The Front Bottoms will return to Australia in April for the first time since 2017. The visit comes off the back of the success of their 2023 full-length You Are Who You Hang Out With. Recorded in multi-week spurts with producer Mike Sapone, both in The Front Bottoms’ own New Jersey studio and Ghost Hit Recording in Massachusetts, You Are Who You Hang Out With features the singles Emotional, Punching Bag and Outlook, and has been fondly received by fans and critics alike.
Australian fans who have been anticipating the band’s return for seven years will get their first chance to hear songs not only from You Are Who You Hang Out With but also The Front Bottoms’ previous album, 2018’s In Sickness & In Flames as well. Coupled with the fact that the tour also happens to come following the tenth anniversary of their celebrated 2013 breakthrough The Talon and The Hawk the setlists for the tour run inarguably have the makings of something special.
Ahead of the band hitting stages in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth in April, we jumped on the phone for a chat with one-half of the New Jersey favourites, lead vocalist and guitarist Brian Sella and it was to quote the man himself “a very human experience”.
The Front Bottoms are headed back to Australia for a headline run in support of your new record You Are Who You Hang Out With, so tell me Brian, who are you looking forward to hanging out with down under?
“Everybody that comes to the shows basically, we’ll probably try and meet up with our friends The Smith Street Band, if they’re around, that’s who brought us over to Australia the first time.”
Something obviously went right with your connection with the Australian audience because you’re headed back over here as a headliner!
“Yes, sir, we did come back one other time with The Hardaches. We toured with those guys in 2017 or 2018, that was cool.”
That’s triggered a memory for me, I remember seeing you at those shows. They had a great time. I distinctly remember everyone singing along at the top of their voices to the chorus of Skeleton, “I got so stoned, I fell asleep in the front seat” That was a pretty big hit with certain segments of the crowd!
“Oh Skeleton? That’s it, that’s when it started to go off, yeah exactly”.
Just this past year, you dropped You Are Who You Hang Out With which has been well-received by your fanbase and critics alike. Do you feel like the record is a bit of a step up for The Front Bottoms?
“Totally. I think that we hit a groove. You know? We were coming out of the pandemic we had made In Sickness & In Flames with Mike Sapone as the producer, and we worked with our buddy Eric Romero, who played a lot of the instruments on the albums, so everybody was just feeling good. And, you know, it was like a good creative environment and stuff like that. So I think that the stuff that we got, in particular on You Are Who You Hang Out With was special for sure. It’s like our latest masterpiece.”
It's good to hear from a confident artist. Far too often we talk to people who just don't have the level of confidence in the material that you do, it probably helps in your ability to to connect and convey messages with your fan base, that defined sense of self. Now you have some pretty fanatical fans. What do you think the secret is to your, your connectivity with such a wide and diverse array of human beings?
“I think that they can hear the humanity in it. I’ve always tried to keep it very human. To your point about the ‘confidence’ thing, I feel like a lot of the time artists and fans, miss the point, and the point is to enjoy it, to try and enjoy your life. I think we always try to maintain that level of humanity. I feel people can find comfort in that. like, find comfort in that. It is a comfortable space, where you can be your person but be accepted within a group. There is an energy for sure.”
The suffering artist trope is a thing for a reason, I guess. Now the band is quite popular with indie-rock kids but is also pretty ideally positioned for the current pop-punk revival, as there is quite a bit of early 2000s pop-punk and emo influence on your sound. Is it fun seeing that music in the spotlight again, and do you think it has helped The Front Bottoms connect with a new, broader audience?
“Totally. think it's like that nostalgia factor, like everything kind of circles back around. We went on tour with a lot of those bands and we played just recently at the When We Were Young Festival in Vegas, with a lot of those older bands, the emo age of bands, and it was a good vibe. Everybody always has that nostalgia hit, think that's why it circles back around and I'm pumped about it. You know, I feel the same nostalgia for New Found Glory ‘Sticks and Stones’ album or self-titled, any of that cool stuff.”
