Set Your Goals

Drenched in sweat from an intense show just minutes beforehand, Jordan Brown of Set Your Goals took a few minutes out of his busy day of traveling, fixing vans and playing shows to talk to me and answer some questions. For such a young band, they sure are busy, and Jordan let us in on some the band’s latest endeavors. Thanks to Jordan for doing it and to Kelli for setting it up.

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Bobby: You guys have been on tour with No Trigger, Hostage Life and Daggermouth for a few days now; how’s that going?

Jordan: Awesome. Daggermouth actually approached us about this tour; they said “hey, you wanna go out with this tour we’re trying to put together?” Back then it was just them. At the time we had a European tour booked so we were like “well, we could push that back into the summer, but since we were gonna bring No Trigger is it cool if we bring them as our band?” And they all loved No Trigger and they were just like “yeah man, that would be a great package” and they were like “can we bring a band?” So they brought Hostage Life. So they can of put together this whole little tour. They had it work with our other schedule, so we were like “dude, yeah, we gotta make this happen.” We’ve never been all across Canada, we’ve only been to a couple Eastern and Western spots and this was just crazy. This particular Edmonton show has been one of the best on the tour so far. We’ve only got like two days left, so that’s kind of a bummer, but it’s been fun.

Bobby: How’s the van? You guys broke down today or what?

Jordan: Actually, we didn’t break down today. We had some problems with our trailer hitch. We hit some ice in February and consequently damaged up our trailer enough to where we had to buy one a month, or two months, into our touring this year. So we picked one up in Nashville about three weeks ago and I think it was just weighing down so much weight on the back of the hitch – because we got a much bigger trailer – it wasn’t used to it. The welding started to come off. That could have been bad news had it actually broke on the freeway. So we took it to a shop today and it should be done by tomorrow so we should be fine to make the rest of the shows.

Bobby: That’s good. This tour’s called the “Fistful of Dynamite Tour” – who came up with that name?

Jordan: No Trigger’s party came up with that, or excuse me, Daggermouth’s party came up with that however we still haven’t nailed it down why it’s the Fistful of Dynamite tour. But today we might have found a solution to that. We got into a little war between vehicles with us and No Trigger and were actually firing fireworks off. It was a Fistful of Roman Candles if you will. So if anything, it now has officially become the Fistful of Dynamite Tour.

Bobby: On Saturday you guys did a live radio show with PunkRadioCast, how did that go?

Jordan: Excellent. We love them over there. We did a live acoustic set with them in October, on itself on another tour we had been on at that point and they’ve always been really good to us. We got to do a full live set this time; as well as No Trigger and Daggermouth who got to do sets. We all just hung out. Shout out to Jenna and Danny at PunkRadioCast, they’re great people. I hope more kids tune into that, they’re getting pretty big.

Bobby: Yeah, it’s a great site.

Jordan: Great, great site.

Bobby: Like you said, you guys are going to Europe after this, you’re also doing the Warped Tour. You guys excited to do that?

Jordan: Very excited. Yeah, this will be our first full European tour. We’re doing fifty three shows with No Trigger. Before it, last year we’d gone over but only to the UK and a few mainline dates. But this time we’re going everywhere. There’s like four shows in Germany, four shows in Ireland, three or four shows in France, a couple shows in Italy. We’re going literally all over the whole continent. And Warped Tour’s gonna be a first for us and that alone is like such a huge deal for us. We’re more than appreciative that we’ve been asked to be on any stage this year. So it’s gonna be cool.

Bobby: Like you guys only formed three or four years ago, did you ever think that you’d be playing fifty three shows in Europe and playing on the Warped Tour so soon?

Jordan: Yeah, no, I didn’t. I mean, it was always in our heads. We’ve always – no pun intended – to set our goals and wanted to be at levels where we were able to do things like reach wider audiences and it did come really quickly. And I think that having had past experiences with other bands, touring and locally, we sort of learnt how to do this band correctly and the right way to build a fan base and connecting with people and writing music. All the elements that go into being in a full time band.

Bobby: You guys are also on the Punk Goes Acoustic 2 compilation with the song Echoes. What made you go and do that compilation?

Jordan: To do that compilation, we got approached by Fearless and we’ve been good friends with Fearless and the guys over at SmartPunk for a few years. So when they asked us we were already good friends with everyone out there so we were like “let’s do it.” And then we chose Echoes because it was a song that fit really well acoustically, especially with the message in the song and we got to go in and record that and it came out great. On top of that, it’s cool because that comp is like so revered and there’s so many established artists on it and it’s cool to be considered among the bands there.

Bobby: Was it hard making Echoes into the acoustic track?

Jordan: Not really, like we had done an acoustic set tour last summer and a few more across the country and we just sort of played it the exact same structure that it is on the record. I added little things here and there, some stuff in the bridge, some little things to make it a little bit more mellow – but it’s still fast. We have drums on it and it’s the same structure as the non-acoustic version so I think people will like it.

Bobby: You guys are very involved in all of your band’s business. I mean, you’re the one who runs the band’s MySpace page, you replay to all the messages. Do you think it’s important to keep that connection between the bands and the fans?

