Jen catches up with Cristopher Drew from Never Shout Never

Posted on November 1, 2015 in Interviews // 0 Comments

Never Shout Never are on their way to Australia soon and I got the chance to chat to Chris about their new album ‘Black Cat’ and their tour.

Hi Chris, Stoked to hear your new album and looking forward to you coming to Australia.

Thanks.

Well-done Chris on cleaning up your act and getting yourself straight to continue on your career path. Do you take a hard line on drugs now?

Yeah I mean I don’t fuck around with anything anymore. To be honest I smoke a joint every now and then that is pretty harmless and legal here in California.My reason behind giving drugs up is that life is a dollar coaster and to me I want natural highs like meditation, I try and eat healthy 90% of the time and 10% of the time I eat crap but it is just a lifestyle thing.

Are you a Vegan?

I am vegetarian and on and off vegan. Sometimes I am but I like to break the rules.

The bands that I interview that have released 7 studio albums are usually a lot of older than you. Not that I’m complaining! Just an observation! When you started your musical career at the age of 16, did you have any adults saying get a real job or were you supported 100% from the adults in your life?

Yeah I mean there was defiantly some back lash I mean I dropped out of high school and my friends were like saying ‘What are you doing?’ and my parents as well, my mum cried and my dad gave me a good talking too. I decided to hit the road in my car. However after I booked some tours and got a manager, everyone backed off and thought that I was for real.

Ian (Crawford) joined Never Shout Never in 2014 and you wrote a song together called Hey! We OK. Was writing with someone else a new thing for you at this time?

I had done a lot of writing with friends but this was the first time I wanted to make an effort to incorporate the guys,like on the writing process and the creative side. I always wanted to be the captain and man the ship by myself. I really wanted some help and I wanted to experiment really. I like how it turned out, I think that having the other guys involved added another layer to it.

I agree. I really like the concept of that song. When you both wrote it what was going through your head? Writing from personal experience or did you have someone in mind?

You know we wrote that song in the park and we came up with some chords and we thought that we would write a song about dorks as we are dorks ourselves.

We wanted to write a song for anyone that felt like an outcast and make it so we help people feel better about themselves.

I really like it when bands do that.

‘Fone tag’ to me is interesting to hear the male insecurities about telling someone how they feel and making that call. I know us females have plenty of insecurities as teens, I see it all the time, as I am a teacher as well as a music journalist. Will this be in your set list for Australia? As I can imagine that song to be awesome live.

I don’t think that we are actually going to play that one.

But yeah I really like that song and we are waiting to have someone play the trumpet on that with us before we play it live.

I love ‘Peace Song’ with your raw voice, ukulele and seemly simple lyrics that pack a punch, it sounds like no other song on the album. Actually so does ‘Boom’ for that matter….

However the song that speaks to me the most is ‘WooHoo’, guess I am a romantic at heart, that is how I felt when I met my husband WooHoo I finally the met my soul mate. What is the song that you connect to the most of ‘Black Cat’?

I would say that I really like the song is ‘Red Balloon.’ I feel like that one as it tells my story and is a metaphor on my journey and I can see the bigger picture and I think that it speaks a lot of truths that can be passed as a metaphor.

I was listening to that song this morning and I though that I really liked that one too.

You seemed to take longer to release ‘Black Cat’ was that due to you being open to others advice such as your producer?

I think the real reason was that I have hit a kind of maturity point where I realised that it would be better with other minds in the picture and the right influences and the right people and the right ideas that we could make some good and great. It was kind of like having that in the back of my head. I do think it sounds a lot better than I thought it would be.

At 24 that is pretty good to realize that as at my age I still have not really been able to do that easily.

This is your first headline tour of Australia. You have 2 of the best young Aussie bands supporting you Forever End Here and Daybreak. You also have other bands that will play certain cities. Other than SW in 2011, How many times have you been to Australia?

That was my only other time for Soundwave. This is our first club tour and we are looking forward to spending some real time, I know we have some days off to explore and adventure.

(We had a chat about Melbourne weather and what to do down here.)

I looked through your merch shop and I love what you have. Especially the mosh shorts, will you be bringing them on the tour? Coming into our summer they will be perfect!

Probably not, I don’t think we are I think we are doing t-shirts and sweat shirts.

I was thinking that they would sell well as we are going into our summer.

I shall look into that thanks.

Does it annoy you that Justin Beiber hs a single similar to your band’s name? As I was telling someone who has not heard of you that I was interviewing you and they were like you mean Never Say Never? Im like NO! omg no You guys were first!

No really there are quite a few songs and albums similar to our name. If our band was called Never Say Never it would bother me but I don’t mind. With the comparison I think it is kinda funny and cute. (both laughing)

I was going through your facebook and was wondering if all the post and comments about fans asking and sometimes demanding you to come to their country, sometimes just after you have been, does that drive you mad?

Sometimes. I mean sometimes I try and stay off the comments as I know the good ones will go to my head and the bad ones will bum me out. (Both laughing) I mean personally I would like to go to every country that people ask us to go to, I guess it is only a matter of time.

After hearing that scientists now believe that Red meat could give us cancer and you are a vegetarian does this mean you feel healthier than ever?

Not really, I actually dislike when people pressure people as I think everyone is on their own personal journey and the way that I think about it is more about killing animals but at the same timeline of my friends are vegetarians I would never bug them about it. Honestly a lot of people that I know are like that and it really bugs me. They give us a bad rap.

Yeah I know a vegetarian that gives me a hard time for my choices and I hate it!

Exactly, you need to make your own choices.

Is there one highlight of the US Warped tour for you this year?

I did this song writing work shop every day which was one on one to 20 different fans to do a course on song writing, that was really good for me as I actually learn a lot and I think that when you teach sometime you learn it better. By teaching these people how to write songs I can improve my song writing a bit.

You went to the UK Warped as well? Was that just for one show?

For us it was but I am not sure if there is more than one in the UK.

Can you tell us about having your tattoos removed?

Sure I have a tear under my right eye and it is giving me a real hard time as it is green ink. I am working on that and I have a triangle on my forehead and that started bothering me after a while. (both laughing)

I got some lips on my hips that I am planning on getting rid of as it was a kiss from my ex girlfriend.

Will that make you think twice about getting more tattoos? I know that you are working on your legs.

Yes I am, I will think twice about getting one on my face.

Well I better let you go, time flies in an interview!

Congrats on your ever maturing sound and staying focused on your dreams. I will follow your career and look forward to seeing you live in Melbourne when you come down.

Thanks for the interview Jen

Cheers Chris.