Hi! Welcome back to Belgium!
Bonnie: Hello!
Jonno: Good day!
A new tour! That means a new setlist. How do you start making a new one? How do you chose which songs you’re going to play?
Bonnie: First, we argue, and then we argue a little bit more. Then Potter yells really loudly and then we argue one more time and then we finally settle on something.
Jonno: And then something usually changes and then another argument. And then we settle and we’re like ‘oh well, let’s just call it a day’.
Bonnie: Usually, we try to play like songs that people will know. We chuck in all the singles and maybe we’ll play a new song.
Do you sometimes want to change the setlist in the middle of the tour?
Bonnie: Some bands are really good at doing that but we’re really shit at doing that.
Jonno: We’ve never done that.
Bonnie: We’re very regiment and are like ‘no, this is it and this is what we’re doing’. But if there are songs that aren’t going down as well as we thought, then maybe we’ll take one and swap it out. Usually, we stick to the setlist, and to be fair, usually, we do pretty well building the setlist. I’m going to commend us for that because usually, we don’t need to change it.
Then it’s time to go on stage. What can have a positive or negative impact on you during the performance?
Bonnie: Positively, like just if everyone is jumping and having a good time or just smiling. That is the best, that is always the best thing to see. That will always make us have more energy and go harder. In terms of negative things, not much will impact us, except for people getting hurt or people just being dicks for no reason. I think usually if people are getting injured, or if the crowd surfers are really intense and we don’t have much crew to help. Or if there’s a show where there’s no security. Sometimes things just go to shit. Seeing people get hurt is not fun.
You’re touring a lot. What life lessons have you learned that can be used in your day-to-day life?
Jonno: I think we’ve kind of gotten to the point where we know when someone needs their alone time. That’s really important and I think sometimes you want to help them but the best way to help them is to give them their place. I think that’s a really big thing.
Bonnie: That’s a good point. I was just going to say shower more.
Jonno: That too. But it took a long time to figure things out but that’s probably one of the biggest ones I reckon.
Bonnie: Yeah, just being aware of other people’s personal space. People have different boundaries, just because it’s fine for you, doesn’t mean it’s fine for someone else. You learn that pretty quickly, being in a band together all the time.
Jonno: And yeah, hygiene as well.
Do you get to shower a lot on tour?
Bonnie: When we can yeah. Fun fact, I’ve gone the longest on tour without a shower.
Jonno: She’s actually the worst.
Bonnie: Yeah, but no one notices because I don’t smell! So shove it…
Jonno: I try to shower at least every time we get a chance. Especially in Europe, I try to shower after we play, at the venue. If I can’t do it, I'll do a wet wipe shower.
Bonnie: If you think about it, that’s all the water’s doing anyway.
Okay, so you’ve toured around the world a little now. Is there any place you would really love to play? It can be an event like the Super Bowl or something random like the National Museum of History?
Jonno: I was actually thinking about this today. I’d love to play Hawaii! Some bands go there and it just looks like a massive holiday. There’s only one show.
Bonnie: So you want to play there just for the holiday, not to actually play a show?
Jonno: No, no, I think it’d be sick (playing there) but then you have the perks of having a holiday after as well.
Bonnie: I want to play more in Europe because it’s always the most fun.
Jonno: I’d love to do Finland as well. That’d be cool. Or Russia.
Bonnie: Let’s just go to the Moon, fuck it.
Let’s dive into the new album. Last October you’ve simply tweeted ‘Album 2’ and that was it. How is that going?
Bonnie: It’s good, I can’t give too much away but I think people will hear something new really soon. We’re really excited about it. We just can’t talk about it, which is really frustrating.
Is the single Hate Me (Sometimes) going to be on it or is that a stand-alone single?
Bonnie: Maybe, maybe. I can’t tell you anything!! Don’t try to get anything out of me! This is harder for me than it is for you, trust me.
Okay, we’ll maybe hear something this evening! Anyway, what other bands are you listening to nowadays?
Bonnie: Personally, I’m quite jaded by the music industry. I’ve stopped listening to lots of music, which is really sad. You hear it every night, you play it every night. The last thing I want to do is put my headphones on and listen to them more sometimes. However, recently I’ve gotten into chill stuff, really the opposite of what we play. I really love Frank Ocean and Black Bear or Milk.
Jonno: I kind of find that as well. But I’ve done a lot of like, surf rock. Hockey Dad and Ozzy. I’ve really gotten into podcasts lately, like Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert. I’ve been smashing that like no tomorrow. But yeah, I’m kind of the same as Bon, you just don’t get around listening to music anymore.
