Interview with
Travis
From First To Last

Amy: Can you say your name and what you do in the band?
My name’s Travis.  I play guitar and sing a little bit.

Amy: This is your first time in England. How are you finding it?
It’s been pretty cool. It kinda sucks ‘cos our singer got sick right before we had to fly out here.  He got a really bad throat infection and right when he got over it his voice has just gone. He currently has laryngitis. We’re having to play as a four piece which is really hard to do. All the fans are being really supportive about it.

Amy: Is he getting better?
Yeah, he is getting better.  Just very slow. We’re getting some medicine sent to the Astoria.

Lex: Who’s doing the singing now then?
Me and Matt. This band used to be a four piece a long time ago.  Me and Matt did all the singing in it.

Amy: What’s your favourite word to say in an English accent?
Wanker (best English accent yet). The other day on stage I was like “do you want to see me wanking off?” and everyone was laughing.

Lex: How do your shows in the UK compare to the ones in America?
They’re pretty good. It’s kinda weird for us because this tour a lot of our fans that are coming out are only coming

to see us because we are a lot different than 36 Crazyfists of course. So, although we do a lot of metal influence and hardcore influence, we are not like a hardcore or metal band.  The kids that are coming to see us are only coming to see us.  So I think they’re a little intimidated to really let loose ‘cos it’s a lot of people behind them that are kinda like, “Whoah, what’s going on here?”. But it’s really cool.  The people are really nice.  It’s been a like really fun experience and we don’t have any of our crew. So we’re selling merch and hanging out with everyone after we play. Stuff like that, it kinda reminds me of how our band was a year ago minus the fact now we draw people and then we didn’t.  It’s cool.  I like it a lot.

Amy: How do you pass the time on the bus?
One of two things, we either watch a lot of VHS movies that are on the bus.  We watch a lot of movies from the 90s like Hi-Fidelity, Armageddon.  We just found them on there so we have this big 90s movies kick.  We have a laptop of protocols and we’ve been recording new songs for the new record.  That’s pretty much it.

Lex: What’s the best show you’ve played?
here?
Lex: Anywhere ever?
Best show? I think I wanna say…I really enjoyed the Electric Factory in Philadelphia. The last tour we did in the States was the Epitaph Tour with Matchbox Romance and Motion City Sountrack. And we played in Philly in the Electric Factory, which is a really big place. It was awesome because there was five different pits.  And all these kids going crazy in circle pitting. We got them to all circle pit. It’s cool. We got everybody to clap their hands and it was like the whole place was clapping with us and stuff.  So it was a really unique experience.

Lex: What’s your biggest fear?
Waking up without my wiener. That’s my biggest fear.

Lex: What’s the craziest thing you’ve every done?
Craziest thing I’ve ever done was, let me think…I’ve just done so many things that are stupid.  Recently I stole headphones from Best Buy. Not because I didn’t have the money to buy them. Back in the day before the band was established, we used to be pretty much homeless and we were living in Orlando, Florida out of our van and we didn’t have any money or anything, so the only way we could survive was to steal.  To be honest with you, that’s how bad we wanted to be in a band and make it.  We didn’t get any help from our parents.  Our parents have never supported our band ever. It’s always been us. All of us sacrificed something really big to be in this band. Jon was paid a lot of money to go to school and he just left school. Derek left home from LA and like went to college and left after college. He didn’t get a job, he just stayed with the band.  Everybody’s had their share of

things they’ve had to sacrifice. We’ve always stolen everything and it does become an addiction.  So the other day I was in Best Buy and there was these headphones sitting there.  Do you know what Best Buy is? Best Buy is a really big electronic store, like headphones, C.D.s, movies, big T.V.s.  It’s like a big one though, really big.  So I was in there and they weren’t hooked up or secure or anything and I put them on my head and I was walking around with them on. I went to the counter and I had three C.D.s. I was acting like I was listening to music and they totally bought it and I just walked out of the store with them on. It was just like I had this feeling I just wanted to steal. Hopefully that’ll go away because that’s not a very good thing to do. You shouldn’t steal. But stealing from big corporations I don’t really care about ’cos those people suck anyways.

Amy: What are your biggest influences?
For a while when I was younger I listened to music that I loved and as I got older I started to listen to music that was popular.  And there’s a big difference between that.  Since I’ve been in a band and I kinda started playing music that was popular I kinda started going back to what I listened to as a kid that I really loved.  ’Cos it’s hard for me to get enjoyment any more out of music, but I really like Silverchair a lot, like the last three records that they’ve brought out, Diorama, Neon Ballroom and Freakshow.  Those are like some of my all time favourite records.  I really like Slipknot a lot. I don’t really like their new record as much but I like the first C.D. and Iowa. I like Deftones a whole lot. I like a lot of post-grunge bands from the 90s like Dishwaller and weird bands like Bush and stuff like that.  I listen to it because it reminds me of things when I was growing up because I’m 23. I’m a little older than a lot of people who listen to our band.

Amy: How do you react to bad reviews?
I used to when the band first started, when we were still sacrificing a lot and living really shitty.  We used to take it really bad.  But now I don’t care at all.  I think it’s funny. Next month in Alternative Press we get voted by readers choice the second most underrated band, which I find really cool. I’d rather be the most underrated band in the world than overrated or known as popular. I’d rather be like that band that you either love them or you hate them. I like that because the fans are always a lot more loyal that way.

Lex: What’s in the future for From First To Last?
When we go home we’re having about five weeks off to write and record. We’re demoing and hoping to record with Ross Robinson. He’s done like the first two Slipknot records. He’s done At the Drive-in and a Blood Brothers record. We’re doing demoing and then we go on a headline tour, then the first four weeks of Warped Tour and then, after that, there’s a lot of things up in the air but it’s looking like we might either come back here, go on tour with From Autumn To Ashes in the States or then go on tour with Atreyu and UnderOath in the States.

Amy: You looking forward to the Warped Tour?
Yeah I am. We played it last year.  We did the whole thing in our van and we almost broke up it was so hard.  We fought so much and it was the worst time of our lives. Maybe it was good because it did a lot for our band.  That’s what really broke us and I guess we were in debt for Warped Tour for that. Because this year’s a lot better because we’re gonna be taking a bus so we won’t be half dead on tour.

Amy: That’s it. Do you want to add or ask us anything?
Come watch us play.  We usually do really retarded things and play really hard.

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