Interview: SECRETS

Katie caught up with a couple of the guys from the post-hardcore act, SECRETS, after they performed in Atlanta on the Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. The very promising band from San Diego is one of this years additions to the Rise Records family and is already drawing major attention.  SECRETS can be caught all summer long on this year’s Scream It Like You Mean It tour!

Sound Scene Press: How are you guys doing today?
Xander: Awesome
Joe: Great!

SSP: Can I get you guys to introduce yourself, your name and role in the band?
Xander: I’m Xander, I’m the screamer.
Joe: Joe; play drums.
Xander: in the band!

SSP:How did you guys come together as a band?
Xander: Me, Joe, Mark (the bassist), and Sherman (the guitarist), were all in a previous band, local band, and we kind of just found Richard through networking.
Joe: And our manager knew him a little bit.
Xander: And we just kinda made SECRETS about a year and a half ago.

SSP: What is the main message SECRETS tries to send to listeners?
Xander: Lyrically, the last album, The Ascent, there’s a lot of dark songs about being hated on, being pushed away and doubted by family and friends. And the last song on the album is called “The Ascent”, which actually means to rise, and that’s about overcoming drug addiction and pretty much any addiction in life. And for the next album, me and Richard have planned a lot of uplifting songs, like actually after the drug addiction is over with and a lot of things that me, Joe, everyone in the band, we’ve experienced over the past two years, becoming signed and getting bigger and experiencing life better.

SSP: Your album, The Ascent, was released earlier this year. How has the response been so far?
Joe: It’s actually been surprisingly good! We honestly weren’t sure what to expect with the release. You know, this is our first album, like, as musicians. And it kinda blew us away. It’s been selling really well and the reaction at shows from fans has been beyond anything we could ask for so we’re really happy with everything.

SSP: You guys have been touring with a lot of big bands since your signing with Rise, how do you feel this kind of exposure has impacted your band?
Joe: It’s insane really!

*Ice cream truck passes*

Xander: Ice cream truck, LOL!
Joe: *Laughs* Come on man!

Joe: Anyways, just being on these tours with these big bands, you know, we’ve been listening to these bands years ago, never thinking we’d actually tour with them, so it helps us a lot that [their] fans are actually digging our style.
Xander: It’s actually like, honestly put, it’s SO surreal, it’s unreal! Like, we sat at home together, dreaming about doing this and now it’s actually happening. Sleeping With Sirens, Escape The Fate, Attack Attack, Of Mice & Men, Memphis May Fire, We Came As Romans! We’re living the dream! It’s awesome! We’re so blessed.

SSP: Y’alls set tonight was amazing and y’all are a great band to see live. What’s your favorite part about touring?
Joe & Xander: Thank you!
Joe: My favorite part about touring is seeing all the different cities, traveling across the states and other countries, as well as meeting all the fans and new people at shows [and] playing music for them.
Xander: My favorite part is playing the shows. This is our third tour since the album came out and this is pretty much the first tour that we’ve done that at least 20, 30, maybe even 50 people know our songs and I just think it’s a blessing and it’s amazing to see people screaming our lyrics, and that’s what drives me. That’s like why I’m in music.

SSP: defictionalize from Tumblr asks: What do you plan to do differently from other bands in this genre?
Xander: For one, a lot of bands, I don’t know if they do now, but SECRETS, all of us, we are always at the merch table in between sets of bands. We’re trying to talk to fans as much as we can because a lot of us in SECRETS, pretty much everyone in SECRETS, pretty much came from the exact same situation: local band, not really much. We didn’t have much money growing up and our fans are our whole life so we talk to talk to them. We are always signing autographs, pictures, at our merch table. That’s the one thing we do differently. Anything else?
Joe: Yeah, we just go as crazy as possible live. Best performance we can. Not to say that’s different, but we just make sure we do that every night.
Xander: Yeah, we go all out, like today. It was so hot today but we still gave it 120 percent. No matter the conditions, we will always go 120 percent for the fans.

SSP: What can fans be expecting from you within the next year?
Joe: Well, definitely touring. We’re going to Europe after this in the Fall. And then we have a  US tour that we cannot announce yet.
Xander: It’s going to be big though, very big!
Joe: Yeah. We are going to start writing for the next album also, coming up on some of our time off between tours and hopefully start recording. I don’t know when that will be. What, Wintertime, maybe?
Xander: Um, it really all depends on album sales and when Rise wants to put us back in the studio as opposed to on the road, so depending on that.

SSP: Alright, so we’ll go ahead and wrap it up. Any last words you guys want to say?
Joe: We want to see everyone on Scream It Like You Mean It! Come hang out with us!
Xander: We’re going to be at the merch literally between every set. At least one or two of us will be at the merch table. Come and talk to us about anything. Tell us anything you want about our band!