{"id":26430,"date":"2015-04-18T18:25:10","date_gmt":"2015-04-18T08:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=26430"},"modified":"2015-04-18T18:25:21","modified_gmt":"2015-04-18T08:25:21","slug":"matt-barnes-of-you-me-at-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2015\/04\/matt-barnes-of-you-me-at-six\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Barnes of You Me At Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>\u201cI remember the first time we did it was a Soundwave we were plying to four or five hundred people and then last time was supporting Paramore on those gigs was absolutely monstrous, some of those were like 15,000 odd people, so it\u2019s been a steady grow I think.\u201d<\/p>\n

From release: From infamous sold out shows at London\u2019s Wembley Arena and around the globe, YOU ME AT SIX are hitting Australia with their incredibly energetic live show. If it\u2019s anything like previous Australian tours, these shows will sell quickly, so don\u2019t miss out!<\/p>\n

Sitting at home not doing much we chatted to Matt from YMAS about the upcoming tour as well as new music, power ballads, and looking back at the last ten years with the band\u2026<\/p>\n

You guys seem to almost be making Australia a second home, how have you seen your profile rise here in Australia after repeated visits?<\/strong>
\nWell it\u2019s amazing, first off we love coming to Australia, so any chance we get or if our agent just emails us and says \u2018Australia tour, do you wanna do it?\u2019 we don\u2019t even know what it is and we\u2019re like \u2018yes, yes, yes, sign us up\u2019 so we absolutely love it and when you say it\u2019s a second home, it is, because it\u2019s a classic pommie thing to do, love Australia, go to Australia, but we are classics. I think it\u2019s our ninth time coming over for Groovin\u2019 The Moo this time so we\u2019ve been there a bloody long time. I remember the first time we did it was a Soundwave we were plying to four or five hundred people and then last time was supporting Paramore on those gigs was absolutely monstrous, some of those were like 15,000 odd people, so it\u2019s been a steady grow I think. Even our headline shows, this time we\u2019re doing some smaller ones because obviously Groovin\u2019 The Moo won\u2019t let us do massive ones but even then a small headline show for us in Australia is like a thousand people which is absolutely fantastic and we can\u2019t ask for anything more really.<\/p>\n

This time you\u2019re heading to play Groovin\u2019 The Moo as well as your own shows, in terms of preparation for shows, how does it differ for you between a festival set and a headline show?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d say it depends on what type of festival it is, and I\u2019d say for Groovin\u2019 The Moo maybe yes because it\u2019s a different dynamic of what we\u2019re used to, it\u2019s not the sort of festival we\u2019re normally used to, we normally do the straight up rock thing like Soundwave or Reading, this Groovin\u2019 The Moo is slightly alternative with some different mix of bands, we almost feel like we actually have to win people over that maybe haven\u2019t seen us before, don\u2019t really know about us or maybe even haven\u2019t heard about You Me At Six before. So we structure the set differently, we play the same songs you know, but the way the songs are structured, like the songs that are bigger at our headline shows, maybe we won\u2019t play that one last or something\u2026 there\u2019ll still be our fans in the crowd which is great, but I don\u2019t know\u2026 the best thing about this Groovin\u2019 The Moo thing is we get to go to places we\u2019ve never been in Australia, so maybe there is a secret hidden You Me At Six fan club in these places *laughs* which have been waiting for a while and we haven\u2019t come. So we don\u2019t really know what to expect\u2026<\/p>\n

It seems like you guys just don\u2019t stop, what has been the biggest challenge you feel you\u2019ve had to tackle, particularly over the last few years?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d say writing music for any band is the biggest tackle and the biggest stress, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve written a shit album yet which is been quite big in itself, like some bands, if they\u2019re four albums in maybe there\u2019s one that\u2019s a little dodgy and I feel like we\u2019ve always remained sort of relatively consistent, like the fans have never been \u2018Oh my god this album sucks blah blah blah\u2019 like every single ones has been more up in the charts and we\u2019re getting more and more fans which I think is quite warming, so it\u2019s adding even more pressure on this next album now, but it\u2019ll need to be just as good as everything else, but that\u2019s something that You Me At Six has always been pretty good at.<\/p>\n

With \u2018Cavalier Youth\u2019 out now for just over a year now has there been any thought or preparation started on new material?<\/strong>
\nWell yeah we haven\u2019t had much time yet, this is the first bit of time we\u2019ve had in a while\u2026 we just came off an arena tour in The UK and we\u2019ve been chilling, I mean I\u2019ve got a cat in front of me now, I got a cat three days ago so that shows you how much I\u2019ve been doing at the moment which isn\u2019t much really *laughs* so we\u2019re maybe about to start jamming and writing after the Aussie dates because then we have the rest of the year to write and relax and chill and so what we want to do. So we don\u2019t want to rush it, I feel like when you rush writing songs they come out terribly\u2026 I remember one time on our second album, we did a writing session up in Leeds which is four hours from where we live. We got into the studio for a week and we were almost forcing riffs out, forcing ideas out and we scrapped every single song. So the way we work is we write when we want to write we practise when we want to do it, you can\u2019t just go \u2018oh today we\u2019re going to write a song, so let\u2019s go and write a song\u2019 we can\u2019t do that\u2026<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019ve spoken to Chris and Josh before, and always reiterated my love for the big ballads you guys create such as \u2018Crash\u2019 and \u2018Wild Ones\u2019 so just throwing it out there, what are the chances of an entire album of power ballads?<\/strong>
\nOh yeah I\u2019d love to! I really like doing the slow songs and writing the slow songs. We always end up writing a few for each album as well and picking the best one, so maybe what we could do is go back and take all the slow songs we\u2019ve written and release \u2018You Me At Six \u2013 Power Ballads\u2019 with some sort of lightning bolt on the cover\u2026 I can see it now\u2026 that could be a success actually, we\u2019ll have to give you like 20% for that idea I think.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll do it for 10% and a credit in the album\u2026<\/strong>
\n*laughs* OK, deal!<\/p>\n

