PropertyOfZack was lucky enough to get the chance to interview Jordan from Set Your Goals when the Warped Tour stopped in Long Island. Jordan and I discussed the reception of This Will Be The Death Of Us, their latest music video release, and plans for their next album. Check it out, it’s a great read!

For the record, could you state your name and role in Set Your Goals?
Yes, my name is Jordan and I am one of the lead vocalists in the band Set Your Goals.

You guys are playing the full, entire Warped Tour this summer to further support This Will Be The Death Of Us and just to be with friends. Can you tell us a little bit about your time on and off the stage?
On stage is great. The crowds have been a lot of fun. It’s an outdoor, open air, summer festival so it’s a different vibe from a summer club show, but you still have like a very similar energy and it’s just really fun to feed on that and play with everyone. Off stage is cool. I walk around; I catch a lot of bands. Some of my favorite bands are on the tour like The Bouncing Souls and then friend’s bands. I’ve stumbled across a bunch of bands I’d never heard of before. Then just hanging out, chilling on the bus is nice. Pretty much every band out here has a bus. A lot of people are trucking it out in vans, which is rough, but it’s nice to have a place to go and just chill out and watch a movie and replenish yourself.

When I last spoke to Matt he said that besides being in the studio to record the record the “conditions” of last year’s tour weren’t right compared to 2008. So would you say this is definitely the best fit for you guys right now?
Yeah, for sure. In 2008 we weren’t fully prepared to do the whole thing and it was good that we did it and I think that it helped us in the end because it really was the test to see if we could be a full time touring band or not. So once we made it through that the next summer we were just like, “Dude we’re gonna do Warped if we want.” Warped Tour I think, at first, was going to give us an offer, but we weren’t sure. So we just contacted them early and were like, “We appreciate that you gave us the tour the last two years, but we’re gonna take this summer off, so if you guys are not really wanting to do it anyway, that’s cool.” And we were able to book our own tour, pick our own bands, and it was awesome. So I think that’s making this year a lot more fun.

You guys have grown a ton since 2008. So is it definitely noticeable with the fan difference?
Yeah, I mean it wasn’t for me so much really at first. It’s like when you grow up; unless you look at a picture of yourself, when you look at the mirror you don’t realize you got older. So with us it’s like, this year a lot of people definitely have a lot more positive things to say and are very excited for us.

Last week Set Your Goals released the video for “Gaia Bleeds”. It’s a highly political video and some people were surprised by it. What influenced you guys to take that route?
It’s stuff that we always discuss and talk about. The band has never been about being a political band because you’re stepping into territory and a lot of people like to get very preachy about that sort of thing, so I always wanted to stay away from it and just really wanted to write introspectively and more like motivationally. But that song it just fit the mood and it was just the write time for the subject and content to come out with current events and everything.

This Will Be The Death Of Us was released a year ago this Tuesday. Having a year to sit in now, how has the full circle reception been in your eyes?
It’s been really cool. I love it; I love listening to it because I just think I’m so proud of all the guitar tones we got on it, the lyrics, and the vocals. I think all the music fits really, really well and the feedback from people have just said that we’ve grown so much, message wise especially while still maintaining like a really good aggressiveness in the music itself. Not loosing that edge.

There was a huge different between Mutiny and This Will Be The Death Of Us. Was the change in maturity just the timing?
For sure lyrically it is. There are so many experiences travelling the world. Your mind just opens and unravels in ways you don’t even imagine could happen living in a small town like I did. I didn’t travel until I was 20. So after five years of like pent up questions and just my mind being like blown in the greatest of ways it just came out and that comes along with music as well because we just digest it non-stop, as we always have since we were kids, but we just are always digesting music and always growing.

Will “Gaia Bleeds” be the last single of the record or might we see one more?
I would really hope to do another song. I would really just love to do any other song on the record. I’m just so stoked on all of them. I hope that we get to do one. I’ve got some cool ideas for most of them. I have some really cool concepts.

When we last spoke back in February you guys also said that after Warped you might want to start getting back into writing for the next record. How far is that along?
It’s coming along well. How it works is just like, I try to get in the zone with like lyrics and guitar and pulling out things that I’m feeling and arranging them together with other parts. It’s not so much like, it’s just really weird. I’m very attached to a particular way of playing it and I start from there and its very rhythmic based and then we go to drums. Our drummer and I will get together. But the stage right now is that the band is waiting to see what I’ve been working on and from there we’ll build I over the next month and a half and go into the studio in October to work together.

In December Set Your Goals will be heading over to the UK to support You Me At Six on tour. Did that connection come through last years Fall Ball Tour?
It was. We went on the tour not knowing any of the bands as people at all. Mayday Parade we had met once on here and we really liked those guys. So we knew that would be cool. As soon as we got out there the first few days were hard cause we had taken the first week and a half off. So when we came back…They’re a lot younger than us, so having their youthfulness and excitedness just really kept us feeling the same way about our band. And we ended up hanging out legitimately every day on the off days. Then we kept crossing paths. They did the Paramore tour in England, so we all hung out when we were over there doing our tour with Fireworks and Broadway Calls and it’s just interesting how you meet bands and grow these relationships. I hope to bring them over here two.

So you said you guys are going to hit the studio in October. When would you like to be done and out of the studio?
We head over to the UK within the first week of December, so as far as engineering and recording we’d have those two months to do it. I don’t want to over think it though. So if we’re going to work with one producer on the record I’d like to just stick to maybe just a month and a half at the very most and then just see what happens with the mixes and stuff. But it’d be out in the next quarter of next year is the plan.
POZ: So, winter/spring is a definite possibility?
Jordan: Yeah, late winter, early spring of 2011. Very late winter.

How’s the writing process different between Death Of Us and the current record?
It’s the same, to be honest. But the songs will come out differently. I just hope that from our EP, to Mutiny, to what we’ve done with this new record, I hope that the one common feeling we could put into all of that is the aggression.

Besides the European tour with You Me At Six will we be seeing any more dates in the winter before the release?
Unfortunately, not here because as soon as it’s gonna start being mixed we’ll be overseas. We’re gonna be over there for two weeks. I’m really hoping to set up some headline shows after that with a couple friends’ bands that are here and are doing good. But either way we’ll be over there. Then next year we’re talking about what we want to do during the album date release or before it and there are some cool ideas floating around.

Thanks so much for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?
I hope maybe we can add some shows actually, as I was just thinking. And I want to thank everyone who’s picked up the CD and thanks to all you readers as well.