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Welsh Princes of pop punk Neck Deep are never far away from their “second home” in Australia. Having just finished their Australian Tour with All Time Low and The Maine, we took a moment to chill out and chat with frontman Ben Barlow.
Between filming a new music video, Download Festival, and jet-setting to America, Ben found the time to let us in on some stories from their recent tour, pre-show warm ups, The Peace and the Panic, and their favourite spots in Oz.
Oddly enough, this tour was pretty tame as far as crazy nights go. Something Ben attributes to their pop-punk big brothers All Time Low being “kinda responsible dudes now,” but that’s not to say nothing exciting happened.
“We did go looking one night specifically for ping pong bars,” Ben admitted. “We just really wanted to get drunk and play ping pong! Other than that, it’s mainly our crew that goes off—like our guitar tech! Whenever we were at the airports and bored, because a few of our flights were delayed, he would just do anything to entertain himself. One time he was wearing ripped-at-the-knee jeans and he put his legs through the rips and went around the entire airport like that. Or sometimes he’d just take his pants off, and then put them back on.”
Backstage with Ben Barlow // Photo by Jess Drews
Apparently Australian’s are all about that casual nudity life though, cause no one seemed phased according to Ben. Who then put on a questionable Aussie accent to repeat the general consensus of the airport-goers, “yeah good for you mate.”
“That’s why Australia’s so great. If anyone does something dumb there’s always a sarcastic comment waiting to make them feel stupid.”
Backstage with Neck Deep // Photo by Jess Drews
Backstage with Fil Thorpe-Evans and Dani Washington // Photo by Jess Drews
So where should you go if you want the best chance of running into the Neck Deep boys next time they’re in Oz? Be warned, it’s a bit of a long drive.
“My favourite place, generally, is Melbourne. It just has everything we like; tattoos, art, graffiti, skating. We did get to go explore Fremantle for the first time, which is like an even more chilled out Byron. I’m definitely about Fremantle, it’s one of my new favourite places in Australia.”
Melburnians, you may be their ‘favourite place’ but Sydney gets ‘favourite tour show.’ Sorry.
Matt West // Photo by Jess Drews
And as far as touring goes, Ben’s pretty relaxed about it all. Especially for being the lead singer of a famous band. A quick self-motivational talk consisting of “go out and smash it, don’t fuck up, try not to say something stupid, don’t fall over” and the like, not much rattles his nerves before he takes the stage.
“That’s why Australia’s so great. If anyone does something dumb there’s always a sarcastic comment waiting to make them feel stupid.”
[BEN]
“We’ve always kept it pretty chill as a band, there’s no standing in a circle or weird handshake. We kinda just look at each other, give a nod and head out on stage. Sometimes it’s even like we’re so caught up in chilling out and doing nothing then we realise ‘oh shit we’re playing in an hour’, but that only happens from time to time. I don’t really get nervous anymore, except the first few shows this year when we played our new songs. Waiting to see how the crowd would react was definitely nerve wracking.”
Sam Bowden // Photo by Jess Drews
Referring to The Peace and the Panic, out August 18, we couldn’t help ourselves but ask a bit about it and what three things Ben has with him when writing a new song or record.
“Without being cliched it’s a massive progression for Neck Deep. It’s taken on a bit more of a mature tone lyrically and the general theme. The past albums have had that positivity, happy-go-lucky vibe. But over the last couple of years a lot of bad shit happened to us that we weren’t expecting. I mean, we’d never really had anything bad happen to us up until after Life’s Not Out To Get You. Then everything just got turned on its head. We experienced loss of family members, friends, we saw our band go through lows and highs. So the record really is about dealing with the bad and the good together and about that duality, the peace and the panic together.
Neck Deep // Photo Jess Drews
Warming up with Matt West // Photo Jess Drews
Because it’s so different I was nervous about [the album] at first, then we put out the first two singles and there was such a huge positive response from everyone. So after that the nerves kinda went away. People either absolutely love us or absolutely hate us, but we use that like ‘okay mate we’ll do us and you just stand over there being salty'”, he laughs.
Neck Deep // Photo Jess Drews
Neck Deep // Photo Jess Drews
So what does Ben Barlow have with him when sitting down to write new material? His laptop, peace and quiet, and the occasional sneaky joint. A magic trio if you ask us!
And although we can’t confirm anything yet, Ben did say the wheels are in motion for another Australian tour in the near-future.
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