I stepped in a van in Delaware with Justin & Jessica, the TWO lead singers of from The Morning Of, 40 minutes or so later, I finally stepped out. More of a discussion than an interview the topics ranged from ex-girlfriends to Bamboozle to The Beatles to New York.
"We actually do really well at The Knitting Factory in NYC. I'd say it's one of my top 5 favorite venues to play at. It was hard to play, [in NYC,] at first, but We went back after our album came out and sold out the downstairs."
The album, Justin speaks of is "The World As We Know It" released on Tragic Hero Records, they were signed rather abruptly while on tour with Alesana. "The World As We Know It" was written by Abir, he named it after the song on our record, he wrote it about being fed up about stupid shit that should matter. The world would be such a fucking better place if there was no conflict, and there's never not going to be conflict. It's just a call out, this is the world as we now it, let's change it. Why the fuck are we arguing about some stupid shit we shouldn't care about?"
Jessica being a girl vocalist in a band, I ask her the cliché question, whether she gets compared to Hayley of Paramore a lot. "Hardly ever," Jessica says, "I remember someone said to once, having a girl in a band is so cliché. I mean, why can't girl be in bands?" "As far as bands with girl singers we definetely get it the least, we don't utilize a girl singer the way they do," Justin adds. "It's like a slight lead, where as Paramore it's a completely girl fronted band."
"The first time I saw Paramore... I walked in and I was in the back of the room and I was like 'Holy Shit that dude can sing!' I thought it was like a little red headed boy then I got closer to the stage and fell in love,” Justin speaking of Hayley of course.
"Just for like a little reference, as far as Jess being a girl, she handles tour the best out of all of us I never heard her complain about the size of a show, or how many kids are there, or if it's a small venue... She just likes touring, she comes out, she has fun. I complain probably once a day about something, and I've never heard her complain. So that question, 'what's it like to be a girl on tour, people should probably stop asking her... and ask me," Justin jokes.
They had the privledge of playing in front of almost 3000 people at Bamboozle this past year, "It was so nerveracking, but as soon as I stepped on stage, all of that shit disappeared. It was still to this day the best show we've ever played." Coming right off summer, the kids have thoughts of summer camp on their mind, "I really strongly believe that if we continue to build the way we are going, we'll be on Warped Tour next year,” Justin says. He also divulges his first experience at Warped Tour. "When I was like 13 I can just remember going, and it was the first year that I ever listened to the music I was listened to, and I was wearing Aeropostale and preppy clothes, and I got made fun of all day, and I remember I went over to the first tent I could find and bought a Five Iron Frenzy shirt, and I had never listened to that band, and it was so much fun, and I remember getting so sun burnt, and I saw Thursday and I was just going crazy!"
Besides Thursday Justin also loves, "Fall Out Boy, The Starting Line and Jack's Mannequin. Any song those three bands have ever made, I love to death, and I would do anything [to tour with] any of those three bands. They could tell me, "Hey kill your family, I would seriously consider it."
More important than any of those bands, "Definitely, the Beatles, I wouldn't even need anybody else. If I was on tour with The Beatles, I wouldn't want anyone else, because I just want to focus on being on tour with the Beatles. I watch videos on YouTube of the Beatles played and I want to cry... I can't believe that that happened. I can't believe that there was something that monumental that happened in music."
The Morning Of hopes that they have that same affect on their fans."Just the fact that something I'm apart of means that much to somebody and changes their life, it just blows my mind," Justin says, then goes on to explain why the fans mean so much to him. "There's this girl that lives in Virginia, she made us a scrapbook, and I didn't tell anybody this but it like made me cry. Her name is Sara, if she reads this, Sara I love you. Each page was dedicated to a song on the album, it was just her favorite lyric and why it meant so much to her." "I went through a pretty hard time before this tour. My girlfriend broke up with me. I was really sad." "I was actually thinking of leaving the band, and I can't ever believe I thought that." It's just nice to come out and have people appreciate what you're doing. It totally takes my mind completely off of her."
The Morning Of is just a hard working group of kids making their name the old fashion way. "The first song on the new CD is called, 'Goodbye Gravity, Welcome Change,' means let go of everything you now because shit's about to change." Any last words? "The best is yet to come, I promise you." [CO]