From English breakfasts to inside jokes, we caught up with We Came As Romans.

As the band prepared for their debut Slam Dunk slot in Leeds, we chatted with frontman David Stephens to find out about their recent UK tour.

After the chat, we played a little game with David to discover his favourite things about the UK, the bands he’s been listening to on the road and his favourite track to play live.

5 things guaranteed at a We Came As Romans show

1. Drinking – “Andy will be drunk”
2. High energy – “We’ve always been a band that is very much about the performance. If you want to listen to us you can listen to us on the CD when you come to see us you wanna see a show.”
3. Jumping around – “We like to get the crowd moving.”
4. Inside jokes – “There will be some kind of joke on stage, you’ve gotta watch carefully because it’s usually stuff behind-the-scenes like Kyle will be talking and two of our guys will do something.”
5. Packed set list – “We like to play as many songs as we can so there’s not a lot of breaks. It will literally be three songs back to back and then a 30 second break, we just like to go.”

4 favourite things about UK

1. English breakfasts – “Andy and I get up every morning and find English breakfasts. By the time we leave I’m like sick of it.”
2. Pubs – “They’re cool. It’s more than just a bar, people go there and hang out and are there forever. They’re eating, drinking and watching sports, it’s kind of cool. I like how some of them look like an old house.”
3. Literal language – “I like how some of the things you guys say are so literal like ‘the car park’. I like how English people speak so literally.”
4. History – “I like how being from America, it’s such a new country comparatively. You don’t see things like castles from centuries ago. I think that’s really cool that there’s so much history here, I like history and I’ve always been really intrigued when you see something that is standing from years and years ago. It’s something we don’t get to see too often.”

3 bands listening to on road

1. Architects – “Oh my god I can’t stop thinking about it and listening to it. They’re one of my favourite bands and whenever I meet them I get nervous even though I’ve met them so many times. I guess we’re at the point were we are friends but I’m still like ‘hey man…see you later’ I just don’t know what to say.”
2. Get The Shot – “I found this really tiny hardcore band from NY called Get The Shot that I really like and they have like one thousand fans on Instagram, but I’m like their biggest fan.”
3. Brand New – “The new comeback record came out and I was obsessed with it. I hadn’t been listening to them in a while, but now I’m listening to it a lot again.”

2 bands you wanna see at Slam Dunk
1. Northlane
2. Of Mice and Men – “I haven’t seen them in a long time and they’re always fun to watch, they put on a good show.”

1 favourite song on setlist
1. ‘Tear It Down’ – “It’s fun and everyone gets jumping. I like it as a singer because it’s challenging for me. I’m singing the whole entire song, obviously Kyle comes in too, but that song is challenging enough and fun and easy to move to so that’s been my favourite one.”