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Liverpool based All We Are has entered into their most exciting tour season since releasing their much awaited debut album aptly self-titled All We Are in January 2015. The album is met with critical acclaim, and the band has been on tour for the past month. Awaiting their first headline show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels, we sat down with the trio backstage to hear about their personal takes on the reception of their album, perks of touring Europe, and whether their backgrounds give them an advantage over the international audiences’ hearts.
So, All We Are - Welcome to Ancienne Belgique! Tell us a bit about yourselves.
Richard O’Flynn: Hi! We’re All We Are, we're a Liverpool based band. I’m Rich, the drummer and singer, and I’m Irish.
Luis Santos: Hello, I’m Luis. I play the guitar and sing and I come from Brazil.
Guro Gikling: I’m Guro, and I play the bass and sing in All We Are, and I’m from Norway.
The three of you are all from all over – Do you think that your backgrounds have had any influence in the sound of All We Are? Do you get this a lot?
Guro: Well really to be honest, we don’t see that us coming from different countries has that much of a direct influence how we see our music, really. I think it's mainly that all three of us have a very traditional background and that's what brought us together. It's not that our personal backgrounds directly influence the music in one way.
Rich: I think we’ve always found that we’re all very similar; both as people, personalities and as to what we like and don't like musically. Surprisingly, we're all very alike. It's what makes it work.
So then when you were first starting out together – were you drawn to a sound that you all feel would be perfect for your own individual tastes, merging it to be All We Are?
Guro: We never actually had a very specific idea of exactly what we want our sound to be like and the music we wanted to make. We always just wanted to create something people could dance to and have a good time, you know. But we never set out to you know, sounding in one way, we just wanted to make something good. The sound you hear on the record is something that was created over a period of time organically.
It’s very quirky how you describe your sound as being like Bee Gees on diazepam. Can you tell us what you mean by this?
Guro: *laughs* It’s just a bit of a slow disco that we want the world to fee – something mellow but fun.
Now that you’re a young band that’s starting out internationally, gathering up that following. Do you have a particular type of audience in mind that you're trying to reach?
Rich: I think we just want to make tunes that people can connect with, whoever that may be and it doesn't matter to us. Saying that though, we do like playing late at night so festivals that we play are always a fantastic experience when we have late start That can get really fun.
What are some of your favorites festivals that you've played at and which are the countries that you enjoyed most?
Rich: I really enjoyed Green Band, last year in England, and Glasgow, of course was absolutely great
Luis: We also did a show in the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool. It’s just a huge cathedral, one of the biggest in Europe with a great space. We played a show with different acts for over 1,000 people and the sound was just immense. It was very special place for this.
Guro: One of my personal favorite places was here in Belgium, where we played with different acts; it was an incredible crowd and a great atmosphere with a huge space.
What about the fans when you come to a new place – was there an audience that made you feel most at home outside of your respective countries?
Rich: I think it's hard to tell now. Now that the record is out and it’s only been out for a little while, you can really see the response of the crowd going to the gigs. The gigs that we’ve done in different countries like in France and Germany, you can really see that the people are digging the music. The response has been pretty universal, and you see audience singing along live and loving it. At all the gigs that we’ve done, the response has been great. It's hard to say that one is better than the other.
Guro: It’s an amazing feeling that now, when we start a song, people recognize what song it is and sing along. We’re like "whoa" they actually listen to it. And they know what’s coming and that’s really cool.
You know what we do at Liveurope; supporting international venues in booking up-and-coming acts that show immense international promise. Do you think these types of initiatives can help bands like yourselves and what's the best way to do it?
Rich: Well, really any sort of cooperation between venues is great, and if it gives bands that are starting out this opportunity is really cool. I don’t think we’ll ever go unappreciated, so we’re enjoying every minute it. The past two shows we've played were great, and we know you’re involved with the Rockhal in Luxembourg. We loved it and that was really great. So we wish lots of success with Liveurope and what you're doing with it.
For more All We Are news, tour dates, and albums, visit their official website ThisIsAllWeAre.co.uk, Facebook, and Twitter.
