Interview: Jeremy Bolm (Touché Amoré)

Touche Amore at Hypnotic

Before their 12/14 show at Hypnotic Lounge with Pianos Become the Teeth, Seahaven and locals Caravels and Alaska, our very own Felipe Garcia and Tom Monahan sat down with Touché Amoré vocalist Jeremy Bolm to talk about his intense love for Raising Cane’s chicken, why the majority of Warped Tour makes him sick, and the prospect of playing gigantic European arenas on their upcoming tour with Rise Against.

Felipe: How do you guys like Vegas?

It’s awesome! We don’t get to come out here too often but the last time we were here was crazy fun. We didn’t know what to expect because the time before that was a really small show. It’s our fourth time being here, and every time has gotten better and better.

Felipe: What are some of the things you like to do here in town?

I like to eat Raising Cane’s because it’s my favorite place in the entire world and they don’t have them in California. They’re very few and far between. They’re sprinkled across the South and there’s one in Boston and then one in Vegas. Right before this tour actually, a lady friend and I drove from LA to Vegas specifically to eat Raising Cane’s. I almost got a Raising Cane’s tattoo today. They have a holiday logo of the dog wearing sunglasses and a Santa hat, with two candy canes Xed. I’m straight edge, so everything makes sense. I looked at it and was like “I would fucking get this,” but I didn’t have time and also I shouldn’t spend money on that right now. But I’m thinking about it.

Felipe: It seems like the LA area has up-and-coming bands on every block. How do you think you guys managed to stand out and gain such great national attention?

First off, thanks! What makes LA great is that there are a lot of different kinds of bands and everyone supports each other. Joyce Manor is one of our best friend bands. Obviously us and Joyce Manor don’t really sound alike but we can play a show together and it’s awesome. Same with bands like Rotting Out or Alpha & Omega, they’re definitely way different styles of bands but we all play together and everyone supports each other. If a band in LA gets a lot of hype or attention, like Rotting Out at their height of everyone loving them, if we played a show with them, they’d be super supportive and be like “everyone should check out Touché Amoré!” and we do the same for them.

LA is a city that gets a lot of attention. Also, if there are new bands in cities like Boston or Richmond, they’re going to get hyped quickly.

Tom: There’s a pretty great scene in Pennsylvania right now.

Pennsylvania is killing it! Title Fight, Dead End Path, Tigers Jaw, Balance and Composure. There is something in the fucking water in Pennsylvania. I plan on doing some research. It’s crazy. They’re all so young and just killing it right now.

Felipe: When did you guys approach Seahaven for this tour?

While we were in Europe. This tour was kind of a nightmare to book because there were so many bands we wanted to have be a part of it, but everyone was waiting to hear about a tour, going to be on tour or already recording. We’d considered Joyce Manor, Dangers, Algernon Cadwallader, Punch, or Commadre. Circle Takes the Square was potentially going to be on the whole tour but they only ended up being able to do the first week. Planning this was such a headache, that I’m almost trying to forget it. We knew Pianos Become the Teeth were going to be there right off the bat. We had planned that forever ago. Then we were like “Yo, Seahaven!” They’re from our area, they’re the nicest kids, their brand new record came out the week before we went on tour. It’s perfect. Everything fell into place.

Felipe: How has this tour been?

I’ve had a great time. It’s gone well and beyond our expectations. This Vegas date is our last night, which is sad. A lot of cities like Seattle, for example, the Northwest had never really been that good for us, but on this tour both Portland and Seattle were great.

Felipe: You guys are on tour practically nonstop. Is it really important to you guys to stay on the road and in touch with fans?

When we’re at home, we feel like we’re just stagnant. We always want to go out and do something. I think it’s more out of us just hating being home and wanting to find a place to play. I love that we can tour through the same place three times in a year. You see the same people and you see familiar faces. It’s awesome to keep in touch with people.

Felipe: The accessibility of your band is something that I know a lot of fans appreciate.

There is something really special going on, like with the Pennsylvania scene, but all over the country. La Dispute from Michigan, Joyce Manor from LA. There are so many cool bands that are young. There is something building right now. The best thing is that everyone supports each other. We can tour with Seahaven. We sound nothing alike but the same kids are here for the same bands. They’ll buy a Seahaven shirt and they’ll buy a Pianos Become the Teeth shirt. That’s really special.

I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that this will get the fuck rid of so much garbage that has been ruining things. Everything on Warped Tour makes me sick. Warped Tour will pick like 8 good bands a year, and that’s pushing it. The rest is just this ignorant garbage fucking fashion bands that aren’t doing anything good for anybody except just wasting everyone’s time. It’s not sincere, it’s offensive. And not offensive in the way that Marilyn Manson shocked people and it was awesome, it’s offensive in the way where it’s just garbage. It’s so fake. Bands that think they’re on some higher plane and actually have those rock star attitudes are fucking awful. All that shit is just garbage.

All of us are always on tour, and we’re the most accessible people. We’re not trying to hide behind anything, we’re not too cool for anybody. You could come up and talk to anyone in any of these bands at any show and everyone will realize we’re all just normal people. The magazines and press have taken a lot more notice to what’s going on. In the past year, magazines like Alternative Press have started covering bands like Balance and Composure, Title Fight, us, La Dispute, Defeater, Make Do and Mend, and Pianos Become the Teeth. With all this going on, let’s hope that this is what can maybe change kid’s views on things. I hope this continues. Because there is just so much Johnny Craig shit that just needs to get the hell out of here.

Felipe: Early next year you guys are set to tour with Rise Against over in Europe in larger venues and arenas. How do you feel about that?

