Countdown To Vans Warped Tour 2018 – Part 1

Countdown To Vans Warped Tour 2018 – Part 1

Welcome to the Highwire Daze Annual Countdown To Vans Warped Tour!  Now in its 24nd year and gearing up to make its final trek across the country, the Vans Warped Tour is ready to leave a whole lot of music and memories upon this year’s attendees. Originally conceived by founder Kevin Lyman in 1995 as an eclectic alternative rock festival, with a focus on punk rock, over the years the tour has grown to include a multitude of genres, including metal, hip hop, reggae, pop and more.

This year’s edition of the Vans Warped Tour kicks off in Pomona, California on June 21st and concludes in West Palm Beach, Florida on August 5th.  Visit the Official Vans Warped Tour website for cities and tour dates HERE!

Featured in Part 1 of Countdown To Vans Warped Tour are Broadside, Chelsea Grin, Disrupted Euphoria, Harms Way, In Hearts Wake, and The Interrupters. Read on for find out more about the bands ready to make your Warped Summer of 2018 a vibrant celebration of music…

Broadside

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My name is Oliver Baxxter. I sing in Broadside and live in Los Angeles.

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour?
Just existing in such an exciting energy again. I think being a part of the “final” version of anything is incredible as well.

If this is not your first time on Warped Tour, what advice would you give a band about to attempt Warped for the first time?
Just be yourself, don’t be afraid to be a “fan” to other bands you give a shit about. Tell them, don’t be too “cool.”

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
We are jokesters. We have a common theme of trying to be funnier than one another. It’s a healthy competition.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
Paradise – it just about moving to California and saying “no matter what, I won’t fail”. The classic I want to be a star story.

Laps Around A Picture Frame – it’s literally a song about having a panic attack.

How are you going to feel about playing those infamous 11:30 AM Warped Tour slots?
They are truly a testament of get your ass up and make it happen. But, if you finish early you get the whole day to drink smoothies and discover other bands!

Any strange or unusual happening in the past while out on the road?
Our van notoriously breaks down. Like almost every single time.

If you could open up for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
The Beatles because they are the best “full package” band of all time. We could probably benefit from learning from those guys AND their marketing team.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
Drink water, speak your mind, take it in, all of it!

Broadside on Facebook

Chelsea Grin

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My names Tom.  I hail from the beautiful state of New Jersey.  I sing for Chelsea Grin!

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour?
i have never been to or on a Warped Tour so I’m just excited to be apart of something huge like this.

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
Well for starters this is Chelsea’s first time playing with a new front man, so new and old fans alike are in for some heavy shit.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
We have a new record coming out called Eternal Nightmare and we will also be playing some new tracks off it live.

Chelsea Grin fans can expect Recreant and our new single Dead Rose, both song lyrics speak for themselves and if you haven’t read them, be sure to take the time to peep those lyrics!

How are you going to feel about playing those infamous 11:30 AM Warped Tour slots?
As for the 11:30 slot, I’m happy to play for anyone who’s willing to listen.

If you could open up for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
If i could open for any band, I’d say Behemoth or Tyler The Creator.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
For anyone coming out come sweat and chat it up! I cant wait to meet all the new faces!

Chelsea Grin on Facebook

Disrupted Euphoria

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My name is Hannah Rebel, I’m the vocalist for the metal band Disrupted Euphoria, based out of Moorpark, CA.

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour and is this your first time on the tour?
This is our first time paying Warped Tour, yes. We’re especially looking forward to performing for so many people. We never know just who is going to be interested in our sound, and we’re often surprised by who is, so we’re excited to see how our reception goes.

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
Mass amounts of headbanging, the throwing up of many horns, and moshing to brutal music with a carnal beat inspired by tales of the past.

What is the name of your latest or upcoming CD or EP and what inspired the title?
Our next EP will be called Tales of Solace: A Tribute to Atrocities. It was inspired by our theme for these next two EPs which will both be about mass murderers and serial killers that aren’t as commonly heard of. Everyone knows about Dahmer, Bundy, and Gacy, but it’s amazing how few know about Vlad the Impaler, Elizabeth Bathory, or H.H. Holmes.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
Our song Fury from our last album of the same title is inspired by the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. It includes recognizable chants from the film like “WITNESS ME!” and “I LIVE, I DIE, I LIVE AGAIN!” It gets people pumped. Another song we’ll be playing, The Doctor is about H.H. Holmes, who is America’s first famous serial killer. Imagine a scarier, smarter, more conniving version of Sweeney Todd who finished medical school, and let that stew for a bit.

