Cute is What We Aim For is a band that was bigger than a lot of signed bands before they even had a real full length. Their the type of band where you hear one song, and immediately they are your new favorite band. With a band name like Cute Is What We Aim For, it's hard to be forgotten, but it's also the topic of critisism. Rocking the Fueled By Ramen label, that Shaant blatantenly said they'd never leave, it's inevitable that they'll be larger than life.
Several weeks into Warped tour I sat in a crowded room with the easily recognizable, Shaant Hacikyan, who obviously just rolled out of bed, or felt no real need to get out of his pajamas. You can see the wear and tear of tour on his face. Not like he has any time to rest.
Cute will be heading back out on fall tour with poster boys for the scene, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, The Plain White T's. Then when the cold weather rolls around, will be heading into the studio for their follow up to the insanely catchy "Same Old Blood Rush With A New Touch"
Due to recently losing their guitarist, Cute brought David Melillo, out on Warped tour with them to fill in. David Melillo is signed to Drive Thru if you didn't know, (and you should check him out), Cute has gone out on tour with him several times, even before they were signed, and would love to have him as a permanant member, but only if he could keep going with his solo career as well.
"Video games & watching movies," the usual for the boys in their spare time. They're young boys out on the road, and Shaant has a special love for The Lion King.
In case you wanted to know, the Buffalo scene doesn't exist, and the drama doesn't follow them as much anymore. He says being a young band is horrible, because of everything that goes along with being young. They've grown up now, but in the beginning "sometimes we just didn't like each other."
"We think people who think we're cute are faggots," Shaant said quite bluntly in the interview. I'm sure they get asked all the time, but I felt the need to ask why. "People always come up to us thinking we're gonna be like 'hey! how are you?!' but we're really like 'what up?'" The name was meant to be ironic and "super sarcastic." I was still taken a back by the use of the word faggot, but that's just me...
Although, I'd met him before, Shaant was everything I expected, blunt, and a bit nonchalant about everything in general, and when he complimented me on my gold razor phone, I'll admit that I felt kind of cool. He's got that affect on people. [CO]