BLESSTHEFALL – Uhøytidelige metalheads

Blessthefall are now touring Europe for the 3rd time. They have left Phoenix, Arizona, to be one of the support bands for August Burns Red. Earlier they have toured Europe with Asking Alexandria and We Came As Romans. They also spent the summer playing at the main stage of Warped Tour. August 20th they also released their 4th album, Hollow Bodies, and a few weeks ago they released a music video for one of the singles, You Wear A Crown But You´re No King. I travelled to Gothenburg, Sweden to have a chat with the singer, Beau Bokan.

How is to be in Blessthefall these days? With all the upcoming tours, the new album, music video and everything.

Wow. It´s awesome! I think, I joined the band in 2008, so we´ve gone a lot of years. You know, as a band touring and touring. This is our 3rd record with me on it, and it feels great that this record has been so accepted. I think that since people are loving it so much, you know, twice as many people have bought the record so far. So it´s  pretty awesome and we´re very proud of it. We don´t take anything for granted. Like, cause your band could be, all of a sudden next year no one cares about you. It´s awesome that every year I think that we´re growing a little bit, and after doing Warped Tour again this summer, it was a great step for us to play at the main stage. And I think that a lot more people have noticed us. We´re a little bit of an older band and a lot of people found us for the first time, so it´s awesome. We´re gaining a whole new fanbase which is amazing.

How has the response on Hollow Bodies been?

It´s been great! Hahah.

Yeah, you just said that haha.

I know, it´s been better than we thought. You know, you write a record and you put your heart and soul into it. You can only do so much, you know, and the rest is up to everyone else to decide whether they like it or not. You could love it,  but it´s up to everyone else to decide whether your band is gonna be able to have a carrier and we´re pretty very lucky that everyone likes it.

How was it to play at the main stage at Warped Tour?

Ahhh, it was awesome, man! It felt like,  you know, sometimes it´s hard to believe. You feel like "man, why us?". We´ve been doing this for so many years. Like, how can so many people still care about us? So it´s amazing. It was very humbling. Everytime we went out on stage and saw the crowd I was like "Pfff I can´t even believe that this many people wants to watch us play". So it was special, man. It was special. We´ll never forget it and maybe we´ll do it again sometime.

Blessthefall have been a band since 2003. In 2007 their first singer, Craig Mabbit, left the band to spend some more time with his family. After this Beau Bokan got the chance to join the band. In 2011, one of their first guitarist, Mike Frisby, decided to quit the band too, and then Elliott Gruenberg took his place.

What would you do for a living if you weren´t in Blessthefall?

Oh man! I probably would maybe hopefully make some clothes, because I have a little clothing line (Golden Hearts Shine Forever). I´m pretty interested in it,  but right now it´s mainly the band obviously. I´ve been trying to get more and more into it, so I think that would be something cool to do. Kinda like a fashion designer or something like that.

You have been through a lot with the whole Craig and Mike thing, how has it affected you as a band?

I feel like not at all, haha. Honestly. I feel like we didn´t miss a beat. When I joined all the guys loved what I wrote and stuff like that. They loved my positive energy and just being on stage and stuff, just cause I just appreciated it so much. I had a band before.

Yeah, Take The Crown.

Yeah, and it didn´t go very well. I used to work construction when I got home just to pay for gas money for the van and rent, and I were stealing fruit and stuff to eat. And then I joined the band and now I´m making money and I´m like "what the heck"?. It just changed my life, it really did, so I appreciate every moment of it. And then, getting back to you, when Mike left, it was alright cause Eric writes most of the music anyway. And it was like "well, we still got Jared", you can´t replace Jared, and Matt is an amazing drummer, you can´t replace Matt. Mike, he was a great friend, but he didn´t love it. He didn´t love playing music, and Elliott loves it. Elliott is like, it´s his life! He plays every single day. Like, so much he plays that he gets like carpal tunnel in his hand and stuff, haha. He practise all the time. He´s trying to improve and trying to learn how to record and things like that, so it was an improvement. All the changes have been just improvements.

What inspire you to write music?

Ah, so many things. You know, just life experiences and things that we´ve gone through. Relationships, whether they´re good or bad. You know, people, your family members, maybe like, I´ve had a lot of family members that have pasted away, so you know, a lot of things and just life in general. I think everyone goes through tough times and things like that, so when we can write about that I think a lot of people can relate and kinda feel what we´re feeling and they feel like they "Ah, someone knows what I´m going through".

Yeah, like Meet Me At The Gates. (A song about Beau´s grandparents who he lost in 2010.)

Yeah, for instance.

You have been to Sweden 3 times with you as a singer, is the crowd here and in Europe any different than America?

Everyone is very polite. I think, some crowds are like a little crazy. I feel like everyone is very aware of  everybody else and they don´t want to get too crazy, but yeah, we´ll see how tonight goes. Hopefully it will be good.

And are you coming to Norway sometime, maybe?

Ah, I hope. I want to! We´ve never been there, so it would be amazing to visit.

Yeah. When you played in Stockholm, we drove like 8-9 hours just to see you play.

Ah, that´s so crazy! Thank you.

And today and the last time you were here in Gothenburg, we travelled around 4 hours.

Still far! That´s crazy. Hopefully we can, you know, not let you down. We´re playing a lot of new songs, so hopefully you will love those.

