What were your biggest influences while working on this ep?
On this EP, I know Blake was listening to a lot of scores, like movie scores and a lot of orchestral stuff he's really really into that. He's very into big band, strings, you know epic epic epic, he's in love with it. I was listening to a lot of instrumental bands because I decided that I didn't want any vocal influence, or as little as I could get, cause inevitably when you hear voices you take it in whether you think you do or not, so I really wanted to find my own specific sound, so I listened to a lot of like down tempo strictly melowish mentals. The other guys, I don't know we don't talk about what influences us that much.
What was your favorite part in making this EP?
My favorite part was…the whole thing, but me and Blake they flew us up to New York, here, a few times to co-write with these 2 dudes named Sam and Sluggo who they produce a lot of really awesome albums. We've never co-written or anything and they taught us how to structure a song, and it was an awesome learning experience. So we got to fly up here and hang out and just walk around, and we're Florida retards so it's different.
How was working with James Paul Wisner?
James is awesome.
What made you decide to work with him?
Well, we were really pressed on time, which is why we came out with an EP. We would ideally want to come out with a full length, but it was just like, really running out of time we wanted to get touring and stuff like that. So we decided to do the EP, and not that we're cheap or anything but we didn't want to spend all this money flying somewhere, packing up and moving and going somewhere. So he's in Florida, he's 2 hours away from us, so we just went there and he's produced awesome, awesome records. So it's just like, he's in Florida and he's amazing so why not. He's so cool, he's got a really dry sense of humor and we all have a really weird sense of humor so it was just awesome.
Who writes most of your lyrics?
I write all of the lyrics.
What is the writing process behind your songs? Do your lyrics come first, or does the music come first, or does it just depend?
Well, 24/7 I'm always writing. I just have journals upon journals, random scraps of paper everywhere. So that's always something that's happening, and Blake's always on Pro Tools or on Reason on his computer mixing up some recipe of a song that we all wanna start working on and he'll bring it to us. He basically starts it because he's got a brain of I don't even know what's in there, and so he'll come with us and Anthony will be like 'okay okay' and he'll get a feel of what he wants to go behind it. That's basically how it works and then Blake will record it on Pro Tools and then, we do either two ways, he'll record it on Pro Tools and I'll listen to it over and over again and we'll both work out melodies and then lyrics just come they just flow. That's usually how it goes, or we write we sit together on acoustic and hum it out, just jam and see what happens and it becomes a song.
What are your favorite songs to play live?
My favorite songs to play live, I absolutely love, we aren't playing it right now, but I love to play "Clocks".
Speaking of "Clocks", what made you decide to redo "Clocks over" any other song?
Well, we were gonna redo "In Pursuing Design" because that seemed to be a favorite. It was the first song we ever wrote together as a band and listening to it now we're like 'God if we would've done this and would've done that and would've done this it would've been like this much better.' Cause we've learned so much and we didn't really have a down-tempo easy feel on the EP it was all kind of like up and going. So we're like, we love "Clocks", and we wanna redo it but we wanna do it acoustic and build it up do something different.
If you could have anyone, living or dead cover one of your songs who would it be?
Oh wow, I would love to see 2Pac cover one of our songs or Frank Sinatra that would be rad, or alive, I'm thinking of dead people. Living people, you know what would be wild, is like bands that you listen to, there are bands out there that you just don't hear them cover songs because they're the band that everyone's covering. So, it'd be crazy to have a band like that, which I can't think of anything off the top of my head, maybe like Muse or like Coldplay or something, if they did us that would be pretty wild.
What's one of your favorite songs, by anyone?
You know what, every time I'm listening to music I'm like 'next time someone asks me that I gotta remember this' and I never ever ever ever do. How about "Where The Road Part"s by Dear Hunter, that songs so, so just good on your ears to listen to and I've been listening to it a lot lately. So that, I would have to say that, it's a great song.
What is in your iPod right now?