I’m terrified. We’re all very excited about it, but it’s a challenge for our band. We went into it knowing it was going to be a challenge, because we rely on crowd participation. Zero crowd participation is going to be happening at those shows where the barrier is so big. Some of these venues are gigantic. If anything though, it’s going to make us build as a band so that we don’t rely on that. It will make us actually work on being a performing band. It’s an opportunity we absolutely couldn’t pass up. It would be stupid if we did. We’ll see how it goes.

Felipe: You guys seem to draw from a lot of different musical influences.

Yeah, all of us come from a lot of different things. To be honest, I’m the token hardcore kid in the band. Everyone kind of likes some hardcore. All of us can agree on Converge, The Nerve Agents, Modern Like is War, The Hope Conspiracy and bands like that, a lot of Deathwish bands obviously, but overall, not a lot of stuff like that gets played in the van. You don’t really want to play a hardcore show and then listen to hardcore in the van. Our influences range from like Sonic Youth to The National to Leonard Cohen to Isis to Envy, all sorts of stuff. We’re all over the place. It’s never been strictly hardcore.

Felipe: Lyrically, where do you draw inspiration from?

Day to day nonsense. If I had to pick people who’ve inspired me, I’d say Leonard Cohen is a huge one. Him and Matt Beringer from The National were huge influences on the new record. Jim Carroll is one of my favorite writers. I’m not someone who is consistently writing. I wish I was. But I don’t write at all until I need to. I never have focus. It’s always when I’m needing to do something, I’ll put my mind to it. And then usually whatever is going on with me at that moment is what comes out.

Felipe: Can you talk a bit about your relationship with La Dispute and Geoff from Thursday?

I’ll start with La Dispute. Our demo came out on No Sleep Records. We made a demo CD and gave it to Chris Hansen who I had known for years, and who used to work at Revelation Records. My best friend Joey, who runs 6131 Records, was coworkers with Chris, so that’s how we met. We had made the demo and I just kind of gave it to Chris and was like “you have a label now, do you want to press this on 7 inch?” and he was like “okay!” This was really early on, within the first 7 releases for No Sleep. Then right before or shortly after, he put out the first La Dispute full length and they came on their first West Coast tour and I booked them two shows in LA. When I heard the record I was like “this is cool, I like this.” But it was when I saw them live that I was like “holy shit!” You meet certain people in your life and you just instantly connect with them in a way that you know is special. That’s how it was with Jordan and I. We all throw down super hard with the entire band but Jordan and I just had this weird bond where we were pretty much inseparable for those two days. We just couldn’t stop talking to each other. Our relationship built from there. I think we’ve played with them more than any other band throughout the years. The idea of a split came pretty quickly. That took a year to happen, but whatever.

And Geoff! That dates really far back. I met Thursday on their first West Coast tour, when they played with Murder City Devils and American Steel in 2001. I loved Thursday, I was a huge fan boy. Thursday changed my life. I let them know that. I was 17 when I met them and they were 20, 21 and they just opened up to me. They treated me like a friend instantly. Every time they came to LA, they’d be nice enough to list me and we’d hang out all night. So after years of being friends with these guys, when I started Touché Amoré, I sent Geoff our demo and he was like “this is cool!” When we started becoming a touring band they took us out with them and The Fall of Troy and The Deer Hunter, and that was like our first major tour, and Geoff sang on our first record. That band has been our older brother since day one.

Felipe: How do you feel about them calling it quits?

It’s sad. We got to play with them in Pittsburgh on this last run. Our tours met up and they combined shows. Our entire band had food poisoning, it was a hard night. We’ll never eat McDonalds again. That’s a whole separate story in itself.

It’s never been their fault but Thursday has always been dealt the worst cards. Everything always went against them in one way or another. It’s an influence and an inspiration to see them kicking and screaming no matter what and doing what they want to do. I respect that so much and I think that’s what we’re always going to take from them. Don’t let shit get in the way. Do you. They were killing it in like 2001-2004. They had the opportunity to be the poster boys for everything, and they kept it sincere. They weren’t on the cover of every magazine trying to be some fashion thing. They were just themselves. Maybe it worked against them, maybe it did. But they didn’t take shit from anybody. They were always genuine.

Certain things add up though. I’m glad they went out on their best record. No Devolution is insane. Full Collapse will always be Full Collapse. Everyone will always have their Nevermind, you know what I’m saying? Well, that’s controversial because In Utero is obviously the better record. I feel like Full Collapse is their Blue Album and No Devolution is their Pinkerton.

How does it make you feel to see all the accolades and praise you’ve gotten in publications in LA and around the world?

It’s very flattering. For LA Weekly we were named number one metal band, which, we’re not metal at all, but I’ll take it. The fact that we’ve wound up on countless lists, whether it’s number 8 out of 10 or 15 out of 20, it’s crazy flattering. Since the 90s, I’ve always made my own top records of the year, so knowing that we’ve made so many lists is really crazy and overwhelming.

Felipe: When do you think we’ll hear new music from you guys?

We’re home for the holidays and we don’t leave again until February for that Rise Against tour, so we’ll try our luck at writing a couple of songs, maybe put out a 7” or something like that. But as for a new full length, I think we’ll let Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me simmer for a little bit. We’re not going to rush into writing another new record. That’s the last thing we want to do.

Felipe: What bands should we make sure we check out?

There is a band from London, ON Canada called Single Mothers, and they’re the best band in the world. There you go!

Interview by Felipe Garcia and Tom Monahan
Transcribed by Ashleigh Thompson
Photo by Emily Matview (edited by Tyler Newton)

 

About the author  ⁄ Felipe Garcia

My name is Felipe. I'm 21 years old and a Journalism major at the College of Southern Nevada. Music, friends, and a good time is pretty much all I need.

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