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LTS Interviews – Set Your Goals
Interviewer: Matt Ingham
Off the back of a triumphant set at 2009's Reading and Leeds festival - not to mention their galvanising sophomore album “This Will Be The Death Of Us”, LiveTheScene catch up with avant-garde punks Set Your Goals in London, as their attempts to liquefy blistering hardcore noise with a pop rock mentality comes to resplendent fruition...
LTS: You've enjoyed cult status for some time now. Do you think your latest opus “This Will Be The Death Of Us” is the catalyst that will launch you into the mainstream?
Jordan Brown (Vocals): It would be cool to convert that into a secondary cult! It's cool that when you can reach that one person, and for them to hold on to that interest and see what you do next. It would be good for us, for the crowd and for people who aren't really familiar with us to learn about it.
After a few line up changes, the latest incarnation of SYG have been going strong for 3 years. Do you feel more versatile and matured nowadays?
Jordan: Definitely, I think as people we've matured, its more of us now, but its a natural progression really. Daniel (Coddaire) our guitarist, was an original member and he left and came back. He went to work with his dad, who had his own business and wanted him to go and work for him.
We were touring, we were pretty young, and he was the oldest member with responsibilities at home so he had to leave. We were really sad when he had to leave but our friend Dave (Yoha) stepped in for a couple of years, and it was pretty cool - a little middle point - he really bridged that gap.
If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have been able to tour on “Mutiny.” Then Dan came back and everything felt right from there!
For essentially a pop punk outfit, your lyrics dwell on far more than stories of adolescence and fart jokes. A deliberate effort?
Jordan: It was and its about having a higher conscious rather than the fart jokes, which is fun! I love bands like Guttermouth and Blink-182 who have jokey songs, but for me working on our music is very heartfelt - there's a mood with every song and there's a thought and a feeling that usually comes into that song.
We really want to use our voice for a greater cause.
Audelio Flores, Jr (guitar): I think the lyrics are very important too nowadays, and with bands that I'm a fan of, I'll appreciate them more when they take time on writing good lyrics, instead of just getting something that sounds good or rhymes.
You had what sounds like a torrid time with Eulogy Records. Having recently signed to Epitaph, how is life?
Audelio: A relief!
Jordan: It went down really quickly too because we signed with them and finished the album within 4 or 5 months. Then just a couple of months after the record was out we saw a completely different side to them.
With Epitaph its been the complete opposite - they've slowly been building us up and not rushing into it, just like we've not rushed into it either. We'd made that mistake once already!
We did really need to get out of Eulogy, but at what cost? Its worked out OK though, and I really think that Eulogy was just a part of that process.
Guest appearances on “This Will Be The Death Of Us” come thick and fast. Is this a natural progression through your peers?Jordan:I think that we have learnt something from them, and they've learnt from us. We were hoping that someone would ask us about those guest vocals!
Everyone just says “Oh you have Hayley (Williams, Paramore) on your record!” Which is great - she's got an awesome voice, but we don't want our band to be considered just because of that. Everyone was really excited to be involved and her in particular. She came down to the studio for a couple of days and we talked about it, sent her the track and demoed out the vocals and she was so excited.
She asked for the lyrics and we started emailing while she was in her studio and we were in ours. Shes started like “I'm gonna sing on this part and this part” and then eventually she just said “I'm gonna have fun with this one and you can just use any part that you want!” She spent a whole day on it, adding all kinds of things that we didn't have intended to begin with.
It was the same with others, I remember when Vinnie (Caruana, Movielife & I Am The Avalanche) finished his part on the first song, he was like “Dude this song hits so heavy, it was so fun to do!”
Your album sleeve depicts 7 members, yet there are only 6 of you up on that stage?
Audelio:Its our producer Mike Green who was pretty much the seventh member during the whole recording process. He really helped to keep the band together when we were arguing or not getting along well in the studio. A big part of it was also that portrait that we have of Mary.
Every morning we'd be there and we'd see that and it'd mean time to work. So we'd go to work when the sun was coming up and we'd finish when the sun was down - so to us that picture is synonymous with the studio.
We made it a point of adding it to the record. We had a photo shoot, and we really wanted to have it taken in front of the studio, so we made the photographer drive all the way down and take that photo!
Are you guys trying to reach a specific target audience?
Jordan: We're definitely trying to reach as many people as possible, but specifically people that like to think and appreciate as many different things as possible.
From the physical standpoint, we want to reach people that like to come to shows and have fun. Even for the people that aren't in the front row, jumping up and down, every night I look out in the crowd - even at the back where people are little more mellow, I can still see that they're singing along and having a great time.
It's for people that like to treat it as a group related environment.
Set Your Goals - 'This Will Be The Death Of Us' Is Out Now
MySpace: www.myspace.com/setyourgoals
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