Interview with Press To MECO

With the release of Press To MECO’s sophomore record ‘Here’s To The Fatigue’ coming very soon Lottie sat down with Luke (Guitarist and Vocalist) and Adam (Bassist and Vocalist) to have a chat about the album and exciting new things for the band. Check it out here:

Hey guys how’re you now that the Don Broco tour is over? 

Adam: It’s always hard because you get the post tour blues.

Luke: It’s very boring now back to work and usual things.

Here’s To The Fatigue comes out this month, how does that feel?

Luke: It feels great!

Adam: We’re finally here!

Luke: We have the Kingston In-Store on that day as well which will be great, we’re going to do another 18+ one as well. The in-store is about 50 cap as well which’ll be awesome, I’m very excited.

Apart from the show with Don Broco have you performed via Banquet Records before?

Luke: We were going to do one for our first album ‘Good Intent’ but logistically we could never make it work, but when this opportunity came around we jumped on it straight away and said that we’d love to do an in-store.

So getting back to the upcoming album, what songs off it would you say are your favourites? [Personally I love White Knuckling and Itchy Fingers.]

Luke: See, we’ve been asked this before and I totally forgot about White Knuckling which is always my go-to favourite.

Adam: I’d go for Place In It All just because it’s so different, but yeah, I’d go for White Knuckling too just for the fun part of it. It’s all completely skewed for us because we live with these songs for so long and we just start recording and we love one but the next day another, and then you play some live and it all changes again.

Luke: The perception totally changes though because if you listen to one of the songs in a weird mood it could completely change how you feel about it, but I’ve had a break from [listening to the album] from a while and I came back and listened to it the other day and I don’t hate it [certain songs] anymore.

Are any of the new songs ones that didn’t make it onto ‘Good Intent’ or all they all brand new?

Adam: There’s a bank of ideas really that were left over like certain riffs or melody lines which we’ve used bits of, not so much songs but ideas definitely.

Luke: We’re quite slow at writing so if we write 11 songs those’ll be the ones on the record. We have mates in bands who literally write 20 songs for an album and then they’ll pick the best 9 or 10 whereas we’re like oh shit we need another song right up until the deadline. So like Adam said they’re more ideas that didn’t get developed rather than songs.

Has anyone, or have any sounds, in particular influenced the new record?

Adam: I don’t know really, I guess it’s just stuff we’ve listened to at the time really. We’re always sharing stuff with each other, we have quite an eclectic taste in music and we’re always mixing it around but I don’t think we actually sit there and are like ‘oh we like this album etc’ it just kind of happens. I mean you could be inspired by your mum playing you a Bryan Adams song when you’re 3 years old in the car.

Luke: For me with this band it’s more like a section from another band inspired a section for a song or something like that. Like there’s a Billy Talent song I like, and I kind of wanted us to write a chorus or something in that style, it’s more just parts of songs rather than the whole thing. We’ve all got our bands that we love, like we love Everything Everything and Manchester Orchestra and also The Dillinger Escape Plan.

So your ‘Familiar Ground’ music video was pretty awesome, what’s that all about?

Luke: Well quite literally it’s about two people who fall apart every time they touch each other. But symbolically it’s more of like a reflection on those relationships that everyone’s had where perhaps it didn’t work out for one reason or another and in your head you build it up as a super ideal scenario and you start idolising this person or situation when in reality it still didn’t work and if you were to get back together or see them again you’d very quickly realise it doesn’t work.

On the topic of music videos, are any more on the way?

Luke: There will at least definitely be one more single from this album, probably after it comes out. Maybe there’ll be two who knows? We love doing videos and they are really fun and allow us to get creative with expressing the lyrics so who knows.

So a new album means a tour is on the way? 

Luke: Yes, we’ll absolutely being doing a tour it probably won’t be straight away but we will be touring this year. We’ve kind of played everywhere we want to in the UK so we’ll go back and do some of those places as we want to do a full run but we really want to play in the EU which is virtually unexplored territory. That’s the more immediate plan than our own headline run which’ll likely happen later in the year, but yeah we’ll be getting out to Europe as soon as we possibly can. I really want to go to Japan too, when we played with Man With A Mission they were just insane so we’d love to go see or play with them out in Japan.

You guys also just got announced for 2000 Trees festival are you excited for that one?

Luke: Yeah, I mean collectively in our scene everyone thinks of 2000 Trees as the best festival.

Adam: All the people there are just so sick as well, we did an acoustic thing at the Reuben Tent last year in the campsite and the people were awesome.

Luke: It’s so cool because it’s such a niche festival and even then it’s quite broad. Like at one side you’ll have At The Drive-In headlining and then you’re got bands like Creeper and all these cool newer bands. I wouldn’t be surprised if in 5/6 years it becomes the new Reading festival for rock music. The guys running it are so awesome too and every year they announce the lineup and you wonder how can they top this and somehow they manage it.

