Blessthefall are an American post hardcore band who have been incredibly busy over the past few years. They’ve done more tours than any band can dream off, including a long stint on this years Warped tour. Current vocalist Beau joined the band five years into their creation (and one album down the line!). His arrival in the band was a breath of fresh air with the release of two further albums including last years release ‘Awakening’.
Blessthefall are playing alongside seven other bands as part of the Impericon Never Say Die Tour which is set to travel the lengths of the UK and Europe. HTF caught up with lead singer Beau Bokan when the tour landed in London.
HTF: The tour is in full swing now so how’s it going?
Beau:It’s going great. It’s only like the fifth show but it’s awesome so far and we love it out here. I can’t wait for tonight’s show, London has always been great to us.
HTF: Was it difficult getting back into touring after a few months off?
Beau:Yes. Like warped tour earlier this year was completely insane, like a crazy schedule but then we took like two months off with one little show inbetween so it was kinda like getting back into the groove. Like you have to go out and purchase your travel sized items and stuff like getting back into the bunks. It did take a couple of days to let it settle in and especially in Europe cause like my phone doesn’t work out here and it’s different in every country. But we’re getting there.
HTF: You’re playing with so many bands tonight. Did you know any of them before the tour?
Beau: No we toured with We Came As Romans once but everybody else we hadn’t met. There’s a few bands I hadn’t even heard of and some bands i’d heard of but not seen before. So it’s pretty cool you know checking them all out.
HTF: Have you managed to catch many of the other bands sets?
Beau: A few yeah and we’ve still got a long tour. We are saving one band a night so we’ll be done pretty quickly.
HTF: When you had a few months off did you actually get time to relax?
Beau: Yeah actually. My wife and I just got an apartmnt so we moved into our new place and got to go home, take care of some business in L.A. It was pretty cool to see all of my friends and they’re not used to me being home either so I would call them and be like hey what are you up to? and they would be like shit aorry I didn’t release you were in town. So it was good time off.
HTF: What are your favourite things about touring like UK and Europe?
Beau: Nando’s! And not only because we heard they sponser bands but i’ve had nando’s like three times in the past two days since i’ve been here. It’s definitely one of my favourite things. And wagamama’s. It’s all about the food. It’s weird because people always say the opposite like the food is terrible in Europe but now it’s like these are my two favourite things I look forward to. And just the fans are juat so stoked that you’re here.
HTF: Do you fans here different to back home?
Beau: Yeah I mean they’re obviously more excited cause we don’t come over here as often but we’ve been pretty good with getting over here. Like this is our fifth time here so it’s like home. We have fans from Spain that came all the way and they’ve come to France to see us. I saw the two girls out front and that’s just amazing to me. They gave me this little notebook of pictures and stuff. And one’s like a map of all their travels from all the places they’ve seen us play and it’s crazy.
HTF: Does it feel weird people doing that?
Beau: Yeah I mean it always does to see someone take a plane to ee you but in the states sometime they’re like oh Blessthefall they’ll be around here again in the next couple of months. I don’t want to say all of them, but some take it for granted cause there’s so many bands playing and cause we tour so much they almost just expect like if they don’t have the money for the show they’ll just be like ‘i’ll go next time’. But like out here they don’t know how long it’s going to be until we’re back.
HTF: So what’ been the best crowd so far this week?
Beau: Oh Manchester was really awesome. It was a smaller stage and there was a barrier but it wasn’t far so a lot of high 5’s were going on and the crowd was super energetic and loud so it got real sweaty.
HTF: Do you find having this many bands on the bill helps cause theres loads of people here for different bands?
Beau: Yeah yeah, it can go both ways. Like some of our fans may not have heard of some of the heavier bands, more hardcore like Obey The Brave, who are a really great band. AndStick To Your Gunswho are an awesome fucking band- they’re more hardcore so normally we probably wouldn’t tour together other than something cool like this.
HTF: So when you’re over here what do you miss most about home?
Beau: I miss my wife.
HTF: Is it weird being away so quickly from her?
Beau: Yes it is, it’s hard but she’s busy aswell so she’s working hard. The hard work and being busy just keeps you going and stuff but thats the hard part. But it’s not too long like we did over 6 weeks for the Asking tour and this i only half as long.
HTF: As least you can look forward to Christmas and stuff.
Beau: Yeah exactly we have time to spend in our new place and after thia we do a quick headlining run and then we have a tonne of time off. Like we’re going to do our letter in April.
HTF: Have you started writing anything for it?
Beau: Yeah we’ve got a few songs down and we’re just going to stay low and kinda disappear for a bit. And we’ve never really done that so it will be interesting to see what happens: like we’ve always toured and I think we’ve maybe had like a month off so it’s going to be weird.
HTF: So is the album the main plans for next year?
Beau: Yeah we have other plans we can’t talk about yet that will be really awesome but the record is the main focus. Like i’ve got four songs on my ipod right now that i’m working on. We’ll see how recording goes and hopefully we will have a single out before, so don’t forget about us!
Interviewer: Rhian Westbury
