You Me At Six

11 August 2010 | 2:08 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

You Me At Six have already had a massive year, with their newest album "Hold Me Down" clocking in at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart, and the band making their first ever trip to Australia as a part of the Soundwave 2010 line up. The band will be returning to Australia in September for their first ever headlining tour with The Audition and Kids In Glass Houses. The band's drummer Dan answered a few questions for us.

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You Me At Six have already had a massive year, with their newest album "Hold Me Down" clocking in at number 5 on the UK Albums Chart, and the band making their first ever trip to Australia as a part of the Soundwave 2010 line up. The band will be returning to Australia in September for their first ever headlining tour with The Audition and Kids In Glass Houses. The band's drummer Dan answered a few questions for us.

Start off by stating your name, what you play in You Me At Six and the last movie you watched?


I’m Dan and I play drums in You Me At Six…. The last movie I watched was Shutter Island.

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Who would you consider to be your greatest influences musically?


As individuals we are all influenced by many different styles of music, which is why I think we work well together. But as a group I don’t feel we are influenced that heavily by one or two bands in particular… but some of our favorites are The starting line, Incubus, New found glory, incubus, Thrice, The early November, blink 182… I could go on and on.


Your second album “Hold Me Down” was released in January, what has the overall response to the album been like?


Its all been very positive so far.


The album hit number 5 on the UK Albums Chart; did you ever expect something like that would happen?


Never in a million years did we think when we were starting out that we would have even got into the top 100 let alone top 5. It was such a great feeling, everyone was very proud.


You worked on the album once again with Matty O'Grady and John Mitchell, what made you decide to work with them again?


Outhouse is a place that we all feel very comfortable working at and both Matt and John are very good friends of ours. They are both very talented at what they do but at the same time gave us the freedom to musically try out whatever we wanted to do, which was fun.


Did you approach anything differently this time around compared to when you were recording “Take Off Your Colours”?


Well we recorded TOYC in just over 2 weeks so just the fact that we had about 7 weeks this time made the whole recording process a lot different. We spent longer finding the exact sounds we wanted from each instrument and spent longer making sure every song reached its full potential.


The album was released by Virgin Records, how did that deal fall into place?


We decided we wanted to go with a bigger label for our second release and so our manager when to a few labels that he knows well and thought could do well for us. Turns out virgin was the best option for us, so we signed a deal with them.


Do you think Virgin is the perfect label for the band?


I don’t think you can ever find the perfect label as there is always going to be things they want to do differently to the band but I think virgin is as close as we can get to a perfect label.


Do you have a favourite song from the new record?


My personal favorite from the new record is Trophy eyes as its one of the more rocky songs and its fun to play live.


You made your first trip to Australia in February this year for the Soundwave 2010 festival. How did that trip go for the band?


It was amazing, we were all blown away by the response… it far exceeded any expectations we had. Plus its also a country we all wanted to visit so to get a few days off there to go to the koala park and see Sydney harbor was amazing.


What was it like being a part of such a massive festival?


Just to see our name on the bill with some of our favorite bands was a great feeling.


The band also opened for Paramore on their sideshows; did the band get a good reaction on those shows?


We had toured with Paramore in the UK and we were already friendly with them so when they asked us to open for their side shows it was a no brainer. The shows themselves were great too.


You are returning to Australia in September for your first headlining tour here, what do you think this tour will be like compared to your Soundwave sets?


Im hoping for more of the same as those shows were crazy. I think as our record has been out for longer than the fans will know more of the record and not just the singles on our websites too.


The Audition and Kids In Glass Houses will be joining you on the tour, what are you looking forward to the most about touring with those guys?


We have toured with both bands before and are good friends so its just going to be a great hang out tour. Plus We haven’t seen the Audition in a few years so that’s going to be a great reunion for both bands!


Are there any more shows that are going to be added to the tour?


I don’t think so.. maybe an instore but nothing is set in stone yet.


Is there anything you want to check off your to-do list before you leave the country?


Well we have made good friends with the guys in parkway drive and they keep talking about taking us surfing so maybe that will be something to check off the list.


You have just recently released the video for “Stay With Me”, which is the fourth video from the album, which has been your favourite video to shoot so far?


Definitely stay with me. It’s the first video we shot in America and the location was mind blowing.


Are there any plans to release a fifth video?


We are all still discussing what to do next but there might be room for one more.


Do you have any goals that you would like to achieve with this band?


I guess we want to try and have the same kind of success we have had in the UK throughout the world. Its going to be hard but just the fact that we have been able to travel the world playing music is enough, everything else is a bonus.


When you first started playing music, did you ever imagine you would be in the position you are in now?


We were all amazed when 100 people were turning up to our shows and we never thought we would be travelling the world or headlining venues in London to 5,000 people.


What has been your favourite show the band has played to date?


Any show on the Paramore UK tour was fun but also we all loved the soundwave show in Melbourne as we didn’t expect anyone to know who we were but the reaction was nuts.


Who are some bands that you have been enjoying lately that we should be checking out?


There is an amazing band called The Ghost Inside who we all listen to pretty much every day. They are going to be huge.


What are the band’s plans for the rest of 2010 after your Australian visit?


We are also going to japan, New Zealand, mainland Europe and we finish off the year with our biggest UK headline tour to date.


Thanks for doing the interview, any last words or shout outs?


Go check out our album Hold Me Down!!