We caught up with This Wild Life ahead of their set at Slam Dunk.
Fresh from their UK tour dates with As It Is, This Wild Life performed their debut UK festival set at Slam Dunk in Leeds on Saturday.
We sat down with the duo from California to catch up on their thoughts of the UK festival scene.
How are you guys feeling about being at Slam Dunk?
Kevin: We’re excited, it’s cool.
Did you know much about Slam Dunk before you were asked to play?
Anthony: I’ve always seen the line-up and we really wanted to play it. We had emails to our manager like ‘hey are we submitted for Slam Dunk?’ and then when we got it we were like ‘hell yeah’.
Kevin: We kind of look at it as the equivalent of Warped tour over here. Similar bands playing it and a multiple stages kind of festival. We did Warped tour last year back home so we’re wanting to get over here and play a big festival like this.
How do you think the UK festival audience is going to be compared to the likes of Warped?
Kevin: We have no idea!
Anthony: We didn’t really see the people get in, we were inside and they didn’t let people in so we have no idea. If this whole thing was packed with people, I’d have no idea.
Kevin: I can see people sitting.
Anthony: They’re sitting? Ok so this might be different for us. We’ve never played a kumbaya festival yet…
How have you found the UK audiences in general when you guys have been on tour here?
Anthony: They’re great, it’s been really good.
Kevin: I think we have a good crowd over here.
Anthony: We’ve had some of the best singalongs we’ve ever had in the UK, they’ve been great.
Do you notice a difference between fan dedication in the two countries?
Anthony: I haven’t noticed that personally. I’ve seen tattoos, I’ve seen letters. Actually, our number one fan is based in London. She has seen us eight times and her mum has seen us six. She came to our last show and her dad for her birthday made her a vinyl clock of This Wild Life and it’s so sick. She’s awesome.
Kevin: It’s a pretty similar culture, but you guys might drink a little more.
In terms of festivals, do you prepare for the shows any differently?
Kevin: Yeah I think it’s different from doing a headlining set from a festival set. It’s shorter set times for this stuff so you can’t really fit in longer tracks or the slower ones, you have to pick.
Anthony: I feel like you have to pick if you want to talk or play more songs because a headline show you have a lot of time so you can take a break and talk to the audience, maybe be more personable.
Kevin: We try to squeeze in as much music as possible so we play songs right into each other. We can play three songs in a row.
Anthony: If I want to see a band, I just want to hear them play the songs, that’s how I feel. We just wanna perform the most songs we can. We sit there and time it out before we play a festival so we’re like ‘alright we’re at 29 minutes 30 seconds, we’re good’.
Are there any bands you’re hoping to catch at Slam Dunk this weekend?
Anthony: Pvris,The Colour Morale and Beartooth!
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