Soundwave Festival

Biography

Set Your Goals recently announced that they would be returning to Australia once again in February for a run of Festival Apperances as well as Side-shows with A Day to Remember, This is Hell and Four Day Strong. We had the pleasure of recently catching up with Set Your Goals vocalist Matt Wilson, to discuss the bands return to Australia, being a part of the Soundwave Festival bill, the craziness Matt and the guys get up to backstage and much more!

Firstly I want to thank you for putting the time aside to speak with me today, firstly let’s talk about the upcoming Australian Soundwave Festival tour, no doubt you’re excited to be heading here?

Yeah definitely, we look for any excuse to come to Australia and this is surely a good one!

Matt I couldn’t agree more! You guys are playing alongside some amazing bands like Janes Addiction, Anthrax, Isis and Trivium, will you be putting some time aside to check out the other bands on the bill and who are you most interested in seeing, I know there are a few bands on the bill which you toured with before?

I really want to see Anthrax and Jane’s Addiction, Gallows, Paramore, and Sunny Day Real Estate is going to be a huge highlight for me. I’ve never seen them and their tour is overlapping with ours in the states so I am really excited to be getting to see them over there… Faith No More will be really cool too!

It doesn’t seem like it was all that long ago, that you last played some shows here, what fond memories do you have from your last Australian visit?

Last time we were there was with All Time Low and it was really cool! Most of the shows were sold-out and we ended up playing to a little bit of a different crowd to what we’re used to. Actually the first time we came out there we all got koala tattoos because it’s our favorite country in the world, and we just had so much fun. It was amazing, so we got a koala tattooed in celebration of Australia [laughs]

[Laughs] When you travel half way across the globe for a tour like this, what is the one thing you most look forward to about coming to Australia besides playing the shows of course?

Anything and everything! I love travelling and I love music so touring combines my two passions, I look forward to all of it. I love Australia, the weather’s great; everyone speaks my language… it’s such a beautiful place.

Matt, are you a fan of playing on the larger festival bills or would you much prefer the smaller more intimate venues, no doubt both have their advantages!

Yeah, you’re right, there are definitely both advantages and disadvantages to doing both! It’s cool to play in an intimate crowd where you’re face to face with the fans and you can interact with them, but it’s also cool to play to thousands of people and reach a new audience where you know you are playing to people who have never heard your band before and there is a possibility that they will dig it, that’s pretty exciting to me!

There’s no doubt that when you’re playing on the large festival bills such as Soundwave, as you just said, it can be a fantastic way to expose the band to a lot of people who may have never heard you before… for those punters attending Soundwave that plan on checking out Set your Goals… in a few words how would you describe the band live and what can the Australian audiences expect when you take to the stage?

Lots of energy, we like to have a high intensity set, we’re fast, we’re melodic but we’re also intensive and we love to get the crowd involved anyway possible!

Mate, the latest album ‘This Will Be the Death of Us’ charted well on the American Billboard charts and has received rave reviews from various parts of the world, you guys must be thrilled with the response you have been getting!

Oh yeah, we’re very proud of it, it’s been a very rewarding experience.

The album has been out a couple of months now… looking back on the recording process, is there anything you would have changed or wish you had done differently?

No actually, we had a lot more time on this record and put everything we wanted to into it. It wasn’t as rushed so we didn’t have as many regrets afterwards… no song’s ever really finished, but we’re pretty happy with the result, we put out a great record on a great label and we’re really proud of it!

There are some kick ass tracks on the album like ‘Flawed Methods’, ‘The Few that Remain’ and ‘Summer Jam’… you guys are currently doing a run over there in the states how have the new songs been going down live and what have been your favorite tunes to play from the new album?

I really like playing ‘Gaia Bleeds’ cause it’s a little different from what we normally write. It’s fun to watch the crowd react to that one every night… for people that have never seen us before it definitely throws them a curve ball!

Matt, tell us about a very special event that took place back in May where you guys performed as ’Set your Grohl’s’ doing a bunch of Nirvana & Foo Fighters covers, how did that come about and how was the crowd’s reaction at that show?

Basically it was for the Headwig Festival… everyone had to choose someone to cover and we all liked Dave Grohl’s bands a lot so we became Set Your Grohl’s for it. It was a little weird playing songs that were so slow, cause we’re used to playing a lot faster but the crowd liked it and we had good fun doing it!

As time goes on can we expect to see you guys hit the stage doing full sets paying tribute to any other bands?

Who knows, we like to keep people on their toes and keep things interesting!

