The Academy is...

 Well this is a throw back to a great band who went separate ways last year I had a chance to sit down with mike and heres what he had to say.

BBM: What’s your name and what do for the band?
My names mike and I’m in the academy is and I play guitar.

BBM: What was the name The academy is chosen for the name of the band?

Mike: It was the academy and I don’t know how that was chosen it was just something pretty random and the is came on 6 months after that band established and they came just because of legal things. We kinda threw the is on to off set that.

BBM: What’s your favorite song out of any album?

Mike: The smashing pumpkins 1979 because I could listen to it all day long I like the sound and it hold a special meaning because at the point in my life I was just getting into music. It made me say I definitely wants to do this

BBM: Did you ever think about any other kind of professions?

Mike: No I swam in high school I was on the swim team I was pretty good at that you know. Going to college and doing that so yeah but other than that I was good a history I still like it but playing in a band and touring seemed like for me. Around 15 or 16 I started thinking about that.

BBM: Give me a little history of The Academy is.

Mike: My self and William we met at a death cab show we started a rock n roll band and at the point William was doing a solo side project called remember me and I was playing in a band called Jody it was kida a local thing and we knew Adam and he was good friends with his brother. So William and Adam came as a package. We started working on the academy we released an EP we did 2 weeks of touring. We did almost here we’ve been touring ever since.

BBM: Tell me about the latest album.

Mike: Almost here was done very quickly at that point we where doing 10-20000 records we did it very cheap. The experience was good. It was very fast to give you an idea we walked in there kinda sat around listening to a few downloads and we did drums and 6 songs the first day and guitars and vocals at night.

BBM: Why did you choose the cover art and the title?

Mike: We have a friend who designs on our website I think we sent him some acoustic and that was his take on it. It the artwork there’s a day and night sequence and we dug it we were serious about it but almost here has completely surpassed us we didn’t think it would be that big at all. As far as the title the last song is called almost here and it almost doesn’t make sense but it makes all the sense I think its kinda of interesting  thing and William would explain it better/

BBM: What’s a personal favorite track off the album?

Mike: I like fraise that pays a lot just from lyrical to cleaver to playing it live all night I still like all the tunes I enjoy playing that song every day the last 2 years.

BBM: What’s your favorite thing about touring?

Mike: Playing obviously other than that I like the fact I hang out with my friends and talk about music. Waking up doing sound check doing interviews and getting ready for the show and enjoying your self I couldn’t ask for more. It sure beats doing anything else its always changing and the good out ways the bad there’s stuff missing family friends it changes you because you get used to being on the road and when your home you kinda don’t know how to deal with being in one place in the last year and a half we haven’t had a break.

BBM: How would you describe the sound to someone whos never heard the band?

Mike: I think you can be hip it’s a pop rock band to certain extent so we have influences from punk to weezer to bands when we started and getting into it.

BBM: How’s this album different then any other album?
Mike: On the ep is was a lot of non-sense which is something cool. The past songs where much more camp fire song kinda acoustic transformed to electric the new album is much more melody and instruments coming in to more of jam kind of session and realizing its more focused.

BBM: What’s your worst touring moment?

Mike: Not being there for graduations or family events my little brother plays soccer I haven’t seen him in the past 2 years and he played a big championship. Its kind of a moment even though im doing something. The falls of the past year our drummer’s grandma passed away so we had to miss a few shows and that was a first like wow where not invincible and shits going to happen.  We got into once accident early on which was a bad just a shitty moment for the most part its all good

BBM: Funniest touring moment?

Mike: Doing pranks we were out with armor for sleep for a while they where funny just do shit and cause trouble. We have a guitar tech and another member from the band they got in the shower you just had to be there its still funny.

BBM: The genre yall play has a lot of competition so how did you get a label like fueled by ramen?

Mike: When fall out boy was first coming around we were good friends with them for a long time they started getting action to play bottom lounge in Chicago and peter told a rep of fueled by ramen you have to check out this band blah blah there cool guys good music there writing new tunes he was there for fall out boy but then we started talking we played some of out new songs in acoustic and he was like wow this is really cool how about we make a record.

BBM: Favorite place to tour and why?
I love the uk as far as a place because its different and I don’t know anything about it I love san Francisco. As far as crowds it goes across the board from new york to Orlando I like the warmer cities when its cold.

BBM: And pre show rituals you follow?
Mike: We listen to music from anything from rage against the machine drink a little bit take a few shots you know losen up nothing to crazy we all hang out and laugh nothing out of the ordinary.

BBM: The bands breaking through right now. Yall got a great label a great show what are some words of wisdom you would give to someone trying to make it?

Mike: I think there’s 2 things I always think of I don’t know which one is more important a lot of people say go out there and Tour tour tour tour and that’s good but you need the tunes. So I would say to any band to make sure to work on your songs to a point where you really like them and then go out and tour tour tour you know what I mean I think now more then ever its good to work hard and tour hard but you also have to have the tunes to back it up. While touring with panic at the disco and we did the howl thing and no one has done nothing like them without doing all the down work like us you know what I mean I think its important to have really good songs and work on your songs listen to new songs.

BBM: How is it touring with Panic at the Disco?

Mike: Great we did shows in the uk got to know each other real quick all across the board its an amazing tour from front to back you have to be at this show. I find a lot of bands share fans which is a nice thing I like the fact the bands fill more welcomed with our fans and there fans. As far as panic there great kids and things have gone well very quickly and they got a great head on their shoulder.  They’re going to do very well.

BBM: Yeah people have been camping out since 1 pm for this show.

Mike: I think its great that people want to see the first band and the last band most people don’t realize that he headlining band does choose the line up and asks all the bands to play with them so you know we try to go out of our way we got this tour last October and our agents our are agents but we want to get a good bill together. I feel all the bands are one step away

BBM: Any plans for the future?
Mike: we just release an acoustic ep

BBM: How are you getting feedback on that?
Mike: Good it’s more of a fan peace you know we did a john Lennon cover and 2 new songs and the feedback has been great its been doing well on the iTunes charts. We go to japan few weeks off and writing and after that back to the UK so that should be good and a few days off and start warped tour after see if a record can be made its good busy it all has impact what where doing almost here is a great record its grows over time from the 1^st week you know. Buzz from the internet so its hard for us to say when a new record comes out we want to give all the life to this record it takes people time to find bands

BBM: Any last words?

Mike: Just check out the website if your familiar with it just please keep going to it check it out and that’s about it where going to be on warped tour.