Saosin

We met with Cove in his tour bus during the band’s last stop in Montreal on July 14th, a meeting we had been looking forward to following our initial interview at the Montreal Taste of Chaos earlier in the year; an interview that was the subject of our June 2007 cover story. We caught up with him as Saosin was touring North America on their first headlining tour with opening bands, The Receiving End of Sirens and Poison the Well.

CONFRONT: The self-titled album has been out for [a year] now. Do you think that it has accomplished what you wanted it to in that period of time?

COVE: Well if we were to record another album now, I think we would be satisfied with this album, you know!?! I think everybody wants to accomplish as much as they possibly can. I think that the time we will go back in the studio will be when we say: ok we can’t accomplish anymore with the record so we need a new one. For right now we don’t have any plans to go into the studio until next year; we’re pretty set on touring so we’ll accomplish more and hopefully far exceed what we [anticipated].

CONFRONT: Was it everything you expected it to be? ‘Cause this was your first official full length right?

COVE: Yeah it was the first official full length. With any record you wish certain things were different but at the time, looking back now, I’m just glad that it’s done and that it turned out the way that it did; ‘cause over 200,000 people have bought the record…

GILBO and FRIENDS: Here are the things you asked me to get you.

For the curious, what was handed to Cove by his lovely tour mates who were unable to hide their conspirator smiles, were a few magazines that are specifically designed for the pleasure of men who enjoy looking at other men. The look of embarrassment on Cove’s face was amusing to say the least. Boys will be boys.

COVE: (blushing) Thanks.

GILBO and FRIENDS: You asked for those specifically.

COVE: Thank you.

CONFRONT: That was so sweet of you to do that for him guys.

COVE: (laughing) Yeah thanks, really. Perfect timing! Thank you, buddy. I love you too.

CONFRONT: Aren’t you happy that you’re eating right now so no pictures were taken of this moment. Now we don’t have proof that this actually happened.

COVE: (laughing) Yeah! That was nice of him. Now I forgot where I was. Thanks Gilbo. So yeah, I’m pretty much satisfied but I don’t expect anything. I think we’re just gonna surpass what we’ve expected at the beginning. It’s tough ‘cause you have to let certain things go and you have to work really hard to get what you want but it’s just a matter of give and take I guess. (…) We’re headlining now; our first official headlining tour. And it’s pretty cool that we’ve been as successful as we have, we played London, Ontario last night and it we killed it; the kids were just going crazy. It was this small little bar and there were these polls everywhere; kids were freaking out and going crazy and the stage was super small. I mean that’s the kind of reception I think we’ve been getting. Big or small places, kids have been freaking out. It’s amazing to see kids freak out especially to our record. Cause I mean, when I first joined the band it was really only in southern California that kids were going crazy; but now it’s like everywhere. We played a show in Jakarta – it was the biggest headlining show Saosin’s ever played, it was for 4400 kids – and they were so loud. It was insane.

CONFRONT: You can keep eating you know. It’s gonna get cold.

COVE: The food? Oh the food can wait. It’s kind of rude.

CONFRONT: It’s no big deal.

COVE: (laughing) I got my Gatorade.

CONFRONT: I went and watched some of your videos online and although they aren’t necessarily extremely theatric, there are some elements of story telling to them. They aren’t your basic ‘band playing in front of a crowd’ videos and there is some acting involved. How was that?

COVE: The first “Voices” video was just all live and we wanted to see what we can do live. I didn’t want people see the video and then see us live and not know how we are. We wanted the first video to be something where people could say: ‘Wow, they’re a good live band’. And for the second “Voices” video, the acting was just kind of cut into us performing ‘cause we didn’t really wanna act at the time; again to reiterate that we’re a live band. And then for “You’re Not Alone” It’s more of a ballad type song, it’s just a good rock song with good lyrics, so we wanted to do something with that song that people could really look at and be drawn into; more theatrical I guess. But it’s not something that we’re gonna take with us to the stage. You never know, I might just be talking out my rear end right now but I think it’s a good video and it did the song justice.

CONFRONT: Were you satisfied with your acting abilities?

