Ten Things I Learnt On Tour
We've been counting down to Wednesday's Choice Music Prize over the last few days and of all the band's whose albums are to be debated as the best Irish release of the last year, none have toured harder (or played louder) than Belfast's And So I Watch You From Afar. So naturally we asked them about what they've learned on the road.
1
If google maps tells u it's an 16 hour drive from Leeds to Vienna and you decide to do it in one go then be aware that it's gonna take u 28 hours and theres nothing you can do about it. Get a sat nav.
2
With no other options left for us we decide to sleep in your van roadside in Austria (after our drive mentioned in point #1). We were then woken by two mousched policemen at 6am who did not speak a word of English and were intensely upset. When they ordered everyone out of the van they were shocked to see a line of underwear sporting irish fellas spill out infront of them. They did not take to our irish charm,and promptly to us to the police station we they fined the shit out of us.
3
If your vans airbrake fails and u find yourself broken down on the autobahn in Germany it's likely that in 24hrs time your airbrake will still not be fixed regardless of how much money you've spent.
4
Because we spend all our time on the road we made the rare decision to treat ourselves to a more comfortable van with bunks! Now we can have a belter night out in Belfast, go to sleep in the van and wake up in Glasgow! Win!
5
If you really push yourself to the limits on an overnight driving mission the results can be both fun and potential fatal. Ask any of the drivers in the crew and they'll tell you some great stories of caffeine fuelled, exhaustion hallucinations ranging from bouncing road signs and people running along side the van, to one man conversations and an acute sense of being surrounded by milk. All true.
6
Leading on from the last point i should point out that that isnt encouraged. "Dont be a hero" is a phrase often used as the rest of us put our heads down leaving the driver and his companion to take on the nights journey.
7
If you have a tube of Berrocca your in the drivers seat. Play it cool tho, dish one out here and there, get the boys hooked, make sure they believe Berrocca is the answer to reversing all the badness tour brings onto your body and mind, but dont flaunt it about or your asking for trouble. Never buy own brand style vitamin tablets they do the same thing but as the arent in the green tube, psychologically they seem inferior. If you can get Berrocca with added zinc, this is like having a shipment of cigarettes in prison. When u have Berrocca you have the power.
8
Every tour we do we try and film as much as possible, to keep our fans posted on what we're doing, to document what its like to be in a band. But as soon as the videos arrive on youtube and we watch them we realise its pretty much just four 20 somethings burping and acting like dicks.
9
Nuff said.
10
No matter how much we all hate each other, no matter what evils are bouncing through the van, no matter what back stabbing, buddy loathing hatred is wrecking any particular trip, stick on Sovereignty off Japandroids album and we're best buds for the duration of the track. No human can escape its best friend montage qualities.... for those 3 minutes and 33 seconds we love each other again. If the problem persists it may take alcohol and the Joe Cocker.
In your words