{"id":35874,"date":"2018-10-03T16:20:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T06:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=35874"},"modified":"2018-10-03T16:20:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T06:20:52","slug":"josh-franceschi-of-you-me-at-six-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2018\/10\/josh-franceschi-of-you-me-at-six-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Franceschi of You Me At Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201c\u2026we needed to do something fresh for ourselves and we needed to reinvent ourselves a little bit, six records in can\u2019t keep doing stuff that feels the same, because as I said then you just become a band that just sort of bit by bit blows into obscurity\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

From Release: The band have notched up a list of considerable achievements since forming in 2004 as teenagers in Weybridge, Surrey, including four UK Gold Records, four Top 10 albums in the UK including\u00a0Number 1 album\u00a0Cavalier Youth<\/em>, three\u00a0sold out\u00a0arena shows, sold out UK headline arena tours, an unparalleled 15 consecutive A-List singles on BBC Radio One, multiple sold-out US headline tours and a Number 1 rock song in UK & Australia and Top 5 Rock Radio track in North America in\u00a0Room To Breathe<\/em>. With\u00a0VI<\/em>, You Me At Six are stepping out of their comfort zone and are about to change the way you think about them. Prepare to have your expectations shifted as 2018 marks a brand new chapter for one of the UK’s biggest guitar bands.<\/p>\n

At home in London, Josh gave us a call to talk about You Me At Six\u2019s new album \u2018VI\u2019, their updated sound, touring Australia, advice, and much more\u2026<\/p>\n

Mate, always a pleasure to chat and to catch up, it\u2019s been just over twelve months since we last chatted, so as always let\u2019s catch up, how has the last year treated you?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s been cool. It\u2019s been one of those sort of so many changes within our camp, new management, new label, I think we\u2019ve sort of like fleshed out the whole squad so to speak, it\u2019s the whole new thing. It\u2019s been an incredible year for the band in terms of putting this record together, coming back and having the new songs be received so brilliantly it\u2019s been wicked. All feels really good.<\/p>\n

For an album that\u2019s a little different for you guys, what was the process like putting this album together compared to previous albums?<\/strong>
\nI think the main thing would be that we really sort of started the record on the road which we\u2019ve never really done before; we started writing the whole thing whilst we were touring \u2018Night People\u2019. So that\u2019s been obviously an interesting thing and that\u2019s been because we also integrated the fact that we now write the majority of our music on our lap tops, sort of before we get into the actual studio we\u2019ll do a lot of work writing it through there and sending back and forth demos that way. Max and I often wrote with a man called Eg White who became very integral to this record, prolific song writer, but we went to write with him to suss out where we were at so why not try and learn some stuff and that\u2019s when those sessions became some pretty important songs on the record such as \u2018Fast Forward\u2019 and \u2018Back Again\u2019 and \u20183AM\u2019. It\u2019s just been a new experience the recording, back recording it in England, living in the studio and being in the middle of nowhere without any distractions and just being three pubs in a ten-mile radius versus living in Hollywood, you know? Far more focused, far less distraction and we just really sort of harboured that and really just wanted to sort of focus on making sure that we delivered something that was just different and had people\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Was it important for you a as band to try something fresh?<\/strong>
\nYeah I kinda felt if we didn\u2019t that we could be sort of in a space where we sort of start fading away. Like if you\u2019re not gonna do something different, if you\u2019re not gonna mix it up then that thing that you may not push on, it was important that we did that, that we were really starting to find our feet in a new time for the band. In general, man, we needed to do something fresh for ourselves and we needed to reinvent ourselves a little bit, six records in can\u2019t keep doing stuff that feels the same, because as I said then you just become a band that just sort of bit by bit blows into obscurity, like you\u2019re not pushing anything, no one is sitting there saying \u201coh have you heard the new You Me At Six record?\u201d and they say \u201cOh yeah I heard it once\u201d they listen to it one time because they\u2019ve done the same shit they\u2019ve done before. So we wanted to maintain the identity in what we believe to be good at so to speak, but we\u2019re amazed constantly by the fact that we really needed to embrace these other sounds that we have within our band that we want to push forward as we\u2019ve done with this one.<\/p>\n