Any strange or unusual happening in the past while out on the road?
We had just left for a gig and our drummer was REALLY angry. When he gets angry, he breaks things. I don’t mind as long as he breaks HIS OWN THINGS. THIS TIME however, he slammed my back passenger door by the partially rolled-down GLASS and NOT THE HANDLE, so the ENTIRE WINDOW shattered all over the back seat. He immediately felt extremely horrible and we’ve never stopped making fun of him for it.

If you could open up for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
For me personally, I would be completely freaking ecstatic to open for Avatar or Ghost. Those are my absolute top two favorite metal bands. The vocal and instrumental melodic skills of both bands are straight up infectious.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
Go all out. See absolutely everything you can this year because it’s the last tour, so you better make it count. Also, definitely come to the Ventura date so Disrupted Euphoria can show you just who we are and hopefully add to our growing fan base “the ruin”.

Disrupted Euphoria on Facebook

Harm’s Way

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My name is Bo, I play guitar in Harm’s Way and live in Chicago, IL.

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour?
Playing Warped is something any punk kid has dreamed of doing, so it’s very cool for me personally to have our name on such a crazy roster of both past and present bands. A lot of our collective favorite bands have played on some of the Warped Tour stages, so it’s really cool for us. I’m looking forward to just kind of getting out there and doing it… Harm’s Way is a band that thrives when we are busy and have the chance to work together with our unit, I think Warped will be a perfect venue for that.

If this is not your first time on Warped Tour, what advice would you give a band about to attempt Warped for the first time?
It is our first time, but we have been getting advice from a lot of peers who have done it before. The biggest thing we have heard is to expect to not shower very much and to get used to heat.

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
One of my favorite things about our band is that we put out 100% of the time, no matter what. You could expect the same show from Harm’s Way on Warped Tour that you would have seen from another huge festival, a club show or a basement show. It doesn’t matter to us how big a stage is or how many people are (or aren’t) watching, we will go off just as hard regardless. It will be loud and aggressive.

What is the name of your latest or upcoming CD or EP and what inspired the title?
Our newest record came out in February of this year, on METAL BLADE RECORDS, and is titled Posthuman. The record title is really a mix of the message behind the lyrics, our collective outlook on the world and just where we are as a species.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
We will play Become a Machine and Call My Name, along with quite a few other songs from Posthuman. Again, the inspiration for these songs comes from a feeling of not belonging to “humanity”. It’s beyond modern culture and removed from everything we see in “normal” daily life. Basically, it’s about not belonging.

How are you going to feel about playing those infamous 11:30 AM Warped Tour slots?
I have been staying up until around 5AM and sleeping until 2 or 3PM for the last year or so… so that sounds really awful. However, it’s our first and apparently last time doing it, so I think we will manage.

Any strange or unusual happening in the past while out on the road?
Every day is an adventure of routine. The weird thing about tour is, it’s usually the most boring thing anyone can imagine doing until it’s suddenly the most fun you’ve ever had. I can’t really think of anything too strange that has happened to us off the top of my head… we’ve been robbed before and had our entire van stolen once too. I wish I had a good UFO story or something. One time we were doing an over-night to Thunder Bay, ON and on the way thought we were hallucinating all at once and seeing crazy green light from the forest we were driving through. Turned out, of course, to be the Northern Lights and went from really strange to really beautiful in heartbeat.

If you could open up for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
METALLICA because they are the best heavy band to ever exist.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
We will see you at the merch tent, please for the love of god bring me some sun screen that I know I will inevitably forget to bring myself.

Harm’s Way on Facebook

In Hearts Wake

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My name is Ben Nairne, I play guitar for In Hearts Wake and we are from Byron Bay, Australia.

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour?
I think the fact that it’s the last one is what I’m looking forward to most. Everyone is going to be making the most of it knowing that they won’t be able to experience this ever again.

