We met up with Joshua Moore of We Came As Romans and interviewed him in an alleyway on the side of the Webster Theatre. Here’s what went down.
Lets Start with the obvious and get it out of the way WeCAR, considered Christian Hardcore?
“We’re not. No, every single interview, and I do almost all the interviews, every single one asks the question ‘Are you guys Christian?’ and we’re not. We’re not at all, actually. Like, personally I’m a Christian, there are a few other dudes in the band that are, but there are dudes in the band that aren’t. And as a whole, we’re not a Christian band. It’s just we are about, like, the meaning of our band though. There’s just a lot of bands that are, like, considered secular and not necessarily about a meaning, not necessarily have one message. They just write songs about whatever. Our CD and our band as a whole is just like, really positive, uplifting message about just like forming relationships with people, a lot of it is about brotherhood and just loving one another. Like being compassionate and being passionate in what you do.”
Did you always have that “positive vibe”?
Josh said “Yeah. Ever since, it kind of started way back in the day we went through a few member changes and then I started writing the lyrics for us and ever since that point, we really decided as a band what direction we wanted to go and so I started writing the lyrics more tailored toward that direction, which was easy cuz it was always kind of like something that was on my mind and was on my heart, I guess you could say.”
So then who are your idols and influences, and along with the band as a whole.
“Just, as fellow musicians I guess you could say, I know a lot of the people in our band like look up to Underoath or August Burns Red, like, really big bands in our genre, like, even (The Devil Wears) Prada, like they’re all, like, great and it’s funny cuz like as we’ve grown as a band, we’ve played shows, like, the first time we played with The Devil Wears Prada or Story Of The Year, and Dave, our screamer, and I were like ‘Oh my gosh, I remember listening to, like, Story Of The Year, like, sophomore year of high school’ and thinking how huge it was that we were sharing a stage with them it’s like we were little fan boys, like, just star struck. It’s been crazy, it’s been like that ever since we signed and started full US touring, like, we’ve played these shows with bands that we never imagined that we’d play shows with. It’s just been crazy, definitely in a good way, in terms of just never realizing the places that the band could go. Dave and I, the two original members in the band left, like, all the original members, we all went to high school together. It was the summer before my junior year and the summer before Dave’s senior year, and like thinking back to that point, I was 16 and I just, thinking back to that point and the bands we listened to, on the day of our first band practice, was the day that Chiodos’ “All’s Well That Ends Well” was released, and after band practice, we all drove to Best Buy and bought it. And now we’re signed to the same label, we just played Bamboozle on the same stage as Chiodos, it’s just crazy to think back to where we were before.”
So with all the touring, what show stands out as best?
“Honestly, Bamboozle even though it just happened like a week ago. It was nuts. It was the craziest show ever. There was so many people watching us, so many people that actually knew the words, they weren’t just like ‘Well, I paid for the ticket to watch a band’, it was like ‘I want to be here for this band’ and it was just so many people. And it was crazy. I like almost started crying during the first song. There’s a, we open with the song “To Plant A Seed” and at the end there’s a part at the end of the song that, on the record, is group singing. Our whole band is singing it, and then, at Bamboozle, the whole crowd was singing it and it was crazy, I literally almost cried. I know it sounds really, like, girly or something, but it was crazy, it was a really emotional moment.”
And what show would you say was the worse?
“We’ve played the WORST shows before. We used to book our own tours, every band has to start somewhere, and one of them, we booked a show with this place, it was a venue called The Hole in the Wall, and we were like ‘Okay, this is not going to be good, it’s called The Hole in the Wall’. We showed up, it was actually some dude’s basement in this really ghetto suburb in Michigan, and we were like ‘Uh.. alright. Guess this is the place, The Hole In The Wall’. They were like ‘Yeah, it’s called The Hole in the Wall cuz there’s a hole right here in the wall’. And they point to this, like, drywall. Probably like, 25 (kids came to the show). We’ve done our fair share. Actually, last time that we played here at The Webster, there was maybe, like, 30 people there. It’s just crazy because, like, we’ve played here before, I remember, and I was almost embarrassed to go on stage, I was like, ‘I consider myself a musician and there is nobody here, nobody cares about us’. But you know, it’s like it’s also good because we played the big shows, and shows like that are always humbling. I’m just like I’m a human, regardless of what people do whether it’s working at a pet store, and I just happen to work as a musician.”
How did We Came As Romans chose their hardcore genre.
“It was just that, when I first joined the band, I didn’t even like playing heavy music at all. I listened to music with screaming, but I like fast-forwarded like ‘this part’s terrible, I hate this’, but the more I listened to it, the more it kind of just caught onto me and then our first drummer ever wrote the first five or six songs we played as a band, he wrote all of them, and he was a really good musician. And after that I primarily took over the songwriting. It was just kind of natural, it was like ‘Oh, this sounds good. I’m going to write this way’ it’s what I like to play, it’s what the dudes like to play so I mean, why not? Nothing that we’ve ever come out with has been like forced, like ‘Oh, we’ve gotta sound like this’ it’s just been like ‘Let’s sound like this it seems like a good idea. It’s fun.’ and hopefully other people can share t
heir enjoyment with us.”
heir enjoyment with us.”
Life on the road? Glamour or grit?
“We actually had three weeks off before this and it was like the most time we had off in forever. Before that, we went on a tour with Alesana and A Skylit Drive and that was 42 shows in, I think, 47 days. It was crazy, we were literally on the road for 6 weeks. Right now, we left like April 28th and we’re on the road until June 9th. It’s crazy, it’s just crazy. You can (lose your focus), I mean, Joey (the bands tour manager) does keep a lot from happening, he’s really awesome. A lot of it I kind of find is just finding time to wander off and be by yourself, time to recuperate. There’s so much that goes in to being on the road that a lot of kids that come to shows, they never see it, and I think that’s a good thing because not all of it is awesome. Arguments, tension, everything. When you put 8 dudes in a 15 passenger van for 5 weeks, it’s not going to be awesome. Playing music and being at shows with other people, and hanging out, it just balances itself out.”
The craziest road experience WCAR has ever faced?
“I always get asked this question, and to this day I never have a solid answer. Our bass player Andy is just the comedic relief for the band. He’s always doing something ridiculous. We filmed a video of him a week ago of just like him shirtless, hanging out the van, spinning numchucks on the highway. I also think there’s a video of him, like, shitting his pants for 20 bucks. He’ll do whatever, whenever and it’s just hilarious.”
WCAR’s goals or future plans?
“To stay on the road. Until Christmas. I don’t think we’re going to record until next year. The CD’s doing really well, and I don’t think there’s any room to fit into the studio this year.”
The last question was 2010’s question for all
Weirdest or most embarrassing thing on your iPod?
“I probably have NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. Probably the CD ‘Stunt’ by the Bare Naked Ladies. I was jammin’ that when I was 7.”
Helen and I can add to our resume of strange places to interview a band with this one. Right next to Pizzaria Uno’s lobby we can say,
We interviewed a guy in an alley.