Army Of Freshmen - Field of Dreams
Interview with Trashpit Magazine, August 2007
This past summer Army Of Freshmen played one of the opening sets at this years Download
Festival. You would think upon seeing the show that the band were headlining the entire
festival with an electric performance and a totally packed out tent even before lunchtime!
Later that afternoon TrashPit sat down for a few minutes with frontman Chris Jay to talk about
a day where his dreams really were coming true.
You had one of the earliest sets of the day, were you surprised by the crowd that turned up
and the reaction you got?
Man, it was a dream come true! For months I was just so concerned about who's gonna come
you know and what's the reaction gonna be like? You play it out a thousand times in your
head and it couldn't have gone any better man! When I turned the corner to come on stage
and saw that whole tent full I could almost have started crying. It was 11.45am and we'd
filled the tent - AM!! So many of our fans came out and we made so many new fans - the
energy for that early in the day, it was perfect. For me, for what I do and for what I was
expecting it was great. So, I'm so far having the greatest day EVER!! I even got me a picture
with Vinnie Paul.... and it's blurry!! I just didn't have the sack to ask for another! But you
know?!
Did the festival itself out do any preconceived ideas you may have had beforehand?
Just the festival itself is so overwhelming. It's really just so big and I'm almost left
speechless at how epic it is when you first see the scale of it. I was very excited to see a
bunch of the other bands but I was surprised by the whole My Chemical Romance bottling
thing. It's a dream and I'm on cloud nine right now. It's gonna be hard to go home, wake up
and think that I've got to go work at the record store selling discs by bands I just played with!
I'm really getting ready to see Slayer and I'm very excited about that, it'll be the first time
ever. They're Kai's favourite band and he just met Kerry King so he was freakin' out!
It's a really 'heavy' line-up musically at the festival, did you have any concerns about that or
did you think it would work in you favour in a similar way that Bowling For Soup always get a
great reaction when playing in-between more metal and heavier acts?
With Bowling For Soup there's a relief that style of music and comedic aspect provides which
is super cool but for us I was really worried about it. I realised when I got here on Friday and
I was checking out all the stage times and I solved it! The tents tend to be for people who
are fans of the particular artist that's playing in there, bottom line is that if you don't like us
you'll have probably left the tent so with that and the fact we were playing early and not up
against anyone really big on the Main Stage and had a lot of our own fans coming out,
everything just lined up! It was really exciting.
Do you feel things are on a roll now coming off the back of the recent Sold Out Get Happy
Tour and now playing Download?
Absolutely man I can feel it. I can feel the momentum starting, there's that early swell with
something starting to happen. I don't know what, I don't know how big and I don't know
where it's gonna go but things are on the move. I think the next Get Happy Tour in the fall is
just gonna be beserk! I think the line-up is amazing and the shows are gonna be incredible,
I couldn't be more excited about it. People over here really embrace the mentality of The Get
Happy Tour and we have so much planned for the shows and it's really moving in a good
direction.
Does it get frustrating when you work so hard, play sold out shows and have a huge fanbase
that some labels don't pick up on the band? Is it maybe that you work so professionally and
efficiently they maybe think you've already got a huge team behind you and don't need their
support?
I think there's a little bit of that and there's definately a frustration with it but I think a lot of
labels are beginning to fall apart. They don't have any money, they don't wanna sign
anybody and it's all fuckin' bullshit! The castle may look really pretty on the outside and guys
like me are thinking they really wanna go in there but inside they're starting to crumble, it's a
dangerous place. You can do so much more by yourself these days and the internet is such a
weapon but at the end of the day you still need to pay the bills and it's still very, very
difficult. If I told you the financial stuff I've had to deal with you'd slowly weap but you know,
you throw on some Danger Danger and get on with it! But the reality of it, things are starting
to change 'cause there's a place out there for bands without big labels and I love that.