The Vans Warped Tour 2018 Interviews: With Confidence

The Vans Warped Tour 2018 Interviews: With Confidence

The Vans Warped Tour is now in full swing, the iconic festival making its way across North America on it’s final cross country run.  One of the bands on the entire tour is With Confidence, making their second appearance on Warped.  Performing songs from their recently issued Better Weather debut for Hopeless Records as well as premiering their brand new single That Something from their upcoming Love and Loathing endeavor, With Confidence won over the crowd with their dynamic pop pop anthems.

Highwire Daze Online caught up with Jayden Seeley, Inigo Del Carmen, and Josh Brozzesi in the press area at the Ventura date to discuss their participation on this year’s edition of Warped, the lyrics from a few selections off their upcoming Love And Loathing full length, their charity work with Hope For The Day, how losing a band member has affected their overall mission statement, and a whole lot more.  Read on…

What were your first impressions when you found out that the Vans Warped Tour was coming to an end and that you were on it?
Jayden: It’s bittersweet. It’s incredible that we get the opportunity to play something so incredible – like the end of an era. But also it’s really, really sad. It’s just one of those things you kind of expect to be around forever, because it’s so deeply ingrained in the music culture. But I’m really happy to be here.
Josh: It’s a huge thing we’ve been looking forward to for the last six months. It was the first thing we did when we came over to the U.S. – we played Warped, so it’s really cool that we get to do it again. The fact that Kevin (Lyman – Warped founder) was happy for us to be a part of the last one was amazing. That’s a really big thing for us to be part of the Warped Tour.
Ini: Yeah, I think they hit the nail on the head with that one.

Let’s just jump right into the new album. Is there any overall story or concept behind the title of the new album Love and Loathing?
Jayden: I think it’s kind of like one of those things. We’ve never been a band to write a concept album. We’ve never been a band to set out and write something. We kind of just write what comes to us. And at the end of that, we just kind of look at what we have, and it always seems to tie together in some sort of way. And I think the way it’s tied together is there’s a lot of talk about the concept of love and how we’ve interacted with that idea – and how we’ve experienced that over the last couple of years of our lives. And also this idea of self-introspection and trying to like be the best version of yourself and how that interacts with finding a new relationship with someone that you want to really be your best for. That’s kind of the general concept – and we found that all of the songs tied into it, so we decided to push forward with the idea of Love and Loathing.

What inspired the lyrics for your new single That Something?
Jayden: My girlfriend Talia. I met her at the end of last year, and she just kind of turned everything around for me. And it was just like one of those moments where I felt like I found something that I was looking for. I was writing that song for a while and I didn’t know what the lyrics were about – and when I thought about it, it just fit in perfectly.

Select any other song from the upcoming album and what inspired the lyrics.
Ini: There a song I like a lot – it’s called Icarus. It touches on a lot of things. It’s going to sound really brutal because there’s a lot of lyrics that say “break your neck.” But it’s just alluding to the story of Icarus and how irresponsible he was to a degree. And the whole moral to the song is in that story as well. I feel like when I write songs, I want to communicate a meaning and a story and that’s probably one of my favorite things about that song – it has a story to tell and it has a meaning to get from it. There’s more to the song than the lyrics have to say – so just have a really good listen and interpret it for yourself.
Jayden: And my lyrics go Bang Boom! Ba-bing bang boom! (Laughter)

Who produced Love and Loathing and what was it like working with them?
Jayden: Mike Green. It was cool! It was different. It was definitely a new experience for us. It was our first album ever recorded in L.A. And you come out of that with a different sound – and I think it really reflect in the new album.

How did you guys feel about doing your comeback show at Chain Reaction after being off the road for a while?
Josh: It was a tough one. But I feel like we wanted to become more involved with charity work – and Hope For The Day is a charity that we met on Warped 2016 – and we really like Jonny who runs it. We just had this idea while we were over in the States to record an album – let’s put on a show – let’s do something good. We hooked up with Hope For The Day. As well, Hopeless has another artist called Aaron West, which is the singer of The Wonder Year’s side project, and we’d seen him play at Chain Reaction. And when we went there, we were like Damn! This is a cool venue. It’s really prolific – it’s got a lot of punk history – so we were like “Let’s do it there!” It was something cool that we want to do more of – and something that you will see us do more of in the next few years. We’re going to try to be more active with the community and trying to do good – and getting involved with charity work and things like that.

For people who don’t know, what is Hope For The Day?
Josh: The slogan for Hope For The Day is “It’s okay to not be okay.” It’s about the awareness of mental health and the stigma attached to mental health. It’s about getting people to be open and seek help and look after each other and do what you can for your friends.

What could one expect from a With Confidence show on Warped Tour this year?
Josh: You can expect some of the best songs from the last album – a few new songs here and there – and some songs they we just feel like are going to be fun. The idea is for it to be fun on Warped. It’s 25 minutes – you want everyone to have a good time – it’s hot – so we want everyone to jump around – yell a bit – and have fun.

How do you feel your mission statement as a band has changed since losing a member?
Jayden: I think it’s kind of like one of those things – that when you lose a member you just kind of re-evaluate everything – like what the band means and what you really want to do with it. I think for me personally, the mission statement changed in a way that – like Josh said, charity is something that we’ve always wanted to get involved with, but it always sat on the back burner. I think we just re-evaluated and wanted to move forward and make the best of every moment with the band – and do all of the good that you can.

What has it been like having your tour manager Scott playing in the band?
Josh: He actually played bass for us on an Australian tour once when Jayden hurt his hand. When he’s not playing guitar for us, he actually plays in Unwritten Law. It’s great having him on guitar, because he’s actually better than us at playing his instruments. We’re happy to have him. We love having him – and he’s right there! He’s a legend and it’s good to have him.

Do you have any messages for With Confidence fans who are reading this now?
Jayden: Thanks for sticking by us. Thanks for supporting us over the years. It means an incredible amount more than you’d ever know. And if it wasn’t for you reading this article and listening to our music, we would probably be at home working 9 to 5’s and not be doing what we want to do with our lives.
Josh: I think you pretty much covered it. I’d be happy to end with that.

And the last word goes to Ini.
Ini: Love you guys! From Ini.

With Confidence is:
Vocals & Bass – Jayden Seeley
Guitar & Vocals – Inigo Del Carmen
Drums – Josh Brozzesi

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

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