This is my interview with Greg, bassist of Hopeless Records’ band Amber Pacific. Make sure to head to takeactiontour.com and learn about this incredible tour the band is a part of!
Please introduce yourselves, what is your name and role in the band?
I’m Greg, I play bass and wiggle around on stage all wierd like.
Letï¿Â½s start from the beginning, you used to be called Follow Through, correct?
Yea, that was our original name, we had to change it cause some homeboy in NY would sue if we used it. He owned the rights to it, even though the band had broken up. I think they were a hardcore type band sorta like Bane, except it wasnt good haha.
You guys signed with Hopeless Records before doing any major touring, how has that played out since?
Well we have been touring pretty much non-stop since then. We learned fast and are still learning. We’ve definetly paid “dues” since we’ve started touring, maybe not as much as other bands but we have had our share.
Your first tour was the warped tour, I know you guys had a great experience with the tour, tell us a little bit about it.
HOT! haha it was a blast, it was tons of hard work, tons of fun, tons of hot, bright sun. Its something we will never forget, it was just an amazing experience. We were on it the year after that and will be on it again this year. Summer doesnt feel like summer anymore if we arent on warped, its like I’m missing part of me if we arent on it.
What was it like being fresh out of high school and touring the country?
Well we all did a couple quaters of college too, but its amazing. Its a dream come true for me, i know im truely blessed every night that i stop onto a stage and theres kids out there ready to have fun.
Your debut EP and Full-length were recorded with the same producer, what made you want to go back with him?
Yea we did both of them with Martin Feveyear at Jupiter studios in Ballard Wa. We went back with him cause hes the man, hes going to make anything we want sound the way we want it. He has a rad british accent and hes just an easy going guy and knows his stuff. His sound board is amazing too.
Your one of the rare Seattle bands to not record with Casey Bates, is there any reason why?
There’s no real reason. We found Martin when we were trying to record a demo/ep that wouldnt sound like it was recorded in a garbage can and he was able to do that in the 4 days that we had to do it. We knew he was easily capable of making stuff sound way better if he had more time so we went back. All of casey bates stuff sounds good, we just never really wanted to go with anyone other then our boy Martin.
How did you connect with your drummer, Dango?
One night we flew to Nashville and put a Big Mac under a net and waited for him to take the bait then we caught him and made him one of us.
Tell us about the recent departure of one of your founding members.
Jusin wasnt actully one of the founding members, Will is the only founding member in the band still. Justin just felt he was meant to go back to school and move on from the band. We all still love the guy, people just sometimes need to do what they want/need to do.
How is your relationship with Hopeless Records? How many more records will you be releasing with them?
We love em : )
You have an opportunity to be a part of the incredible Take Action Tour this year. How do you feel about the tour, the cause, and the other bands youï¿Â½ll be touring with?
We are so excited about it. Its an amazing cause, helping those in need when they need it the most. everyone should check out www.takeactiontour.com to see everything that its about. I think I’m most exctied about Paramore being on the tour cause we just did a tour with them and i love all of them, my brothas and sista from anotha motha, so it’ll be great to see them and go to dennys and all that good stuff. Im excited to hear the new stuff the early november and matchbook romance too. Im pumped to see the boys in Chiodos too, super rad guys and good tunes. Theres so many more awesome bands on this tour like silverstien too, everyone just needs to go to takeactiontour.com and see all the good stuff that is going on in and around this tour!
Tell me about the video you just shot, youï¿Â½re very discrete on the website, can you give out any more info on it?
Im not really sure why we are being so secretive about it… but i guess i should keep being hush hush so nothing bad will happen to me in my sleep haha. We are super happy with it though, we did with Morgan Phillips down in hollywood and it was so much fun and everyone that worked on the video was super nice and rad. All i can say is that the video is rad i guess haha… ohh and you should see it popping up on fuse and different places end of feb early march… thats all i can say for now…
Any last thoughts? Comments?
Please come out to any of the take action tour dates and support a good cause, we will be there hangin out like always so come say hi!!
