American rockers Relient K hardly need any introduction; they have now been together for over 13 years and have released 7 studio albums in that time. The band was nominated for a Grammy in 2003 for their third record ‘Two Lefts Don’t Make a Right… But Three Do’ and have only continued to gain popularity since then.
I first heard of the band in 2004-05 when they released the album ‘MMHMM’ and their most famous song to-date, Be My Escape. I’ve been a fan ever since, listening to their catchy songs and wondering about all their intriguing record names.
This past summer, Relient K made a stop in Montreal on the Vans Warped Tour. I jumped at the opportunity to sit down with drummer Ethan Luck that afternoon, and we ended up having a really great chat about the festival, the album that turned me into a Relient K fan to begin with, and what’s coming up for this group of talented musicians.
Don’t forget to buy their brand new album ‘Relient K is for Karaoke’ on October 4th! 
CONFRONT: So I heard that today is one of the less hot days of the tour so far?
ETHAN: Oh yeah, by far yeah. The show in Scranton, Pennsylvania was a little cooler than this, but this is one of the more mild days.
CONFRONT: Are you finding it hard with the hot weather to go out there every day?
ETHAN: It honestly just tires you out. It’s bearable for sure, I live in the south so I’m kind of used to the hot and humid weather. When it’s like this- kind of dry and hot- I’ll take that any day *laughs*
CONFRONT: Yeah you guys got pretty lucky this year… Last year when the tour came around it was SO humid. Everyone was dying- but today is pretty great.
ETHAN: Yeah today is really great. The last time we were in Montreal for Warped Tour was in ’08… And it rained, I remember.
CONFRONT: Did it?
ETHAN: Yeah, I remember because after we played, myself and our bass player rode our bikes into town- which took forever- and it rained halfway while we were riding.
CONFRONT: It’s true it did rain on and off that year didn’t it… That’s not funl Have you guys been to Montreal quite a few times or was that your first time?
ETHAN: Yeah! Well I mean we were here in ’07 at a club show. I don’t remember the name of the club. Maybe it was that one, what’s it called, Club Soda?
CONFRONT: Club Soda, yeah that makes sense!
ETHAN: Is it near a bunch of like… Adult bookstores and stuff? There’s a club we play, like a smaller theater, and all I remember is that there are adult bookstores and strip clubs everywhere! *laughing*
CONFRONT: Oh, yeah, that would be Club Soda!
ETHAN: Okay, that’s pretty funny…
CONFRONT: Good times really *laughs* What would you say are the main differences between venue shows and festival tours like this one?
ETHAN: They’re pretty different obviously but I don’t know if I prefer one or the other. On Warped Tour we’ve always had really good crowds. It’s a little more impersonal because it’s 80 bands so not everyone is there just to see you as opposed to a normal tour or one of our club tours where Relient K fans come to see Relient K. It’s still awesome; there are still bands who are here for the first time who’ve been together for 10 or 11 years. There’s definitely perks to both of them, you know. I guess if I had to only do one… Obviously club tours because they’re YOUR tours and they’re YOUR shows. It’s more personal. But I really love doing Warped Tour, it’s so much fun. It’s our third time doing it!
CONFRONT: Yeah, I guess you guys must really like it if you keep coming back!
ETHAN: Yeah, totally.
CONFRONT: Do you guys have to prepare your set differently for Warped compared to when you’re playing regular tours?
ETHAN: A little bit. Really it’s easier, because we only get 30 minutes.
CONFRONT: So it’s just your big songs?
ETHAN: Yeah you just kind of do the more popular ones- at least we do- and then maybe one or two less popular obscure ones. On a normal tour we’re doing an hour and fifteen minutes. It’s kind of nice to just play half an hour, it’s a nice break. Some days it feels like I played 2 hours because it’s so hot… Outside its 105 degrees and it wears you out fast. But it’s all good!
CONFRONT: Yeah f or sure. Do you find that you guys play a lot of your older stuff regularly?
ETHAN: Yeah sometimes. I mean, we don’t play much before the MMHMM record. Occasionally if there are enough people yelling out ‘Sadie Hawkins Dance’ or one of those old songs we’ll do it. Occasionally we’ll play stuff of the ‘Two Lefts’ record. Mostly it’s just the MMHMM record and the current one.
