Sing it Loud grew out of a friendship between cousins vocalist Pat Brown and guitarist Kieren Smith, who founded the group together and added members whom they met locally in the Minneapolis music scene. The band was offered a contract with Epitaph Records after playing only seven shows together. Their debut release for Epitaph was an EP produced by Josh Cain of Motion City Soundtrack, released in March 2008.
They released a full-length album, Come Around in September 2008, which hit #44 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.
Roya Butler sat down during Warped Tour with singer Pat Brown to discuss the tour, his music, and his new girlfriend.
Roya Butler: Can you tell us how you started out?
Pat Brown: We were all in touring bands that were pretty popular in our home town (Minneapolis area of Minnesota). Our bands kinda fell apart, cuz there were people who wanted it a lot more than others. Seeing as we had the same aspirations, we just kinda formed what we thought would be a personality super group (since we had all been in bands with people that we wished we weren’t). We played our first show on July 11, 2007.
RB: When did you get your first big break?
PB: The story of how we got discovered was a very right place/right time sort of deal. We won this contest to open for Motion City Soundtrack, which is a band that is really popular from our home town. We befriended them at the show and kept in touch; they pitched us to their label, Epitaph, and convinced the owner of Epitaph, Bret, to fly out to see us. He did, and signed us.
RB: How does it feel to be on a label, Epitaph, with a mainstay of music so different than yours?
PB: Some people might look at it and think that it’s weird, or not a good thing, but I love it ‘cause I’m not only on a label with bands that I really looked up to for a long time, like Bad Religion, NOFX, Atmosphere, Story of the Year, Newfound Glory. The coolest thing about it is that there’s no band on our label that sounds like us. A lot of major independent labels these days sign the same band over and over with the same trend. We’re lucky to say that we have a reputable, long-standing-bad-ass-record-label; they signed us because they like our music and what we’re about, whether or not there are other bands that sound like us on their label.
RB: How do you like Warped tour? Is this your first Warped tour?
PB: It is our first warped tour; it’s amazing! There are a lot of bands that I grew up listening to, and a lot of bands that we’ve toured with and have become friends with. Add in alcohol, subtract the bullies, and it’s basically like a summer camp for 22 year olds- it’s a lot of fun, a traveling party. Warped tour was such a part of my teen years (when I was in junior high and high school), so it’s really cool to be a part of it this year.
RB: It was really sick when you got everyone in the audience to crowd surf…
PB: Yea, did you like that? Nice. Yea that was fun, I do that every day. ‘Cause a lot of times, you know, people are shy, so it’s fun… It’s funny…It’s really funny ‘cause you get people who are stoked and you get people who are really pissed off that people are crowd surfing, but whatever, I think it’s funny. When I went to warped tour I crowd surfed all the time- and at shows- I loved it.
RB: You got the crowd pretty pumped up with that.
PB: Yea, its fun. Gotta have a good time, you know.
RB: It seems like you guys have a lot of heart, as a band. You made a speech on stage about people who hate on everyone else, and how they just come to Warped Tour to make fun of people. You further stated that you want everyone to be united and cool to each other. That’s what Anti-Flag are all about.
PB: Yea and that’s what Anti-Flag does to this day. When I was in high school, I wasn’t popular by any means. There were a lot of people at my school who were such assholes to everyone, and made fun of people for no reason. Like the high school jocks that just make fun of people, and like two years after high school, it’s like, “Bro, high school football is over man, what are you gonna do now, how are you gonna find your coolness, ‘cause there is none, you’re an asshole.” A lot of people suck, and it bums me out; some bands get up on stage, acting tough and yelling at their fans. They talk smack about other bands and try to act cool. We don’t do that; we just try to have a good time. And if other people are trying to not let us do that, then it’s like whatever. I totally hate people like that, it makes me sick, and so I preach.
RB: So you just try to help people love themselves?
PB: Yeah, it doesn’t matter if your tall-short-black-white-jewish-christian-gay-lesbian-straight-transsexual, I don’t care what you are or what you’re into, everyone’s badass in some sort of way. Not a lot of people know that ‘cause people bring them down, and it bums me out.
RB: How do you feel about your new video “Come Around” on MTV2 and MTVU?
PB: I love it; I’m really stoked on how it turned out, ‘cause we worked really hard on it. We all went out to LA in January to do the video. We chose to do it with a guy named Luke Aca, he really understood our personalities as a band. There were a couple other people that wanted to do our music video who were better known in the industry, but we all felt that Luke had the best treatment. Honestly, he nailed it; it couldn’t have turned out better.
