We Came as Romans

Back in 2009, I had the chance to interview Andy Glass, bassist for WCAR. Back then, their debut full-length album had just come out and they had just signed to Equal Vision a few months prior to our interview. Since then, they have been touring almost non-stop with visits to the studio in between. In a few weeks, they are going to be heading out on Warped Tour their next album is set to be released in the fall.

About a year and a half after my first WCAR interview, I sat down with their guitarist Joshua Moore when they we here with A Day To Remember a few month ago. We discussed their hectic schedules, their next album and what he does in his free time.

CONFRONT: This is your third time in Montreal in about a year and a half now?

JOSHUA: Yeah I think three sounds good, we’ll go with three! *laugh*

CONFRONT: Yeah I interviewed Andy when you came in November 2009 right when your album came out. And you’ve come back at least once.

JOSHUA: Yeah we’ve played the Underworld a few times and La Tulipe a few times.

CONFRONT: And how do you like it here?

JOSHUA: I like it just fine! It’s nice because being in Montreal is like a major city, there’s a lot to do. At the end of our last headliner, we did a full Canadian tour where we started in Vancouver and came all the way across to Montreal. There were some really long drives with no cell phone service, no nothing in the middle of nowhere. It was not the most fun. But Montreal, Toronto…major cities are a lot of fun to be in, a lot of fun to play in.

CONFRONT: And it’s cool because you said you’ve played the Underworld, La Tulipe and now Metropolis so you get to see the evolution in the venue sizes and all too.

JOSHUA: Yeah it’s been really cool to see over the past year and a half just the way that things have progressed for us.

CONFRONT: And how is it, always being on the road?

JOSHUA: It’s good; it has its ups and downs. A lot of people see us on the road and think it’s the best job in the world and that there’s a party everyday and it’s the most fun all the time. It is a great job and it is a lot of fun but there are behind the scene things that go on and they’re stressful. After our headliner that we did in January-February, we were home for two and a half days before we went into the studio and when we got back from the studio, we were home for 17 hours and we left for this tour. And when we get home from this tour, we have a day and a half and then we leave for Europe. And when we get back, we go into the studio again the very next day. At the end of the studio, we fly out to join Warped Tour. So this year, we’re not going to be seeing home, basically at all. I don’t know how it’s going to be.

CONFRONT: Wow…full time job huh?

JOSHUA: Yeah super full time job!

CONFRONT: So actually, you’re going on Warped Tour this summer, are you excited?

JOSHUA: Of course! *laugh* I’ve actually never been to Warped tour, like in the audience.

CONFRONT: Really? That was my next question! *laugh*

JOSHUA: The first Warped Tour I will ever attend will be the first one I will ever play as well!

CONFRONT: That’ll be interesting.

JOSHUA: It’ll be a lot of fun.

CONFRONT: What are you expecting from it? Have you heard about the experience from other bands?

JOSHUA: Yeah i’ve heard a lot about it from other bands. *laughs* The stage we’re playing on, we have a lot of friends on that stage as well and we know a lot of bands and a lot of their crew members so it’s going to be just a ton of friends all the time, everyday, a million degrees!

CONFRONT: A big summer roadtrip!

JOSHUA: Yeah!

CONFRONT: You said you guys were in the studio and that you were going to head back soon, so what can fans expect from the next album?

JOSHUA: Well, musically, it does have a little bit of a darker aspect. To Plant A Seed was all positive, super melodic with happy parts, I guess you could say. And this next CD is a little more real to how life really is and whatnot. Being human, you feel a variety of emotions every day, all the time and they’re not all going to be good things to feel. I guess the new CD’s more about just dealing with that and knowing how to deal with that, learning from it. When we wrote To Plant A Seed, we were naïve towards the whole music industry. Two years later, we’ve learned a lot and we’re different people and we’ve learned how to deal with certain situations and issues. All of us have changed as people because of what we’ve been doing. It’s a little different in the way we approached the whole message of the album. You can’t be super positive and happy all the time and not care about everything else happening. The music is also going to follow that; there are going to be really dark songs and there are going to be “To Plan A Seed”-esque songs.

