Venue: London Earls Court Reviewed on May 11, 2007
At this year’s Give It A Name festival in London, Heaviest had the chance to catch up with Shaant from the band Cute Is What We Aim For. He was very excitable, very talkative and we think he was great. Here’s what he had to say about touring, recording and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!
Heaviest: Hi – Who are you and what do you do!
Shaant: Yo’ I’m Shaant from the band called Cute Is What We Aim For and I write the words and I sing!
Heaviest: For those unfamiliar with the band, tell us a little about it…
Shaant: We’ve been a band for 2 years, we got signed after SIX MONTHS! We released our record within a year and we’ve been touring on it for almost a year now. It’s our third time in the UK, we’re doing doing ALL of warped tour this year, and we are 18,19 and 20. I’m the eldest! Damn.
Heaviest: So excuse this question, but Apart from Cute – what else are you aiming for with the band?
Shaant: Apart from cute!? I’m aiming for… I really want music to mean something. With a name like this maybe that’s kind of difficult but like Nirvana did something one on e of their records, they took out a page, and it was like listen, if you’re a racist, a homophobe, if you’re an hole basically, fk you, don’t buy our records. You know. I kind of show that mentality because I believe music is love. I’m aiming for finding the proper audience that appreciates music and not necessarily the bullshit. AND, not judging a book by its cover but listening with your ears as opposed to your eyes.
Heaviest: What exactly can we expect to hear when we hit play on our CD players?
Shaant: You’ll hear some… aah, I dunno, I don’t like to hype things so I’ll just say, I think it’s fun, I think it’s up beat, there are some emotional moments, the lyrics are gonna get you, hopefully thinking… the melodies will hopefully dig a ditch in your head and bury themselves.
Heaviest: So I’m sure you guys were just over here the other day – how does it feel to be back so soon?
Shaant: No sht! Truthfully – we’re all SO burnt out. We’re supposed to be in Europe all this week with New Found Glory /All American Rejects but we had to cancel. I flew in today… they lost my bag GREAT. So… right now it doesn’t feel too great but when you look out and see 12,000+ people it’s probably the most amazing thing in the entire world. So I’m thrilled… AND, this weather is gorgeous! I’ve only been to the UK in winter and fall. SHT! This weather is the sh*t.
Heaviest: Ok so what have you got planned for us tonight?
Shaant: Dude I just don’t want to f**k up. I don’t want to make any mistakes and I want to have fun! Hopefully… we’ll make our mark you know. Maybe they’ll remember and that will be ideal. I never think we’re going to impress the whole crowd, but if we can impress half… that would mean the world to us.
Heaviest: That crowd out there, 12,000 that’s a hell of a lot of people…
Shaant: Totally – We’ve never played in front of more than 3,000 people ever so this is our biggest show! Biggest show of our LIVES. We’re all giddy, and that’s the worst thing ‘cos when we’re giddy… we mess up. So cross your fingers for us please!
Heaviest: Also you’ve got Warped coming up directly after this, are you looking forward to it or are you worried about being so exhausted?
Shaant: You know I am dude. We’ve got six weeks off. I’ve got respiratory laryngitis which I’ve had for about five months doctors said I should not be singing. I’m on steroids and antibiotics. So once we get through these five days or so in the UK I get to go home, go to a specialist, get surgery or whatever and relax. So… I am MORE than excited about the Warped tour, because as an American kid – well, The warped tour. You know how Epic that is. The impact. The first time we ever play it is the main stage for the entire time – dream come true for all of us. This is our pre-big stage warm up!
Heaviest: Being out on the road – is it as much fun as people make it out to be?
Dude it really is. It’s probably the most amazing time you could have. Right now, we’re never really bored. I’m with my best friends, on a bus – we got busses in the UK and at home now! When it’s in vans it’s a little tenser but busses… Man, you’ve got different floors, lounges, we all have such a great time but people don’t understand… when a local band for existence plays a show they get to go home. When we play… if afterwards I’m bleeding from the throat, we have to go and play the next night regardless because that’s just our job! I’m not gonna call in sick. BUT, if you don’t take care of yourself… which I’ve neglected to do because I’ve tried to have the most fun I could, you find yourselves in a hole later on. We’re all just kids. 18,19, we love it… a lot of our idols are a bit older, and I think in those years you develop a little more, but right now for us, it’s the dream. Truly!
Heaviest: Tell us a little bit about your album… (The Same Old Rush)
Shaant: Alright. Are you ready – It’s our debut album, we wrote 8 songs in one week when we were in the studio. We just cranked it out because we had writers block for like four months. The label were like OI!. We turned up to the studio and the producer was like ok guys, how many songs have you got 18,19? and we were like… 6. He was like F**K! So we just had to work super hard and write these songs, and what I like about that is that it’s real. There wasn’t a load of time to fine comb them, it was something which directly came out of us. A lot of the words just spilled out of me on the spot, thinking fast. Curse of curves took two hours.
