Introduction
Hard hitting American rock quartet Wake Me, pull no punches. With heavy riffs and melodic vocals the band is growing at quite the rate! Having completed a brilliant cover of Seals “Kiss From A Rose” and a recent support slot for Avenged Sevenfold. Let’s just say the future is bright. Hope you enjoy the interview as much as we did making it!
Interview
Whats the story behind the bands name , what made you pick Wake Me?
Wake Me – Unfortunately it’s not a very good story. We were trying like crazy to come up with a name that sounded like a real band name (debatable if we accomplished that) and also wasn’t already taken. Wake Me was basically the one band name that we all didn’t hate ha ha!
In all seriousness there was some meaning in it about sleeping through life doing the bare minimum while having big dreams and feeling you have to wake up and start living those dreams.
Of all the songs in the world , what made you cover Kiss from a rose by seal (It’s fantastic btw!)?
Wake Me – (Collin) Ha thank you! It was actually a pick of Justin’s, and he tried to convince me for many months that it would be a good cover and frankly I didn’t see it. Then we actually sat down one night and started working on it while we were living together and something definitely clicked.
It was pretty obvious once we started putting guitars to it that the song was a heavy rock song in disguise. It ended up translating super easily once we got it going in our little home studio.
What was it like supporting Avenged Sevenfold, what are they like as people?
Wake Me – Honestly it was pretty surreal to say the least. We were totally surprised that we got treated so well by their crew and we also got to hang with a couple of them at the end of the night and they were super nice!
They went out of their way to make us feel like a part of the family for the night it was everything we dared to hope it would be supporting those dudes.
Speaking of Avenged, which one of their songs if your favourite and if you covered it how would you change it?
Wake Me – (Justin) “I Won’t See You Tonight Part 1” has got to be my favorite because of how epic it is and the vocal performance is just amazing. I honestly can’t say I would want to change anything about it except maybe hear it as a modern rock mix with big fat drums.
Playing on your bands name , how long have you guys been asleep for ?
Wake Me – Haha…clearly way too long! Legend has it we still haven’t woken up…
You have recently played your first arena show , and it was in your home town, how was that moment?
Wake Me – It was CRAZY. We actually had some pretty severe technical difficulties with our guitar rigs right before we went on so on top of preparing mentally for playing in front of a big crowd like that, we were all pretty focused and stressed out about trying to troubleshoot our issue and eventually decide to scrap our normal routine for our pedal boards and switch everything manually which we had not rehearsed or even set up to do.
But we really pulled together, made the changes we needed too and pulled off one of our best shows ever. Very proud of the guys coming out of that one. Once we got into our groove and especially towards the end of the set we were able to really take it all in and enjoy the moment!
Do you have any plans to come to the UK?
Wake Me – Playing a tour in the UK is on our collective bucket list, we talk about it all the time actually. I firmly believe we will make it out there but we don’t have anything concrete in the works quite yet. Soon guys!!
Of all the incredible bands you have shared a stage with so far , who were the most fun to support?
Wake Me – Opening for Avenged Sevenfold was probably the most fun we’ve had – their crew treated us super great and wanted us to have a great experience. Matt and Johnny came to hang out after they played and we felt super welcome. Not only that but the Avenged fans were absolute legends for the reception they gave us which was super positive.
Now that you’re headlining your own shows , is there any bands you would want to be your own support?
Wake Me – Oh geez – in a dream world maybe The Amity Affliction? Catch Your Breath, Dayseeker or Dead American would be rad too!
You’re currently working with Joey Bradford , what is he like? Does he complain about My Chemical Romance off stage as he does on it ?
Wake Me – Haha….Joey is a real one. Haven’t heard any digs on MCR but he is Super fun to write and hang with. He brings the best out of whoever is in the room and makes sure everyone’s ideas get a fair shake.
What are your plans for an album , is there one in the works? If so when can we expect it ?
Wake Me – For now we are still focusing on releasing singles…we would probably tackle a true album if we get backing by a label.
Finger on the trigger is a tune! What inspired the song?
Wake Me – (Collin) The song started out with a cool chorus idea Joey was riffing on one day when we walked into the studio, we all got super excited about it and wrote the rest of the song that day!
Lyrically the song resonates for me because it’s about feeling like you’re just barely holding it together in life and you’re just putting one foot in front of the other to keep going, but you make it through.
Is there anything about being a band that still surprises you?
Wake Me – It might sound jaded, but not really! Maybe that even through the ups and downs we still want to keep doing it!
Can you tell us something that nobody else knows about the band ?
Wake Me – We used to be called “No Fair Fights” and had several songs used for MTV’s Real World/road rules challenge! We also had a song on the tv show “The Riches”.
Our cover of Kiss From A Rose was originally released under that band name but since we just rebranded ourselves we decided to keep it in the catalogue since it was so popular for us.
A personal favourite of ours at Fox Reviews Rock is blood moon , could you break down what the song is about ?
Wake Me – This song is about a fatal attraction…..someone or something that you are obsessed with even when you know it’s bad for you.
If you could play a show in any country in the world , where would it be and why ?
Wake Me – Probably Brazil! Or anywhere in South America, we’ve heard people love rock and metal down there!
Anything you want to say to fans?
Wake Me – Just thank you for continuing to check out our stuff! We’ve got a ton of sick releases coming up!
All rights to the songs used in this interview are retained by Wake Me. All photos were provided by Wake Me. The photos were taken by Spencer Peck, Svetlana T , Dave Gaslin.
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