Back to February, Set It Off opened for Crown The Empire’s gig at the La Boule Noire. Dan Clermont (guitar) et Austin Kerr (bass) took their time to chat with RockUrLife !
How are you today?
Dan Clermont (guitar): It’s all great, Paris is cool.
Austin Kerr (bass): Sold out show tonight so it’s cool!
How’s the tour going so far?
D: It’s been absolutely amazing, we’re very old fans of Crown The Empire so it’s exciting to open for them and Dangerkids is a very exciting band, we’re all very young bands so it’s cool, we’ll have fun.
As an opening band are you stressed out before going on stage?
D: No, we’ve been a band for about six years so we’ve played I don’t know like a thousand shows so it’s not a scary experience at this point, We get ready and we’re exciting to play.
What are your favorite songs to play on stage?
D: I think, for me “Bleak December”, I didn’t think it would be fun because there’s like spaces and stuff but I don’t know it just has such a groove, it’s really fun.
What were you doing before being in a band?
A: I’ve pretty much been in a band my whole life but before Set It Off I was fixing computers and stuff.
D: I was in college studying to be a music educator and then I majored in theater and physic
What was the biggest highlight in your career so far?
A: I think on our last tour, we were supporting Black Veil Brides and we were playing in a venue called “House Of Blues” in Orlando and we’ve got a lot of cool memories there like I’ve meet my first girlfriend at that venue and Maxx is from Orlando so it was cool playing there.
D: For me, recently “Duality” in Japan was named album of the year, that was a pretty big deal because that’s one of my favorite countries to tour and I like Japanese culture so it’s very exciting to be so accepted in the music industry over there.
You said in an interview that “Duality” is very different from your last EPs, how is it so different?
D: Sonically it definitely has more of this pop and r’n’b into it but one thing that I think was constant in “Duality” is that the lyrically content is definitely similar but has a more mature approach to the people we’ve become and people we wanna be.
Where do you get your inspiration for writing?
D: Anything, life. We spend a lot of time on the road touring so, like this interview could strike into it for a song!
So do you prefer to write in a quiet place or on the road?
D: It depends because at home you have more time to maybe work on it but I feel like a lot more happens on tour when you’re on the road, you see a lot more and you live a lot more life experiences but you don’t have the ressource to write so i guess it’s both.
Who are your main influences?
A: Fall Out Boy is definitely a big influence.
You sound a bit like them.
A: Yeah, we got our name from one of their songs actually. We’re big Fall Out Boy fans, we’re also like The Used, we’re also like classical people like Beethoven and that kind of stuff. Movies also.
Was Panic At The Disco one of your influences?
A: Oh yeah, sure ! We love Panic.
If you could work with only one band in your whole career, what band would you choose?
D: One band to tour for the rest of my career? Probably Fall Out Boy.
A: Probably Fall Out Boy yes!
D: I think their fans would accept us really well. Even write a song with them.
A: Oh, what’s this guy’s name, the writer?
D: Max Martin?
A: Yes Max Martin!
D: He’s a, I think he’s Swedish, he’s a writer. Any song that you can hear from the nineteens at the time like “Baby One More Time” from Britney Spears was all by Max Martin. Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, it’s all him.
We saw your fans doing this “Duality” gesture can you explain it?
A: Well, it’s like a big thing we wanted for a long time is kinda like a symbol that can accomplice everything we’re doing as a band instead of just using our name you know. So we created the “Duality” diamond which is kind like a ying and yang to show duality. So then we decided to also create a hand sign that also does that.
Kind of Thirty Seconds To Mars’ sign.
D: Yeah we heard of that, we get that a lot. It’s ironic their assistant tour manager is on this tour working for Crown.
What have you been listening to a lot lately?
A: Honestly, everybody!
D: The last Fall Out Boy. It’s kinda fun because even with Crown The Empire who’s a heavier rock band they also listen to hip hop and r’n’b and stuff like that in the bus.
A: Yeah we are hip hop fans.
Do you have any fun tour stories to tell?
D: Last year was the first AP music awards in the States and Zach is the biggest biggest Paramore fan ever, we were walking to the hotel where a lot of bands were at and Zach is like “how crazy would it be if I run to Hayley from Paramore?”.
A: And she’s the first person I see!
D: And we walk to the door and there’s Hayley from Paramore, first person we ran into!
Did you win any price at this ceremony?
D: Oh no we were just guests. Hopefully this year we’ll get some nominations you never know.
Can you describe each other with one word?
A: I’d say friendly. Dan is one of the most friendly guys, he has a lot of friends everywhere.
D: Thank you! I’d say Austin is very tenacious. No matter what time or hour or what it takes he’ll get done what he wants.
You’re really nice to each other!
D: We spent so much time together, we toured a lot, and like in the States we don’t tour in a bus we our in a van. So we are forced to!
Do you have more fans over here then?
D: I would not say we have more fans over here but Europe and UK don’t get to see us as much so people are more excited to come to shows but we do pretty well in the US and we haven’t done any US outside tour since we just did the Black Mass tour in frond of like 3 thousand people every night.
A: I would say though that for the short period of time that we’ve been touring over here we do have a pretty like partitive crowd over here which is very cool.
What was your funniest fan encounter?
A: We had this like kinda cool, hum not cool but there was a fan who’s brother died and she sang one of our songs at the funeral, “Dad Song” and when we played I think it was in Amsterdam she and one of her friend came backstage it was kind of cool to be there for her when she’s like, you know.
You seem to be really nice to your fans.
D: Yeah, well we try to be because you know we’re just five guys who just happened to be blessed to tour to play music. And we try to treat everybody like the way we want to be to be treated. And if they take the time to come see us then we can take time to say hello and hang out with time.
It’s nice because some bands forget that.
D : You know it’s a weird situation because certain bands like, if a member All Time Low went to walk out on the streets to meet their fans like the way we did it may not be safe for him because some fans get a little more excited so certains bands I don’t wanna say they have forgotten but they just may not be in the same situation as we are.
To conclude, our website is called RockUrLife so what rocks your life?
Both: Touring!
A: Yeah I don’t ever need a break.
Website: facebook.com/setitoffband
