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Kicking off your week with an interview with Boston based punk collective Sports. The guys just kicked off their first ever national tour last Wednesday @ Out of The Blue Too art gallery in Cambridge that saw the dynamic band seeking to expose themselves to a growing audience, and an opportunity to give them a great sendoff as they trek across the country showcasing their sound to more people than ever before. The guys were awesome enough to take some time out of getting ready for tour to do a little background interview as we get to know more about them, their thoughts on heading out on their first national tour, and where their path takes them moving forward. Here is the transcript from our chat:
Give us your names and roles in the band?
Kris Ward - Gutiar and vocals
Sean Duffy - Bass
John Blank - Drums and vocals
Take us behind the formation of the group and how you guys all met?
Kris: John and I met first met in a class during our spring semester of college in 2013 and hit it off. After a bit of hanging out and talking about music we decided we wanted to try writing some music. We ended up writing most of the first EP “We’ll Get to it Eventually” While still a 2 piece. We both knew Sean because he was in a band with me before I was in sports playing guitar and we hung out with him a lot so we just asked him if we could give him a bass and he could learn all of our songs. He was super into the idea and the rest was history hahah!
How did you all agree upon a simple and common name such as 'Sports" to name your band?
John - Well, technically Sean wasn't in the band when we decided on the name so it was just myself and Kris but, I guess for me, I generally like the idea of a band name that seems almost contradictory to how the music sounds and I also think “sports.” is very aesthetically pleasing.
Describe the sound and nature of your band for those who aren't familiar with you guys?
Sean - The first Motion City Soundtrack record but played in open tunings with a midwest-emo influence?
John - All of us derive our influences from so many different places that I think what we end up with a nice mixture of sounds in our music. More importantly though, I think we like to make sure we’re having fun and make sure that comes across to the people who hear or see us.
Let's go behind the creative process behind the band and how you guys typically write and record your material?
Sean- Kris usually comes to John and I with some sort of riff, or an idea for a chunk of a song, and we’ll jam on that at practice or something for a bit until we have what we feel can be called a “song”. From there I pack up a bunch of mics and record some rough demos of everything in our practice space and we’ll tweak things from there if we want before going into a studio.
What does it feel like to head out on your first national US tour together as a band?
Sean- I’m the most excited and the most stressed I’ve ever felt about something.
John - I think I'd have to echo Sean’s sentiments. I've definitely been feeling very anxious about the whole thing for a couple weeks now but I think once we've been out for a few days all the anxiety will begin to dissipate and it will be an absolutely incredible experience.
Deep down, how does it feel to be a part of such an up and coming and vibrant music scene such as Boston and what are your thoughts and hopes for it moving forward?
Sean- Boston is so sick because so many people here love, and play music. Everyone is constantly in 4 other bands with people who are also in 4 more bands. I’m constantly surrounded by people who influence my own creativity and push me to be even better.
John - Yeah, the scene in Boston is really thriving and what’s really cool about it is how diverse all the bands are; as a band you don’t have to sound a certain way for people to be into to what you’re doing. It’s also incredibly cool that so many of our friends are a part of it. The influences we all provide one another really pushes us to get better.
Seeing as you guys are big SPORTS fans, if you were up at a bat for the Red Sox what would your personal walk-up song be?
Sean- “Another One Bites The Dust” (referring to me about to bite dust.)
John - I think I’d have to go with something totally absurd like “Down With the Sickness.”
Kris - THROUGH THE FIRE AND THE FLAMES THE FASTEST MUSIC EVER WRITTEN by Dragonforce.
What's next on the agenda after you finish tour, any new music or other activities you'd like to talk about?
Sean- Put my life back together and write forever.
John - As soon as we get back the plan is to drive the van straight into the Charles. And finish our new record!
Lastly, what does it mean to be in this band together and where do you see yourselves moving forward?
Sean- This is the longest I’ve ever been a part of a single project and the most rewarding project. So many of my “first time doing whatever” experiences have been with this band. Going forward I just want to be able to do this for as long as possible and just keep doing new and exciting things with my literal BFF’s.
John - This band means the world to me, Sean and Kris are my best friends and to be able to do this with them has been a dream come true. Hopefully, we can continue to push ourselves as artists and musicians and “keep on rockin’ in the free world” as they say.
Kris - honestly i just want to play cool music with my friends and make new friends along the way. I really hope we can start touring a lot and writing great music. As the great Night Ranger once said “(You Can Still) Rock in American”.
Thanks once again to the boys in Sports for being so gracious with their time in allowing me to do this interview. These guys definitely has have that charm, charisma, and "it" factor when it comes to making it all happen live, and translating that same energy on record is something that's remarkably difficult for most bands to do, but these guys make it look easy and they seem to have a ball while doing it and act their goofy selves all the way through. For more on Sports, 'Like' them on Facebook here and follow their travels on Twitter at this locale over here.