Jordan: Yeah, it definitely is. Because we’re playing a style of music that is about community and it’s about connecting to one another. So it’s definitely important for us to get in there and answer as many messages as possible. It’s sort of like the new fan mail, MySpace. Instead of getting the physical letters you get messages. And if someone’s gonna take the time to write us and say “hey, this song really changed my life. It really helped me through a hard time.” Why not give them two seconds of your day to say “hey, thanks.” That is the reason why we’re doing what we’re doing.

Bobby: How important do you think the internet is now in promoting a band? I mean, when Mutiny came out it had massive internet hype. Do you think that’s an important thing to promote a band now?

Jordan: I mean everyone, as far as the younger demographic goes – well, even us, I’m twenty-three – everyone’s on MySpace now. My mom’s on MySpace. I guess it is good. However, at the same time you don’t want to lose the physical trait. I did an interview with my friend Shawn in Pennsylvania and he brought up a really good point that I strongly agree with. And it was just like the internet’s great but after the webpage gets deleted it’s no more. It’s really good to keep things in physical form. It’s really good to do things, to cut demos instead of just having MP3s online; you want to keep a physical format. However, at the same time, online is a great way to reach new people.

Bobby: On the re-release of your EP, Reset, you guys did a cover of Jawbreaker’s “Do You Still Hate Me?” which you performed tonight. I’ve just recently got into Jawbreaker over the past year or two, how influential do you think Blake and those three guys were to punk music?

Jordan: Very influential. Lots of bands cite them as influences and that’s how we discovered them when we were getting into punk rock. We were looking at other bands that were up and coming at that time and see what bands sort of are responsible for their bands having formed. So they’ve definitely been one of the more important bands in punk – as an entire music genre they’ve been one of the more important artists, no doubt.

Bobby: I’ve recently fallen in love with Blake’s lyrics too, and of course lyrics are always important. You guys take them very seriously with songs like “Work In Progress” and “This Song Is Definitely Not About A Girl.” Do you think now that sometimes bands just stick to a guideline while writing lyrics instead of writing something personal?

Jordan: You know, I do notice that. There’s a lot of cliché lyrics out there and I feel that sometimes when I’m jotting them down on paper I’ll be like “have I heard this in a song before?” But some of those lines are a common thread; a lot of people go through the same experiences. So that might be why they’re put down on a paper a lot. But yeah, I think it would be good if a lot more bands paid more attention to nailing the point of the song dead on and not worrying about turning it into this huge poetic masterpiece and just sort of cutting right down to “this is what this songs about and hopefully it can help you through something or it can help me through something.” If you’re writing music, it should better you.

Bobby: The song “This Song Is Definitely Not About A Girl” was a response to people thinking “Latch Key” was about a relationship. Does it get annoying when people misinterpret your lyrics?

Jordan: I think with that one it wasn’t necessarily annoying as much as we were a little disappointed and thought “did we write this song wrong?” Then we looked at it and were like “no, it’s pretty out there” and we had even done interviews about what this song was about. We thought that a lot in this scene of music, it’s like people maybe just learn words or dress a certain way to kind of look cool and they don’t actually dive into the music. They care too much about the appearance and how their hair looks and what not. So for us, it was like a wakeup call. And the conclusion of that song, “This Song Is Definitely Not About A Girl”, is like “we’re calling you up to call you in.” It’s not like “don’t listen to us, we hate you because you misinterpreted the song” but it’s like “check it out, actually listen, don’t just hear.”

Bobby: On Mutiny, the first couple of songs really just run into one another. Why did you decide to go with that format?

Jordan: Well, when we wrote the album we were writing it fluently; and when we write songs and albums or just recordings in general, we want them to flow. We want people to hear the whole thing from start to finish, we want it to flow in a way where people will put it on and it’ll be listened to as an album. Because people will buy records now for songs on it, they’ll skip tracks and jump around. We want it to be like one fluid thing. So yeah, it was written like that for a reason, and also to keep the energy up and to keep people’s focus and attention.

Bobby: On your MySpace page you have people voting for which video you guys should film next, for “Echoes” or “To Be Continued.” Have you picked which one you’re gonna shoot?

Jordan: Yeah, we’re actually looking to do both now if we could raise the funds to do both. It’s a band and film company funded effort. We’re working with our friends, Etypical Films – the address is etypical.tv – and we’re gonna be first shooting a video for “Echoes” in the fall and then a video for “To Be Continued” if we can in the winter. We’re doing a t-shirt with the Save The Music foundation and you can look for that on Warped Tour this year. I’ll be out and about at the Take Action Tent and I’ll be selling shirts that are going to help raise money for Save The Music which pumps money into music programs in public schools that can’t afford it to further their education. And then another portion of the proceeds from the shirt is going to go to help us fund our music video. So if kids want to get involved with it and get a little bit more involved in an outside cause as well they can look for that shirt. It’ll also be up at MerchNow.com, we’ll post all the stuff about it.

Bobby: Do you have any ideas what the themes of the videos is going to be or are you going to driving around like pirates in a van again?

