popwreckoning

Pac Sun Tour has been well underway and has brought its diverse line up to many cities already. When the tour stopped by Kansas City, Beau Burchell, guitarist of the headlining act Saosin, took some time to talk about various subjects with me such as the Pac Sun Tour, having a song on a popular TV show and the band’s popularity in Indonesia of all places. Read the full interview below.

Bethany, PopWreckoning: Talk to me about this tour. How did you get hooked up with Pac Sun?
Beau Burchell, Saosin: We kind of got the offer to do the Pac Sun Tour and it just seemed like a cool a thing. The line up that they had chosen was a pretty diverse line up and we really liked that about the tour. It’s nice to tour with not all the same style of bands. It was kind of cool for us.

PW: It is a diverse line up. How have audiences reacted? Are they acting differently than your other tours?
BB: We haven’t really noticed much of a difference for us, you know? But I’m sure it is going to be different somehow. So far, I haven’t been able to tell if there is a positive or negative reaction towards it.

PW: At this show, and I’m not sure how many other dates have this, but there was a Battle of the Bands competition to open for you. Did you have any involvement with that? What do you think of having new people open every night?
BB: It was our idea to have the Battle of the Bands because we think it is a good idea to support. It seems like if you are in a band just starting out, there’s really no way to just be seen or to get out there, especially when the only really cool shows are from bands coming in from out of town. So otherwise, you’re stuck playing shows where you have to sell tickets or stuff like that, so we thought it was cool to be able to throw local bands on the tour.

PW: Awesome. Was it your idea, too, to do the in-stores or was that Pac Sun?
BB: We actually did a whole tour where we were doing in-stores and acoustic stuff, so, it was kind of a group effort.

PW: Now you just switched labels for this latest release, right? What’s changed for you with the switch?
BB: It’s actually the same record label now – with the way the record industry is going. Virgin and Capitol are owned by EMI, so now what they’re doing, Virgin is kind of the rock department and Capitol’s bands like Beatles, Coldplay and bands like that.

PW: On your new, well latest, I guess, it’s been out awhile, but on your latest release, you guys reworked three songs from an EP. Why did you decide to rework those songs?
BB: Normally, on the last record, we did the same thing. We put out these EPs before we put out the records. What we do, is on the EPs, it is just demo forms of those songs. So it is just songs as we see them at the very early stages of the song. What we’ll normally do is we’ll put out these EPs of the songs that are the demos and it is almost like little baby photos of the songs, so they can actually hear them. Then, when the record comes out, they can actually hear where they went, so it is kind of cool because then they kind of get two kind of versions of the song.

PW: I love that description of demos as baby photos. You also just had a song that came out on “NCIS” and its soundtrack. Are you fans of the show?
BB: Yeah. I watch it all the time. My uncle is actually, he, well it is funny, my uncle was just talking to my mom about it and we were talking about TV shows and I was saying that I watch “House,” “Law and Order” and stuff like that a lot. Then I said “NCIS” and he was like, “Oh I love ‘NCIS.’” So it was just funny because a week later I was like “Oh you got a watch. We have a song that’s going to be on it.” He was like, “Oh that’s awesome.”
PW: After watching that song in a scene on a show, is that kind of what you pictured for that song?
BB: Uh, no, but it was definitely cool. It was pretty rad. The guy in the show, basically, well he supposedly kills himself, while blasting that song in the car. Kind of funny. Haha. Yeah.

PW: Another song that you recently released, was an acoustic version of “Changing.” Is it hard to adapt your songs to be acoustic like that?
BB: Some of them are harder than others. Others are easier. We’ve actually reworked a lot of our songs acoustic. We try to make it so most of our songs will translate acoustically. A lot of the time, it won’t. So depending how riffy they are or what kind of song it is, it may or may not translate.
PW: I know that one of the things I hear you guys get praised for is the high energy live show and I know that can be hard to carry over to an acoustic performance.
BB: Yeah, we really can’t. We always make them super mellow versions of the song.
PW: Right, like “Changing.”
BB: I like that version better than the real version.
PW: You guys doing that song acoustic on this tour?
BB: No.