Whilst we’re on the subject of touring… take us back to 2004 and those very first shows with the band, did you guys know instantly that you were on to something and how were those early crowds reacting to the performances you were giving?

It’s funny you asked that cause I just did an interview where someone was asking me about that! It was surprising to us; we recorded a demo and said “okay let’s just play some local shows in the area with our friend’s bands. Once we put the songs up online there was this reaction all across America, kids were asking us when we were going to be playing in their town… we were like ‘Wow we’ve gotta go on tour”. Next thing we knew we were signing to a label and putting out a full length record… it just spilled on from there. It was surprising when we did our first tour outside of our home state and it was a really fulfilling experience.

Mate, unfortunately it seems that many vocalists draw the short straw on tour when it comes to partying and so forth as you have to rest your voice, before you hit the stage do you do anything specific to warm up and prepare for a show?

Yeah, I do vocal scales to warm up, drink lots of water. We like to act like idiots backstage, run around and loosen up and have fun with it. The live show is all about having fun for us!

What’s the craziest shit you have done backstage whilst other bands were performing?

[Laughs] Oh man you name it [laughs]. Throwing our rider food at the walls, getting undressed… anything and everything you can think of [laughs].

[Laughs] In five short years you have been fortunate to share the stage with many amazing artists, who has given you the best advice on the road and what was it?

New Found Glory have given us a lot of really good advice from staying sane on the road, and what to do with our band, how to treat your fans. One thing Pete Wentz [Fall Out Boy] told us when we were a very young band was never burn any bridges, if you talk smack on a band or do something negative it all comes back around and it really does. A lot of bands have told us along the way to tour relentlessly and I think that’s really paid off for us and gotten us to where we are today. I think it’s responsible for most of our fan base at least here in the U.S.A.

Matt, we have hit the part of the interview where our readers get to find out more about the real you… what was the first concert you ever attended and how much of an impact did that have on you musically?

One of the first concerts I ever seen was the Steve Miller Band with my dad when I was seven. It was cool; he had this whole entourage of people that were coming up on stage in jester suits and all kinds of crazy stuff. It was really cool to see so many people onstage giving the crowd a really dramatic effect.

Growing up was music the be all and end all for you or were your goals different?

Honestly… when I was little I wanted to be Michael Jackson. I never thought I would do music professionally to be honest, when we recorded the demo we just expected to play Local shows in our hometown like I was saying before and it’s gotten so much bigger than any of us ever expected… it really has been a dream come true for us.

In March of 2009 you signed with Epitaph Records after much deliberation about whom you should sign with and you even looked at the possibility of self-releasing albums from here on. After many discussions and previous problems with other companies why did you guys decide to settle with Epitaph?

Just meeting up with them and seeing that they were genuine honest people that treated us fairly. Brett [Gurewitz] is in Bad Religion, so he understands what it’s like to be in a band and that makes all the difference.

What’s the craziest rumour you had ever heard about yourself and or the band?

I’ve heard that we’re all gay, that was pretty funny! I remember seeing this one message board in the United States, I won’t mention what one, but there were rumours on there that we were hooking up with all of these girls backstage and then a year later on the same message board there was a rumour that we were all gay. Some kid pointed out on the site that only twelve months earlier they were saying one thing, now all of a sudden the tables had turned!

Matt, unfortunately we are out of time, I want to thank you again for your time, its been a pleasure, we are looking forward to seeing you back in Oz in February! Do you have any last words for our readers?

Thanks for a great interview man, Follow us on twitter therealsyg
© Cameron Edney Dec 2009

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This isn’t their first rodeo, you know? In fact, Bay Area pop-punk band SET YOUR GOALS have been slaying crowds since 2004. In the five years SET YOUR GOALS has been a band they’ve already achieved what most bands only dream about: toured the world, gained huge respect from their peers and achieved massive credibility among their wide-spread legion of fans.

So what separates SET YOUR GOALS from all the other bands you might ask? For one, they have no gimmicks. They don’t need to wear flashy neon, dress up like white kids at a 50 Cent concert or sing about getting wasted to melt their listeners’ faces. No trendy haircuts or cheesy breakdowns here, just straight up head bobbling pop-punk like it’s never been played whilst still maintaining their hardcore roots.

‘This Will Be The Death Of Us’ is only the band’s second album, but you wouldn’t know it. SET YOUR GOALS has already proven their longevity and dedication to the music through relentless touring “and they have clearly established themselves as one of the leading bands of today’s pop punk realm” – Behind The Hype

On May 1st 2009, the band performed as Set Your Grohls, performing covers of Nirvana and Foo Fighters songs.