You Me at Six

Fri 19th Aug, 2011 in Features

Matt Barnes, bassist from You Me at Six, took some time out from jet setting around the world to give FL a heads up on what’s coming for Australia when they return to our shores later this month. After recently pulling out of the Mix n Mash tour with Parkway Drive, UK’s favourite pop-punk band are heading back for a headline tour and bringing We The Kings along for the trip.

Barnes is as enthusiastic as could be for the tour, the possibility of warmer weather than the UK scene, having fun, learning to surf and hanging out. “Yeah I can’t wait I love Australia, like we all do, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” he explained. “We love coming to Australia we love the people, going out is just so much fun at night, I love that you can go out in a t-shirt and come out in a t-shirt and not be freezing because over here in the UK you’ll go out and it will be kinda hot and you come out at about 3am and it will be so cold and you don’t know what’s going on.”

There was a whole lot of anguish for fans when You Me at Six cancelled their tour earlier this year due to sickness and the determination of finishing their third album, but it was just as hard for the band and Barnes’ explains they wanted more than anything to make it up to everyone. “We were really bummed about that one because we wanted to come out with Parkway Drive, they’re our friends as well. We are actually seeing Parkway just before we come out. We are going to try and spend a few days in Byron Bay they are going to try teach us how to surf apparently, I don’t know how that’s going to happen!”

Not everyone is getting a piece of the You Me at Six action however, as Perth has been cut from the tour but Barnes assured they tried everything they could to head to the West too. “We tried to, this is the worst thing, we actually tried to come to Perth, everybody was like it’s not going to work out ‘blah blah blah’ and we were like, ‘well make it work out’ and we got an ‘well we’ll try’ and they just said it wasn’t going to work out.”

But for those desperate fans that will get to smash and jump around in the pits, the shows won’t be the average, stand-around-and-listen performances but full of energy, interaction and showmanship. “We like to jump around and make the show interesting to watch and do some crazy shit,” Barnes exclaimed. “We want to do all ages shows so everyone to come and have fun together… it’ll be fun we will try and hang out as well we like to meet as many people as possible, we want to put on a fun show and just chill. We do like to take time out and let people know we are very appreciative of them.”

Not only is the band amped to play for all their Australian fans, but to bring along a support they’ve tried desperately to tour with again. For the second time this year, pop-punk quartet We The Kings, will be jumping around stages and making girls squeal. “We met them years ago and we toured with them in the UK and it was just so much fun that we always tried to book out another tour each, we tried in the States and it just didn’t happen and we ended up being like fuck it we’ll just tour Australia together and ended up working out, it’s sweet.”

It’s been a busy year for the band recording their new album, but Australian fans may have to wait a little bit longer to hear some new tunes live as there is no set date for release just yet. Barnes says, “It’s going really well, we just finished recording basically so that should be coming out at some point this year. [We’re] just spending a few hours going through the mixes and stuff at the moment it’s quite fun getting songs back and being like oh wicked!”

“I don’t think we will play any new songs that people haven’t heard. I don’t like when bands do that. You go and see a band and you want to sing-along and they play a new song and everyone’s kind of like standing there like ‘uh, what’s this?’ They don’t really know what’s going on. So yeah, if some songs are out, which they probably will be, then we’ll play a few, either way, it’ll be fun for everyone.”

You Me At Six, We The Kings, Mission in Motion tour:
Saturday 27th August – The Tivoli, Brisbane (All Ages)
Sunday 28th August – UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney (Lic A/A)
Tuesday 30th August – The Hi-Fi, Melbourne (Evening, 18+ Only)
Wednesday 31st August – The Hi-Fi, Melbourne (Afternoon, Under 18)
Thursday 1st September – Fowlers Live, Adelaide (Lic A/A)