Interview: A Loss For Words, All Or Nothing & Lyu

Next week, A Loss For Words head over to the UK for their first tour on these shores. Along with the Boston band will be All or Nothing and LYU. The two week tour will see the band playing all over the country, including shows in London, Kingston, Nottingham, Birmingham, Glasgow and many more.

To get fans ready for this triple pop-punk powerhouse of a tour, we recently asked all three bands about the tour and what we can expect from this tour.

A Loss For Words

ATP: Who are you and what is your role in A Loss For Words?
ALFW: What's goin on, I'm Mike and I play bass and sing backing vocals.

ATP: Tell us a bit about what A Loss For Words for those who havn't heard you before?
ALFW: Well I'd say we're a more aggressive sounding pop-punk band, who've been around for damn close to ten years now. I'd say somewhere in the vein of The Movielife, New Found Glory and Alkaline Trio. We're a pretty ugly group of dudes, and we're damn proud of it.

ATP: So you're about to head to the UK. Is this your first time here?
ALFW: It's everyone's first time out there except for Marc; he spent a week in London after high school. We're all stoked as hell to get out there! Hopefully we can find some spare time to go sightseeing.

ATP: What can we expect from these shows?
ALFW: Just alot of energy because we put all we can into our live show. We have alot of fun on stage, and hopefully it shows. You can expect us to play our asses off and to have alot of fun. We pride ourselves on our live show and giving someone who paid to see us their money's worth. We're all excited to see how kids react to us over there.

ATP: Are there any places you really want to go to when you're here?
ALFW: I want to go anywhere and everywhere possible. I really want to see Stonehenge, the castle ruins in Scotland, and the Guinness brewery. Hopefully we'll get to experience some cool stuff between shows.

ATP: Have you played with or know much about All Or Nothing or Lyu before this tour?
ALFW: We haven't played with either, but I've been talking to the dudes from both bands for a while and they seem like awesome guys, I know we're all gonna hit it off and have a blast. AON has toured with our good friends in the The Wonder Years, who have had nothing but good things to say. I actually own their split 7'' with TWY.

ATP: Can we expect any new material or will you be playing songs from 'The Kids Can't Lose'?
ALFW: We'll be playing alot of songs off of TKCL, but we'll also be switching it up between a couple full-band versions of songs off our acoustic EP "Webster Lake". But we do have a couple special surprises in store.

ATP: Finally why should people come out to this tour?
ALFW: Because in my opinion, LYU and All Or Nothing are both awesome bands, and if they were touring here in the States, I would definitely go out and see them. As for us, if you like us, I'm sure we won't dissappoint you, we'll be trying out best to blow you away. If you've never heard of us, at least come out and make us feel at home, we don't have many friends out there. It's gonna be a blast every night, and this is probably the most excited we've been to go on tour. Thanks for having us over guys.

All Or Nothing

ATP: Who are you an what is your role in All Or Nothing?
AON: I'm Rich and I play lead guitar and sing sometimes.

ATP: For those who havn't heard of you, how would sum up AON?
AON: One of our songs in a recent interview was described as "a sing-a-long that is a little too tough to be Simple Plan". So I guess just catchy, fast and kinda heavy pop-punk.

ATP: You're about to head out with A Loss For Words and Lyu. Looking forward to it?
AON: Yeah I'm pretty excited, it feels like we haven't been away for ages. It was December so I guess it was a few months ago but I'm really bored of being at home and working to save up money now so I can't wait to just be able to hang out, get drunk, and play music to people every night for two weeks.

ATP: Have you played with either of them before?
AON: I've known LYU for years. I think they all live like 10 minutes away from me and Rob went to my school. It's surprising we haven't played with them more, but I'm sure it must have been a good few years since we did. So it'll be good to hang out with them and show people that Brummies really aren't that bad.

ATP: How would you sum up an All or Nothing show?
AON: We're pretty energetic. I'm never really satisfied unless I come off stage feeling like shit and so sweaty, that it's like I've had a shower with my clothes on. We like to try hard and put on the best show we can, but also party at the same time and make it a fun place to be.

