Walk The Moon played an amazing set in Bristol on April 9, travelling through thier back catalogue playing the hits from the new album, as well as their early gems, not forgetting 'Shut Up and Dance' and 'Anna Sun', of course.

Before their set, Native spoke to Nicholas Petricca, Kevin Ray, Sean Waugaman and Eli Maiman about live shows, venues versus festivals, differences between their rock and pop sounds, and so much more.

How are you enjoying Bristol?

NP: It’s great, we had a day off here yesterday, which in tour terms is an eternity to have a full day somewhere!

Enjoying the rain then?

NP: It’s not too bad. It’s been really cold in a lot of place we’ve been in Europe, so it felt like summer yesterday.

I’ve seen you’ve been putting up videos on Instagram about different places you’ve visited on the tour, have you recorded anything for Bristol yet?

SW: I found a pub that had a picture of Nicholas Cage on the second floor. It’s just at the bottom of the park where Cabot Tower is.

Am I right in thinking this is only your second or third time in Bristol?

All: Yeah… the third?

KR: We played at Thekla one time.

Do you not really tour the UK much in comparison to America and Europe?

NP: We do it more than Europe.

What do you think of the UK as a live music scene?

NP: Like the states there are towns where it’s harder to get [crowds] out of their shell, and then other cities that are just ready to party. I actually remember Bristol as being one that was pretty loose and ready to have fun.

Have you got a favourite city to play at in the UK?

KR: I remember last time at this venue actually being pretty fun.

NP: Our first show here at Thekla was kind of legendary for us. It’s a crazy venue and it was totally packed out.

SW: We found audiences like to sing along, like the football culture when singing chants is bigger here.

Have you heard about Thekla being threatened with closing down?

NP: No, is it sinking? *laughter*

KR: They finally decided it was unsafe.

Haha no, there are a lot of small music venues near residential areas which has caused noise complaints.

NP: And that’s why they want to close it down? Because of noise complaints?

Yeah, there are already a couple in Bristol that have been closed down. In Cardiff there’s a row of small live music venues and they’re doing exactly the same.

EM: If the venue is there before you got there then legally you’re moving to the nuisance, so you have no rights. Do you understand people? *moves closer to recorder* YOU HAVE RIGHTS!

It’s obviously important for smaller acts to have smaller venues where they can grow.

KR: It’s important to have places where people can play instruments. We’re fans of DJ culture but it’s certainly not all of music. We’re very much a live band, we pride ourselves on being guys playing instruments and making rock ‘n’ roll, and we’ll do what we can to fight to keep that alive. That’s what we cut our teeth on and how we grew up, it was an important part of our musical formation.

There’s a lot of energy in your shows.

KR: A lot of potential energy… not so much… kinetic energy.

NP: You’re potentially… a decent band.

How do you keep going each night?

NP: The relationship with the audience is a special and important one. It’s a revolving, fully sustainable, recycling of energy. We’re making all this huge sound and sending out this vibration and they’re sending it right back with their instrument, their body, their voice. So it’s this big dance between the audience and the band.

Do you prefer venues like this in comparison to festivals then, because it’s more enclosed?

NP: I don’t know, I don’t know. I mean some festivals are just so epic, it’s such a treat for us. But then, festivals are also really volatile and just kind of unpredictable, so sometimes they’re a total s**t show, and sometimes that’s when they’re the best, so it’s really hard to say. I think our favourite thing is not necessarily small venues but a place where it’s our show, and we can create and curate the flow of the night with the set.

KR: But no seats. *laughter* Like if there’s seats out there, that s**t puts a damper on our night immediately.

NP: Yeah in Birmingham we played a venue where there was a second floor and it was all seats, and we were shouting at the top floor to stand up, and they did and as soon as they did in the middle of that song, security came round and told each and every one of them to sit down. There was some safety thing maybe, or they just didn’t want people to have fun. They were the fun police.

KR: They were being really nice about it, like “I’m really sorry but can you please sit down.”

I wanted to ask about the music, I’m more of a rock fan than a pop fan, so because of that my favourites of yours are ‘Headphones’ and ‘Up 2 U’ etc. What’s the inspiration behind having one really hard song like that and everything else following a different genre?

KR: I think there’s a part in all of us that harder, 90s rock that we grew up with just comes out of us naturally. ‘Headphones’ interestingly was written when we were all in a room together just jamming, so that thing just comes out of our blood and our mojo. I think a song like that is very naturally us, and I personally love that we get to play a song like that.

