Interview: Catching Spring Fever with Alex Gaskarth (All Time Low) and Vic Fuentes (Pierce The Veil)
The Spring Fever Tour, featuring co-headliners All Time Low and Pierce The Veil along with Mayday Parade and You Me At Six, has been shriek-inducingly anticipated from the moment of its announcement, and it’s finally here, much to the relief of fans who had been holding their breath. We caught up with ATL and PTV frontmen Alex Gaskarth and Vic Fuentes a week into the tour for this quick update.
Interviews By: Cassie Whitt and Brian Kraus
Which band were you most excited to link up with on this tour?
ALEX GASKARTH: That’s a tough question! We’re good friends with all the bands. It’s pretty exciting just to do this sort of tour with Pierce The Veil because we’ve never really done a look like that. They’re a bit heavier; they come from a slightly different scene, but doing Warped Tour a few times with them we realized that we really share a lot of fans. We just thought it was something new to try, and it offered something different to the kids, you know? Coming to pop-punk shows, coming to post-hardcore shows, or whatever it was—it was kinda like taking the best of both worlds, or at least trying to, and smashing them together.
VIC FUENTES: Yeah. We’ve never really considered ourselves a super-heavy band. We’ve kind of traveled around in different directions, so we have heavy parts, but we also have a lot of poppy parts. So yeah, it kind of just seems to work out. It’s not too far off, you know?
I can’t really even say [who I’m most excited to play with], because, like, Mayday Parade, we’ve known them the longest. They’ve been our boys since we were all way younger bands. I kind of say this onstage, too: I tell the kids how we booked the tour. It wasn’t booked with any politics involved. It was all by us—you know, by the bands—because I met Rian [Dawson], All Time Low’s drummer on Warped, and we were just talking backstage, and we were like, “It seems like we have a lot of the same fans, and I think we should maybe try to tour together,” and that’s how the tour formed. It was just from that talk, and then after that, it was just a matter of asking our best friends to see if they would do it. All the bands on the bill, they can each do their own headlining tour. They don’t have to open for us, but they did it because they’re our friends, so we’re really thankful that they’re all involved.
You’re now a week into the tour. How is it going?
GASKARTH: It’s been amazing. It’s really cool. I think it’s definitely paying off, everybody’s going down really well. You Me At Six and Mayday as well. I feel like it’s just such a strong bill. It’s like going to a festival, there’s something for everybody. That really translates well.
FUENTES: It’s been pretty amazing so far. This tour is kind of a next-level feeling for us because we’ve never had this much production and been playing in these big of rooms and have this big of a crew. The shows have been sold out, and kids are going crazy, so it’s been great.
The only bad thing is, the first day, I blew out my voice, and I had to go to the hospital and get some medicine to help me, and that sucked but other than that, I’m getting through the shows, and it’s been really fun.
I was originally supposed to interview you that day, so I’m glad you’re okay now.
FUENTES: Yeah, it sucked, but whatever. We’ve been on tour for a long time and haven’t had a lot of breaks, so it kind of happens.
Alex, you mentioned it was a strong bill—the shows are all selling out or close to it—so how do you tell if one city is “going off” harder than another?
GASKARTH: You gauge that from the live environment. Once you hit the stage, you know how it’s gonna be. Like I said, so far it’s been amazing. The first two nights were nuts. Lot of crowd surfing, mosh pits, lot of rowdiness. And that’s the cool thing: There’s just a genuine excitement for the tour.
Are you planning any mischief or surprises for these shows?
GASKARTH: We don’t really plan much. Other than our set, it’s kinda all spur of the moment. So any, like, shit… Any antics that go down are always sort of like… impromptu.
We’ve already had people come up onstage and forced them to dance for the audience. It’s really just about shaming people. That’s what it’s all about.
FUENTES: As the tour goes, I think we’ll definitely start messing with each other onstage and doing some fun stuff, and there are always end-of-tour pranks that are always pretty fun.
Other than that, as far as surprises, we’ve got a lot of new production and stuff that I think is really going to… It’s something I’ve never seen any band do, and I think some of the stuff that we have going on is pretty different and fun. Just keep an eye out for it.
We dug up a fan “petition” with 3,000-plus notes on Tumblr for All Time Low to play “Remembering Sunday” and have Vic do the female vocal parts. Would you consider that?
GASKARTH: Holy crap! I haven’t even seen that. That’s nuts. Maybe we could add that song in. Yeah, that’s crazy. It’s definitely something we’d consider. There’s a place for it in the set, so it could happen, for sure.
FUENTES: Oh, my God… Yeah, maybe. I think it would be cool to do a little collaborating onstage. Actually, I sing with Mayday Parade already on their Punk Goes Pop cover of “Somebody That I Used To Know,” and I’m all about doing stuff like that. So, you never know. Maybe somewhere during the tour, we’ll work it out.
On the topic of guests, Alex, do think you could ever convince Jason Vena of Acceptance to take the stage again?
GASKARTH: I would love to think so. Yeah, he lives up in Seattle.
I noticed the tour isn’t hitting Seattle this time.
GASKARTH: Yeah, it’s a bummer, but I think we’re all dying to get out there now that we’re playing “Outlines” on the bill. We’ll at least ask, you know? Why not?
What part of the set do you think fans will be buzzing/talking/tweeting about at the end of the night when they’re all sweaty and leaving the show?
GASKARTH: We have a pretty fun intro. I think it’s going over pretty well. Our merch guy Vinnie comes out and does a little bit. It’s definitely something I’ve never seen before, so I think people will walk away from it being like “that was new!”
FUENTES: Honestly, I think there’s going to be so much to talk about when they leave the show. That’s kind of the goal of any of our shows, and it’s not just with us this time: Us and All Time Low went all-out with our shows. Since it’s a co-headline, we both wanted it to be as awesome as possible. Each of our bands have these completely different ideas, and it’s almost like all the shit doesn’t fit on the stage, because we have so much crazy stuff going on. So, when kids go home from this tour, they’re going to have a million things to talk about.
Can you give a little, cryptic teaser of something you’re bringing to the shows?
FUENTES: [Laughs. Hesitates.] We have a bit of, like, a… It’s like a big kind of Nightmare Before Christmas-y factory deal going on, and it’s actually a working factory.
Is there anything else you want to add?
FUENTES: Thanks to all the fans that have already sold the shows out. I’d say 90 percent of the tour is already sold out, so thanks to everybody for grabbing tickets, and we’ll see you at the shows. It’s gonna be an amazing experience. I can’t wait!
Catch the bands on the Spring Fever Tour now through mid-May. Full dates and ticket information are available on our Spring Fever page. You can now download the AP official Spring Fever tour program.
