Backstage during You Me At Six’s soundcheck, Set Your Goals vocalist Matt Wilson and drummer Michael Ambrose seem as ready as ever for their set tonight, in front of yet another sold out crowd. Drums are constantly being banged in the background and the sound of a dripping pipe adds another rhythmic beat to the air.
“The UK have been treating us well so far and it’s been a fun tour,” said Wilson. “I think we’re making a lot of new fans and we’re just pretty stoked to be out here with friends.”
The band have been together for six years and have played numerous festivals including the Vans Warped Tour and the Bamboozle Roadshow, all of which they say were fun to do.
“We’ve been fortunate to play with a handful of our friends or bands that we wouldn’t normally get to play a show with,” said Ambrose. “Festivals are fun, it’s just a different atmosphere. This tour is pretty big so there’s kind of a festival feel to it,” added Wilson.
In their six years as a band, they have done a number of duets and have even covered Lil’ Jon’s “Put Yo Hood Up”. One of the collaborations they recorded, “The Few That Remain”, was with the Pop-punk Princess, Hayley Williams. Despite Williams’ fame, this wasn’t something that they did to make money.
“A lot of people thought that we did it to sell records, but we made sure that we didn’t have it on the sticker, CD or anything like that.” said Wilson. “It’s more of a fun thing that we had an idea for in the studio and it worked out.”
Ambrose said that the Lil’ Jon cover was something fun for them to try and make their own. “There was no planning whatsoever. The day before it was due, we went into the local studio in our hometown and we were like ‘Well. Can we pull this off?’ It was just pure ignorance for like eight hours that day and people ended up liking it! We had a good time doing it,” he said.
Back to their own music, they were more than happy to talk about the imspiration behind some of the tracks and and also why they felt the need to write them. Their debut album, “Mutiny!”, includes a track called “Echoes” which the band wrote about a friend who had passed away.
“It’s about losing someone that you love. When you think about that, the words came pretty easy I guess,” said Wilson. “I had a good friend in high school who passed away and I’d written a poem about him. We used some of that for the inspiration for the lyrics. It came pretty naturally.”
When asked how they were approaching their next album, Wilson revealed that they had already written the songs and that they are in the process of recording it. “We finished the drums right before we came out here and then we’re going back into the studio to finish the record,” said Wilson. “The writing is much better than the ‘Mutiny!’ record and we’ve progressed as a band.”
Set Your Goals are doing what any band can hope for. That they progress in a way that still enables them to continue doing what they enjoy.