Adam: It just keeps getting bigger and bigger, it used to be 5,000 and this year it’s going to be 10,000 which is incredible.

Any festivals that you haven’t played that you want to? Or are there any you want to play again?

Luke: I want to play Reading just for a bucket list thing. We’ve done Download a few times and Hevy Fest was really fun too.

Adam: Something like Boardmasters would be cool because it’s such a different crowd altogether, Slam Dunk would be awesome too.

Luke: Internationally we’d love to do Rock Am Ring and all of the international Download festivals. We just want to play them all really.

Adam: We should play Coachella.

Luke: I want to play Burning Man Festival that’d be crazy in the middle of a desert.

Adam: Now we’re talking I really want to play that cheese rolling festival in Gloucestershire where they roll the cheese down the hill and everyone chases it.

Luke: Ah man, I’d also like to play Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Jugglos. We’d be the complete odd ones out but I want to do it, but if we dressed up as clowns I’m sure we could make it work.

Touring is obviously coming later in the year so are there any bands that you want to tour with?

Adam: Dream-wise, let’s go for Billy Talent cos that’d be sick or something like Mastodon. Marmozets would be cool too.

Luke: Dream-wise for me I’d like to play with AC/DC and ABBA at the same show. It’d be AC/DC to headline, ABBA as main support then Manchester Orchestra in the middle of the bill and then we’d open it. I mean they both have four letters and A’s in their names so it could happen.

Adam: Merge the two bands together and get AB/CD or AB/DC they could do a collaboration album too.

Luke: So yes, our dream support slot would be an AC/DC, ABBA hybrid supergroup. I feel like if we got 7 billion signatures they’d have to do it, because let’s be real who wouldn’t want to see that.

If that’s your dream lineup what’s your realistic one?

Adam: Fizzy Blood, we need to do some shows with them, and Jamie Lenman.

Luke: To be honest, the 2000 Trees lineup has a lot of amazing bands which we’d love to tour with.

Back to the album talk then, I know your second one isn’t even out yet but are there plans for a third?

Luke: Yes, there will definitely be a third Press To MECO album. We will start writing it as soon as possible.

Eager to get started then?

Luke: Well of course [jokingly] I’ve finished a song and a half since this interview started [laughs]. So we’re well on our way now. The third album will be out before the second album at this rate, it’d be a total PR storm.

Are there any songs you struggled to write during the process?

Luke: Actually ‘If All Your Parts Don’t Make A Whole’ was this whole other thing it used to be this mad, really techy kinda crazy song with about 6 different sections in it.  We had been sitting on that riff and those ideas for about 2 years and then one day we were playing it through and then I remember that main kind of riff between the verse and the chorus which was in it then it just felt so much better than than all of the rest. So in the end it kind of turned into what it is now.

If you got a cool tour-bus for the next tour what would you want in it?

Adam: A hot tub definitely, fridge and an xbox and TV.

Luke: What about a little golf course too? That’d be awesome and we want Cirque Du Soleil in the back end of the bus.

Adam: What’d be sick is if you could get like a balcony area with sun loungers.

Luke: Ah we could pretend we were the Spice Girls in the Spice Girls movie.  Lewis would be Baby Spice, Adam would be Hairy Chest Spice.

Adam: Nah I’d be Scary Spice.

Luke: Yeah I agree with that, I don’t know which one I’d be….Geri Halliwell get me a ginger wig [laughs]. We need two more members….NATHAN AND KEV! They can be Spice Girls too.

Adam: They have to join the tour bus as well.

Luke: Yes, the entire tour crew could be Spice Girls, I’m actually really glad we got to the bottom of this.

So leaving the Spice Girls behind, how do you think it’s going to feel once the album is out?

Luke: It’s going to feel really good, especially since we’ve had such a learning curve with Good Intent. Once it’s out it’s full steam ahead and constant touring which is so much fun, I love playing live and it’s going to be fun not to worry about logistics and artwork and everything. It’s going to be interesting to see how many fans we’ve gained from supporting because we haven’t done a headline tour since last November, and then since then we’ve toured with SikTh, Arcane Roots and Don Broco.

And out of those 3 supporting slots which shows were your favourites from each one? 

Luke: I mean Don Broco was sick just because it was all sold out and full of people who want to jump around. But at the same time we’re quite a nerdy band too so to play in front of a SikTh crowd or an Arcane Roots crowd where people just stand and watch you stroking their beards, that’s pretty awesome as well.

Adam: My favourite show was the SikTh one at KOKO, which was amazing due to the scale of the venue and when people cheer it feels so atmospheric it’s awesome.

Luke: Arcane Roots, Southampton was really good and for Don Broco the show at ULU was awesome.

So that’s a wrap, thank you guys!

Luke: Thank you very much for wanting to talk to us!

Adam: Yeah, thank you!

Here’s To The Fatigue comes out on March 30th Via Marshall Records and you can preorder it here.

Follow Press To MECO on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Check back here soon for our review of Here’s To The Fatigue.