PW: Any special surprises for this tour?
BB: Normally, our light show is about twice as big as this. Tonight we drove from Denver, Colorado and it was icy, so what should have only taken us about 10 hours took us almost 20, you know? It was really tough. So we got here and got everything loaded in under two hours, so we only have half the light show. Normally, we have this big crazy light show. People leave the show deaf and blind. It’s awesome.

PW: For a final question, as this decade ends, the ‘naught’ decade, do you have a favorite musical memory of the last 10 years?
BB: Does it have to be anything at all? My favorite memory would be playing Jakarta. We played Jakarta, Indonesia and we had no idea that we were popular over there. We showed up and we had full-on armed escort through the airport. There were guys with machine guns bringing us in and we were like, “This is a little overboard, don’t you think?” And they were like, “No. You guys are huge here.” So we got there and it was like we were Korn. We played this huge tennis arena and there were billboards of us and our faces everywhere. We did this big press conference right before we played. It was crazy. It was really fun. I didn’t ask any questions and was just like this is great.
PW: That’s great. Thanks so much.
BB: Thanks a lot.

Saosin: website | myspace | @ pac sun tour, beaumont club

Rock, electronica, hip hop…oh my! Pac Sun Tour offers a diverse line up and it going into the show, I knew this could either be really scary or something truly special. It wasn’t long before I could confirm that this the latter.

For select major cities, a local band is given the chance to open the show after winning a Battle of the Bands competition. Headliners Saosin came up with the idea to help local scenes out. For the Kansas City show, piano rockers A.M.I.M. won the battle and kicked things off. I’m not sure if they just brought a lot of their friends or if they just impressed the audience that much, but people were really into their set. I could see some potential. They had great stage presence and had skills on their various instrument. They were unified and didn’t overpower each other, which would be easy to do in a young band. However, they still have lots of room for improvement before they can start taking over radio waves. Lyrically they are a  bit weak…”It’s been three years. It’s so sincere. The chandeliers have disappeared.” Um, wtf?

After A.M.I.M. was Eye Alaska. These guys might have been my favorite act of the night even if I thought some of their set got a little repetitive. I went into their set with a curiosity. I hadn’t really heard them, but I had heard that their pianist/guitarist is the brother of Thrice‘s Dustin Kensrue. Eye Alaska stand out on their own and I after hearing them, while the brother connection most likely helps, they don’t need it. They don’t sound anything like Thrice, so the tidbit should just fade aways as some random trivia as they continue making their own impression on thew world of music. They were phenomenal and I think they’re poised to blow up as big as other popular warped bands likes Paramore. I’ve heard them described as “new wave,” but aside from the piano on a few songs, I don’t get that at all. They’re more pop rock/alternative. They’re incredibly hardworking too. The guys are doing acoustic instores at practically every stop and they’re down to earth. Even if their brand of music isn’t your style, their work ethic alone should make you want to support them.

I had similar feelings toward P.O.S. Hip hop isn’t my usual style, but I just wanted to support the guy. Again, you had yet another down to earth guy (in fact, all the bands on this tour were super down to earth, humble and genuine) that has music different than your usual expectations associated with that genre. Forget how Soulja Boy made you hate hip hop with his sleazy “Crank Dat,” P.O.S. actually has something to say with his music and he samples a wider variety of influences such as jazz. This is hip hop the way it was meant to be. The way that groups like Run-DMC envisioned it. Not those guys other guys on MTV that are wearing so many grillz you can’t even understand a word they’re saying.

True to their name, Innerpartysystem brought a party. With a light show that they say is actually a bit toned down from their usual show, they had carefully thought out their presentation just as thoroughly as their set list. The electronica beats effortlessly glided the party from one song to the next so the crowd keep up with “Don’t Stop” and other songs without a stop.

I’m not sure I can do headliners Saosin justice for their performance with a full review since I was off doing interviews during much of their set. From what I did see, I enjoyed. They are an alternative rock group with high energy and an edginess that makes them appeal to the screamo-sort of loves-to-mosh crowd, yet they have a softness and a vocal control that makes it so they’d still be pretty awesome for a guy to take a girl out on a date to see. With the way the various genres that opened for them and their own ability to appeal to various genres, I could see why they were given the headlining slot.

The tour continues until December 20. Check out additional information and dates here: pacsun.com/pactour.

PopWreckoning has interviewed all these bands. Check out the interview with Innerpartysystem here. The rest are coming soon!