WARPED TOUR INTERVIEW : With Confidence

Getting the chance to sit down and chat with one of Warped 2016’s newcomers, Australia’s With Confidence, was more than what I ever expected and a lot of fun. We chatted about the life on Warped Tour, the sensation that is Pokemon GO, stories from Japan and much more! Read the full interview with Inigo and Josh of With Confidence below and purchase Better Weather here!

Punk In Wonderland – Hey guys, super excited to get to talk to you today. Can we start off with simple introductions and your role in the band?

With Confidence, Inigo Del Carmen – Hey I’m Inigo and I play guitar.

With Confidence, Josh Brozzesi – And I’m Josh and I play the drums.

PIW – So this is your first Warped Tour, is it different from other shows you have played in the past? I know you guys have played other big festivals like Slam Dunk… how does the atmosphere of Warped compare?

Josh – Definitely different, yeah.

Inigo -A bit more chill I think as well because we’ve got so many dates on. Gives us time to see other bands and chill out a bit. But it’s been fun.

Josh – Slam Dunk was pretty fun, as I loved so many of the bands playing. It was three days and I loved so many of the bands that I was kinda there as a fan and a band member, so I went crazy over the shows and those three days.

Inigo – You kinda didn’t have to work the line as much at Slam Dunk. People kinda allocated times for us.

PIW – Oh I know here it’s all over the place with bands and your set times changing everyday.

Josh – We love the hustle of that, it’s a really cool part of the Warped culture.

PIW – I know you guys just released your album back in June, so congratulations on that feat. Have the crowds been responding well and pretty pumped about it? Learning all the new songs?

Inigo – Yeah yeah. Lot’s of people singing lyrics and stuff. And for our first time in America, it’s been crazy.

Josh – We just don’t know what to expect, especially with us being on one of the smaller stages.

PIW – Small stage, and being brand new!

Josh – Exactly. We never know what to expect, and to still get some good crowds it’s been sick. Incredible.

PIW – And just overhearing from Pit Blog, you guys are one of the many bands of fan favorites to watch this year. So that’s pretty cool!

Josh & Inigo – Wow! That’s dope!

Inigo – Yeah the North East has been pretty good to us. Pretty much just everywhere as well.

PIW – I was just gonna ask, since you guys are from Australia, have you guys noticed any differences between the audiences back home and the ones here in the states?

Inigo – Um, I’m not sure. I feel like our audience back home, since we’ve done like 12 or 13 Australian tours…we have like a really cool diehard fanbase there, of people who will literally see us everytime. They kinda know what to do in all the songs, they know when to mosh and everything. People here, it’s their first time and they are learning so. I love the people here, I love the pits. We’ve seen people pit in our slowest song, our poppiest chorus…and it’s kinda like ‘My First Mosh Pit’, everyone’s just smiling.

PIW – Just going for it. Making it happen. *haha*

Josh – It’s not even a mosh pit… it’s a happy pit.

PIW – Happy Pit. *haha* I like that.

Josh – It’s so cute. People jump around, push a little, shove each other. Love that.

Inigo – We have people crowd surf all the time. It’s really friendly. The weirdest thing with the people crowd surfing, is that it’s to the weirdest songs at the weirdest times… we’re just like, “You did good! Go you!”. *haha*

PIW – Living the dream at Warped Tour! *haha*

Inigo – Yeah! It’s cool, I’m happy to be out here. Introduces us to new people, it’s been fun.

Josh – We introduce people to mosh culture. Spread the friendliest and happiest vibes. It’s been a good time.

PIW – And we have great weather today, usually we get a lot of rain for Pittsburgh’s Warped. So that’s always good. You guys do anything fun when you’re not playing on stage?

Josh – We check out a lot of bands throughout the day. Eat food. The catering has been amazing. Hang out in the bus for the air con (conditioning).

Inigo – I like to nap in between, it is just nice to revitalize your energy especially if you don’t get that much sleep at night. We have bus calls super early…

PIW – And you are traveling all the time on tour.

Inigo – Yeah. And if you want breakfast, you gotta get up super early. If you want the good donuts… basically, if you want the good stuff, you have to get up early. All the good Pokemon too.

PIW – Oh, are you guys into Pokemon Go? I hear it’s taking over Warped…

Inigo – Oh yeah. All the time. Team Valor.

Josh – Team Yellow for me.

Inigo – *to Josh* You’re like Hufflepuff…

Josh – Not even. We’re the underdogs, but we fucking kill it man.

PIW – Well… perfect with speaking of Harry Potter, I have to know. The song “Voldemort”, what’s the story behind the name?

Josh –  It was our vocalist’s idea, Jayden. One of the big things that came out of our album was the topic of mental illness, not really by choice, but it just happened to be what we were writing about. And how it was affecting us and our friends, a lot of people in our lives. We write about experiences a lot, and with “Voldemort”, theres a line in the book that’s a quote from Hermione Granger about Voldemort.

Inigo – “Fear of the name only increases fear itself.”

Josh – So Jayden compared it to mental illness, how a lot of people don’t want to talk about it, and it has this huge stigma of being open about it. So he thinks it’s time that people start talking, and with “Voldemort” we can spread that message.

PIW – That’s incredible. Even just talking about it, I have an interview later today with the organization Can You Hear Me? and they are all about breaking down that stigma, and bringing that to light, and I think that is so important.

Josh – It’s definitely one of our favorite themes that came out of the album, it kinda happened naturally and I really like the song.

PIW – That’s amazing. Now, I’ve heard that you guys are pretty good friends with another band making their debut on Warped this summer, ROAM.

Inigo and Josh – Oh Yeah!

PIW – Any tour shenigans you would like to share?

Inigo – So far it’s been pretty good. In Japan, we toured with them and a fire extinguisher was let off in a hotel room at like 3am.

Josh – In Japan, they just want you to be drunk for like 1000 yen, which is like $7 US dollars. You get free drinks for like 4 hours. You can get shots, you can get cocktails…anything. Doubles. So we just got really messy, and it happened real quick. And it wasn’t a normal foam extinguisher, it was like… pink dust shit from hell that just went everywhere. We could not sweep it up, we couldn’t mop it… as if it got wet with water, it turned into a paste.

PIW – Wow. Kinda equivelent to glitter, you can never get rid of it. 

Josh – Exactly.  I don’t know what kind of fires it was made for, but we were all trying to clean it and we were all so drunk, it was a mess.

PIW – Have you guys been able to hang out on Warped Tour at all? 

Josh – Yeah! We end up watching eachothers sets most days, play some soccer. Yeah. We are pretty good friends with them.

PIW – Who else have you guys been checking out here at Warped?

Inigo – Story So Far, and some cool bands playing our stage like Safe To Say, Broadside, Like Pacific. Pretty much all the Journey’s bands are my jam. Especially Yellowcard, it’s their final tour.

PIW – Oh yeah. And we even have all the big names like Sum 41 and New Found Glory out, it’s incredible. 

Josh – Oh yeah, looking forward to clashing with Sum 41 today with set times. Someone’s always gonna clash, but it’s still fun.

PIW – It’s a great tour, and I am so happy I had the chance to talk with you guys today. Any last words to say to our readers or fans out at Warped today?

Inigo – Thanks for coming to see us, thanks for learning the words. We play Warped Tour all summer so come check it out if you haven’t seen us yet! Love and Peace!

PIW – Thank you so much! Have a great time on Warped Tour this summer! 

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