Just last week PropertyOfZack had the opportunity to interview Andrew from Comeback Kid. Andrew and I discussed their last tour through Canada, their current tour with Four Year Strong, as well as the reception to their new album, Symptoms + Cures. It’s a great interview, so read up and then go see them on the Tonight We Feel Alive tour!
For the record, could you state your name and role in Comeback Kid?
My name’s Andrew and I’m the vocalist in the band.
Symptoms + Cures has been out for just about a month now. How has the reaction been from fans?
So far it’s been really cool. We’ve been playing a lot of new songs live and people are singing along to them and stuff like that. Just off the bat that’s one thing we’re seeing that is kind of cool. The record had been out and about even before the actual album came out because it got leaked and stuff. It’s been out for a while. So far we’re getting positive feedback and our friends seem to like it and a lot of people think it’s probably the best record we’ve done, but everyone has their own opinion. It’s all good.
How would you compare this album to prior releases for fans that have yet to check it out?
It’s kind of thicker and a more powerful record all together. But at the same time I think the songs are a little bit brighter and they have just a little bit more of a punk rock twist to them. The vocals are maybe a little heavier. I moved from guitar to vocals before our last record so for this it’s become a lot more natural for me after singing in the band for a few years now.
How did you guys enjoy your time in the studio?
It was great. We worked with some really cool producers. It was a little bit stressful at times. There were pretty long days and we worked really hard, but all together the vibe was really good and we all fed off of each other’s energy. We paid attention to a lot of the details on the record, so there was a lot of work to make this happen.
The band recently signed to Distort in the Canadian market for the release. How has the relationship between you and the label been so far?
It’s been great. We’ve had such a positive experience with Distort so far. It’s cool to kind of come to a new label and have them totally behind you. They’ve been helping out in even more ways than just a label would with online stuff and helping out with this tour we just did in Canada called Through The Noise with Madball and A Wilhelm Scream. They just really, really helped promote the tour and promote the record at the same time. It’s really great when you have people behind you who really enjoy your music and want to get behind you. That’s what we feel like Distort is for. It’s good to have a label like that in our home country who can help out with stuff up in Canada.
Symptoms + Cures is technically the end of your contract withVictory. It’s way too early to make any definitive statements, but if they have interest to keep you guys on board is that something the band would most likely be for
We’re not necessarily out of our contract with Victory, as far as we know. We don’t think we’re out of the contract, but I’m not really too sure about all the specifics.
Like you said, you guys are headlining the Through The Noise tour with Madball and A Wilhelm Scream. How have the shows been? That’s a pretty solid lineup.
The shows have been awesome, especially in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal. Those dates really, really stand out. The tour is exactly what we intended it to be. The bands are very different from each other, but they work, especially in Canada. I don’t know how it would go down in the States necessarily, but for Canadians it was a great mix of punk and hardcore bands. It’s a good mix of heavy and melodic bands. All tasteful bands, I think.
Sunday is the start of your US run with Four Year Strong and The Wonder Years. How did those dates come together?
We kind of met the Four Year Strong guys in the past at a tour in Australia called Soundwave. We kind of met them there, but when Comeback Kid played Massachusetts they said they’d really like us to go out together. Then they said they were going out in the fall and I thought it was perfect because our record was coming out then. So through that and after going back and forth they figured out they were going on a headline tour and asked us to come on. It worked out quite perfectly because we end this tour [Through The Noise] in a few days here in Canada then we have a day off and go to the States and start the tour with Four Year Strong. We’re going to do that for three weeks and then after a couple days off we fly to Europe. Non-stop.
Yeah, you guys are heading out to Europe for the Never Say Die Tour with Parkway Drive and We Came As Romans. What are you expecting that to be like?
Yeah, it’s gonna be a really, really big tour. I just heard actually that they’re pretty crazy sized venues and we feel super stoked that we can have a good slot on that tour. I think we’re playing before Parkway Drive. We just did a headlining tour in Canada, but for the Four Year Strong tour and the Parkway Drive tour it’ll be interesting to play to newer audiences and to people who may not have known we were a band before. Hopefully people that have supported us in the past will come out. We’ve been getting a lot of really good feedback lately.
You guys aren’t really stopping or slowing down at all. You’ll be heading to Australia with Architects for a short run of shows as well. How is it playing to the Australian market versus over here?
It’s quite similar in a lot of ways. People always ask me what the differences are, but I don’t really think it’s as simple as that. I think it’s as complex from city to city. Not every Canadian city is the same and same in the US. New York is different from Toronto and Toronto is different than Vancouver and Vancouver is different than Amsterdam or Melbourne is different than LA. Everywhere is so focused and has their kind of music. Australia in the last few years has been getting a lot more tours and so it’s pretty much just as saturated as Canada and the United States as far as the amounts of bands that are going through. For us it’s amazing. We basically get to go there every winter.
You’ve been on the road for a long time now and certainly by the end of that Australian tour it’ll be a solid five or six months almost straight. Does it take a toll at all?
Yeah, but I’m at the point now where I have all my stuff in a storage unit and in between tours if I’m just kind of doing things and need to rent an apartment then I’ll do that. If there’s a rare occurrence that I have like a month off then I’ll rent an apartment for a month. But I’m pretty much in this for the long haul. I realized we have this new record and want to tour it as much as possible. So we’re going to be out pretty much 90% of next year. We’ve been doing it for about ten years and we’re not sick of it yet, we’re not sick of each other, we actually get along really well. We’re stoked on playing music and I don’t really want to go home.
From mid-December to March nothing is on the books. When should we see some announcements?
We’ll be touring the US in the beginning of January and then we’re gonna go to Japan from there. Then we’ll do some more Canadian stuff and go to South America with Sick Of It All.
Will those US dates be headlining?
Those will be headlining and those will be hopefully like Southern states like California to Florida and Texas, stuff like that. Some places that we’ve missed out on on the last couple tours.
Will Japan be headlining too?
Japan’s headlining. We’re gonna be going out there with Ghosts Among Men.
Like you said, in March you’ll be heading to South America with Sick Of It All. Is that going to be kind of a crazy experience to get to play down there with them?
Yeah, it’s an honor to play with those guys down there, definitely. We’ve done stuff in South America before and it was probably one of the most fun tours and one of the best tours we’ve ever done as a band. Now to be able to go with a hardcore band like Sick Of It All…It’s obviously gonna be really, really awesome. They’re really excited I think and we’re really excited as well.
What’s your favorite part about playing to crowds that don’t get a ton of constant touring?
I think that kind of goes back to what I was saying before with places like Australia and North American and even Europe. All those bands are going through there all the time and it’s almost become pretty saturated with a lot of tours coming through. Japan’s similar to that too. Maybe not as much, but there’s a lot of bands kind of going through Japan. Where it kind of gets really interesting is in South East Asia and South America, and places like Mexico where all these people aren’t really getting hardcore and punk bands coming through all the time. From my experience, when a band comes out it’s a really special event. It’s really inspiring.
Besides the upcoming tours for the winter should we expect any other announcements?
There’s gonna be announcements coming every once in a while. I’ve actually been spending my whole day trying to plan out plane tickets from now until January, so I’m trying to buy plane tickets for tours that aren’t even totally solidified or booked yet. It’s all happening as time goes on.
Thanks so much for your time!
Awesome, thanks dude.