COVE: I don’t know. It was weird. Everything went really fast. It was nice cause the people who were doing it were awesome dudes. I would ask questions before every take and it was good. It worked out really well. It was two takes of each shot at each angle and at the end I was just like “we need to do more”, I didn’t think it would be enough. But it turned out great. It was all put together in a video that was just incredible.
CONFRONT: Did you enjoy it? I mean is this something you’d consider doing again either in a video or for a movie maybe?

COVE: [For Saosin] yeah. [For movies] it’s not exactly something I wanna do. I’m too focused to be thinking about doing anything right now and say ‘that’d be cool’. Acting takes a lot of work. I can’t believe there are actually dudes like Justin Timberlake who actually do that. He’s incredible. He can do everything. His whole life is just like one big plan. But I’m too busy with the band to do anything.

CONFRONT: When we first talked it was on the Taste of Chaos tour. Now that the tour is over, what do think the major differences are between that tour and this type of headlining tour?

COVE: The difference between a big tour like that and the tour we’re doing now – you know were doing another project like that this summer with Projekt Revolution – is that it’s not our audience so we have to re-introduce ourselves everyday and like now at a smaller show, everybody coming out is there to see us mostly so we don’t have to introduce ourselves or our songs. The other difference is you’re just more scheduled on a big tour like that. You know you’re gonna do a signing every day, you play every day and we’re going to be doing, this, this, this and this everyday. It’s a different fun I guess. Like it’s fun for us to play these shows because kids know us; but it’s fun to be on a tour like Projekt Revolution because we know all the bands. So we’re going to be hanging out with some of our best friends everyday which is awesome. There’s lots of little differences but I think it’s fun for us to be going from 500/700 seat rooms to 16,000 seats, you know.

CONFRONT: One of the things we talked about the last time was the problems you had with the language barrier because most people speak French here…

COVE: Yeah! It is French here. You guys have Café Starbucks and we have Starbucks. There’s no Café involved.

CONFRONT: Has it been easier for you this time?

COVE: I just learned not to care. I just walk around and keep my mouth shut. There is a language barrier but I just don’t care.

CONFRONT: Is it a problem with your fans? Cause most of your fans are French when you come here.

COVE: No! I think the last time we played Montreal there was like 3,000 kids in a 15,000 seat arena. Tonight it’s a small room, there’s gonna be a lot of kids and it won’t matter. They know the English that I’m gonna say and they’re gonna understand it. With fans the language barrier isn’t that difficult. If 4,400 kids in Jakarta can scream and listen and have a good time, I think 700 kids here can as well.

CONFRONT: Who are some influences growing up and now?

COVE: Growing up I listened to a lot of James Taylor, Dire Straits, Styx, Journey, and Tracy Chapman. A lot of what my dad listens to. As I started checking out my own stuff, the first CD I bought was Bones, Thugs and Harmony – you can write that down.

CONFRONT: (laughing) It’s already written down. You told me that last time.

COVE: As any kid, unless you have an older brother who brings you straight from nothing to Metallica, you don’t make that jump on your own. You know who Metallica is and who Nirvana is but you don’t really make the jump. Maybe Nirvana, but not Metallica. I got into Pop Punk. I liked Nirvana; when I heard it on the radio if my parents didn’t turn it off I would listen to it. One of my friends made me a tape of the Offspring “Smash” CD and I listened to it all the time. That’s a pretty bug jump. I remember listening to Green Day’s “Dookie” at another one of my friend’s birthday parties. There are all these little things I remember but the band I was really into was Yellowcard. Like, Yellowcard was MY band; nobody can touch that band, it’s MY band.

CONFRONT: (laughing) Yours specifically.

COVE: (laughing) YEAH! Nobody can touch it. But now, I listen to a lot of Incubus. During the record it was Bjork, Incubus and Blind Sight.

CONFRONT: Do you find they translated into the album a little bit?

