We Are The Ocean: “You’re never going to please everyone”
We have a backstage chat with the boys...
It's a crisp autumn evening and there’s a noticeable air of expectation emitting from the ever increasing crowd of kids surrounding London's King's College. We Are The Ocean are in town, trailblazing a path across the UK as they attempt to prove themselves, night after night, as one of Britain's best new bands. With album number two already in the can and a divisive new sound, the band are anxious to prove they're no one hit wonders. Rocklouder's David Neal sat down for a chat with vocalist Dan Brown.
Apparently you’ve been labelled a hardcore band, whether you like it or not.
Uh, ok.
Well, its meaningless but it’s a label none the less, right?
Yes, a genre's a genre. The media are always going to label it, so people get a gist of what the band sounds like, but you should always listen to a band and decide for yourself really. We didn’t set out to sound like anybody in particular, we’re just doing what we’re doing.
Does it hurt the long-term plans for the band being labelled so soon? Does it inhibit musical growth?
I think so yeah, particularly as we've just written our second album and it’s a lot different to our earlier stuff, so people could be quite shocked. But until that’s out we still have that label and will continue to being compared to heavier bands. To be honest, our new stuff isn’t that heavy and we’re heading in a separate direction, so its weird that this time next year people won't be labelling us the same as they are now. However, you can’t escape that, every band gets pigeonholed. So its up to the band to break out of it.
Is it a conscious decision to go down this new musical route?
Not really, it was quite natural. We all listen to different music while evolving and we’ve always been quite a heavy band but we realised we're quite good at writing some cool melodic songs.
If you read the forums it seems there’s a very noticeable split between fans preferring either the melodic or heavy side of the band.
We started off a lot heavier, and the new album is still heavy musically, but the vocals have changed quite a lot and there’s a lot more melody. But you’re always going to get fans that don’t like the new stuff. The whole point of doing it is that you hopefully attract new fans in the long run, but you’re never going to please everyone.
Well, all this affects you the most, you’re vocals are the heavy part of the band!
Yeah, on the new stuff it's complete singing, a lot more punk rock.
So the two vocals still remain?
The dynamic is still there but we’re trying to use it in a different way. We’ve done ‘Cutting Our Teeth’ and we’re really proud of it and the reception it got but now its totally different. We want each album to be a stepping-stone.
When did you write the album?
We wrote it during the summer in between tours during the festival run. ‘Cutting Our Teeth’ only came out in February but we recorded it last April so there’s been lots of time to write new material.
The last album suffered from severe release delays, I take it those problems have been resolved for the new release?
Well, we didn’t have a record label with ‘Cutting our Teeth’ so we were going to self release it and then Hassle Records, who we eventually signed with, came in at the last minute.
So right now your sound is very current, very popular. Is there a long-term plan for the band so you can change with the trends?
Our fans like what we’re doing at the moment so you want to grow up with the fan base. Its very difficult to bring in a completely new fanbase if you lose your current fans. You can never really judge what’s going be the new thing though.
Do you actually think about these issues while creating new music or do you just do what you want to do and hope the fans come along for the ride?
You try not to, because at the end of the day the most important thing is that we like the music, but at the back of your mind you know you have to keep the fans happy to some degree because it can all end so quickly. You can bring out an album that you think is brilliant, but no one else really likes it and you get dropped. So you have to meet in the middle really.
Well, We Are The Ocean are in a unique position as you seem to be on the verge of exploding. There seems to be a real expectation in the air.
Yeah, I think we have been on the cusp of something for a while. We’re playing the same venues on this tour as last year and they were all kind of half full, none of them really sold out. This time around we’ve sold them all out, so I think its gradually getting there and I like to think the second album will be when we find our feet.
So when do you feel as a band that you’ve made it? There always seems to be that ‘next’ goal.
Well, as a kid of 14 or 15 if anybody had said you would have toured with Underoath and played Download I would have been like, "Fuck yeah, that’s what I want!" But once you’ve done it you always want more. I don’t see it as being greedy because we do appreciate how far we’ve got, but you always need a new goal.
You were in America briefly.
Yeah, we recorded the new album over there and while we were there we played a few shows and did the Bamboozle festival.
How did that come about?
We just got a call from our manager while we were out there asking if we could take the weekend off to play it. Obviously we were like, "Fuck yeah!" So we got the coach from Baltimore to New York to play Bamboozle. We also did a couple shows with There For Tomorrow.
Are there any plans for We are the Ocean to take on America?
Definitely. We’re hoping to do South by Southwest in March, and Hassle are doing a lot of talks there to licence the new album.
There seems to be a mass of young Brit bands coming through at the moment like You Me At Six and Bring me the Horizon who are gaining success over there, playing festivals like the Warped Tour. Do you see yourselves being associated with those bands and that scene?
Well, I hope so. We’d love to play the Warped Tour.
Can you see a scene emerging in the UK to rival Britpop?
Yeah, well You Me At Six, Bring Me The Horizon and Enter Shikari are doing really well at the moment so there’s definitely a market there.
When is the new album out?
April. We’re really excited and happy with what we’ve been writing and are quite confident that its going to do really well.
Are you playing any of the new songs on this tour?
We’ve only just released the first album and we’ve just put out a deluxe edition of it for this tour, including four new songs. So we’re playing three of those but no, nothing from the upcoming album.
Aren’t you sick of songs you recorded so long ago now?
It’s the old songs that the kids react to the most so it never gets boring to play those songs, because you can’t beat that feeling.
You talk about the new direction but have the growling vocals disappeared completely?
No, it’s just a whole different vibe. We’re not as heavy as we used to be but we still have that edge.
Well, new song ‘Playing my Heart’ has you singing through the whole song. Is it indicative of what we can expect on the new album?
Yeah, it’s all following that vibe. It totally represents the direction we want to go now.
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