EPIC {{arts & entertainment}}

The tiny hallway hidden away behind catering is packed. Maneuvering through the tiny room filled with chairs, massive amounts of food, and crammed full with musicians and others on tour was hard enough. Trying not to get crushed in the small hallway while waiting for interviews? Equally impossible. Dripping from the rain that had yet to let up outside (by that point, everyone had determined that it simply wouldn’t), a handful of us were ushered once more in to tiny press rooms. We were fortunate. Others are huddled in hallways conducting interviews with miscellaneous band members trying to get the best sound quality while people push on by holding conversations of their own. Warped Tour was a zoo by that point, but we had the luxury of a place to sit and dry off. A few minutes later, Buddy enters wearing a raincoat and after some initial joking gets straight down to business. Fortunately for us, we were able to uncover a little bit about his side-project BAYONET, as well as what’s up next for SENSES FAIL, and  flounder our way through who the most overrated band on Warped Tour was.

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Life is not A Waiting Room has been out for almost a year now, do you feel that the way you relate to the songs has changed?
Buddy Nielsen: Yeah. I don’t relate to them anymore, not after we release the record. It’s not really my song anymore.
Do you find it hard to relive the emotions or situations from the song?
BN: Yeah, definitely.
Does that make it harder to get in to?
BN: No, not at all. I’d rather not relive it every time I play the song. I do it when we write and record and once it’s over it’s, I don’t know, not what it was when it was written.
So you pretty much put everything in to it and just expel it?
BN: Pretty much and then it’s just a song.

Since the release, you’ve been touring more or less nonstop. Are you getting a break any time soon?
BN: Uh, we have a month off but then we go back on tour in the fall.
Can we expect anything new soon?
BN: Probably.  Next August, some time next summer. Somewhere around then.

We’ve heard some rumors about your having a side project.
BN: It’s called BAYONET. One of the dudes who was in Paint It Black and a drummer is playing with us who used to be in The Banner. And some other people. It’s not solid yet but we’ve recorded our demos but we’re not going to put it out. I don’t want to put out a demo. But we’re hopefully going to record in February with McTernen. It sounds like American Nightmare mixed with Tragedy and sort of Kid Dynamite.
How are you going to differentiate the lyrics for BAYONET versus SENSES FAIL?
BN: I don’t think I am. I don’t think I’ll differentiate. It’s way heavier and way angrier so it might be more pissed off but I don’t think it’ll be that much different lyrically. But definitely the music is different.

What have been the best and worst moments of Warped Tour so far?
BN: I heard Attack Attack today that was fucking one of the worst moments. [room bursts in to laughter] It’s just… really terrible. The best are the shows. The shows have been awesome. Really really really good. A lot better than I expected. Every day is pretty much awesome, except for some shows that haven’t been great. But that happens. For the most part all the shows have been great. The worst part is walking around and you see a bunch of douche bags.
Who do you think are the most underrated and overrated bands on the tour?
BN: The most overrated is Gallows. The most underrated is a band called West Bound Train—oh and this band called Deer in the Headlights, they’re really good. But definitely the most overrated… I mean, I like Gallows. I think they’re really good but I think people on this tour are like “oh my god they’re like a hardcore band, a punk band oh lookit.” I like Gallows, I think they’re really good. I don’t think they’re overrated, I think they’re overrated on this tour by people on the tour. People on the tour just wanna, I don’t know, suck their dicks because they’re a real band. Same thing, I think we’re overrated on this tour as well. People are way too nice to me. We’re overrated, Gallows is overrated, alexisonfire is overrated, Bayside is overrated. Every band that is good is overrated.
So basically any band everyone should want to see is overrated.
BN: I don’t even really mean that they’re overrated. I don’t care. I don’t care. The most overrated band on the tour in all honesty is not Gallows. We’re going to redo that. Retract that. The most overrated band is 3oh3.  They’re the biggest band and it’s really not that awesome of a band. It’s not terrible but it’s not…whatever.

Are you shocked at the rumors that some of these bands on tour have been supposedly outted as lip-syncing?
BN: Only one of them has. Only two of them do it. Just Jeffree Star, but he kind of sings, too. He just sings to a track. Millionaires, too.
One of the bands on tour has even accused Brokencyde…
BN: No. I’ve been on tour with them a long time. They don’t lip sync.
No lip-syncing, so they’re just bad.
BN: Yeah. But they don’t lip sync. That’s really him.
What are your feelings on backing tracks?
BN: We have fucking samples. We do samples because we don’t have a piano player and I don’t want to pay for a piano player. We don’t need a piano player. It’s just no point to it. There are parts of our songs that have underlying effects or whatever so we use backing tracks. I don’t know. It sucks, whatever. If you read the New York Times review—the New York Times review of Attack Attack was good. It was one of those things they’d never seen a band who does anything like that in the last ten years.
Is it more surprising people were surprised a band like Millionaires lip-syncs.
BN: No. I mean, well yes. I don’t know. People just like to pick on them. Me included.

What do you feel is the biggest issue in the music industry right now?
BN: The reason why people are in bands. Why they started a band in the first place and what it means to them. I think that’s the biggest problem because there are people who really want to be in bands just because they love music, not for any other reason. I don’t think a lot of these bands are doing it for the music. It’s a fun sort of ‘thing’ but you can get a lot out of it. If a lot of these bands broke up today a lot of them could just easily go “eh, I’ll do something different.”

Bands that everyone hasn’t heard yet but you think should know about?
BN: New bands? This band called Defeater, they’re really good. Dead Swans. More people should listen to Paint It Black and the new Hope Conspiracy 7inch is really good.

Last book you read?
BN: I read Rant by Chuck Palahniuk.
How was it?
BN: It was alright. It wasn’t that great.

What is your biggest pet peeve on the road?
BN: My biggest pet peeve of Warped Tour is when it fucking rains. That’s the world’s most annoying thing. But on tour I’d say not having any alone time.

Last question—what’s something you feel really passionately about?
BN: Musical integrity and morals and not being an idiot in what you say on stage. Even though I have been an idiot in the past. I say a lot of stupid shit mostly when I was younger. I still say dumb stuff but it’s a joke. I joke and I make it apparent that for every dumb stupid joke I say I try to make a point about something positive or whatever, explain something. I do both sides, because I don’t want to be overly serious and preach but I also don’t want to make a joke out of shit. So I like to do both and I like to have a good time because I’m having fun but then I also like to say something positive.

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Positive is not necessarily a word that people generally tend to associate with SENSES FAIL but they took to the stage that night and true to his word, he mixed his sarcasm and humor only to follow it with something more positive. Though he skirted over the issue of Millionaires, they were not free form his playful venting that night. Apparently one of their boyfriends (hey, who knew Dani dumped that one guy from that one band she was dating before tour to hook up with some bro from Sing It Loud?) being a macho guy with his swooshy blonde hair had approached Buddy to tell him to cut the shit and stop making fun of his girlfriend’s band. Good job, guy. Apparently it worked out really well for all of them. The crowd for SENSES FAIL was among the most chaotic I witnessed that day but sure enough, through all the passion he pours in to his performances, Buddy did highlight the positive; “You have your family and your friends and that’s all that fucking matters in this world.” And during the performance, everyone in the audience was a family.