Intervju med Mike Ambrose i Set Your Goals

Rocksverige - Can you tell me about the beginning of the band?

Mike Ambrose - Yes. Jordan, Matt and myself were around and seeing shows together, and Jordan and I played in another hardcore band before so we all knew each other but we wanted to do something besides, something more for fun and have a good time. We recorded some demos and played all around our area but I was still in high school so I was not available all the time, but we played when we could.

RS - You probably heard it before. How did you 'Set your goals'? (laugh)

MA - Haha! Just like that! Well it was from an album called Set Your Goals, the name stucked and we started playing shows.

RS - You got much guests on your albums.

MA - One of them we did!

RS - Did they bring much to the albums?

MA - yeah. We kind of just had parts that we thought that some friends of ours would sound great on. There's a lot of people asking why we did have so many guests on it, but it's just because we thought they would sound great on those parts and it was very exciting for us to have them on the album since they're all very good friends of ours.

RS - Which was the fuinniest and the most complicated to work with?

MA - Only one of the actually recorded at the studio where we did.  Everybody else we sent a demo, Jordan and Matt were giving them the idea saying 'this is how the phrasing is' and all that. They all recorded in studios near them, cause like Hayley Williams (Paramore) lives in Nashville and John Gula (Turmoil) lives in Philladelphia so it was hard to manage all that, but it went fine. I think we had four guests on that album. (They had five.)

RS - Do you remember the worst venue that you've ever played?

MA - There has been some interesting ones! They all have there owns characters. There's both good and bad things about all of them. We played a very sweet venue yesterday, that venue didn't normaly have gigs like ours. But our gig in Stockholm got cancelled so we played in like a garden or something

RS - In Stockholm?

MA - No, in Malmo. It turned out to be one of the most funniest shows we ever played. All the people turned out 'This could be really bad, or really cool!' but it went totallly awesome!

RS - What happened with the Stockholm show?

MA - I think it was booked in a big venue and they didn't sold enough tickets. But a friend with two days notice put up this outdoor party in Malmo.

RS - Whats your best band memory?

MA - There's a lot. I don't think I could nail them all to one but recently we played a festival called Gross Rock Festival which is huge. And the lineup this year was like a dream lineup. It was a really fun set, it was such a big stage and there was no security rules, like everybody running onstage and everything. And after our set we could see a lot of our favourite bands play at the same show.

RS - Cool! I heard that you've been changing record label for every record. Is that a true story?

MA - Uhm, you know, we sign a label for a couple of years and after that we can move on or the label can sell it to someone else. We were on Eulogy for our first one but there was some trouble and after a while they sold what was left of the contract to Epitaph and we did two albums with them. And we're still under a contract with them for another CD. And we are going to start working on the new album in the fall. We are on the road untill the mid August, we have two songs that finished but the rest of the year will be for wrihting and hopefully recording.

RS - Are you going to play some new stuff?

MA - Not yet. We've only been soundchecking with them.

RS - Have you ever met your craziest fan?

MA - Craziest or coolest?

RS - Yeah, craziest. That you could feel uncomfortable with.

MA - Well it could be overwouldning sometimes. We don't see ourselfs like big people, but sometimes people running up our faces and are just like 'You changed my life!' kind of thing. And in Asia was the first time we were like 'Holy Shit!' cause people was like waiting at the hotel and stuff. They wanted us to sign everything and take a million pictures. We appreciate that cause it was the first 'Wow' moment.

RS - If it gets annoying and you say no to an autograph, how do they react?

MA - We don't say no to an autograph!

RS - That's good!

MA - They wan't a signature! How much time could it take? (Laugh)

RS - What was the best band you ever toured with so far?

MA - We toured with a lot of our friends. But I would say the most rememberbal tour would be the one for 'This Will Be The Death Of Us' (2009) The tour was called 'The Gig Life Tour'. It was us, The Four Year Strong and...well, it was a million of bands! (Laugh) We BBQed every day and just had a great time. The best international tour we did was in Australia. You know the Soundwave Festival they do over there? It's like a time warp. You go there and see bands that was big in the US like 10 years ago but still are massive there and the aswell have todays big bands on the bill aswell! It's like Paramore playing next to Faith No More. It was really fun!

RS - If you got to choose one musician to work with, who would it be?

MA - I've never thought about that! It's so many. I like the drummer of The Killers, he could teach me a lot. And Vinnie Paul from Pantera of course. He's a big influence of mine. We actually went to his strip club in Los Angeles and he was there. He was just sitting there in the corner and drinking with all those womens. We was too scared to talk to him tho, cause it's like a legendary spot to us all.

RS - So what is your biggest musical inspiration?

MA - When I first got a Smashing Pumpkins record it was insane drums. I couldn't play it and I still can't.vBut that drummer is a huge influence.

RS - Was that the thing that got you in to music?

MA - No actually I remember when I was like 10 or 11 I had a birthday party with all my friends and we transformed my parents room to an fake roock stage with all those fake instruments and we played all these songs over the PA and we made like a music video. So that was pretty badass at the time. And I think it was like a week later I played my first drumset in my friends garage, It was his older brothers set. It was a massive 20-piece set with like million cymbals. Insted of being with my friends I was sitting behind the drumset and hit it without knowing what I was doing. The same day I was talking with my parents and told them I wanted my own kit. I started with a crapy practicepad and broke that, I got a snare and broke that, and then finally I got a kit!

RS - Cool! And my last question. Why do you think a music fan should listen to your music?

MA - Well, we put ourself in a heavy spot. Cause we are touring with both popier and heavier bands but we trying to give energy filled shows and get the crowd envolved. When the crowd look like they don't having fun, then we try our best to make them have fun. But if they went to a show and se our fans while they jumping on each other I hope they get inspired.

RS - Cool! Thanks.

MA - Alright, thanks.


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Intervju Av Emil Agrell 07 aug 2012 11:02