RB: What’s the process involved in choosing a treatment?
PB: Basically, Epitaph sought out a list of ten music video producers and sent them our ideas and song; then the producers come up with a storyboard. We then get an email with the ten treatments, and we picked the funniest one.
RB: It was funny, I really liked it.
PB: It was fun, he’s great.
RB: Did you meet your girlfriend, Dani from the Millionaires, on the tour? Or do you not want to talk about that?
PB: No, I can talk about that, for sure. I get asked that a lot actually lately [laughs]. ‘Cause people are talking about it a lot.
RB: You guys are a really cute couple.
PB: Oh, well thank you. Sing It Loud went to the UK with a band called Cobra Starship, right before Warped Tour. She hit me up on the internet, and she’s like, “Yo, I’m really stoked to spend time with your band on tour this summer, ‘cause we’re both playing the Warped Tour.” And I hit her back with my number and said, “Hit me up whenever.” And she texted me when I was on the plane, actually, on the way to the UK. We were texting back and forth, then we took off, and I didn’t’ have my phone on for two weeks. When I came back, I just started texting her again, and it grew from there. I asked her out on the first night of the tour.
RB: So wait, she just found you on MySpace?
PB: That’s where she initially talked to me, but we knew who each other were for a while, I guess, like known each other’s bands and stuff. ‘Cause like when you’re in a band in this genre/scene you know who everyone else is. Like a lot of bands on this tour I hadn’t met until two weeks ago, but I could point them out in a crowd ‘cause I know what they look like. I go on the blogs and on websites and watch other bands music videos so I can see what other people are doing, and try to learn from it.
RB: What are you aspiring to do in the future with your music? I know you’re working on a new album.
PB: We’ve already started writing it, we’re recording it in the fall, which we’re really excited about, and after that we’re going to be touring nonstop. And I guess collectively as a band, we just want to fund our lives with playing music. Like I don’t want to go to school, I don’t want to go to work, I don’t want to do that stuff, I already did it and it sucked- I didn’t like it. I just want to be able to do what I do, live off of it, and not have to worry about anything else.
RB: If you could tour with anybody, who would you like to tour with?
PB: Probably a band called Taking Back Sunday, they’re like my favorite band; they got me into this kind of music. Or also a band called Jimmy Eat World. I’m super into them as well. Those would be my two dream bands to play with.
RB: Do you want to tell us about your album Come Around?
PB: Well, you can pick up our album Come Around anywhere right now. It came out September 23rd, it’s got 11 tracks. It features guest vocals by Alex Gaskarth from All Time Low and Justin Pierre from Motion City Soundtrack.
RB: What direction is your new album going in?
PB: We’re going in a more of a rock/90’s/jumpy sort of theme. It’s kind of like our CD now, mixed with Third Eye blind, Taking Back Sunday, and Def Leppard. That’s how it would sound; very commercial and very pop.
RB: Can you tell us a funny tour story?
PB: It was our first tour ever, we booked it ourselves. It was a month after our band started, in the late summer of ’07. Ben, our keyboard player, was driving. We were crossing the Lower Peninsula of Michigan into the Upper Peninsula. We didn’t have a tour manager, guitar tech, merch guy- it was just the five of us. We had driven all day long, so we were all very tired- except for Ben who slept in. So we were like, “Ben, is it cool if you drive, we’re gonna sleep so we can play tonight.” And Ben was like, “Yeah, sure.” So we all fall asleep. About 3 hours later Ben wakes us up and is like, “Dude, guys. Dude!” (We didn’t have GPS, so he was using Mapquest on his little shitty phone). We all woke up, and he’s like, “Dude, I fucked up really bad.” We all sat up, and it was like, “Welcome to Canada.” We were at the Canadian border. He missed the turn; he missed the exit and took us 3 hours out of the way. And we didn’t have any of our passports, so we had to explain why we had to turn around. We ended up missing our show, and it was like really bad. It wasn’t funny at the time, but now it is.
RB: So did you call the venue and tell them what happened?
PB: Yea, it was fine. It was a huge bummer, but it was really funny.
RB: Do you have anything else to add?
PB: Make sure to come check us out on Warped Tour. We’re playing every day on the Hurley stage for the rest of the summer. Also, pick up our record Come Around in stores, ITunes…all that jazz.
–Interview by Roya Butler