CONFRONT: Awesome. Okay, just because you mentioned it I have to ask- Why did you guys call the record ‘MMHMM’?!
ETHAN: I actually wasn’t in the band at the time but I do know that every album before that has a really long, funny, fun kind of title, I think Matt wanted to name it something as simple as possible. Like not even really a word, just ‘MMHMM’.
CONFRONT: Nice. So you guys have a new album out where you play just cover songs, is that right?
ETHAN: Yeah, it’s an EP. We put out seven cover songs and we’re going to put out the rest of them in October as one full record… So you can get the songs that are released plus 8 or 9 more.
CONFRONT: How come you guys decided to go out and do something like that?
ETHAN: The band has always done cover songs, since the beginning. Because it’s something we’ve always done and still do, we thought it would just be fun to go into the studio and put something out. This is kind of the last few things we’re doing before we go back and do a new record. We thought “okay, we’re not doing much in spring, let’s record these songs and put it out for Warped Tour” because you can only get the physical copy here, or get it on iTunes and stuff. We just wanted to put something out. We always do an EP or some kind of release in between each record. Last time it was the B-Sides record and stuff like that. Then this fall we’ll go back and do a new Relient K album.
CONFRONT: Do you know what’s going to be on the new album yet, have you guys been talking about it at all?
ETHAN: Not at all. All we’ve talked about is that it’s the goal. Once this tour’s over we’re going to Australia and then we’re going to start recording the new album… So we’ll see how it works out.
CONFRONT: Cool! Well, Relient K has been together for a while now, if you had any advice for up and coming bands what would you tell them?
ETHAN: Hmmm… That used to be an easy question… But to me it’s a little harder because I grew up in bands without any digital platform of any kind.
CONFRONT: That’s so true, it’s crazy now the amount of things bands can use.
ETHAN: Exactly, but I guess I’d say do your best to write good, catchy songs, stuff people remember that will set you apart a little bit. It’s harder to do stuff that’s considered original because there are so many genres and sub-genres and all that crap. There’s so much of it. So it’s a lot harder to stand out nowadays. Just work as hard as you can because everyone else is going to do the same thing and you want to be able to stand out from the rest. Musicianship as well, working hard to get better at your instrument is also very important. Some guys will just learn power chords and write songs like that. That’s fine in some cases, a lot of my favorite bands are like that, but if you can get as good as you can possibly get- and you can always get better I think- that stands out too I think. If you can play your instrument professionally where your skill is obvious and noticed that can help you too. Combine that with good songs and sound and people will take notice.
CONFRONT: Yeah, that’s really good advice. Is there anything else that you’d really like to accomplish in your music career?
ETHAN: Yeah, I mean always. I’m sure until I die I’ll have that stuff. We’d love to go on tour with like Jimmy Eat World for starters.
CONFRONT: That would be awesome! Make that happen!
ETHAN: Oh, you don’t have to tell me! We’ve been fans of theirs forever. Like, Static Prevails. That’s one of those bands that we’ve never gotten to tour with. Other bands we’ve always looked up to like Switchfoot we’ve gotten to tour with a few times which was super fun. So that would be fun to do.
CONFRONT: Is there anywhere that you haven’t gone yet that you’d like to play?
ETHAN: Oh yes. South America, we’ve never been. Believe it or not we’ve never toured through the UK.
CONFRONT: Really?! That would be fun!
ETHAN: I still want to do that. I’d love to go to East Asia, Russia, and all those various other parts of Asia. We’ve been to Japan now which we finally did last year. I’d love to go to Alaska too, that’s the only state I haven’t been to in the U.S. I’ve been to all 49 other than that.
CONFRONT: So you have to cross that one off the list, clearly.
ETHAN: Yes, I must!
CONFRONT: You just HAVE to do it, it’s official.
ETHAN: Have you been?
CONFRONT: Nope, but my photographer has been…
JENN: Yeah, I’ve been but it’s like the one state I’ve been to in the U.S!
ETHAN: Oh that’s great, I wish I could go, that would be so fun!
CONFRONT: Well, thank you very much!
ETHAN: You’re welcome, thank you, that was a really great interview.
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