PropertyOfZack had the chance to interview one-half of He Is We just a few days before their new album, My Forever, hit stores. Rachel and I discussed the band’s new album, Aaron Gillespie’s guest appearance, and current and future touring. Read up and pick up the album!

For the record, can you state your name and role in He Is We?
I’m Rachel Taylor; singer, songwriter.

You guys are four days away from the release. How are those nerves doing right about now?
I don’t know; I try not to think about it. I’m more excited than anything. I try not to focus too much on it. I’m just gonna see what happens. It’s like our babies coming.

It’s not too big of a secret on how you and Trevor met and the differences in your musical influences. Does it ever surprise you that you guys were able to come together and create such a great debut?
Yeah, actually. It’s really interesting because I think the only thing that really like brought us together were our personalities and then from there we just kind of found common interests as far as like music goes, but yeah, the different influences coming together…It was very unexpected but somehow it kind of worked.

What were some of the bigger influences in your writing for the record?
Just life. It’s really weird, we don’t really think of influences. I can say that I as influenced back in the day and it followed me, but I didn’t really have a specific influence for the record. It was kind of like a mix of Regina Spektor and these random female artists or like Jimmy Eat World. Lyrically, the way I wrote the melodies, definitely correlated to hip-hop and things like that. But there was no direct influence that I could name.
Aaron Gillespie, who used to be in Underøath, and of course is in The Almost drops his vocals on “All About Us.” How did that come together?
The producer that we were working with, Aaron Sprinkle, I had told him that I had written a song and I wanted it to be a duet, but if it wasn’t possible it was okay. Word got out, he told Aaron Gillespie’s manager, who told Aaron Gillespie, and then Aaron Gillespie called Aaron Sprinkle, and it was just like word got out. It just kind of ended up happening.
POZ: Was that kind of a cool experience in just mixing it up a little bit?
Rachel: Oh yeah, of course. And to get someone that isn’t even remotely in our genre was awesome. That to me really, really spiced up the song.

How was your time in the studio in general?
It was awesome. It was kind of like 15 hours a day [Laughs]. It was pretty treacherous, but it was always fun. We got along with all of our producers and stuff and it was always fun. None of us take ourselves too seriously, so it was definitely awesome trying new things and experimenting with different instruments. It was an awesome experience.
POZ: Is it kind of cool to switch gears and settle down a bit and just be creative?
Rachel: Yeah, absolutely. It kind of makes our job more fun.

The band is signed to Universal Motown. How is the relationship with the label so far? And was it intimidating to sign with a major without even releasing a debut album?
It’s actually been really awesome. The cool part about it is that they’ve kind of been overseeing everything and they signed us for what we sound like as opposed to what they want us to sound like. So they haven’t pushed us in a certain direction. They’ve really allowed us to just do what we do. I’ve heard many horror stories about many major labels, but we were very blessed with the label that we have and how supportive they are.

He Is We are currently out on tour with Bryce from The Rocket Summer. How has the material been received live so far?
It’s really funny; every time we play “Forever And Ever” we see couples kissing. It’s good. It’s been good. We’ve been making a lot of friends and a lot of new listeners have been coming out and talking to us. I feel like our fan base is accepting and it’s been a very accepting audience.

How is that tour in general? The Rocket Summer have a ton of fans and I must imagine you guys are having a good time!
Yeah, we’re having a lot of fun. Colds are always sucky as seasons change. Everyone’s getting sick, but as far as the experience in general, it’s been very fun. We’ve been making friends with the guitar tech and the sound guy and all that stuff. All of Bryce’s crew. It’s been super fun.

Once the tour finishes up right after Thanksgiving there’s nothing else on the schedule. When might we see some more dates surface?
We will be touring our butts off next year. I’m not sure if we start in January. Nothing’s completely confirmed yet. A bunch of stuff in the air. We’ll probably end up touring for sure by March or April. We’re just going to take some time off and get the live show ready, do a radio tour or something like that.

Do you guys have any ideas of whom you’ll be touring with?
We tossed around some names and stuff like that, but honestly we have no idea. We’re getting new names every day.

It’s safe to say that He Is We have a lot of crossover abilities in a ton of different markets. Do you guys view that as a great advantage in terms of whom you can get out there with?
Yeah, absolutely. That’s why it’s so hard for us to figure out who to tour with. We could go like the more Phoenix-route if we wanted to or we could kind of stay mid-level, mellow rock. We could pop. We have a lot of options. I’m super into that. It just makes it more and more difficult, because we want to pick our tours wisely.

Going down the line, would you guys like to jump around all these different genres in terms of touring?
Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think we would jump into Australia without having a big act with us. If we’re going to reach those markets we need to have someone that’s already credible.

Is a music video in the realm of possibility to support the record?
Yes. We just saw the edited color version of it. So hopefully soon. I’m guessing it’ll be with the push of the album for promotion. It won’t be too long.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add or anything else that we should be on the lookout for?
Just touring, honestly. That’s kind of the big thing right now. New merch too.