Blessthefall are known for their obsession with Starbucks/Bones. On their 3rd album, 2nd album with Beau Bokan, they wrote a song called "Bones Crew" and they also have made merch with "Bones Crew" on it, just because the band and their crew love Starbucks so much.

Have you ever travelled to a country without Bones?

Oh yeah! That´s the worst! It´s like 2 kilometers away! We were going to walk today, but we didn´t. I know, we missed it.

It´s in the centrum.

Yeah, in the station, right? The train station?

Yeah.

It was kinda like, the map said it was a 25 minute walk and we were like "Ah, too far".

I walked past it earlier today.

Ah, did you? Damn it. We should´ve done it.

Blessthefall spend a lot of time on tour and every time they have to leave their loved ones, like many other bands. Including leaving family, Beau also have to leave his wife, the known electro-pop artist, Lights.

How is it to travel from your loved ones for a so long time?

You know, it´s tough. I think that I´ll never get used to it. It´s always hard. Especially now that I´m married and we´ve become so close. We´ve got a place and everything, and you get comfortable when you get home. It´s like, I play videogames every day, relax and enjoy being home, but I guess it makes me appreciate when I get to see my family and things like that. I just love them and miss them, and I just love going home and I´m just enjoying it.

Your wife joined you on writting Open Water, how is it to bring your private life into your work?

Yeah, it´s crazy! It was a interesting dynamic, cause we´ve never written music together. She was, we were thinking about singing on the last record, but it kinda didn´t work out. We both promised that "Okey, we´ll only write music together if we want to do it and it happens naturally". Not because the label or business, like, not because other people want you to. Only for us, and so it came together perfect. I was writting to the music and I actually asked her for help and she helped me out with the melodies. Since she helped me out with the melodies I was like "Alright, you gotta sing on it" and the rest of the guys were very excited as well. They all love her and love her music. She´s so talented, man, so it was cool. It was an amazing experience and very special.

I hope she comes to Norway soon too!

I know! She has never been to Sweden either. I was talking to her today and she was like "Man, I really want to go there. It seems cool", so hopefully someday. I´m sure she will.

And Open Water is my favorite song from you new record.

Awww, thank you!

Will you play it tonight?

No, not tonight. I think if we´ll ever play it, it has to be something really special. I don´t think it´s a song you can play every night, especially not without her singing it. It won´t be the same. So it has to be something pretty crazy, like a festival maybe or just her joining us on stage one night or something like that.

That would be cool.

It´s safe to say that Blessthefall are a band who are really down to earth and they have a lot of fun, which they like to share on Instragram and Twitter. Every wednesday is "Wet Floor Wednesday" and they find a Wet Floor sign, pretend that they have fallen on the wet floor and take pictures of it. They also have a lot of fun with their newest member, Elliott Gruenberg, also known as "Forever Alone Elliott", because he´s the only single guy in the band. So reguarly they post picture on Instagram of him being alone.

How on earth did you come up with the idea of wetfloodwednesday?

Hahah, it´s actually a friend of Lights´. They used to do it. It was like a group of these guys that, they would do it,  and this friends was like "Hey, you should do one because you have a lot of followers and it´s a funny thing", you know. So I was like "It sounds hilarious" cause I use to do, we just love doing goffy, weird things and so we took it to another level. Now we´re just going crazy with it. It seems like it´s a bit of a craze. It´s like 5000 tags on it now.

Yeah, I´ve seen that. Now your fans are making ones too.

Yeah, it´s crazy. I did one on stage, it was nuts.

You seem like you have a lot of fun with Elliott, how is the forever alone thing going?

Hahaha! He goes along with it. He knows that it´s all fun and games. It´s funny because whenever I do one, so many girls are like "Elliott, I love him ahh", so he gets it. It´s all good and fun, and it´s just a part of showing that we love him.

It´s really funny though.

Haha, awesome! I actually have one on my phone that I didn´t post, from yesterday. Hold on, let me see if I still have it. I might have deleted it. I took it, but I don´t think that I posted it though. 

Haha, I don´t think so either.

Haha, you´re like "I was looking through".

Haha no! But I check my feed and I haven´t seen one in a while.

Ah yeah! That´s him in the corner. He´s covering his face there.

Hahahaha!

Yeah, he loves it.

Next to Starbucks, Beau Bokan also love Batman who he often share through different pictures on Instagram. When Ben Affleck got the part as the new Batman, Blessthefall and especially Beau wrote a lot about it on social media. The band also edited a picture of Beau as Batman and they were really bummed that he didn´t get the part even though it never was an alternative.

How did you feel when you didn´t get the part to play the next Batman?

Ah fucking bummed! It was kinda a slap in the face, you know. I feel like if anyone´s going to play Batman, if anyone knows the role, it´s me! You know, whatever. Good luck, Ben Affleck.

Haha yeah. So, what´s your future plans then?

We´re going to tour the US with August Burns Red right after this. It´s gonna be huge. It´s gonna be crazy, so that´s gonna be a really fun tour. And then we´re going on a little bit of a break. And then, actually no one knows this, but we´re going back to Australia and hopefully South East Asia and South America, like Brazil. So those are like our plans for now, and then we really wanna do a headlining tour with Hollow Bodies. I think we should, so we´re planning that, haha!

I think you should too. And come to Norway, for Gods sake!

Hahahaha! I´ll tell the guys.