Bonnie: Obviously, I’ll listen to stuff if it’s on. I won’t be like ‘oh, turn the music off, it’s shit!’. I just won’t go out of my way to listen to stuff, which is really sad. I’m trying to get back into doing that.
Jonno: I’m just the same. Actually, I’ve watched the Taylor Swift documentary last night so I started listening to her again. Look, Reputation was a horrible album but everything before that was great. I was watching the docu and I was like ‘oh yeah, I forgot about that song’ and then I went back and listened to 1989.
So, if you’re not listening to music that often, what do you do when you’re in the van and on the road?
Bonnie: Last night, things got really interesting in the van. You get really bored and restless and yesterday was a big journey. A lot of the time we do nothing because we’ve had all the conversations and done all the things already.
Jonno: Now that I think about it, we used to always talk and hang out, and now we’re at a point where we get in the van, put on our headphones and zone out.
Bonnie: Yeah. But anyway last night. I don’t even remember how it started but the end result was that Potter had his mouth on our merch guy’s toe. It was a very long ordeal and we’ve got a video of it. It actually took us ten minutes to keep Kenny’s food still so that Potter could lick it. I don’t know, we got really bored so we just went ‘we’ll give you five bucks if you just lick his toe’.
Jonno: He didn’t even get paid afterward.
I’ll remember from that that being in a van for a long time makes you do crazy things.
Bonnie: Yeah, keep your shoes on!
Thank you! Now, if you ever met your favorite musician, what would you ask them?
Bonnie: Do you also feel like a phony? Sometimes I just feel like a phony and I doubt myself a lot and I’ve heard the same from a lot of other creative people. I don’t even know who my favorite artist is.
Jonno: I don’t really know what I’d ask them, to be honest.
Bonnie: That’s the thing, part of me doesn’t want to meet people because you don’t want to be disappointed. What if they are an arsehole?
Jonno: If I did meet them, I’d probably just have a beer and just chat with them like a normal human being.
Bonnie: Jonno would talk about drums.
Jonno: Well, if it’s the drummer of the band, obviously I’m going to talk about drums, but it depends. I’m kind of the same as Bon, I don’t really want to meet my heroes because you don’t want to be let down. I also don’t really know who they are anymore.
Bonnie: My favorite person is Ricky Gervais, I really want to meet that guy.
Jonno: Actually, I want to meet Dave Grohl, he has never been a let-down.
I’ve got some random questions left. If you were an animal, what animal would you be? You have to answer for each other.
Bonnie: Jonno’s a few. You’re a worm for one, because of the way he wears his goodie and it’s all neck. But otherwise, I think I’d say sloth for you because you’re the slowest person.
Jonno: I was going to say sloth for you.
Bonnie: Jonno’s so fundamentally driven by fitness but then also so fundamentally lazy at the same time. How are you this person? He works out the whole time but he can’t even reach out to grab the remote.
Jonno: Yes, because I’ve done my work out for the day. I’ve done my fitness, I don’t need to do anything else. But yeah, I was gonna go sloth for you as well. Bonnie: WHAT? Wouldn’t I be a goldfish or something?
Jonno: Yes, a goldfish, 100%!
Bonnie: Because I’m slimy.
Jonno: You’re just a bit of an airhead and you just forget everything. You talk to her about something and it goes in through one ear and goes out the other straight away.
Two more questions to go! If there was a genie that granted you three wishes, what would you wish for?
Bonnie: I would wish that I could transform into anything and then I’m good because I can turn into anything I like.
Jonno: I’d be invisible. That’s it, then I’m good. Bonnie: Only one wish. You’ve got two more! Mine covers everything that I need in life. Oh, wait no, I wish that I could never feel physical pain ever again. Or never get sick.
Jonno: Maybe flying.
Bonnie: So you’re going with the basic invisibility and flying.
Jonno: Yeah, I’m doing flying because then I don’t have to sit in the van with everyone.
Last question! What’s your most useless talent?
Jonno: The back thing!
Bonnie: Yeah, I can do this thing with my back.
*Bonnie shows some weird-ass move where you think she’s going to get wings but her shoulder blades are really just sticking out*
Bonnie: Apparently, I’m missing muscles in my back.
Jonno: What is my most useless talent? All my talents are useful. Actually, my useless talent is remembering stuff that you don’t need to remember. And when I do need to remember stuff, it’s just nowhere to be found. I could watch a documentary about dinosaurs and remember something for weeks but give me an address that I need to remember and I would just be useless.