Interview: He Is We

Alter The Press recently sat down with Seattle, Washington's own indie-pop duo, He Is We for an interview.

Rachel and Trevor spoke to ATP about their current tour supporting All Time Low, the upcoming re-release of their debut album 'My Forever', touring overseas and more.

Alter The Press: How is the tour going so far?
Trevor Kelly (guitar): Magical.

Rachel Taylor (vocals): Really tiring.

Trevor: It just seems like forever since you drive from Seattle, Washington to Buffalo, NY.

Rachel: My voice is just really tired. We've been sleeping in these hotels where the air conditioning doesn't work at all or it's up really high so then it just dries me out.

Trevor: Most shows are eight hours apart which if on a bus is nothing because you just wake up and you're at the venue but if you're in a nasty van with how many dudes in the van?

Rachel: I don't know but also these shows have had fog machines and I'm allergic to fog machines.

ATP: How did you end up jumping on the All Time Low tour?
Trevor: It actually came about in a really cool way. Rian (Dawson, drums) is a big fan and would always tweet us when the record came out like, "On airplane, love listening to He Is We" and we got approached a couple months back if we were interested in being on this tour, one of the biggest fall/winter tours of the year and you just can't pass something up like that. We're big fans of The Ready Set, All Time Low so it just worked out fine.

ATP: You recently just wrapped up your first headline tour. How did it go?
Rachel: It was incredible. It's interesting actually being on this tour because the energy is really different. On our headliner, we were able to set the bar where we wanted it.

Trevor: On your headliner, you get to set the rules and we got to play for an hour so the possibilities were endless with what you want to play but on this tour, when you have 25 minutes to play, you have a set time to load-in and that kind of stuff.

Rachel: It's also really hard.

Trevor: Yeah. It's because these kids are coming to see All Time Low and we play really soft pop/girly stuff.

Rachel: We haven't had any bras thrown at us yet.

Trevor: Nope. Hopefully someone will throw me a pair of socks because I'm running out. Seriously. Rachel actually stopped a song yesterday and looked at my feet and said, "Your feet are sticking out of your socks!"

Rachel: I washed my socks in the sink yesterday with green tea shampoo.

Trevor: And dries them with a hairdryer.

ATP: "My Forever" has been out for nearly a year. How has the overall reaction been, would you say?
Rachel: My dad loves it.

Trevor: We don't pay attention to numbers and that side of things because from an artist's point of view, we don't want to feel discouraged or encouraged like by, "Oh, you've only sold 1,600 singles this week compared to 4,000 last week." I don't want that to rule decisions and stuff.

Rachel: When you become involved in the business, that's when you become jaded. That's how I feel about it. I myself refuse to look at the numbers of plays, where we are in the charts etc. I just wait for my dad to text me good news. I don't want to get involved and invested because that's when you become a product when you base what you do on numbers. The response of the crowd won't affect you anymore, it's just about the money that you're making.

ATP: You recently announced that you will be re-releasing "My Forever" and to quote, "Hopefully before Thanksgiving". Is there any update on this?
Trevor: No update on that. It's out of our hands because we've actually done one new song and re-recorded "Our July In The Rain". We have some stuff going on, it's just about putting together the finishing touches like mastering, mixing, pressing, releasing etc. Our part is all done. No set date yet. Could be before or after Thanksgiving or next year.

Rachel: You never know.

Trevor: We're working on a couple b-sides that we have, nothing too spectacular. Our new version of "All About Us" with Owl City and stuff. We had a printed version and then a version with two bonus songs so we want to give something to give people more of an incentive to get it. I'd like to make a DVD film out of it.

ATP: Have you started writing the next record?
Trevor: We're always writing regardless of it being for the next record or personal use or Rachel writing rap songs in the back of the van.

Rachel: My cell phone is filled with song ideas that I come up with when driving in Seattle traffic.

Trevor: In terms of sitting down in a studio setting and writing, that's not happened yet.

Rachel: It will probably happen after this tour, that's when we are going to focus. I recently got married and being home would be awesome. We are going to focus on writing probably through the holidays with people that we like in Seattle.

ATP: What's lined up after the All Time Low tour?
Trevor: Writing.

Rachel: And finding the right tours. We're doing a second album, so we want to take time on doing that right. We've been working our booty's off and we are just going to wait for the right tour to come up and write in the mean time and do interviews and stuff like that. Interviews would be great and another radio tour for "All About Us" possibly.

Trevor: And I can sing the guy's part! Or not.

Rachel: They won't let you.

Trevor: I physically can't sing.

Rachel: He signed something.

Trevor: Trevor Kelly will not sing or talk during interviews.

ATP: You've mentioned on Twitter that you are planning international touring. On record, is there any update on this?
Trevor: I don't think people realize that booking agents specialize in different territories and the only booking agent we have is in the United States and maybe Toronto, within driving distance. We haven't looked into any further.

ATP: Would you say He Is We will be definitely touring overseas next year?
Trevor: I can't see what would hinder from doing that and there are no plans set in stone but the way things are going, I can't see why not.

Rachel: Things are snowballing to overseas.

ATP: Thanks for taking the time out for the interview. Anything else you would like to add?
Trevor: Thank you to Alter The Press for organizing what we say or what not. I can't get anything past you guys! Definitely want to thank the fans as well.

Rachel: I have a YouTube channel and I've been working on my SNL skit writing and if anyone is interested...RachelIsAGoober at YouTube.

'My Forever' is out now.

Jon Ableson