Would you say that Sticks & Stones is your go-to record from that era? Is that your god-tier pop-punk album?
It probably would be that. I think of driving to high school with my sister and thinking “This is cool”.
Yeah, absolutely. It's very good vibes. Now, you've incorporated elements of that sort of sound into your music as The Front Bottoms, but you've got this other kind of like, collegiate indie kind of vibe, mixed in as well. Was this a thing that came about organically?
“I appreciate that. I think that it's been an organic experience. A lot of times, we get into the studio, and I've heard artists say, like, ‘Oh, I know what it wants to sound like’ and ‘I know, what it's gonna sound like’ and that just seems like so impossible to me. The whole creative process is the point to me. So any type of artistic expression, from The Front Bottoms, comes from an organic place. It’s developed naturally, and you know me and Matt going way back to the beginning, just using what we had and playing with whoever would like to play with us. Just maintaining that punk rock mindset influenced the sound. It’s circular.”
You put out a song with Manchester Orchestra in 2018 that I love called Allentown. They do a similar type of thing to you in the sense that they walk between worlds, between the more artsy, indie-rock space and the emo/pop-punk sphere. Have Manchester Orchestra been an influence on your music?
“Absolutely. I love all those guys. We had the opportunity to go on a bunch of tours with them and tour with Bad Books and stuff and with ‘Allentown’, what happened was that me and Matt went down to Atlanta to Andy and Robert’s studio and we just kind of were jamming and made that song. So that was a pretty cool experience. I'm drawn to creative people. I like that they're constantly like that Manchester Orchestra’s always doing creative stuff. So yeah, they’re an influence for sure.”
Outside of music, what's something that you consider yourself to be a Maniac for, what can’t you get enough of?
“You know, it's so crazy. Because like, at this point in my life, I'm trying to figure out what that is, you know? I'’ve kind of been a Maniac of like, just trying to find new hobbies and stuff. Right now I'm pretty into scuba diving. So I've been like, trying to scuba dive and stuff like that.”
Do you have any off days in Australia? You could go scuba diving here, there are a lot of great spots!
“You know, I didn't even think of that, maybe that would be something that I should do. Or maybe even if not scuba diving, at least go snorkelling or something.”
Looking at your tour itinerary, I reckon WA might be a good spot for it, there are some cool spots in SA. It looks like WA is the end of your tour, so maybe ask a local tour manager if they have any good spots you could go to. Have you found any good spots at home?
“Well, I mean, in terms of scuba diving, I scuba dive exclusively under a bridge at Point Pleasant, New Jersey. That's been my exclusive spot thus far. But I had the opportunity to go to Hawaii on tour and we played a show in Hawaii, and I spear-fished in Hawaii, which was awesome, yeah.”
You’ll like scuba or snorkelling in Australia.
I’m excited, I’m going to try and come out a few days early and king of chill out and see what’s up.
Your first shows are in NSW, there’s plenty of nice coastline up there. I mean why take another photo with a Koala when you can take a photo with a Shark?
“Yeah absolutely. One up it. I gotta do a little research. That's an awesome idea.”
Before you go and plan your trip, if you had to give a 30-second pitch to convince someone to hit up a Front Bottoms show, what would you tell them?
“I’d say it's gonna be a very human experience. And you know, in this day and age those are kind of tough to come by. This is a good one. You know, this is a good, positive experience that everybody should experience.”
One last question, looping back to the album title, who is someone DON’T want to hang out with?
“Who's someone I don't want to hang out with? Yeah. That's always such a hard question. I don't even know. I'm open at all. Except for evil people, you know?"
THE FRONT BOTTOMS AUSTRALIAN TOUR
Friday 12 April - Roundhouse, Sydney NSW
Sunday 14 April - Princess Theatre, Brisbane QLD
Tuesday 16 April - Northcote Theatre, Melbourne VIC
Friday 19 April - The Gov, Adelaide SA
Saturday 20 April - The Rechabite, WA
Listen to The Front Bottoms
