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Categories: Interview
Tags: eclectic rock, free wii, myspace, we are they, wii
The Internet is plastered with fake freebies, so how legit is the contest for the free Wii on We Are They‘s MySpace page? After talking to the band’s manager Peter Sotos it sounds like people entering the contest have a fair (if small) shot at walking away with a Wii – and since the way to enter the contest is by downloading two free songs (including a sea shanty) it’s worth trying.
We Are They are an eclectic rock band made up of gamers who getting ready to launch a US tour. Peter put me in touch with the band which led to the following interview.
Game Couch: You have a Wii promotion right now. Why did you pick the Wii as a giveaway?
We Are They: It’s the hot thing right now, and we’re still poor. Also, considering WE Are They, we figured Wii is appropriate.
GC: Who came up We Are They?
We Are They: Tyler came up with it. It doesn’t really hold any meaning, it’s just a cool name. We don’t make a lot of sense; we just have too much fun to care.
GC: So what’s eclectic rock?
We Are They: Most of our music has the rock edge, but we like to make everything different and quirky. Every real musician has urges to do something different after a while, so we decided to just do anything and everything and anything that we want to.
GC: Like The Swashbuckling Rum Run of Tom Lefting – which I’m loving?
We Are They: Glad you love it. We wrote it especially for you.
GC: How did you guys get together?
We Are They: Tyler, Ryan and JG all got together through auditions at the school they went to. After a few years of sucking, Ryan’s old buddy Andrew was called up for the bass position due to both (yes, 2) bass players leaving the band. Markandeya was a fan that became the second guitarist after a year of auditioning.
GC: What does everyone bring to the band?
We Are They: Ryan has a very unique ear and can hear a whole song in his head around one riff, Tyler brings a unique and quirky quality to the music since he does things with keyboards that most bands don’t, Markandeya is the most overly positive person in the world, so he keeps everyone from getting too upset. Jeungri brings sex appeal. Andrew has a different approach to bass playing that makes it add to the music rather than push the bass into the background.
GC: Peter says you guys are big gamers. What are you playing?
We Are They: Andrew is playing through Metal Gear Solid 4, Tyler is playing Call of Duty: World at War as well as Beautiful Katamari, Markandeya is rockin’ Super Mario Galaxy and Resistance 2, and Ryan The Great is playing Kingdom Hearts: Re: Chain of Memories and No More Heroes. Jeungri is building a dog house for herself to sleep in. We play Smash Bros Brawl with each other all the time.
GC: Is it hard to game when you’re on tour?
We Are They: Well, the last tour we rocked completely old school, with the exception of a PSP, due to lack of space. We had a SNES and some games and a small TV. The upcoming tour will be heavily saturated with business, so we’ll probably just have time killers like game boys and maybe a DS since Ryan’s brother broke his PSP with a sword. No joke. But if we have enough room, we’ll probably try and bring the Wii, the 360, the PS3, an old arcade system, and a foosball table.
GC: Peter also said that most of you worked in gaming stores — does anyone have a good story from those days?
We Are They: Tyler and JG got robbed, and Ryan got robbed twice. One of Ryan’s was that some guy just ran out of the store with a PS3. I guess that’s not a good story. Some guy gave Ryan a million dollars. That’s a good one.
GC: What details do you have about the US tour?
We Are They: We have a new booking agent, so we’re kind of just going to go where she tells us to and hope that everything goes ok. We are headlining with SumXY and we’re going to try and get local acts to open up all the shows.
GC: What kind of venues are we talking about and how long is your set?
We Are They: The venues will mostly be smaller, I’m not too sure yet, but our set will vary between 40 and 90 minutes.
GC: You’ll be playing at Amityville — isn’t that place haunted?
We Are They: Hopefully.
GC: What should fans expect at your shows?
We Are They: Lots of energy and FREE MONEY!
GC: How’d the UK tour come about and how much are you looking forward to it?
We Are They: A cool dude that runs a podcast called This Reality Podcast in England played us and got an overwhelming response from listeners, was contacted by our manager and they’re setting it up. We’re working on a bigger band from the UK to headline.
GC: Good luck and thanks for interview!
