A Chat with For The Win at The Roxy

A Chat with For The Win at The Roxy

For The Win from San Diego spent some time on the road opening in direct support for Alesana’s Ten Frail Years Of Vanity And Wax Tour.  One of the stops would be at the world famous Roxy Theater on The Sunset Strip, where For The Win unleashed a tremendously solid set of rock and rage.  Included in the show were songs from their upcoming Heavy Thoughts album, out April 14th on Artery Recordings.

Highwire Daze Online caught up with a few of the For The Win members just right before their explosive live performance at The Roxy to find out more about the upcoming Heavy Thoughts release, inspiration for a few of the new songs, touring with Alesana as well as A Loss For Words, and a whole lot more.  Read on…

Introduce yourself and tell me what you do in For The Win
Kyle: My name is Kyle, I do the vocals.
Omar: My name is Omar and I play drums.
Gio: My name is Gio and I play bass.

Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there?
Kyle: We’re from San Diego, CA and the music scene used to be really awesome but it’s fading right now, which sucks. I have a feeling it’ll come back eventually. It’s OK over there right now, other places have been better for us and just bands in general.

How has the tour with Alesana been going, and what are some of the highlights?
Gio: The tour has been great. The crowds have been awesome, they’ve been super responsive to the new music and the old stuff as well. The crowds seem to stick around for every band on the whole show. So that’s pretty awesome. I think the only downside is none of us like to drive, so we get tired pretty easily. Other than that the tour has been pretty great.

Is there any story or concept behind the title of the new album Heavy Thoughts?
Kyle: It’s kind of stories and things that have happened in my life and interactions with people, relationships and how those have weighed on my life and how heavily those have impacted me as a person, just my life in general. Just different situations being in a band, touring and playing music, dealing with things at home and on the road – personal relationships with people. So, heavy thoughts – a lot of deep meaning, very heavy to me I guess you can say. Very personal.

Select two songs, what inspired the lyrics for you?
Kyle: I like “Us vs Them,” which is the first track on the record. We play that song live. It’s sort of an anthem song. It’s about being a youthful kid, finding your place in the world and dealing with outside perspectives and world events trying to shape you, but you also shaping yourself.   Finding your place and standing your ground and standing up for what you believe in. Even though you’re young and people think you’re naive.

“Dancing Shoes” – we also play that live. That one is probably the heaviest song we have as a band right now. Lyrically, it’s pretty intense and pretty personal. That one is just about a certain situation with certain people. Some people take it very literal. It’s not. Some of the lyrics are just how I feel and how I felt at the time. So yeah, those are the two songs I like the most right now.

How does the new album compare to the previous?
Kyle: I think this album overall, as a whole is just a lot better. The production, songwriting, lyrics and just where we are as a band now. We’re pretty set in our lineup and just us as a band. I feel very grounded with this release and where we’re gonna take it in the next year or two.

What was it like doing one of the final A Loss For Words tour?
Omar: The A Loss for Words tour, that was Europe. That was my first time on a plane. Also first time in Europe, yeah. So that was great. It was really cool, we got to spend a week before the tour started in London so we just walked around, saw stuff. But the tour was great. They’re really awesome dudes. Sucks they had to end it, but yeah, it was really good.

If For The Win could open for any band either now or from the past, who and why?
Gio: Present: I’d probably say it’d be a dream to open for a band like A Day To Remember. Pierce The Veil because they’re from our hometown. There’s a ton. Underoath would be amazing. Past: I’d be down to open for My Chemical Romance or From First To Last.
Omar: I would love to open for Blink 182. They’re my all time favorite band. Other than that, of course ADTR, Pierce The Veil and Underoath. Beartooth. Past: it might be weird, but maybe Michael Jackson. That would have been cool.
Kyle: Present: I would say A Day To Remember for sure. One of my buddies band, they’re called Cemetery Gates. They’re a pretty heavy grunge rock band. I think for past tense, I would love to open for Anberlin. They are one of my favorite bands over the years, or an old punk band called Gutter Breath. Those are both two of my old-school favorite bands I think you could say.

What’s up for you guys after the Alesana tour is over?
Kyle: We are doing a headliner for our album, Heavy Thoughts that will be coming out April 14th. We don’t know the routing yet, it just got changed, so we’ll announce that soon. We’re gonna do another tour and then we’re gonna travel overseas. That’s our plan for right now and the rest of the year so far. It looks pretty fun.

For The Win is:
Kyle Christensen – Vocals
Matt Jimenez – Guitar/Vocals
Lee Chambers – Guitar
Giovanni Suarez – Bass/Vocals
Omar Nieto – Drums

(Interview and Band Photo by Ken Morton – Live Photos by Jack Lue)

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