Designer Magazine caught up with hot new US band ‘The Outline’ backstage at Manchester’s Academy before their sell out show supporting The Rocket Summer.
 

So you are just about to play your tenth show on the tour, how has it gone so far, what’s been the highlight for you all?
B. Its been a lot of fun, its been really really fun. I dunno what the highlight is, its all been really good.
A. We got to play a 700 year old building in Norwich that nirvana played, which was  a highlight for me. London was also an incredible show, it was really stressful, we got our gear at the last minute and it turned out to be really fun.

You played the first half of the tour with say anything and now with the rocket summer, does the touring experience feel different with the rocket summer than it did with Say Anything?
B. A little bit, I mean we played the same venues with Say Anything so as far as like club sizes and small amounts of beer, water, bread and peanut butter for our food, its pretty much the same. I think kids are a little bit more excited on this tour, there is a little more energy in the air.

I heard a story about you drinking Baileys from a shoe with Sam from Twin Atlantic, is there a story behind this? What other ridiculous stories have you got from the tour?
I can’t believe that people already know about that. The story is that on the last night of the Say Anything/Twin Atlantic tour we all went out to a bar and drank probably more than we should have and we were talking about the Might Boosh and we were both fans so me and Sam switched shoes and took a shot of Baileys out of each others shoe.
So thiis is somebody else’s shoe on the last of the tour in which both men have been living in the shoes for the past 10 days
A. It was fucking gross
C. No regrets right?
A. No. A lot of people know about that on the internet, so when I meet them for the first time its like ‘Hey, nice to meet you. You drink liquor out of dirty footwear’

You describe yourselves as experimental on the myspace (www.myspace.com/theoutline) have you done much experimenting on the tour?
A. You mean sexually?
B. We all sleep in the same same bed…
C. No we havent

This isn’t the first time you’ve toured in the Uk, what do you feel the main difference to playing over here is rather than in America?
Its way more expensive.
That’s it really
We get this question sometimes, its really hard to think
B. I think in the US it depends on a show, the first tour we did with Powderfinger was completely different venues, completely different people in the audience, different vibe and now these tours I think are pretty similar to what theyd be like in the states. So I think both countries are great for shows, it depends on the venue you’re playing and who you’re playing with.
A. Its weird to see British bands who sound so American, like Twin Atlantic, I feel if they went and played American shows or Warped tour would do so well.
C. People come up and say ‘I love your accent’, which we don’t get in America

I read somewhere that your favourite place to play is Manchester England? Why’ is this?

B. We’ve played here 2 or 3 times, the shows are always really good, the crowds are really receptive and energetic. Its an awesome city, we’ve spent a lot of our off time here just adventuring
C. We always meet new people too at the merch, and talk to them for a while. Seems like we make new friends everytime we’re here.
A. And one of our favourite bars is like down the block, Big Hands, so we get to play then go have a beer there afterwards.

So do you prefer it over here or America?

B. Over here, for like vacations sake and over in America for our pockets sake, because we lose all our money everytime we come here

On your myspace there is a song which is defiantly the most experimental one on there called ‘Braodway and Hurst’ Theres an English guy on there almost telling a story through the song. Any particular reason for this? Do you have a soft spot for the Uk?

B. Well he’s an American guy doing an American voice, so you got fooled by an American impersonator.
C. At the point, it wasn’t planned, the British accent at all, that just seemed to be something he had a knack for so we gave him a shot but now in hindsight its kinda funny that it is a British accent and we end up coming out here a bunch of times and people come up to me a loadda times and tell me they really like that song. They get fooled most people.
B. The guy that did it is one of our really good friends and he has a lot of British family so he kind of had a knack for it
A. And we do have a soft spot for the UK

So ‘the Outline’ Who came up with that name and does it have any meaning behind it?
B. Erm, my Dad, no it doesn’t have any meaning behind it.
A laughs

Who would you describe as your main influences for the band?
Er….Cyndi Lauper
B. Live or dead?
C. Tom Petti, Radiohead, Daft Punk, Nine Inch Nails, Sigur Ros, Ace of Base, Jamiroqui,
B. UB40. That’s it, that’s all ive every listened to actually
C. Twin Atlantic, Melee The Rocket Summer
B. Cheeeeesy
 

The album ‘you smash it we’ll build around it’ is available to purchase on itunes through the myspace at the moment, is there a story behind the name for that? what kind of feedback have you got here in the uk from that album?

Errrr….yeah…..there is……you have to read it backwards to get the meaning out of it though.
Its actually a modified John Lennon quote. There was an anarchist publication that was attacking John Lennon and his response to them was ‘You Smash It, Ill Be Around It’. We just thought it was a nice theme for productivity.With our record we tried to do something positive and creative.

B. Positive
A. Im kind of a geek and in our spare time im just googling reviews to see what people having been saying about the record and I think my favourite was that ‘listening to the outline is like having a really great girlfriend with a drinking problem’ and I don’t know that that’s completely untrue. I dunno, take that for what its worth

Whats your favourite song on the album?
 A. I think we all have different favourite songs. Mines ‘Why we’re better now’
B. That’s probably mine
C. Erm…ill go with ‘Broadway and Hurst’

Is that your favourite to play live or is there another one?
B. For me it is
A. I like playing them all

Are you writing any new stuff in between the heavy touring schedule?

B. At home we actually have a whole new record that’s almost done but we kind of postponed it to come do these tours. So we have a whole record of new material waiting to just finish up and figure out when we get home after we like sleep for 40 hours

Is the new album going to be more of the same or something more experimental?
A. Its all British accents laugh. Its different from this record for sure

Who would you say is in charge of the band? Is there a boss out of the three of you? Or do you have some sort of democracy going on?

B. My dad laugh

Do you like meeting fans at gigs? Do you get many coming up to you to talk after the show?

A. Yeah, we don’t sell much merch, we talk to a lot of people
We sign a bunch of arms and ticket stubs, we do meet a lot of people, its good fun
B. That’s like the most fun thing, just like having a drink by the merch table and just meet random people that you would never meet otherwise from like Wales, England, Scotland, random places, that’s really nice

Where do you see yourself in a years time?
A. Back here hopefully
C. Yeah man
A. Maybe academy 1?
C. Or 3?
A. Or 3. Or Roadhouse. Manchester hopefully

What about ten years time?
A. Rock and roll hall of fame dude, that was sweet.
C. Dead
B. I wanna be in the supreme court of rock and roll. We passed this shop front that says ‘The Supreme Court of Rock and Roll’, that was pretty bad ass.

Do you have a message for your uk fans?
B. Ardhjkdsjdskjkfdsneinndfkdipdf
A. Is this going to come out in text, cos I don’t know how you’re going to spell that word. I gues you’d say, isn’t it, follow your dreams kids or something.
B. I don’t say kids, you guys add kids onto the end of that. My tour message for people that are young and silly is believe in yourselves, follow your dreams
A. Grahams a camp councilor
B. I really like to encourage positive futures and be a good role model
A. Don’t do drugs
B. Do drugs. Buy our CD…please laugh.
C. Come hang out with us
A. If you like us on tour, please keep coming back so we can keep coming back.

The Outline’s album ‘You Smash It We’ll Build Around It’ is out now on 30:30 recordings.

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