With the writing process, is it normal for songs to come out as sort of the first draft in one session, or do they take months and months?

NP: it’s really different every time. ‘Headphones’, for instance, was a song where we had this time set aside to go into the studio and try something new, and I was like “guys, do you want to try something weird, I have this weird tune about headphones.” But it didn’t sound like anything, it was just words on a page, and the general idea of the beat or something.

There will be always be the seed of something, whether it’s a page of lyrics or a bassline that Kevin was f***ing around with in sound check. Something like that, then it becomes something else when we all touch it.

How far in advance do songs usually come about, like are there riffs you’ve created while in sound check on this tour and you think it would be good for the next album, or a song that’s almost done now for when the next album comes out?

NP: That’s kind of the way it is yeah. It’s interesting being on the road and being back in Europe, because I can actually remember a lot of songs on the previous record that have started in sound checks in these rooms. And it’s two years ago that we were here, and since then we’ve written a record. So yeah, that’s often the place it starts.

‘Shut Up and Dance’ is obviously the hit that most people know you for, but I saw an interview with Smash Mouth where they said they didn’t like ‘All Star’ because it’s the only thing people know them by. What are your views towards ‘Shut Up and Dance’ like that?

NP: It depends how you frame it. We could be like “oh f**k that song, people only know us for that, f**k that.” Or, it’s like this really great problem. I think we’d be crazy to wish it never happened or something, because it’s something that has given us the opportunity to do more of what we love.

KR: If you didn’t take advantage of a hit song that brought potential lifelong fans in, then you’re doing it wrong. ‘Shut Up and Dance’ is a gigantic business card for us, you come to our show and then you hopefully stay for the rest of the music.

Lots of bands would end with their most famous songs to make sure fans don’t leave halfway through the show.

KR: But then also it’s meant to be at that point. If you put your hit song in the middle of the set and people leave after it, then you’ve had half of a set to convince people to stay, and then you’re maybe screwing that opportunity up to keep them.

NP: It is strange, it’s weird for that to be the song because it’s not in the middle of the Walk The Moon spectrum.

What did you think the song that made you would be if it wasn’t that?

NP: When we wrote that song we felt like it was going to be big, we’re fans of the song.

SW: We think every song is going to be big. *laughter*

EM: it’s a good thing it wasn’t a ballad.

It there was a song that would be big and would be right in the middle of the spectrum from ‘Headphones’ to ‘Tiger Teeth’, what would it be?

EM: I think it’s ‘Anna Sun’. I think that encapsulates a lot of the things that are stylistically Walk The Moon. It’s got big game vocals, it has this happy/sad dancing vibe. I think if you were making a bullet point list of what is Walk The Moon, you would have most of the ingredients in that song.

NP: Our next single is ‘Kamikaze’, and while I don’t really think it sounds a lot like anything we’ve done, it is somewhere in the middle of being really heavy but also really melodic. I’m really excited for us to push that on, because I think it’s showing a new side to us.

When you create new music, do you see how popular other songs have become and try and replicate that formula?

NP: I think that’s certain death.

There are some bands who are doing that to an extent and have changed their sound, would you consider doing that?

EM: I think that’s unfair, whenever people do that the reaction is “oh they’re just chasing this commercial sound”, like you don’t know maybe that’s just what’s in their heart. They want to express that. I’m not saying I never did, I’ve definitely participated in that kind of speech, but at this point having been through it and having made three records, my heart is just as much in ‘Headphones’ as it is in ‘One Foot’ as it is in ‘Tiger Teeth’ as it is in ‘Press Restart’.

To say that any of those were chasing something and to judge their motivations without knowing it is like a strange judgy behaviour that I think we should move on from.

KR: I think the key word is ‘chasing’, because you’re not categorising at that point you’re just making an assumption. You can categorise that this ended up sounding like this thing, but to say they were chasing it is hard. Sometimes we’re so influenced by a sound and we wonder what it would sound like through the Walk The Moon filter. Where we’ve got writers block or something like that, we can just play in the style of The Police.

So it’s part of the process rather than just a chase?

KR: Yeah, it’s not necessarily like if we do that then we’ll have a hit, it’s more just experimentation.

Who were your biggest inspirations?

NP: Prince, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Electric Light Orchestra…

Classic list!

EM: We like people who change, people who evolve, who are unpredictable.

KR: I often go to Coldplay personally, Coldplay and Muse are both bands who give something a try. You realise that they’re not afraid to just do that thing.