If this is not your first time on Warped Tour, what advice would you give a band about to attempt Warped for the first time?
Pace yourselves. It’s a really long tour during the middle of Summer so don’t go too hard too early or you’ll burn yourself out. Maybe I’m just old, though.

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
Plenty of smiles and laughter. We really like to have fun on stage especially when it’s an outdoor daytime festival with the sun shining and good vibes all around.

What is the name of your latest or upcoming CD or EP and what inspired the title?
Our latest album is titled Ark. Our Earth is an Ark that’s carrying us all safely through space and we’re so lucky to call it our home.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
Passage and Nomad. The main chorus lyric to Passage is ‘Who’s steering the ship?‘. The ship being Earth. We’re asking the question of who’s going to take charge and lead humanity to a brighter future.

How are you going to feel about playing those infamous 11:30 AM Warped Tour slots?
I actually don’t mind them, as long as I haven’t had a big one the night before. I usually wake up early at home and go for a surf, so I like the mornings. It’s always nice having the rest of the day to relax if you play early.

Has anything strange or unusual happened in the past while out on the road?
We’ve had plenty of strange things happen over the years. Cars breaking down in the middle of nowhere, tires coming off our trailer while driving, snowstorms in Texas, being pulled over by German Police to be told that our van is overweight and we can’t leave until we get a trailer. But, we’ve never missed a show!

If you could open for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Nickelback. A lot of people hang shit on them but they’re actually a great band with some really heavy riffs. We put them on in the band wagon before our shows on Warped to get pumped up.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
Make the most of your day, see as many bands as you can and soak it all up because you’ll never get to experience a day like that ever again!

In Hearts Wake on Facebook

The Interrupters

Introduce yourself, what you do in the band, and where you are based out of?
My name is Aimee and I sing in The Interrupters. We are from Los Angeles, California.

What are you looking forward to the most about this final cross country Warped Tour and is this your first time on the tour?
We did the entire Warped Tour in 2016 and we are so honored to be a part of the final cross country run this year! The thing we are most looking forward to is playing new songs off of our upcoming album, Fight The Good Fight and making new friends at our merch booth every day!

If this is not your first time on Warped Tour, what advice would you give a band about to attempt Warped for the first time?
Drink lots of water! It’s a marathon, not a sprint. Most of all, HAVE FUN and embrace the uncertainty of your set time, I love them all for different reasons!

What could one expect from your live show at Warped Tour?
We promise to make sure your feet are moving and you have a smile on your face for the entire 30 minutes we are on stage! If you are not satisfied, Jesse and Justin will go out to the parking lot and wash your car.

What is the name of your latest or upcoming CD or EP and what inspired the title?
Our upcoming album is called Fight The Good Fight (out June 29th on Hellcat Records). The title was inspired by a piece of graffiti outside the studio where we recorded our first album. It has resonated with us for years so we decided to use it as the title for this album. It embodies the spirit of what we are writing about. Hopefully when people hear the music they will feel empowered to fight whatever “good fight” they may be facing that day. We know everyone has at least one.

Select two songs you may be playing in your set and what inspired the lyrics.
We will always include “Take Back The Power” and “Family” in our set because it sums up what our band is all about: Standing up for yourself and standing up for your friends and your family.

How are you going to feel about playing those infamous 11:30 AM Warped Tour slots?
To be honest one of the best Warped sets we ever played was the opening slot on our stage in Minnesota in 2016. The entrance to the festival happened to be right by our stage and by the time we started our first song there was a sea of people right in front of our stage. We had so much fun!

Any strange or unusual happening in the past while out on the road?
Depends on your definition of strange or unusual but the short answer is, YES. One time we were staying in an apartment above the club we played somewhere in Europe and we woke up to find that the man who did sound at the club was asleep on the couch…… completely naked. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, no pun intended.

If you could open up for any band, either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
We would open up for Operation Ivy just so we could see them live. That’s one of few albums that never gets old no matter how many times we hear it.

Do you have any messages for Warped Tour attendees this year?
Come see us on the Journey’s Left Foot stage and let’s have a dance party

The Interrupters on Facebook

Interviews by Ken Morton

Countdown To Vans Warped Tour 2018 – Part 2 will be posted June 8th!

Countdown To Vans Warped Tour 2018 – Part 3 will be posted June 15th!

Vans Warped Tour Official Home Page