Andy caught up with New Found Glory’s bassist, Ian Grushka after their Set at Reading ’09.
PT: First of all, welcome back to Reading!
Ian: Thank you. It’s been awesome today. It’s been really good to play the Main Stage finally.
PT: You guys have played here a few times now. What are you best or worst memories of Reading and Leeds?
Ian: I think the best thing is growing up in the States, I’d always see bootleg CDs in music stores and found out about the festivals that way. Now to actually be in a band, and get to play here, it’s pretty huge. It’s like you have a checklist of things to do in your life, and that’s one of them! The side stages here are amazing too, but it was absolutely amazing being up there on the Main Stage.
PT: You’ve just played a few dates with International Superheroes Of Hardcore alongside New Found Glory. How have those shows been?
Ian: They’ve been awesome so far. It’s always fun getting to do the Superheroes thing over here. We don’t really even play as them that much in the States!
PT: Are you guys planning on keeping International Superheroes Of Hardcore going?
Ian: Yeah we’re talking of doing another record at some point, but it’s something that we don’t really rush. With the first record, we were doing demos for ‘Coming Home’ and we rented out this little mansion in Malibu. We’d do New Found stuff all day long, take a few hours off to eat dinner, then later on we’d be bored and decide to bust out some hardcore songs. Initially it was just for fun, but people liked it. I’m sure we’ll do another record, but it’s not really a priority at the moment!
PT: It must be quite draining playing with both bands in one show!
Ian: For me it’s not really as hard, only because I don’t have to sing at all. But Chad has to scream for the whole Superheroes set then sing backup vocals for New Found. Jordan loves it because he never gets to play guitar with New Found Glory! It’s a lot of fun, a good way to warm ourselves up for the main show!
PT: How does it compare playing a show on this scale to say a smaller club show?
Ian: For me, I feel the same way whether we’re playing in from of ten thousand people as we are today, or five hundred kids at a club show. It’s a whole different ball game though – the vibe and the feeling that you get playing festivals you can’t get in a club, but the feeling that you get at a club you could never get up on a stage like this. But at the same time, playing to that many people at once, it definitely makes you appreciate everything you’ve been given!
PT: You guys have been going for over a decade now. How does life on the road now differ to back in the early days of being in a band?
Ian: It’s like being married to four other dudes. Everyone knows everyone’s quirks or when someone’s pissed off and doesn’t want to be bothered. It’s so easy though now, I mean starting out we were all cramped in a van and we’d be up in each other’s throats. As soon as you start touring in a bus, you have a space to call your own. It’s a lot easier, a lot more comfortable! The memories that you have starting out, you’ll never have again, but once you get on a tour bus, going back into a van is a hard thing to do! Overall though I can honestly say we’re happier as a band than we’ve ever been over the last ten years.
PT: In the last couple of days there’ve been Internet rumours about an NFG movie and a page has appeared on the Internet Movie Database about it. What’s the deal?
Ian: (Laughs). A film is definitely a rumour, but we did just shoot a new video for ‘Don’t Let Her Pull You Down’ It’s got kind of like a zombie vibe to it, and there’s a little bit of an intro and an outro to the actual song, so that’s probably where that came from. It was a lot of fun to shoot, but we’re still going through all the rough edits now so it won’t be out just yet!
PT: Now looking on your Myspace you’ve got no upcoming dates after this weekend. Have you got a bit of downtime now? What have you guys got in store for the rest of the year?
Ian: The next thing we have planned is a US tour through November and December – the headliner hasn’t announced the dates yet so I can’t say who it is I’m afraid. I imagine we’ll then have some of January off and then head back out to Japan, Australia and Europe again. I don’t know what order that’ll be in just yet, but we’ll back over early next year for sure!