September Mourning's September

By Jay Oakley

I'm sitting here with September Mourning, thank you so much for taking the time.

Hey, no problem!

How did the set go?

Great!

How has the tour been going over all? It's been you, Davey Suicide, CombiChrist and Dope.

Yeah, it's been great. I love all the guys, they're awesome, it's really fun to tour with these guys. It's a great lineup, everybody brings something different to the table and it's pretty tight and solid.

Do you have any previous history with any of these bands?

I know a lot of the guys in CombiChrist really well. They're a lot of my friends so it's fun to tour with those guys.

On a tour like this, that has a lot of top quality bands with a lot of gear, when the stage is packed like that do you find it difficult to move around?

Oh yeah, definitely! It doesn't hurt the set but I tend to knock things over like the backdrop tonight. [Laughs]

Where are you heading next?

We're heading down to North Carolina.

Over the last year, you released your latest record, Volume II. How did that go for you and how have you felt the reception to be?

I think people really like it. They really love the comic books that go along with it and they really like the storyline.

For the people that aren't familiar with September Mourning and what you do, how would describe a show to someone who hasn't seen it?

It's like a living comic book come to life.

Does that have anything to do with the way you've described your music as stories?

Yes.

What was the basis for your design of the band?

I just wanted to do a trans-media project. I didn't want to just do a normal band. I wanted to do something with makeup and appearance and costumes but with a purpose. Not just because, "Oh, it's a lifestyle thing!" No, I wanted to go up there with a purpose and that's what we did.

Other then this current tour, do you have anything planned for later this year that you can announce?

Yeah, we have a headlining tour coming up. We have a couple festivals, radio festivals coming up that you can check out on septembermourning.com and get all of our tours and festivals on there.

Is there an album, not one of your personal albums, but is there an album that best describes your personality?

I don't really know about my personality but right now I've been listening to the latest Paris album, like over and over and over again. I just love that band. I love what they're doing, I love the electronics and the pop feel and the hookiness of the vocals. I just love that band, great band.

Is there a band or an album that spoke to you way back and made you decide that this is what you wanted to do?

There's a lot of them. I can't really name just one because I come from such a diverse musical background that it's really hard to do that. There's a couple of (David) Bowie albums that really influenced me, I think, when I was little because my dad listened to Bowie a lot and there's a couple of Siouxsie and the Banshees albums that influenced me because my mom loved Siouxsie. So, there's stuff like that but, all-in-all, I can't name just one.

Not a problem at all. September, thank you for taking a second, it was a pleasure.,

Thank you. Thank you so much.