Jordan: No, no, no. We want concepts for each of our videos, we want stories. The “Echoes” video right now, it’s kind of hard to explain in detail, but we’re gonne be performing in a room and it’s a dark, dimly lit room and throughout the course of the video light starts to sort of absorb in the room and then all of a sudden we’re absorbed in this huge light by the end of the video. And then there’s a narrative that’s going on in a room next to us and that’s the story of a kid that’s sort of reading these various stories in a newspaper and then there’s two other rooms that sort of tell these vignettes of different people who have lost people in their lives. So it’s a little bit of a personal video, it’s actually very personal video, we’re gonna incorporate probably a lot of family photos and stuff like that into it. The “To Be Continued” video I’m not even going to go into yet because it’s so insane that if we can get the budget to shoot it and we can make it happened it’s gonna be probably one of the bigger things that we’ve done as a band.

Bobby: Okay, I’m excited to see that now. You guys also did a cover of a Gorilla Biscuits song for the Revelation comp and the Japanese import of Mutiny. Do you have any other b-sides and stuff laying around that we may see one day.

Jordan: You may see a Police cover, a No Doubt cover surface one day depending on if we can get good enough recordings of them. We’ve demoed them and liked the way they came out but we’ll probably record them for real and actually put them out at some point. We have a song, and instrumental track we did in between the demo and Mutiny that we never released but kids always call for it- it’s called “The Last Straw”. You can find that on Oink or on SoulSeeker, any of those downloading programs. But that’s it for right now.

Bobby: You guys also have a DVD in the works. It was supposed to be released in the spring but in April you guys said you guys were getting permission to use copyright material on it, any word on that? When will we see it?

Jordan: Still no word. We’re still trying to get clearance on it and Eulogy just isn’t down with putting it out with the copyrighted materials on it. We really didn’t think it would be a problem if they had put it out; they’ve put out DVDs in the past that has had copyrighted material such as Blink182. But you know, we can’t really be like “yo! Put this out.” So we’re going to do for them, just to fulfill our DVD contract, we’re doing a live DVD that we filmed at the Chain Reaction on the Anti-Flag tour. That’s a venue in Anaheim and hopefully, fingers crossed, that will come out early fall and kids can check that out in probably September or October. And again, I update the MySpace to keep people in the know of what’s going on.

Bobby: What made you decide originally to release the DVD?

Jordan: Just because we had captured so much footage last year and we really wanted people to see what our band was about. Because our music, our lyrics are personal, but you still don’t see us as individuals, you see us a band. We all wanted to showcase each of the members of the band and how we are in real life and how the band is in real life. So that was how the first one came up and I really hope that one comes out. It’s called “Work In Progress,” just like the song. The second DVD is the “Dead Mans Lives No Tales” DVD and that just came up because we wanted to show people how our live shows is. There’s live stuff in “Work In Progress” but not full live sets.

Bobby: Okay, I love going to concerts. I try to go to as many as I can but there’s always some that are a bit more memorable than others. So thinking back, what are some concerts that you played or went to that was really memorable for you?

Jordan: Okay, memorable shows… As far as playing shows, we played Gillman Street this year and that was in Berkeley and we hadn’t played our hometown – or at least we hadn’t played Gillman Street, one of the hometown clubs – in over two years because we were under the impression that we weren’t allowed to play there due to a major label tie our record label has. Found out that wasn’t true and we were able to get back in the door. Our friend Carlos booked us a show and it was just one of the most real shows we’ve played in a while where all our friends were there. We had so many friends from years ago who sort of backed our band and then we sort of started to break out of the Northern California scene and tour a lot and we got a lot of hate, we got hated on a lot. So it was cool because it was almost like all of our real friends who have supported us for three years, the ones that were at that show, that’s who’s really there and cares about us. It was just a really good feeling so I’d say that show. As far as going to shows, there’s been so many. I say this one a lot, I saw Less Than Jake in eight grade play the Warped Tour and that was the set that made me want to play in a band. They were just so much fun and in spite of being such a big band they really found a way to connect with the audience and I felt like they pulled me into the show. That was one of my most memorable shows.

Bobby: When you were growing up, whose poster did you have on your wall?

Jordan: You know, I didn’t really have posters. When I was getting into punk rock I was getting into the Epitaph, like the Fat pop.

A member of Daggermouth: Punk-o-Rama!

Jordan: Definitely, Punk-O-Rama 2 was the first comp I got. Short Music For Short People. All those.

Bobby: Uncontrollable Fatluence.

Jordan: Yeah, they had so many clever names. He’s all over that stuff. I guess posters that you’d get with those comps if you mailed ordered them. I had a lot of movie posters. I was big into musical theatre, I still am, like I’m big into performance arts and stuff like that. Yeah, I didn’t really have any. My sisters had what, Backstreet Boys and New Kids On The Block, all that. They had musical posters.

Bobby: I guess that’s about it, thanks a lot, do you have any final thoughts you’d like to add?

Jordan: No, shout outs to Daggermouth, to No Trigger, to Hostage Life and the Fistful of Dynamite Tour. Hopefully everyone reading this checks out all those bands and just support your local scene wherever you might be reading this from and keep punk rock alive.