ATP: You've recently released a split with Chaos Days and prior to that you released a split with The Wonder Years. Are there any plans for a full-length?
AON: Yeah we're planning on recording in Chicago in September/October with Mark Michalik, who is most well known for doing the new Swellers album. We've written about 7 songs so far and we're much happier with the songwriting process, everything feels like it's coming together better and sounding much better than ever before. ASo we can't wait to get it done.

ATP: After this tour, you're playing with The Swellers in May. What are your plans after that?
AON: Well we're trying to get out to Europe in the summer. We're recording 3 songs in April, but other than that we are just going to continue writing and demo-ing everything, until we've written as many songs as we can and then chop it all down into 11 or 12 songs for the album.

ATP: Finally why should people come and see A Loss For Words, All Or Nothing and Lyu?
AON: If you're into pop-punk and we're playing you're town then you'd basically be a complete retard if you didn't come. That's why!

LYU

ATP: Who are you and what is your role in LYU?
LYU: I'm Drew, and i play guitar and sing in LYU.

ATP: Give us a brief backstory on Lyu?
LYU: We've been a band for a long long time now, since we were 13 I think, but now we're 19/20 and just pushing harder and giving it our all to see where we can take it.

ATP: You're supporting A Loss For Words soon. Are you looking forward to the shows?
LYU: Yeah man, we can't wait! We are taking 3 of ALFW in our van for the tour, so we expect some serious bonding to occur. We have just re-kitted out our van with proper bunk beds, so we'll be travelling in luxury compared to our normal tour experience. We've known the AON guys for years and they're awesome. I think we played most of our first shows with All Or Nothing. They were like the older cooler band in our local scene so we always kinda looked up to them. They are an amazing band so we expect some seriously good shows and some serious partying. We havn't played a show with them in like a year, so it'll be cool to catch up and hang out.

ATP: Are there any dates/venues you are especially looking forward to playing?
LYU: Well Birmingham has been really good for us recently, as its our hometown and its the only place in the country so far where we actually see people sing our words back to us, but we're working on spreading that to other towns. Also we love playing in Bridlington. The venue is tiny, but everyone is so lovely there, and they go absolutely mental.

ATP: What can fans expect when they come to see you live?
LYU: A band who puts everything into their live shows, and a bunch of guys who like to have a good time.

ATP: What do you have planned for the summer? Any new material or tours?
LYU: Yeah we have loads going on at the moment. We are going into the studio just after the A Loss For Words tour to record 2 singles, which will be released in summer. We are then touring with another American band in May/June. We can't say much about that yet, but it'll be awesome. We're also releasing a video on March 3rd for 'Fight Fall Forget'.

ATP: Finally why should people come and see A Loss For Words, All Or Nothing and Lyu?
LYU: People should come because it'll be your only chance to see AL4W in small venues in the UK before they're huge! Also because I think all 3 bands on the tour offer something cool and different to each other, so it'll be a great tour.

A Loss For Words' UK tour with All or Nothing and LYU starts on March 3rd.

March 3 – Canterbury, Chantry Social
March 4 – Southampton, The Unit (Punk Rock Thursday Club Night)
March 5 - High Wycombe, Blues Loft
March 6 – London, The Macbeth (Whatever Happened to P Rock? Club Night)
March 7 – Kingston, Fighting Cocks
March 8 – Birmingham, Sound Bar
March 9 – Leeds, The Cockpit
March 10 – Stoke, Harry’s Bar
March 11 – Aberdeen, The Tunnels
March 12 – Glasgow, The Capitol
March 13 – Bridlington, Icy Tea
March 14 – Newcastle, Trillians
March 15 – Manchester, Retro Bar
March 16 – Nottingham, The Central
March 17 – Leicester, The Shed


A Loss For Words on MySpace.
All Or Nothing on MySpace
Lyu on MySpace

Sean Reid