Were there any particular expectations coming first time to the UK? How have you been finding the different crowd has been responding to you guys?
Matt: I try to even not think of any expectations. I just hope that people over here like our songs.
Leighton: We are not very… what’s the word for it? We just show up and hope that people will enjoy the music.
Matt: I just can’t possibly expect the whole bunch of people just to be here.
What aspect of being a musician excites you the most?
Justin: Just when somebody walks up to you. There are a lot of people out there with the Lydia tattoos, who really like our music. They went and got it for the rest out their lives! You hear crazy stories meeting fans and stuff and it’s just crazy. It’s like you can sit down, work on a song and then it affects somebody’s life. It’s pretty crazy!
Matt: I think the best part of it is just three of us playing music together, and don’t have to do anything else.
Leighton: I think it also goes in cycles too. Right now, I’m most excited to be a musician is that I can go out and make a new record, and then once the record is done – you are very excited to go on the road. It’s like this constant…
What was a defining moment that made you to pursue a career in music at the first place and after break up?
Leighton: Defining moment? Ahhh, when people started showing up to shows…
Matt: Its just when you get that first feeling – your first ever not struggling tour when you come home with a little bit of money, and you realise that you didn’t have to have a horrible boss to tell you to do a terrible job you didn’t wanna do. Once that happened to me, I was like ‘I can never do anything else with my life ever again’! I can’t have a boss again telling me what to do! [laughs]
Interviewer: You kind of do – a manager!?
Matt: I’m also his boss in some ways. We are co-bosses! Boss each other around! [laughs]
What colour describes your band/music?
Leighton: Maroon! I just saw that towel and there is a lot of red going on in here [laughs]. Ahhh, colour? BLUE.
Matt: I was gonna say both.
Leighton: Blue with maroon, red.
Matt: Purple.
Leighton: Darker tonnes. We just gave her like seven different colours! You can choose [all laugh].
How does DEVIL differ from the previous releases?
Leighton: It was kind of, I guess, a different team of people behind it. We had a different producer and the record before that – I pretty much did it on my own. And for DEVIL, I brought these two [claps] - fine strapping lads… [laughs] and then in the studio.
Is there anything we should expect soon?
Matt: Absolutely! We just did like the skeletons of three songs in the studio, we have to complete them properly; and when we get back we are just going to start writing more, record more.
Leighton: Yeah, we are gonna have new music out in the spring time.
Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Leighton: I don’t know, I feel like it comes and goes. Just like, I’ll be home doing laundry or something and then a melody comes to my head, you know. It’s simple as that, or it is epic as like you are on the balcony looking over city lights.
Matt: I write a lot of songs in the shower.
Leighton: It’s never just one certain thing.
Where are you the happiest- on stage or in the studio?
Leighton: Both have really really good parts to them and negative parts to them. I couldn’t really choose one. They aren’t the same really … You can’t really be a band without touring, and you cant really tour without obviously making a record. At this point, both are the same to me.
How is the side project [The Cinema] going?
Leighton: Yeah, we are about to put a new record. It will be out within like weeks from now!
What would you change about the music industry (considering online sharing)?
Matt: We are all about online sharing. Like there are so many people asking me ‘where is the best place to get music?’ Steal it, you know. You know it is very terrible to say, but it will be much better having people listen to our music rather than not, whatever, gets you out to our shows. But if I had to change it, I would take business out of the music part. But at the end of the day, we just like playing music!
Justin: Yeah, I’m gonna follow that! [all laugh]
Now let’s move on to FUN Questions:
Justin: Oh this is where you are going to get me challenged!
What’s your celebrity crush?
Matt: Emma Watson – she is really pretty for sure.
Leighton: I’m gonna go with Olivia Wilde.
Justin: This is going to sound very weird, but I’m gonna go with Tim McGraw. [all laugh]. He writes great songs.
Leighton: People write for him.
Matt: My girlfriend is going to read this and kill me. But, like, Taylor Swift – she is a cutie and she writes incredible songs. [Silence]. I don’t know if she writes them, but if she writes them, then she is killing it.
Leighton: Yeah, I don’t know if she does.
Matt: But she consistently puts out really good songs…[all laugh]
One Direction or Justin Bieber?
Leighton: One Direction. That One Direction song that …
Matt: ‘Story Of My Life’
Leighton: That song is great!
Justin: [singing]
Matt: We are all pop fans…
Interviewer: What about 5SOS?
Leighton: Well, I don’t know any of their songs.
Justin: I just know one of their songs but they are HUGE!
Matt: yeah, they are huge!
Leighton: Are they? Like One Direction huge?
Matt: Yeah, now they are playing arenas…
Leighton: Really???
Justin: They announced like a world tour – strictly arenas, and it got sold out within few minutes.
Matt: 5 Seconds! [all laugh]. That’s a terrible joke! You know what? I love those guys. If they are hearing this, you should take us on tour with you.
Snog/Mary/Avoid - Rihanna, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj
Matt: Oh say that again, we have that same game but different …It’s Fuck/Marry/Kill
Justin: I don’t know what any of them mean! [all laugh].
Matt: Basically, snog is…
Justin: Stop! I know the meaning but… [all laugh]
Matt: I’ll get rid of Nicki Minaj, snog Rihanna and marry Beyonce. There it is!
Leighton: I think I will agree on that.
Justin: I’m just confused by all of them…[all laugh] I was a fan of Nicki Minaj until I heard that ‘Anaconda’ song! I haven’t watched that video but he told me it’s terrible - her voice is too harsh or something…
Matt: Beyonce – she is the queen.
Favorite junk food?
Matt: What counts as junk food? I’m not really like a chip guy.
Justin: Flavoured nuts cheetos are like my demise [all laugh]. They are like fried crispy cheese sticks.
Who is the funniest in the band?
Matt: Fuck you guys- ME!
Justin: We were parked down the venue that turned out into the club the other night. Everybody was dressed as pirates. And one of the pirates knocked at our bus and Keller [Matt] answered and said, ‘You are not boarding us, are you?’ Because he is a pirate…He is not trying to pirate our bus. That was pretty funny. But he said some funny jokes this tour [points at Matt, all laugh]
Matt: Thanks guys!
Boxers or Briefs?
Justin: Boxer-briefs that’s like a combination of two of them. Just imagine putting those two together…[all laugh]. They are a size of boxers but they are tight like briefs. [all laugh]
Leighton: These guys used to go commando!
Matt: I still do…Underwear is the worst thing ever, I hate it! [all laugh]