Heaviest: I guess that’s a real natural way of doing it?
Shaant: Oh it feels beautiful for the fact that you… well, I’m an analytical person, but If you OVER analyze… you can screw yourself. Now I can pick it apart but the natural feel and the fact that it’s real, even… well these kids won’t care but I’ll say this to you now – our drum tones on the record… are real. Most drummers – every band here, and this is no bad thing, it’s just the standard protocol, you take a drum, you hit it once, you get the sound you like, you take that sound…. Well put it this way. Listen to your favorite record and listen to the drums. Every drum sound that you hear, is miraculously the same. They take that and cut and paste. WE- refused. Everything you hear is real, there is a thing called beat detect, we refused it so it was natural. It’s a great thing.
Heaviest: …and of course all this natural effort wasn’t put to waste as you broke the Fueled By Ramen internal sales record, beating Panic! At The Disco…
Shaant: It’s great you know but now they’ve got Mercedes and 2m dollar homes and I’m… living with…. cough my dad cough but no – you know, it’s a surreal thing but it’s true what they say. It doesn’t matter what your first week is… it’s down the road. We’re still keeping this progress. I’d love to be another Panic! but at the same time it’s not very realistic. Panic At the Disco, Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance are the only bands who have truly blown up.
Heaviest: Oh My Chemical Romance. Selling better than New found Glory? I’m bitter.
Shaant: Dude, you understand! New Found Glory – we’re touring with them. They got me into this music. I was listening to pop radio, I heard New Found Glory and Saves The Day, The Starting Line… New Found Glory just took it over. My first Warped Tour ever 2002 I saw them play, I turned to my friend and was like dude, I’m going to be doing this. He laughed in my face… now I’m playing on it!
Heaviest: So the seminal question has to be… New Found Glory or Blink?
Shaant: New Found Glory! The rest of the guys… Blink. Me, New Found Glory. Dude they are so real.
Heaviest: I’ve seen them more times than you!
Shaant: F**K YOU! I’ve seen them like 3 times! But we’re playing with them so ha ha! They’ve been to Australia 10 times! That’s more than like any band ever.
Heaviest: Have you written any new material since the last record?
Shaant: I’ve been writing internally, I think we all have. I think it’s going to be a lot more mature but still fun. My biggest thing is that I want you to be humming this at night and you can’t sleep at night ‘cos this is how I was with my favorite bands. It’s going to be very catchy, or at least that’s the aim… pardon the pun. Er.. musically, more in depth. A lot more…. Well, we’re going to take some chances. We’re not scared. We really intend on just doing it and making music that we’re f**king proud of and not necessarily just rushed out at 17 and 18 you know.
Heaviest: Well on that note, having humble beginnings, as in, being a young band yourselves… what advice can you offer to other young bands?
Shaant: Do it. DO It. Regardless. My music teacher gave me a folded up little packet which was sealed in plastic that looked like it was out of a cereal box. She took me up to the front of the class and said ‘Shaant this is the closest you are going to get to making it in music’. It was an Aaron Carter fold up poster. Needless to say. She was WRONG. So no matter what anyone says. I was an idiot because I didn’t take my SAT’s or anything, but just believe in yourselves and always understand that you can better yourselves and never think you are the best. Dude, I’m playing with All American Rejects and New Found Glory. Will I ever beat them? No. do I want to? No. Brand new. I mean hell. Brand New – I saw Jesse Lacey and I asked for the salt at his lunch table at catering today… when I realized it was him I was like sorry, sorry! He was like – you can take the salt man. but seriously. I took the salt and was like SORRY. I’m just a little kid. At the end of the day – we all dream, and when you get there, it’s a beautiful feeling. It’s amazing but you’ve got to keep setting yourself goals! Don’t get complacent. You always need to progress.
Heaviest: Well – You say don’t get complacent, but you achieved something totally amazing. You got a song on the TMNT soundtrack.
Shaant: DUDE TMNT – I was the kid that had the underwear, the turtle bus that opened up, action figures, posters, movies, I have all 3 twice in my DVD case – six of them!
Heaviest: Awesome. Well I have one final question for your – What are your plans, post Warped as that appears to be the end of your diary so far…
Shaant: We’re gonna take some time off, do a world tour – and by that I mean Australia, Japan, Europe, The UK – then back to the US for some. Write some new songs, record a record and hopefully release it in the spring!
Heaviest: Game set and match!
Shaant: You got it!
At this point, Shaant was dragged away so the band could play their set in front of 12,000 people. We hope they enjoyed it as much as we did, and we’d like to thank Shaant for his time!