Interview With The Band WEATHERS

The band Weathers is on a roll. They have been touring like crazy, finishing up their stint with Echosmith this weekend, releasing new songs such as “Feel Good” and making a ton of die-hard fans along the way. I was able to sit down with the band before the recent show at the Bluebird to chat about their past – and the ups and downs of constant touring.

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Interview With WEATHERS

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Aimee:

So, first just tell me about the band? How’d you get started? What are you guys about?

Cameron Boyer (vocals, rhythm guitar):

We all met in high school, I guess. I met Cameron Olsen at a Battle of The Bands. We were in different bands at the time. I met Brennen on Facebook. I met Cole because our dads played in a band briefly together in High School, and then Cole was moving out to California and …

Aimee:

You guys are based in LA, right?

Cameron Boyer:

Yeah, we’re based in LA. We’ve been a band since late 2015. We like to focus on mental health issues and not necessarily just spreading awareness, but spreading the message of self-care, getting help – that sort of thing.

Aimee:

Awesome, good for you. That is so important. How does your songwriting process work?

Cameron Boyer:

Well, we all write music. Usually, a couple of us will get together and we’ll write. Music tends to come first and then from there we go into melodies and lyrics. Sometimes a concept comes when we’re doing lyrics. Sometimes the concept comes before we even get to writing songs, stuff like that, but usually music first is what we like to do. Kind of get the vibe set first.

Aimee:

I feel like a lot of your songs are really upbeat. Maybe this comes back to the mental health thing, but there seems to be a lot deeper message there when you listen. Can you guys talk about that a little bit or how does that work out?

Cameron Boyer:

It’s kind a lot of happy/sad stuff, I guess. We like to speak from the heart and the lyrics are about certain mental health things or experiences that we’ve all gone through. And then the music is almost, in a way, celebrating it, kind of, and making it more normal and okay; rather than something that’s kind of scary. If that make sense? We like to just have fun too.

Cameron Olsen (lead guitar, vocals):

Yeah, we’re not just depressed all the time. We do like to have a good time.

Aimee:

I was going to say, you guys seem like pretty upbeat people too. What were some of your favorite bands growing up?

Cole Carson (drums, vocals):

Growing up? Foo Fighters.

Cameron Olsen:

Black Keys, Depeche Mode, Sir Sly has been one of my favorite bands recently.

Cameron Boyer:

The first record I ever listened to was The Beach Boys Greatest Hits album. I’ve always been a Beach Boys fan. My favorite band is The Killers. I listen to them a crap-ton growing up.

Aimee:

I guess their coming out with a new album soon.

Cameron Boyer:

Yeah, I’ve listened to them a bunch. I’ve been kind of all over the place growing up though, I mean there was like a phase when I listened to a lot of eighties hair metal and stuff like that. Now my favorite genre of music, is 80s New Wave.

Aimee:

That was me growing up.

Brennen Bates (bass, keys, vocals):

Yeah, that’s my favorite.

Aimee:

I’ve seen you guys play before and I actually photographed you before.

Cameron Olsen:

We’ve also been through Denver like six times in the last year.

Aimee:

That was what I was going to ask. Does anything stick out from your times in Denver?

Cole:

When we headlined the Marquis, that was great.

Brennen:

I just feel like we have a lot of good fans here. Of course, all our fans are great fans, but something about Denver, it just always seem a little bit more passionate. They are the ones who listen a little bit more to the lyrics.

Aimee:

That’s nice!

Cole:

I feel like the live music scene in Denver is pretty dope. Everybody likes going out to shows and stuff. Maybe because it’s so cold or something.

Aimee:

It’s weird, we were on that Pollstar list of number one cities that goes out to concerts. Along the lines of that, I think you guys are really good live, did that come naturally? Was it just like it gelled immediately or …

Cameron Boyer:

Definitely not! We sucked for a while, for sure.

Aimee:

How does one work on that? I mean just practice, rehearsal, playing?

Cameron Boyer:

Yeah, I mean, like I said, we’ve been playing together since we were in high school. I mean I met Brennan, I think I was 15.

Brennen:

Yeah, and I was 14.

Cameron Boyer:

I remember when we used to play together back in the day before we became this band. I mean, we would practice a lot more than we actually do now. Three times a week for three hours. We did that for a long, long time until, we kind of got into a grove. A lot of it also was just kind of self-discovery; figuring out who you are and what kind of energy you bring to stage. Just figuring out what you like.

Aimee:

Being comfortable in your own skin.

Cameron Boyer:

Yeah, exactly. Once you do that, then it kind of becomes a lot easier, I guess. Once you kind of figure it out. What’s cool is we’re still growing up, so we’re always kind of figuring it out.