As the band grows and continues what are you finding to be second nature now that may have been a hindrance in the beginning?<\/strong>
\nWe found that we have records like \u2018Sinners\u2019 where every song was like its own island, we found at the time that maybe that\u2019s not a good idea because maybe are you a band that sounds like \u2018Bite My Tongue\u2019 or are you a band that sounds like \u2018Crash\u2019? What band are you? And that was the only hindrance at the time, but I think in the world we\u2019re living in now and the way that we\u2019re consuming music through streaming services and the like I think actually your band sort of almost reinventing itself on a song by song basis is almost imperative in terms of keeping people\u2019s attention. If you get a record and you\u2019ve heard three or four songs and you think yep, that\u2019s what that record sounds like then you potentially miss out on people listening to the rest of the record, I don\u2019t think people listen to music the way that they used to. So we wanted to make sure that there was a real vastness to the record that there are songs that are sort of quintessential You Me At Six rock sounding songs then also us embracing the other sort of styles that we love and that we want to incorporate into our sound.<\/p>\n

And also doing amazing choreography in videos\u2026<\/strong>
\nSomething like that yeah *laughs*<\/p>\n

Of course Australia is a second home for you, any idea on when we can see you back?<\/strong>
\nWe\u2019re actually looking at some dates in April at the moment so we\u2019re just trying to find the touring, you know for us Australia it doesn\u2019t matter how many times we come back or whatever, every time we do I still get that kind of excited feeling at the airport because I know what I\u2019m gonna get, I mean last time was way too short, we literally flew in we were on the ground for 72 hours and then flew home if anything it was kind of chaotic. I just love coming to Australia, I shows are going to be fuckin\u2019 sick, I know that in general we\u2019re gonna have a great time socially, every time we come back we go somewhere and one of our friends takes us somewhere new or to a new spot that\u2019s kicking off. For me Groovin\u2019 The Moo is still one of my fondest experiences of Australia, maybe because I got to see more rural Australia and also because we were there for so much longer, we were there for twelve days and you really felt like it, we did three headline shows and had so much fun and it was successful. So yeah, just really looking forward to coming back, and the Aussies know their music and they have a real appreciation for it so it\u2019s almost as soon as we sort of arrange the tour in England somebody will raise the question to management pretty instantaneously and say right, we\u2019ve got our main markets down in terms of what we\u2019re doing with that, and when are we going to Australia? It\u2019s always the next one in line, ahead of America and ahead of Europe. So I think we\u2019re just holding off as we might be coming out with another band we\u2019re just waiting to see how that situation might materialise but if we do it will definitely be very exciting. If not we\u2019ll probably come out and headline, we\u2019re just working out what the right move is.<\/p>\n

Looking back to your beginnings was there one piece of advice you received when you first started that you still go back to to this day?<\/strong>
\nI just remember somebody from New Found Glory said like don\u2019t focus your energy on people\u2019s opinions that you can never change, focus on your fan base and nurturing that, respecting that and what you put in to that and the energy and the love and the focus that you put into the positive stuff within your band is what you\u2019ll get out of it. A piece of advice my Dad gave me was that whatever you do, when things are going well don\u2019t get carried away in the highs and in the same time when things are going bad don\u2019t get carried away in the lows, keep perspective on everything because nothing stays the same forever bot the negative and the positive. So I think sometimes there were times when I needed to really dig deep, I think we all did it collectively and at different points but don\u2019t let the shit times define whether or not the good times are as good as they can be or vice versa. Yeah, it\u2019s just important man, everything in moderation in life and that goes with emotions as well, you\u2019re gonna accept that you have good periods and bad periods and it\u2019s not about falling away or getting carried away in either or, so it\u2019s just important to have some sort of perspective on this thing called life.<\/p>\n

Lastly let\u2019s look ahead to the future, finish this for me, in 2019 You Me At Six will\u2026<\/strong>
\nBe playing in Australia, probably. *laughs* I don\u2019t know, that\u2019s the other thing I\u2019ve realised is trying to determine too much about what\u2019s gonna happen, and where and where things are gonna go is unfortunately out of our control so we just have to focus on what we can control and what we can control right now is continuing to be creative, making sure we\u2019re working hard to be ready for our touring and we\u2019ve set ourselves targets and we want more releases to come, and new music to come out so we\u2019re already working towards that and that\u2019s something to look forward to music wise as well for next year, so we\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

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Essential Information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong>\u00a0Surrey, England<\/p>\n

Band Members:<\/strong>\u00a0Josh 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.<\/p>\n

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

Forthcoming Release:<\/strong>\u00a0VI (October 5 \u2013 Underdog Records \/ Cooking Vinyl Australia)<\/p>\n

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