Let’s just say this wasn’t the most professional place to do an interview so it was pretty ridiculous. The guys of Artist Vs. Poet know how to feed off one another, my questions were kind of a distraction to their free flowing conversation, so I tried not to interrupt too much.
Because of this lax attitude and where it was held, the interview strayed off on all kinds of tangents and let’s just say they weren’t all in their best state of mind, so as promised a good bit was omitted, another good bit was completely inaudible, and a bigger portion was filled with laughter, but as you know by now, allot of my interviews go this way.
Unfortunately, the band name Artist Vs. Poet did not come from an epic battle between an artist and a poet, but God gave it to Tarcy "...in a dream," he jokes. The five boys come out of Dallas, TX, a scene that they say is growing, "Amazing, right now. It’s starting to get out there. We’ve got ‘The Kids,’ we’ve got Pantera, and Bowling For Soup..." "What ever happened to Bowling For Soup?" I inquire. "They dropped off the face of the Earth," one of the boys respond.
Now currently on Fearless Records, AVP owes their contract to another tour, and coincidently another band, "We were on the Unsigned & On The Rise Tour and [the owner of Fearless] was there to see another band, and he watched us, and had us in the office like two days later." They went back and forth about saying what band he *was* there to see, but opted not to. You can Google it for yourself, but they do say the band is very talented.
"Were you talking to any other labels before you signed to Fearless?" I ask. "Yea, Equal Vision, Columbia, Atlantic, Fueled By Ramen, Warner Brothers..." The labels got larger and larger as they persisted so I moved on to, "Who’d you play with at your last hometown show?" "Our last hometown show was with FTSK"--"Those of you who don’t know that’s Forever The Sickest Kids..." "Who doesn’t know that?" "Some people might not know that yet." "The Secret Handshake" "Thee Armada, Norma Jean... NeverShoutNever... Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Bird A Sparrow..." At this point I have no idea who actually played their hometown show, but someone did get buffaloed. (Look it up on Urban Dictionary if you don’t know...).
At the time, the guys were on tour with Valencia & Houston Calls, gearing up for their current tour with Sing It Loud & The Friday Night Boys for the "Guys Guys Guys Tour." The Texas boys get to play at this year’s Bamboozle. "THIRD EYE BLIND!" they say in unison, but add after the fact that they’re also very excited to see No Doubt.
After Bamboozle they hope to make it overseas, because their EP was released in Japan in February. "We should be recording around June, and hopefully in the Fall, we’ll have [our full-length] out." "Any ideas for a name yet?" I ask. "The Full-Length Record," lead singer Tarcy says. "Sir Wellington & His Three Henchman, from the Land of Pleasant Living!" another one of the guys suggests. (Hopefully this gives you a clue as to what was going on while this interview was taking place, especially if you live in Maryland).
As if on cue, someone got buffaloed again...
AVP has an EP called "Alive Once Again" that comprised of far fewer than who’s currently in the band. "Funny story about Jason, he was our merch guy. Then our bass player quit... Even funnier story he didn’t play bass."
"How’d the rest of the band get together?" "Well we started dating..." "From the land of pleasant living" "OHHHH!" someone screams in the room because they’re losing at a gave of High or Low. "Our bands broke up and I posted a MySpace bulletin saying I wanted to start something up, and [Craig] replied to it," Tarcy says. "We’ve been in bands for years before that though... I’ve been in bands since I was 16. I said I was going to quit music at 23, and two months before 23 we got signed."
We were all being beckoned to play Twister, so I was trying to wrap it up. "Have you been doing this all from memory?" bass player, Jason asks. "Yea, that’s how I roll..." I reply. "I spent some time googling you guys earlier, I was on your Purevolume about 6 hours ago." "We have a Purevolume?" "Thank you, Fearless!"
Let’s just say this wasn’t the most professional place to do an interview so it was pretty ridiculous. The guys of Artist Vs. Poet know how to feed off one another, my questions were kind of a distraction to their free flowing conversation, so I tried not to interrupt too much.
Because of this lax attitude and where it was held, the interview strayed off on all kinds of tangents and let’s just say they weren’t all in their best state of mind, so as promised a good bit was omitted, another good bit was completely inaudible, and a bigger portion was filled with laughter, but as you know by now, allot of my interviews go this way.
Unfortunately, the band name Artist Vs. Poet did not come from an epic battle between an artist and a poet, but God gave it to Tarcy "...in a dream," he jokes. The five boys come out of Dallas, TX, a scene that they say is growing, "Amazing, right now. It’s starting to get out there. We’ve got ‘The Kids,’ we’ve got Pantera, and Bowling For Soup..." "What ever happened to Bowling For Soup?" I inquire. "They dropped off the face of the Earth," one of the boys respond.
Now currently on Fearless Records, AVP owes their contract to another tour, and coincidently another band, "We were on the Unsigned & On The Rise Tour and [the owner of Fearless] was there to see another band, and he watched us, and had us in the office like two days later." They went back and forth about saying what band he *was* there to see, but opted not to. You can Google it for yourself, but they do say the band is very talented.
"Were you talking to any other labels before you signed to Fearless?" I ask. "Yea, Equal Vision, Columbia, Atlantic, Fueled By Ramen, Warner Brothers..." The labels got larger and larger as they persisted so I moved on to, "Who’d you play with at your last hometown show?" "Our last hometown show was with FTSK"--"Those of you who don’t know that’s Forever The Sickest Kids..." "Who doesn’t know that?" "Some people might not know that yet." "The Secret Handshake" "Thee Armada, Norma Jean... NeverShoutNever... Scary Kids Scaring Kids, A Bird A Sparrow..." At this point I have no idea who actually played their hometown show, but someone did get buffaloed. (Look it up on Urban Dictionary if you don’t know...).
At the time, the guys were on tour with Valencia & Houston Calls, gearing up for their current tour with Sing It Loud & The Friday Night Boys for the "Guys Guys Guys Tour." The Texas boys get to play at this year’s Bamboozle. "THIRD EYE BLIND!" they say in unison, but add after the fact that they’re also very excited to see No Doubt.
After Bamboozle they hope to make it overseas, because their EP was released in Japan in February. "We should be recording around June, and hopefully in the Fall, we’ll have [our full-length] out." "Any ideas for a name yet?" I ask. "The Full-Length Record," lead singer Tarcy says. "Sir Wellington & His Three Henchman, from the Land of Pleasant Living!" another one of the guys suggests. (Hopefully this gives you a clue as to what was going on while this interview was taking place, especially if you live in Maryland).
As if on cue, someone got buffaloed again...
AVP has an EP called "Alive Once Again" that comprised of far fewer than who’s currently in the band. "Funny story about Jason, he was our merch guy. Then our bass player quit... Even funnier story he didn’t play bass."
"How’d the rest of the band get together?" "Well we started dating..." "From the land of pleasant living" "OHHHH!" someone screams in the room because they’re losing at a gave of High or Low. "Our bands broke up and I posted a MySpace bulletin saying I wanted to start something up, and [Craig] replied to it," Tarcy says. "We’ve been in bands for years before that though... I’ve been in bands since I was 16. I said I was going to quit music at 23, and two months before 23 we got signed."
We were all being beckoned to play Twister, so I was trying to wrap it up. "Have you been doing this all from memory?" bass player, Jason asks. "Yea, that’s how I roll..." I reply. "I spent some time googling you guys earlier, I was on your Purevolume about 6 hours ago." "We have a Purevolume?" "Thank you, Fearless!" [CO]