My iPod right now? A lot, I can take it out and look for you. What I'm listening to a lot of lately is the new Sound of Animals Fighting record, Amy Winehouse always is playing, and surprisingly a lot of Britney Spears and Lady Gaga. I know theres one thing that I keep listening to that I can't think of right now. Oh, I can't stop listening to Kanye West's new album, 808's & Heartbreaks it is so rad. I love it its awesome, I wake up I'm like I have to listen to it, I don't know why. Its winter time, and its really cold and I feel like it's the perfect soundtrack for winter right now.
If you can remember, what is the first band that kind of introduced you to this music scene?
I would have to say it all started with my sister. She's a gutter punk rock chick; she started taking me to punk shows when I was little. I remember the first CD I stole out of her car was The Sub Humans and I blasted it all the time and got all these crappy burned copies of like old Against Me and Anti-Flag. Just old punk and stuff, and then of course as I grew up and where I live the punk scene really died out. Then I just went into hardcore and listened to nothing but hardcore and then I realized wait, there's better music out there. It just went out from there.
How old were you when you took your sisters Sub Humans CD?
I was probably like 12, not that young it wasn't that long ago but it was young for me. I feel like my brain was made of mush until I was about 12.
How long have you been singing?
I've been singing, the typical answer is all my life, but I really have. I don't remember a time when I wasn't. I remember being little and that's all I would say I wanted to do and stuff like that. I didn't start taking it seriously till I started doing musical theater in elementary school and started taking voice lessons.
What's it like being on tour and kind of growing up on the road cause you guys are all pretty young?
Yeah, it's amazing, you mature in ways that you never think you would. You think you're mature and you go out on the road and you hang out with these people that are so different than anyone you've ever met, you get really cultured it's really really cool.
Is it hard?
It can be hard. Sometimes you're around your band a lot and you get pissy with each other, but it's really easy because it's like you've got the best job in the world. You get to travel around, meet new kids every night, play your music and make money…kind of and go somewhere with it. It's awesome, yeah it's amazing.
What's it like touring with all guys?
Everybody asks me that, I don't know I have like 2 girl friends that I'm like, the only girls I can possibly hang around with, and besides that I'm with guys all the time. I'm basically more of a dude than any of them are so you should be asking me what it's like to tour with a bunch of girls, really but its fun.
What's one of the best things to happen at a show or what's one of your best show experiences?
One of my best show experiences, I can't remember a specific thing but the best shows are always when there's a good crowd and good energy and t just builds builds and I end up on top of kids heads. That's always just the best shows ever.
Do you guys have any pre-show rituals?
Pre-show rituals, besides warming up, I always stretch or something and I ride my bike around whatever town we're in, and just go explore and I just feel so free. I'm 18 in a totally new city wandering around by myself, it's very free feeling. So I always do that
What's the weirdest thing that's ever happened on tour?
Weirdest thing that's ever happened on tour, god there's so many weird things of course I couldn't remember. There's always freaky shit happening, like people you meet and just the way people go about things. Sometimes, I don't know how to explain it. Its just everyday is just a weird weird, there's something weird everyday
Are you guys big on tour pranks?
Do we do tour pranks? When we first started touring we were like 'oh my god are we, are we gonna do this? Are we gonna let people do that to us? Are we gonna be into that?' Cause some people get crazy, we ended up loosening up and getting used to it. On our tour with a band called conditions, they're awesome. We got a bunch of conditioner and we put it all over their van and then they put tomato sauce—tomato sauce called ketchup and mustard and completely covered our van. We smelt like a giant hotdog, it was pretty cool.
What's your favorite city you've been to?
Favorite city, I love Pittsburg. I really like Pittsburg; it's really cool it's just like this awesome punk-rock town and every things real chill. I like tiny cities but that are big at the same time. Cause like the cities in Florida, big streets little building, and here its little streets big buildings.
What's one place you've never been but have always wanted to go to?
In California I've only been to LA, but the other parts of California I would love to go there, like San Francisco, I would love to go there. I've never been there, everyone seems to like it.
The Fueled By Fans staff would like to thank Sierra, Blake, and Devin for taking the (rather large sum of) time to do this interview with us.