Touche Amore - Jeremy Bolm

JEREMY BOLM: I've been here for about two and a half weeks, and we did SXSW and decided to go up the east coast instead of travel back home because we have the tour with CONVERGE starting April 30th. Just to save gas and time, this worked out well. The rest of the band flew out back home the 20th of last month, and I've been just hanging out here with the van and trailer while they go home and live their lives *laugh*. I stay here with the van until I go to pick them up on April 29th so we can start our tour. I don't have a life at home so I figured I should just move my laziness over here for a while.

Hung out in New York for a bit, went down to Philly... Hung out in Baltimore for a bit and saw some friends' bands play. I've been going to a lot of shows and hanging out. I sit around at the Deathwish office all day and bother them. I've been making buttons and help package things so I don't feel completely worthless *laugh*.

From my understanding, certain bands on the tour got to pick a certain band. CONVERGE picked LEWD ACTS, and THURSDAY picked us. However, we are on a few of the shows after THURSDAY leaves because CONVERGE is nice enough to allow that to happen. We're going to be playing New York City with them, and as of yesterday, we are going to be on the Cleveland show too, which I'm stoked for. It's going to be so fun because LEWD ACTS are friends from home. Getting to hang out with them away from home will be great, plus we've known THURSDAY forever, and we're just getting to know CONVERGE on this tour.

Me personally, I've known Geoff and those guys since their first tour they did in California. When I was like 17 years old, I did a website, like a fansite, for them because they didn't have a website at that time. A friend of mine had sent me an MP3, and it was instantly like the best thing that I had ever heard in my life. I think it was a demo for Full Collapse. I was like, “I need to learn about this band!” The only contact info I found online was Steve's AOL screenname so I started IMing him going like, “I love your band! Blahblahblah! You don't have a website so I'm going to make one for you!” He asked where I was from, and when I said LA he was all like, “How the hell does this kid know who we are?” When they came out to California on their first tour with MURDER CITY DEVILS and AMERICAN STEEL, I met them and was like, “I'm Jeremy. I'm the kid that does the site.” They got all stoked. I think Geoff was selling their merch and stuff... Since I was 17 or 18, they must have been like 21. They were really young too. Every time since then, whenever they came to California, I went to all their shows, and we kept in touch. If there's one thing I can say about that band, those dudes have never changed. They are the same dudes I met back on their first Cali tour. When we did our demo, we gave our demo to Geoff, and he said he wanted to help us out and work with us. He helped put out our record and was nice enough to sing on the record. He even took us out for some dates on tour. Best dudes ever, ever.

I'm actually going to meet Nate tonight because I'm going to the DOOMRIDERS show, and I have to give him paperwork from the Kenmore Agency. All I've met is Jake so far, and he's been very kind. I'm pretty excited to meet the other guys, especially Ben because he's in UNITED NATIONS with Geoff so we'll have something to talk about.

We have always been a DIY-based band, but recently we became under the wing of the Kenmore Agency. They book BANE so it happened to work out. When we get back from the CONVERGE tour and turn towards home by ourselves, there are two weeks before BANE and STRIKE ANYWHERE starts. We got the offer, and of course we took it. We've never toured outside the US so getting to tour Canada with such legendary bands is absolutely absurd. There's no way we would turn that down and not do it. The fact that we get to play with CONVERGE and then BANE after that, it's like... Where are you going to go after that? We could break up, and it'd be fine because we toured with two of the best bands around. We feel very lucky and privileged.

Many of them are not around anymore, but AMERICAN NIGHTMARE was and will always be one of my favorite bands. I love THE SUICIDE FILE. I love HOPE CONSPIRACY. XFILESX was from this area, right? They were an awesome band. Off the top of my head, we'll leave it at that.

From Baltimore there is a band called PIANOS BECOME THE TEETH. From California there's a new band called JOYCE MANNER. There are a lot of bands that have their names out there a bit but always deserve the attention. COMADRE, LA DISPUTE... I just want to say all my friends' bands because I think they are all great. MAKE DO AND MEND, DEFEATER. I love DEFEATER to death. SHOOK ONES. DANGERS from LA is great. I'll think of more later, I know it.

We just recorded four new songs. Two will be on a split with LA DISPUTE. Two will be on a split with MAKE DO AND MEND. I recorded the vocals for the songs on the LA DISPUTE split in Harlem with LA DISPUTE. I sing on LA DISPUTE songs, and Jordan sings on our songs with us. It's a really cool mix like that. We are really proud of our songs, but the LA DISPUTE songs are ridiculously good. I can't wait to get those out. As of yesterday, it's on track for hopefully a July release. We're going to try to have the MAKE DO AND MEND split come out before that. Our demo is being re-pressed right now as well.

From the demo? No, not really. That was a time and place. I feel a lot of those songs were angsty, and I was writing about anything that angered me. Now, it's become more a personal thing now. I can be mad about something stupid and write a song about it, but it's not going to mean as much to me as writing a song about something that actually makes me feel. Once we started writing the LP, that's when I decided to write about things that actually mattered to me as opposed to stuff that was ruffling my feathers. The four songs we just recorded are very personal, and that's the way it's going to be for now on.

Our bass player does all our artwork. He's a very art-minded kid, extremely talented. He went to CalArts. He works in a huge company that does huge design work. He did BRITNEY SPEARS's album cover... He did PINK's album cover... Really really legit stuff. That's why he doesn't tour with us because he has so much to do with work outside of the band. We would never ask him to quit that job, and he would never do it anyway. It's great to have someone inside the band doing a lot of that stuff though, although we ask him all the time to do stuff *laugh* But he's very talented, and a very cool guy.

Absolutely, I think all of us are except for Tyson. Clayton and I both play guitar in a band called DEADHEAD. Nick has an ambient kind of band called WIFE. They're doing a double LP right now. Our drummer plays the accordion in a band called KOALACAUST. It's like anarcho DEFIANCE OHIO type stuff; they are great. I think he's playing drums now in JOYCE MANOR too. We always talk about wanting to do other projects, but all those others take up all our time pretty much.

We almost had a chance, and damn it didn't pan out but... I would have killed to play with GLASSJAW. If I got to play with CONVERGE, THURSDAY, and GLASSJAW, that's all my all-time favorite bands right there for ones that are still together. I love GLASSJAW to death. There are a ton of great bands who would be awesome to share the stage with, but I'll leave my answer at GLASSJAW.

Funny enough, even as we talk, I have a raspy voice to begin with. Doing it every night doesn't help the situation. I try not to drink a lot of soda; I drink a lot of water, and I try to do a little warm-up. When you've been on tour for a while, you finally adapt to it, but on the first week of tour, I am a mess. I hate it. My voice hates me is what I'm trying to say. Some people say it's like building a callous; you just talk with enough voice to get by when you're not doing a set. If I lose my voice though, if I can yell into a mic for fifteen minutes and then lose my voice after... It was worth it.