Fearless Records is definitely doing something right, signing band after band of catchy pop punk bound to take over the internet airwaves, some of which have already done so. Every Avenue is no different, with a string of radio friendly songs on their EP & full-length's it's just a matter of time before these MI boys and all their fellow label mates follow in the footsteps of that infamous label Fueled By Ramen, and conquer the world.
It was a band name originally for another band, and we were too broke to change our URL name so we kept it and saved $13. So the name has been around for like 5 years.
"Ah! can be used in so many different ways and every single way that word can be used described our life at the time. Like 'Ah! Yea! Good'. 'Ah! Yea... bad.'" Juliette from Automatic Loveletter chimes in with, "What about 'yay'?" Josh responds with, "That's what sucks about tours sometimes you get divas." Juliette rebuttals "That's why it’s so hard to talk to you."
If you're wondering were Juliette popped up from, it's because this interview is being conducted over dinner with both Every Avenue and Automatic Loveletter at the table. Juliette wasn't a part of the interview but she definitely put her two cents in. The interview was technically comprised of Josh and Mike from Every Avenue, mostly because the rest of the band wasn't really paying attention.
As I said the boys in Ev Ave, recently signed to Fearless Records. "Fearless has been amazing. We did ask around a lot when we were kind of shopping for labels. Everyone says Fearless was a label known for keeping its word and having really good artist relations." Sadly, Fearless didn't give the boys a clue when it came to the new album. "Does the new CD literally end with ‘Shh? Just Go With It,' like the EP ended with 'AH!'?" The look the boys gave me was as if I just killed their puppy. It was so sad! Through two encounters I've found this band, wear's their hearts on their sleeve, and this time was no different. "Oh... No. Didn't even cross our minds..." "I like that idea a lot actually." Someone dropped the ball.
"'Shh. Just Go With It' was like... We came up with all these ridiculous titles and made a list and sent it to the label. It's the only one they liked." "It's kind of an inside joke. The other one is called Ah! We only thought of that actually after. We like having call backs to other things we have lines in songs that are call backs to other songs." "We wrote a batch of songs and the label decided what two songs from the EP should be on the full length." "Getting Out used to be the last song on our set."
I would have heard that song (which is my favorite) if the All Time Low headlining tour bothered to stop within 100 miles of here, but that's a whole nother issue. Mike says the tour was "amazing. We made some incredible fans. Most of the shows were sold out, which was good for us because that was our first legitimate, wow, this is tour." Every Avenue can hold their own against our hometown boys. If you were following the prank war, you'd know "there were a lot of cakes thrown at each other’s vans. There's still cupcake on our van. All Time Low is like our fans brought us cake, let's smear it. We're like, our friends bought us cake, let's eat it."
"All Time Low ended up with human crap on their windshield." "Vinny Vegas definitely did not shit in a bag..." "Vinny Vegas." "Vinny Vegas... might know who did it." "We're not saying it was Vinny Vegas, we're not saying it wasn't." "I'm not saying he did or did not... I'm just saying he did..." This is the one and only time the whole table paid attention to the interview.
After that tour, Every Avenue headed out on their current headlining tour. "We're trying to keep an open mind we don't want to say our goal is to sell this many records. We got signed because of the songs. They know our fan base nationally, will grow. We're just putting the album out and hope to get new fans with it. We sold out of all of Ah! Honestly, our goal is for people to hear us. We're gonna have a full US tour with an awesome band that we can't announce yet. Also, we're going overseas for a little bit. It's definitely picking up for us." The US tour has since been announced: The Audition, Hit The Lights, and The Morning Light.
The Morning Light is Fearless Records most recently acquired bad. "Is Fearless the new Fueled By Ramen?" "We actually discussed this a lot. They just signed some awesome bands: The Maine, The Morning Light. We don't want to say they could but there's so much potential. They're making a brand." "Same with our label," Juliette pops in, "we love like Jennifer Lopez, Good Charlotte..." (Automatic Loveletter is on Epic Records). I don't even know how but this spawned one of the silliest statements of the night... "I want to start an organization to write love on my lungs... and it's gonna be for smokers," Josh says.
Here's where we took a food break. The whole interview there's so much background sound, but the second food was passed out, we had a solid ten minutes of silence besides the clattering of silverware. Food is serious business, kids.
Interview resumes, and I inquire about the scene in Michigan... "Pretty much non-existent. When we first started, there were a lot of awesome bands. There's a lot of metal-core around there. Not a lot of bands are doing the popular thing. I'm not really sure what the music scene is like now because we haven't been home. It's not the most fan friendly place for us. We haven't seen our hometown fans in one room for so long. That's where we started, playing at this VFW hall like twice a month. But it got shut down." Pop punk isn't popular where they're from, but in the spectrum of things, everyone is trying to classify them. "Some people try to compare us to Fall Out Boy but we don't really see it," Mike says. I say, "Old school New Found Glory." "I wouldn't have suspected that, so I can't get mad at that. I think a lot of people that don't listen to pop punk are quick to pull out Fall Out Boy or The Starting Line."
At the end of the interview, I finally slipped and say "Shh. Just Go With It" in conversation. That was actually the 18th time of the night, just never around the actual band. Josh found it funny, and we explained how we could have started a viral guerilla-marketing plan with just the album title. Josh says we should be on their payroll, so Fearless if you read this...
Every Avenue is coming up in the music world, but they're just starting off and know it might be a rocky path at first. They have mastered the art of also album titles. They've got some solid heads on their shoulders and big hearts. They're the type of boys to hop off stage after a set and give you a hug. They're also the silly type that fit in amongst their tours and aren't afraid to pull a prank or two to have a good time. There's a happy medium there. (No, I'm not gonna end this with "just go with it”). [CO]