The special edition of \u2018Cavalier Youth\u2019 is out, tell us about the experience of putting the DVD together playing with the quartet?<\/strong>
\nOh it was amazing, we were in a studio actually playing a long to proper strings and working with a guy names Stephen Street who\u2019s worked with The Smiths and Morrissey who are some of his bigger bands, but you really didn\u2019t feel like what we were doing was a real thing, because over the couple of years every time you record an album it\u2019s been with bigger people and better studios and you never actually feel like a proper musician. This time we were in one of the best studios in London and you\u2019ve got four string players that are pro in the other room and you\u2019re like \u2018oh my god, this is an actual thing\u2026 we are proper musicians\u2019 because we have no time to really stop because we end up going from album to album, year to year, because You Me At Six have had ten years this year and I\u2019d say for the first even six or seven years because it was so non-stop we almost didn\u2019t have a chance to sort of stand back and think about what was happening, we were just going from tour to tour and getting stuck in. Recently we\u2019ve had a little time and with Cavalier Youth going to number one in the UK we\u2019ve had a chance to sit back and look at what we\u2019ve achieved and what we can do and how we can go into the studio and rework some acoustic songs and get some string section in and work with them and help them write what we wanted to do. Basically an amazing experience\u2026<\/p>\n

Being in this band now for just over ten years, has there been a highlight in that time that stands out above all others?<\/strong>
\nWell it was almost like a stepping stone festival for us, called Reading and Leeds in The UK, I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve heard of it, everyone knows Reading and Leeds, and about seven years ago we played on this tiny stage to like six \u2013 seven hundred people and then two years later we played the Radio One tent which is the second biggest stage and now we\u2019re playing to ten \u2013 eleven thousand people, and eventually we played main stage but half way up the day and that was maybe to forty thousand people, and then last year we played main stage but third from top which was something ridiculous to like sixty thousand people and it\u2019s almost like Reading festival has always been something we look at like \u2018our band was this size when we did it this year, this size when we did it that year\u2019 that\u2019s how we sort of gauge how big and how far we\u2019ve come, by Reading in The UK.<\/p>\n

Sounds like a child with a growth chart on the wall at your parents\u2026<\/strong>
\nyeah, literally, and we\u2019ve got all the posters from each year and you look at them and they\u2019re in a line and it starts off with You Me At Six at the bottom of the poster in the bottom space because they do it alphabetically *laughs* and then moving up a little bit more, up a little bit more, up a little bit more so we\u2019ve almost got our fingers crossed to see where we could end up in a couple of years or so, you never know.<\/p>\n

Other side of that, the business can be a crazy thing, what\u2019s been the most eye opening thing about being in a band that you didn\u2019t expect would be a part of it?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019d say almost fan reaction of how you are, because when we\u2019re at home and spending time with our family or with our friends we\u2019re just sort of what we do is the You Me At Six thing and everyone knows that I\u2019m in a band, but at home we\u2019re just getting pissed at the pub and walking home after a couple of pints, but on tour you leave the venue and everyone wants stuff signed or they want a picture, or they start screaming for you and stuff. It\u2019s really weird for us because we never got into a band to be sort of\u2026 and I don\u2019t want to use the word, but \u2018famous\u2019 perse and what someone wants you to be for who you are. That\u2019s almost the weirdest thing that I think we\u2019ve ever done because we never expected anything like that to happen and still to this day it still weirds us out a little bit that people actually want to meet us because when we\u2019re at home we\u2019re kept so grounded by all of our friends and family which I think is a very good thing and a good idea, because if you let it go all to your head you can always turn into a massive dickhead and no one actually likes you anymore, so we keep it quite chilled. The fans still blow our minds.<\/p>\n

Lastly, let\u2019s predict the future, so finish this sentence for me, by the end of 2015, You Me At Six will\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh God\u2026 by the end of 2015 You Me At Six will have written the best power ballad known to man\u2026<\/p>\n

Fuckin\u2019 A!<\/strong>
\n*laughs*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Catch You Me At Six at Groovin\u2019 The Moo at the following dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday 25 April – Oakbank\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday 26 April – Bunbury<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday 2 May – Bendigo<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday 3 May – Canberra<\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturday 9 May – Maitland\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sunday 10 May – Townsville<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.gtm.net.au<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\nCheck out You Me At Six at their headlining dates:<\/strong><\/p>\n

TUESDAY 28 APRIL \u2013 PERTH, CAPITOL THEATRE \u2013 18+<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>www.oztix.com.au<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

THURSDAY 30 APRIL \u2013 MELBOURNE, THE HI-FI \u2013 18+<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>www.thehifi.com.au<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

WEDNESDAY 6 MAY \u2013 SYDNEY, METRO THEATRE \u2013 Licensed All Ages<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>www.ticketek.com.au<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

THURSDAY 7 MAY \u2013 PENRITH, EVANS THEATRE \u2013 18+
\n<\/strong>www.ticketek.com.au<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Presented by Soundwave Touring<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Surrey, England<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong>\u00a0 Josh Franceschi \u2013 lead vocals, Max Helyer \u2013 rhythm guitar, backing vocals, Chris Miller \u2013 lead guitar, Matt Barnes \u2013 bass guitar, Dan Flint \u2013 drums, percussion, sampling<\/p>\n

Latest Release:<\/strong> Cavalier Youth (Cooking Vinyl)<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> \u00a0http:\/\/www.youmeatsix.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

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