Before their last show of their most recent Australian tour with Paramore, the AU Review caught up with Max Helyer, guitarist for You Me At Six to see what the band has been up to since their last trip to our shores and what fans can expect from their new release, Cavalier Youth.
Hi Max how are you?
I’m good, how you doing? You alright?
Yeah great thanks, how’s the tour going so far?
It’s been tremendous. I can say that for sure. It’s been great to be back in Australia. We haven’t been here in two years and to be out with Paramore and Twenty-One Pilots has been great. We’ve had a blast.
That’s good to hear, have you guys been coping okay with the heatwave?
Yeah we’ve been coping alright. We’ve been to the beach heaps and been taking a lot of photos there. It’ll be great to look back through the photos when I get back to snowy England and just think about how amazing the sun was when we were here.
And unfortunately you guys are heading back home tomorrow, is that right?
Yeah, we head back home and get to have a week off and then we go on an in-store run around the UK for the release of Cavalier Youth,. So we are doing a few signings and a few shows and then February is a bit of a promo month and then we go away again to Europe in March.
And are you looking forward to your Europe tour?
It should be good. We’re starting off in Russia, where we’ve never been before so that should be really interesting. We’re doing St Petersburg and Moscow. It should be heaps of fun cause we will be in Moscow on my birthday so that should be quite a wild night.
I can imagine. How are you enjoying your tour with Paramore? It’s almost a bit of a reunion of your Soundwave side shows of 2010.
It’s been a lot of fun to play shows with those guys again. It’s been a great tour and all the fans have been very receptive of our songs. Seems like they like us which is always nice.
Any chance of You Me At Six coming back for a headlining tour in Australia soon?
We’re actually looking at coming back around September or October this year. We’ve been in talks with the promoter and trying to sort it all out so yeah, that would be great if it works out.
Well that will be good news for all your fans. Your fourth studio album, Cavalier Youth, is due out later this month, what can we expect from this release? Are you looking forward to it coming out?
We’re really looking forward to it coming out because it’s something we’ve been working very hard on for the last two and a half years now. We’re all really proud of it and it’s definitely my favourite record we’ve done so far. There’s been a lot of a time spent on this record – time which we normally don’t have. Normally we have to rush through a record, writing then hurrying to record it but this time we got to sit down and write a lot more songs and have a lot more to choose from.
We’ve worked with Neal Avron on this one and he’s worked with everyone from Linkin Park to Fall Out Boy. He definitely made the record for us. He is a great producer and we got along with him so well. He just understood where we wanted to go and he almost slotted in like a sixth band member. I’d say he’s really developed the sound of You Me at Six and I think it’s just now that we are starting to find the real sound of You Me at Six.
How does, Cavalier Youth, differ from your previous releases?
The recording is really the best our band has ever sounded. There is a lot more definition to the sound and the drums are really a main feature of the record. We have always struggled with the drums I think but on this record it’s just worked perfectly.
Also the song writing is more developed on this release and it’s a more cohesive record. Everyone who has heard it so far have also said that it’s an easy listen. That’s all we can really ask for – that people like it. It’s definitely the most progressed record sound wise but we haven’t lost our You Me at Six character either – just made it better.
Have you had a chance to play either of your two new singles ‘Lived a Lie’ and ‘Fresh Start Fever’ on this tour?
Yeah we have actually. ‘Lived a Lie’ has probably been the biggest song we’ve been playing on this set list. We’ve been playing it every night and so far everyone has like it. It’s really good to see that everyone has liked where we are going and hopefully they’ll like the album as well.
Thanks for speaking to us this evening Max and enjoy your last night in Australia.
Thank you very much too. You have a good evening then!
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Cavalier Youth by You Met at Six is out at the end of this month.
