As the Soundwave festival completely sells out in all five major capital cities, the hype certainly has not slowed down.
Metalcore monsters Miss May I will be joining the combination of metal and punk legends on the 10th anniversary Soundwave tour across Australia, after having just wound up the extensive Warped tour in the USA promoting their fourth studio album At Heart.
Bassist and vocalist Ryan Neff of Miss May I is stoked with the band’s recent progress and could not wish for a better string of bands to join for Soundwave. “It’s pretty crazy,” he begins, “the lineup is really intimidating but pretty exciting. I’m sure I will be seeing at least five of the biggest bands that have influenced me throughout my career.”
In addition to checking out some history-makers on the bill, Neff is keen to hang out with many of Miss May I’s good friends and former touring buddies.
Soundwave will be the band’s second time in Australia, after a much unexpected debut visit on our shores as a fill-in band supporting music heavyweights Parkway Drive. “Yeah, that was wild,” recalls Neff. “We went from having no plans to get to tour Australia at all to two weeks later touring with Parkway Drive.”
The transition from small club shows in Europe to packed out stadiums across Australia was surreal and overwhelming for the band. “We were playing small shows with a capacity of 200 and then all of a sudden two weeks later we are in Australia playing in front of thousands of people on tour with a band who we can definitely say are one of the biggest influences on Miss May I as a modern metal band.”“We just wanted to go into a studio that had produced a bunch of records we loved.”
Neff says he felt like a celebrity when the band made their live debut in Australia. “It was unbelievable. We literally played a tennis arena on that tour and we were walking down hallways –
Miss May I co-headlined a club gig with The Wonder Years whilst in Australia which Neff also describes as ‘pretty wild,’: “There were people jumping off the second floor balcony on top of other people. It was a really late show, everyone was drunk and it got pretty rowdy.”
The band have just wrapped up their second consecutive Warped tour and are cherishing their current time in the limelight. “We thought it couldn’t get any better after the first year because we thought a band like us to even make it to Warped tour was huge. Then this year we got invited back to the main stage.”
“We were sharing a stage with bands that are absolutely legends to us like Anti-Flag,” Neff certianly appreciated the opportunity to tell some of his biggest influences how much they have impacted his life and musical career.
The new-age metalers went about things differently for this year’s tour however, deciding to get more involved and outgoing while on the road. “We had to get used to the whole festival atmosphere during the first year. It’s very ‘cliquey’ and the first year we would just sit on our asses a lot staying away from any drama.”
With that in mind, and given there are often band feuds that occur in the music industry, you may wonder if Miss May I have run into foes: “People would like to think that we do but we have been smart enough to stay out of trouble. There are not enough problems going around in the band world that out-shadow real-life ongoing problems in the real world.”
“We might disagree in the way some bands do things or the way they go about it,” says the band’s clean vocalist, with a more mature outlook, “but we would never be the band to blast them online; who the hell are we to say so?”
Neff explains that the band didn’t have a fresh album released when on their first Warped tour like they did the second “whereas this summer we came in, kicked the door down with a brand new record [At Heart] and came out with great tracks because we had a great publicist.”I felt like I was being watched, like on WWE when the wrestlers arewalking from their dressing rooms.”
The group have matured musically since their first record and note the differences in their sound. “(2009 debut) Apologies was a big leap for us as a first record. When it was being written it was being inspired by other bands like Unearth and Bring Me The Horizon. It was shaped into the fast punishing style that came out.”
With such huge success from their debut studio album, Miss May I were immensely stressed out when producing their follow-up album, facing the pressures of living up to heavy expectations – but they stepped up to the plate and further established their name.
With such a high level of dictatorship by producers and industry ‘experts’ for their previous albums, the band decided to change things up a little bit. “When it came to producing At Heart, we had two decent records in a row, major fans all over the world and all these amazing tours and we just wanted to do something different,” explains Neff.
“We just wanted to go into a studio that had produced a bunch of records we loved.” Which is exactly what they did, working with famed producer Machine (of Lamb Of God, Every Time I Die, Suicide Silence production duties) at his famed Machine Shop in Belleville, New Jersey to craft metalcore anthems like ‘Hey Mister’ and ‘Day By Day’.
Following Miss May I’s musical journey, many will be anticipating what to expect from them at Soundwave next year; well here’s what Neff has promised: “More crowd surfing, more head-banging, more circle pits and hopefully thousands of people singing ‘Hey Mister’ with us. We are going to bring our A-game and give it all we’ve got!” Who can argue with that?
At Heart is out now through Shock Records. Miss May I play as part of the sold out Soundwave Festival next Feburary and March, 2012. Full dates and details here.