CONFRONT: You said two years ago, you were naive towards the music industry; have your views on it changed then?

JOSHUA: Of course, the closer you get to anything or the more you’re involved with things such as the music industry or anything in life, you’re views change as you change and as you grow and as time goes. I think everyone in the band’s views have changed about the way things are done. It’s not that my view now is so negative and terrible, it’s just more learning how to deal with things that I didn’t necessarily expect out of the music industry, going from not touring at all to kind of touring to really touring. You do learn a lot about the people that you’re with, about yourself, about the way that things work and it’s all a learning experience. It’s the same with any other thing in life; kids our age, they’re going to college and you learn about yourself and other people and the adult that you’re going to be. It’s the same with us but with a different situation.

CONFRONT: Yeah different environment. About the industry, to you, what makes a successful band?

JOSHUA: I think the most important thing would be work ethic; it’s a huge thing. A lot of people think once you get signed or once you get a big tour, everything just gets handed to you. Even people in bands think that and those are the bands that don’t end up making it. It’s all about how hard you’re going to work and continue to work even after you gain any sort of success. Work ethic ties in to everything else about a person; how dedicated you are to do it, if your heart completely lies in what you do. As long as any band keeps that, you’re bound to succeed in some aspect. A lot of people think that for a band, succeeding is just playing for a ton of kids, making money, getting fans. But a lot of bands aren’t about that. Obviously, this is a job so there has to be some concern with money; we all do have to pay for things. But that’s not where the concern is for a lot of bands. It’s more about connecting with an audience, getting people to hear what you have to say. That’s kind of the kid dream. The reason you want to be in a band in the first place.

CONFRONT: It’s nice to hear that there are bands that still think like that.

JOSHUA: There are a ton of bands. A lot of people don’t see it because you only see a band on stage. Almost every band that I’ve met has that integrity and has that good heart for doing what they do.

CONFRONT: And actually, what pushed you into the music industry?

JOSHUA: When I first started this band with Dave, I just wanted to be in a band. I already played guitar, I was in marching band, symphonic band; all that stuff.

CONFRONT: What did you play?

JOSHUA: I played trombone.

CONFRONT: Oh really? I used to play clarinet.

JOSHUA: Woodwind’s no good! *laugh*

CONFRONT: Well I wasn’t able to push out any sound on a trumpet at all *laugh*

JOSHUA: It is kind of hard. But yeah, I was in those kinds of bands. And I always played guitar; I played in my high school youth courage band and one of my best friends at the time was playing bass and he was trying to start this band with Dave but didn’t have a guitar player or anything. I went to one of his practices and originally, we just wanted to play shows just to play heavy music and it just kind of went from there. The Dreams EP we put out in 2008 was the big deciding thing for us and we solidified that this was what we wanted to be about as a band and as people on stage.

CONFRONT: And it’s been growing since.

JOSHUA: Yeah!

CONFRONT: And being a band in the newer generation, what do you think of the internet’s take over of the music industry?

JOSHUA: It was bound to happen right? Everything is going on on the internet now. I remember when the biggest deal was to have a MySpace; that was a big thing and now, MySpace just isn’t even around because everything is on Facebook. Things are bound to change and the internet was the highway for that to all go down.

CONFRONT: Like a revolution right?

JOSHUA: Yeah.

CONFRONT: Now i’m going to ask you to draw something that represents you and then you have to explain to me how it represents you.

JOSHUA: It’s an Xbox controller because when I’m not on the road, it occupies a lot of my time; playing a lot of Call of Duty.

CONFRONT: And to you guys have one on the road?

JOSHUA: We have Dave’s PlayStation 3 and actually, Call of Duty is paused on it right now! But yeah, in the studio or when I’m not on the road, I mainly just play a lot of Call of Duty. I’ve done a lot of interviews so people know a lot about what we do on the road so this is kind of what I do when I’m at home!

CONFRONT: Guess so! Well that’s it for me, thanks for your time!

JOSHUA: No problem, thank you!

To learn more about We Came As Romans or to check out their music, go to:

http://www.wecameasromans.com/