COVE: Yeah they were definitely influences on me while making the record. Our producer produced the Head Automatica record and he would stop me in the middle and say, listen to the way Daryl [Palumbo – Head Automatica’s front man] sings this. Or the way that Brandon from Incubus sings this. He would stop and make me listen. Like, I like the songs but like most people, you don’t really listen to the way they sing the things, you just like the lyrics and melody. But when you’re recording, it’s a different world. It’s kind of like acting, you have to really get into it and say things a little bit differently than you normally would to make it sound better. So I definitely learned something from Bjork and Incubus and Daryl from Glassjaw and Head Automatica. Now that I’ve done the CD and I’ve learned what I could from him I know a lot more. And I’ll take what I’ve learned from him and I know that the next record will be a lot better.

CONFRONT: You are touring with some very cool bands on this tour, do you have a say in who goes on the road with you?

COVE: Yeah we choose the bands. We are going on a headlining tour this fall as well and we’re going on tour with Alexisonfire. We’re going to do a full tour of Canada with them; so they’re coming out with us and they’re gonna be with us for a while and I’m really excited about it. We get a list of bands from our booking agent and then we all decide. We don’t wanna be stuck with bands that we hate.

CONFRONT: Do you have any interesting tour stories?

COVE: On this tour? There haven’t really been good tour stories. See that’s what you get when you go on big tours is these cool tour stories cause there are so many people and you all travel together and show up together. It’s not like here where we show up whenever. But we’ve have Bar-B-Qs and we’re gonna have another Bar-B-Q soon and we skate and hang out. I don’t have any cool stories.

CONFRONT: I thought we could go for a little round of 20 questions. What band are you most into right now? Yellowcard still?

COVE: I would say right now, Incubus definitely. I’m a huge fan of Brandon, he’s an amazing front man and singer and that’s what I really respect about that band. He’s perfect live and he’s perfect on record and he’s just a really good guy all around. I’ve met him once and he was extremely nice to me. As many records as he’s sold he was just a cool dude.

CONFRONT: What’s your favorite song?

COVE: From them or anybody? Anybody it would be…ummm… well Dallas Green from Alexisonfire has a solo CD out right now called ‘City in Colour’ and “Coming Home” is definitely my jam; it’s a good song. I shouldn’t be talking this much but I will – since being in music, you don’t get attached to music as much but that was the first song in like three years that I felt was written for me. You don’t come across that very often especially when you’re in this industry. Like, you write songs for yourself, for therapeutic reasons but when you hear a song by someone else that you feel was written for you, you really hold on to that song. And I’m really excited cause we’re taking him out and he has a new CD out and he’s gonna bring it and I’m gonna listen to it and I’m really excited. I’m so excited you have no idea.

CONFRONT: I don’t know if you’re into art at all but if so, do you have a favorite artist or cartoonist maybe?

COVE: Not really. I’m trying to think. I love looking at it but I’m really bad with names. My girlfriend – well I can’t say she’s my girlfriend right now but my friend girl – paints and she’s freaking really good and I wanna steal all her art. But she paints it for herself and puts it on her walls. When you see somebody whose that talented and can paint it’s like… that’s really cool. Cause I do what I do, and when you have a friend who can do something better than you can, it’s cool. She’s a great artist.

CONFRONT: Favorite movie?

COVE: Wow. Monty Python and Holy Grail.

CONFRONT: Favorite book?

COVE: The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho. I have every one of his books but I have yet to finish them all. But The Alchemist changed my life.

CONFRONT: At what moment in your life have you felt the most accomplished?

COVE: Warped Tour Chicago, 2005. We played in between My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy and kids were just there waiting for both bands. There were like 20,000 people there and there was at least 10,000 to 15,000 people watching us play. And we didn’t even have an album out yet and it was like the coolest thing cause I had just joined the band. It was like “YES, we’re on Warped Tour, main stage”. This is a tour I went to growing up so that was like pretty cool. The other one was the Jakarta show where we walked on stage to 4,400 kids screaming “Saosin”. That was cool cause we were 10,000 miles away from home and there’s 4,400 kids packing this venue.

CONFRONT: What’s your favorite song on your album?

COVE: “I Never Wanted To”.

CONFRONT: Favorite tour you’ve been on?

