POZ: Will you guys be headlining?
Tim: The tour? Yes.

Pushing into 2011, should we just expect more touring?
Absolutely. We don’t really have plans to stop. We all kind of quit our lives, so this is what we do now.

Run For Cover Records are really making a name for themselves with Man Overboard’s recent release as well as yours and now they have signed UK pop-punk band, Basement. How’s Jeff and being on the label?
It’s great. We’ve been working with Jeff for the past couple years. He’s a great friend of all of ours. We became closer through working together. All the bands on the label are some of my favorite bands as well as some of everyone in my band’s favorite bands. We’re just genuinely fans of everybody’s music on the label, so it’s cool to be associated that you can 100% back.

Both The Wonder Years and Man Overboard have gone on record saying that they’re expecting to have releases out by or during the summer next year, which is an incredibly quick turn around time to their releases. Do you guys have plans to start writing and recording by the winter as well?
Yeah, absolutely. We already writing a couple new songs for our next whatever it turns out to be, but we definitely have full intentions of making another record this year.
POZ: So you’d definitely like to have another record out next year?
Tim: Absolutely.

So the plan for the next X amount of months is just touring, touring, and recording?
Yeah, touring, doing some writing. We can’t record another record until we write it I guess. So it’ll happen when it all comes together. Just knowing us, I feel that we’re not going to stop writing songs, so I’m sure that we’ll have a batch that we’ll want to turn into a record sometime.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
No, not really. Thank you very much for having me.