Aimee:

That’s awesome. Right now, you’re out with Echosmith. How’s it been going?

Brennen:

Pretty good so far. It’s a change of pace, tour wise, than what we’ve been doing lately.

Aimee:

What do you mean?

Brennen:

We’ve been doing like a lot of like rock and roll tours and stuff; this is kind of like a step back from that.

Aimee:

More pop.

Brennen:

Yeah, much more pop leaning.

Aimee:

I saw your van broke down this week.

Brennen:

Oh, geeze. What a mess.

Aimee:

I think sometimes people don’t understand the rigors of touring. Can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, I feel like it’s harder than people think it is.

Cameron Boyer:

It’s way harder.

Cole:

Definitely.

Cameron Boyer:

Especially, because I feel like, we were just talking about this yesterday. Olsen was saying that, when you think of touring, I feel like if you’re not in the music scene or you’re not a band, you just think bands tour, they take big bus.

Cole:

Yeah, big bus; luxurious.

Cameron Olsen:

Drugs everywhere.

Cole:

We’re not at that level yet. It’s a little more bumming around.

Cameron Boyer:

It’s more of a grind. I mean, we have to do a lot of the drives during the day because we’re sleeping in hotels, at night. We don’t-

Aimee:

At least you get hotels, where a lot of people don’t even get hotels.

Cole:

True.

Cameron Boyer:

I mean, if you’re on a bus, you sleep on the bus. You sleep through the night and wake up in the next town, so it’s somewhat easy. For us, we do it during the day when there’s lots of traffic and we all have to rotate driving. Whereas if you have a bus, you have a driver.

Cole:

You get to experience more of the city when you’re on a bus. If you have friends come out to the show, you’re like, yeah, we can hang out after. The bus call is not till two or four am, whereas ours is right when the show ends, basically.

Cameron Olsen:

We drive an hour or more outside the city after the show to sleep for the night, so it’s not so crazy in the morning.

Aimee:

Wow.

Cameron Boyer:

There’s so much other stuff too. We’ve all got to share rooms and sometimes we share beds.

Aimee:

So … stinky.

Cameron Olsen:

Sometimes! But then we get showers. So there are pros and cons of taking a bus versus a van.

Aimee:

Yeah, so what can your fans do to support you? I know there lots of other ways outside of just listening to the music.

Cameron Boyer:

I mean, the best way to support us is to come to our shows. Especially, our headline shows. Obviously, when you buy merch and stuff, that’s super helpful and it’s always very flattering for sure.

Cole:

You get a little like gifts on the road.

Cameron Olsen:

I was just going to say, some fans give care packages, which is cool.

Cameron Boyer:

Then once, around the holidays, we got like a heart shaped Reese’s thing because it’s sometimes hard to celebrate the holidays when you are on the road too. We all love holidays.

Brennen:

People draw pictures. That is awesome.

Cole:

The other day, a fan gave us all wood letters of our names and designed each one differently.

Aimee:

How cool is that?

Cameron Boyer:

Things that, definitely, help us get through because it really can be tough. Especially, now that our van broke down and the van that we got is a lot smaller. We went from having four rows in our original van, to now we only have one row, which means all of us have to sit shoulder to shoulder, all of the time, constantly.

Aimee:

Oh my God.

Cameron Boyer:

It’s bit of a bummer. I mean, I love these guys. I don’t mind. Falling asleep on Cole’s shoulder is a dream come true for me.

Aimee:

What are your favorite non – well it sounds like you don’t have much time for it – but what are your favorite non-music things to do during tour?

Cameron Boyer:

We’ve loved checking out local food spots.

Cameron Olsen:

Food, for sure.

Cameron Boyer:

Bars, coffee, food trucks.

Cameron Boyer:

I’m also like a cinema freak. I love seeing movies. When I’m on tour, I definitely get sad that I don’t have enough time to go see movies. It’s always fun to go to different movie theaters and stuff.

Cole:

We went to a trampoline place, like a sky zone type place-

Brennen:

In Chicago.

Cole:

… In Chicago. That was a pretty good time. Dodgeball.

Cameron Boyer:

We kind of see tours like, this is like a once in a lifetime experience and we’re lucky enough that we get to do it multiple times. We try to make the most of it every time.

Aimee:

That’s great. What’s up after this tour? What are you going to do?

Cameron Boyer:

More touring.

Aimee:

I didn’t see anything on your schedule, so is it not announced yet?

Cameron Boyer:

(cryptically) Not announced.

Aimee:

Okaaaay.

Cameron Boyer:

Yeah, we’ll get there soon. A couple of things are still up in the air. Lots of new music as well, which is really cool.

Cole:

Hopefully, another van.

Aimee:

That’d be great! Well, awesome guys. Thank you so much for taking the time.

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