COVE: The Tour. That’s all it’s called. The Tour. (laughing). Taste of Chaos International. It is THE tour. It was insane. Everybody who was on that tour calls it THE tour. You can’t beat that tour. It was so long, it was so draining both emotionally and physically but everybody had the best time. Underoath was on the tour and I’ve met one of my best friends… Spencer [Chamberlain] is now one of my best friends. Anti-Flag was on that tour and I was never a big Anti-Flag fan but after that tour, they are like some of the coolest dudes and some of the nicest guys too. Senses Fail was on that tour as well. We toured with them for like 6 months straight so we got to know them really well and I got to sing with them on Taste of Chaos. Alexisonfire – the first time I got to see them was on that tour. It was a really good tour, you can’t top that tour. Usually there is always one guy that has an ego on those tours but that tour was just like all bros all the time. We played kick ball in Italy and it was one of the coolest things ever cause there were all these little Italian kids running around everywhere. There’s not one day that I didn’t have fun on that tour.

CONFRONT: Being at the stage that you are now, obviously your fans know you and what you look like but you still have the luxury of walking around a city unnoticed so to speak. Is that a luxury you are afraid of loosing one day as you get more and more popular?

COVE: I’m not scared of loosing it. I’m more scared of like a Dime Bag Darryl kind of situation. Like, somebody loosing their mind and coming to kill on stage. I’m more scared of that than like a group of kids mobbing me. I think that if you come to a Saosin show and you’re a Saosin fan, there’s always an opportunity to met one of us so I think the reason I’m not worried about anything is because I think I’ll be more respected than anything else. I don’t think I’ll ever be put up on a pedestal. And even if I am, I think the kids who come out to the show will know I’m just like them. I may be on a tour bus getting to roll around and see a bunch of stuff but it’s just a bunch of stuff. Alternately I would love to be at home, it’s like a trade off.

CONFRONT: Have you ever had a moment where you where just thinking “Oh My Gosh these fans are a bit insane”.

COVE: Yeah. In Jakarta they told us ‘either you leave right after you get off the stage or you stay here for two hours cause it’s gonna take two hours to get you out if you don’t leave right after’. And I didn’t leave and I thought it would be nice to sign autograph for two hours. Kids were insane and pulling on me and pulling my shirt and wanting to pull it off almost and stealing my beanie. It was crazy. It was the first time I had security around me. It got so out of control and kids were screaming, it was so loud, the security guys were saying ‘we have to get out of here’. But, if any of them read this, I understand. It’s not like Montreal where the chance of you getting Saosin is far greater than a kid in Indonesia so they freak out a little bit.

CONFRONT: But it’s a good freak out right? Like it’s a crowd thing and everyone is excited and happy to see you.

COVE: Yeah!

CONFRONT: Have you ever had one crazy specific fan?

COVE: I’ve never had one fan that I thought ‘WOW! You really need to get a life”. I’ve never felt like that.

CONFRONT: Has there ever been an artist that you yourself were a really big fan of?

COVE: We saw and Justin met Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney I was like ‘WOW, that’s Paul McCartney that’s pretty cool’. (whispering) And meeting Brandon Boyd from Incubus…

Beau who had come to join us in order to make himself a pre-show snack decided to make sure we had heard Cove.

BEAU: When he met Brandon Boyd he was excited.

COVE: (laughing) I just whispered that. But yeah, I was grinning from ear to ear, Justin has pictures. I think I said hello and that was it. I was like “HI! OK! This is SO cool.” And I smiled the entire time.

CONFRONT: That’s awesome. Well thank you very much for your time once again. You can now have your Noodle Cup which will be nice and cold by now.

COVE: No it’s gonna nice and perfect. Thank you as well.

The show that evening was really interesting. In the few months since we had seen the band perform, Cove’s comfort level seemed to have risen exponentially.

We definitely want to catch them again when they hopefully stop by with Alexisonfire this fall. So in order to prep for this possible interview, we’d like to ask for your help. Leave us a comment and tell us what you want us to ask the band and next time we interview them, we’ll let you know what they had to say.

For more information on Saosin visit their official website and MySpace page at the following addresses:

www.saosin.com
www.myspace.com/saosin