Los Angeles post-hardcore punk group Touché Amoré are touring like it’s going out of style. Having already linked up with the likes of genre greats Coalesce, Converge and Thursday (to name a meagre few bands the quintet has toured with) since forming in 2007, the boys have steadily built a strong, faithful following of fans who not only thrash along but who also know all their lyrics by heart, too. Swing it around to 2011 with the release of their sophomore album, Parting the Sea Between Brightness and Me, and be amazed. Touché Amoré are headed to Australia late September as part of Soundwave Revolution to woo more fans, cuddle koalas (sedated ones, maybe) and basically finish up their musical bid for world domination. Tone Deaf’s Cayce Hill caught up with drummer Elliot Babin to see how it was all going. The short answer is ‘awesomely’ – the long answer appears in the form of our following conversation:
How’s it going, Elliot?
It’s going incredible. We’re currently in Ohio on our US tour. It’s 30 degrees and sunny, we’re all in shorts – and I can’t complain.
Please don’t mention the weather again – some of us aren’t so fortunate at the moment. Have you ever been to Australia before?
None of us have been, so we’re extremely excited. We’re coming with our booking agent who has been a couple of times to Australia before. He is gonna show us around, and maybe we’ll do generic touristy stuff, hold a koala, that sort of thing. I’m excited to look around and take in the architecture, and I hear everybody there is beautiful and I’ve heard so many stories about how once you go there, you never want to leave. So, yeah. I’m excited.
Is there anywhere you guys haven’t already toured in the US? And with these international dates coming up, one has to ask – are you guys trying to take over the world?
World domination might not be too far off [laughs]. This is a four month run that we’re doing right now. It’s consisting of a US tour, half of Canada, UK, Europe and then Australia. So, there’s a little bit of the world covered in that. We just love playing shows more than anything, and we love new experiences. So we are putting the two together and having a wonderful time doing it.
How’d you guys get together?
All members of the band met through various circumstances. Our vocalist Jeremy worked at a record store, and Clayton, the guitar player, would come in when he was younger, and Jeremy would turn him on to different records. That’s how they met, and the rest of the guys all grew up in the same area. I joined about two years ago… My friend Sam, who plays the drums in the band Trash Talk was good friends with Jeremy and they needed a drummer and they asked Tim if he knew anybody – and here I am.
Describe the current punk scene back home in LA – what was it like growing up and what is it like now?
There are a couple venues, not that many though, you know? Not as many as people would suspect Los Angeles would have. There’s a couple venues where hardcore and punk shows will go down. Unfortunately, one of the things that’s really frustrating about LA is DIY spaces and kind of a smaller DIY community… There’s not too much space where that kinda thing will thrive. Like, kids will open up their basements and will try to do some of the veterans halls, that kind of thing, which end up getting shut-down within a couple of months anyway, which is extremely frustrating because that’s where we all got into this kind of thing; through a DIY community.
So who were you guys listening to back then and who are you listening to now?
I’m personally really into a band called Revivor. They are a pop-punk band from Olympia, Washington, and I’ve been listening to them a lot, as well as a band called Good Luck from Indiana. We’re all gigantic fans of the band Envy from Japan too. We’ve always listen to a lot of Converge, that sort of thing. As our band has evolved, naturally, our influences have changed. It’s definitely been a growing process.
SATURDAY 24 SEPTEMBER BRISBANE, SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION
SUNDAY 25 SEPTEMBER SYDNEY, SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION
FRIDAY 30 SEPTEMBER MELBOURNE, SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION
SATURDAY 1 OCTOBER ADELAIDE, SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION
MONDAY 3 OCTOBER PERTH, SOUNDWAVE REVOLUTION
