Supporting Pierce The Veil on their upcoming Australian tour, Silverstein guitarist Paul Rousseau took some time out to have a chat.. A fire alarm test went off in the middle of this interview but he was an absolute champion. So polite and down to earth he gave excellent answers to all the questions below and welcomes you into the life of a member of Silverstein.
What are you looking forward to the most about touring with Pierce The Veil?
I think the number one thing I am looking forward to is all the guys in the band. Its been a long time since I’ve been able to see them and there’s no better place to see old friends then in Australia. We are going to travel together I hope and hold a Koala and do all the touristy stuff because it is super fun and those guys are great.
Where did you spend previous time with PTV?
We have toured with them a few times through North America. Funny enough they supported Silverstein.. I was going to go find the laminate from the tour so I could tell you exactly when but its buried under a bunch of stuff in my closet. I think it was in 2009 and there was also various Warp Tours. We do cross paths quite a lot even though North America is a big place we somehow often find ourselves in the same city.
How did you land the spot as one of their support acts?
That’s a really good question, I actually have no idea haha. I think we had planned to go to Australia around this time, well August rather and we have the same agent as Pierce The Veil I’m pretty sure. So maybe they were also planning to go to around August so our agent just decided to combine the tour. That to me is what happened.. I think.
It would be a funnier if I told you there was an Olympic style tournament of bands and you had to win a bunch of challenges to get the supporting spot and we won!
Is there anything you really miss when on tour?
You know not really, I’m not that much of a material person. I don’t miss all the stuff I have in my house. Sometimes depending on the tour I miss having a bed but I don’t even miss it that much. I’m easy, I like being wherever I am because there is a lot of great things in the world and I want to experience it all.
What can fans expect from Silverstein that they may not have experienced when you visited last year?
This show is going to be a lot different, I mean its a shorter set for us so I think we are just going to play out high energy songs. We are going to be wearing really big smiles and maybe even tuxedos, But we haven’t decided on that part yet. What else is going to be new… hmmm. It’s tough, I know it seems close but its kind of far away so I haven’t really thought that much about what’s going to be different. But I’m excited and I’m sure some great idea will come to me and everyone will be shocked and they will say ‘Wow I didn’t think you would do that thing you did” and I will say “I knew I was going to do it”.
What is your all time favourite track to play live?
It changes all the time because if we play a song like 40 times in a row I get pretty sick of it even if it was my favourite song at the start of the tour. So its hard to say. I think Stand Amid The Roar is always fun, I like playing The Ides Of March a lot. I hate playing Bleeds No More, I never want to play it again but I’m sure we will. Id say that’s two I love and one I hate.
Most memorable live performance and why?
That’s another tough question. Well I’ve got a couple of memorable shows. The first one would be when we went to South America and we played in Santiago Chile. That is a show I will never forget. It wasn’t that big maybe only 4 or 500 people, but they were the loudest crowd I have ever heard. Like louder than 2000 people, I couldn’t believe how loud they were and that was really awesome. But we also played Mexico City with A Day To Remember which was really crazy because it was like the Walking Dead or a zombie film. We got rushed to a van as a swarm of fans came in around us and were banging on the side of the van while the van is trying to move really slowly through the crowd so they don’t run anybody over. Fans were jumping on the front of it, it was crazy crazy stuff. I bet that’s how real celebrities feel everyday.
I noticed you guys have been together for over 15 years, how much has your group dynamics changed from the early days till now?
I wasn’t in the band when it started, I joined in 2012 but I was a fan of the band. The interesting thing is, even in the last 4 years that I have been in the band everyone is still really good friends. I think we genuinely like hanging out with one another, we have fun and we are always up to something. We have interesting little pairs of people who like to do different things for example, I really like doing activities and Bill really likes doing activities so we do that or Shane and I like sports and Paul and I like techno music . I’ve got a buddy for everything.
You are about to head on a massive European tour and then a month later you are here in Australia. What do you do to keep yourself fit and show ready?
To keep myself physically fit I jog everyday and I’ve also started playing tennis. I’m very bad at it. So I think that means I run more, so that’s good for the fitness not for the tennis skills. Other than that when I am home I write and record music so I’m always ready to play the guitar.
You have recorded and released 7 records so far, does Silverstein plan to keep adding to that number?
Oh ya definitely. We trying to get to 100.
I would really love to see that happen!
So would I!
Just release 97 albums with one track on it each year until you die.
Haha, You think I’m going to die in the next two years!!
Noooo!!! But if you wanted to release 100 albums and you released an album once a year you still have 93 to go.. I thought I was being rather generous.
Yeah that’s so true, I think if we bend the rules for what an album is we might be able to do it. Either that or the last 85 records are going to be terrible!!
Do you have a before show ritual?
Yes I do. I sing 3 Ray Charles songs and I do about…. well it depends how drunk I am but usually somewhere between 15 and 30 push-ups and that’s it.
When you are at home relaxing what music do you play in the background?
Ohh good question. Well I don’t relax all that often I’m pretty tense as a person but.. Let me walk over to my record player and see what I have in it right now. Oooo I have Cursives – Burst and Bloom, I’m not sure if you have ever heard that EP but its very good. I think its from 2001… Yeah 2001, Cursive great band!
What would be your perfect headline show?
I want to play in Rome in the Colosseum and I would want to play with holograms of Led Zeppelin and The Beatles and also maybe R Kelly. Because I really want to see R Kelly perform and I’m not sure how I’m going to do that, so that would be my perfect show.
What’s the worst piece of life advice you have ever received?
The worst piece? Oh dahm.. I have to think about that for a second. Well ok, I don’t really mean to throw him under the bus here. Growing up playing in bands in high school my dad definitely told me you’re not going to have a career in music you should think about going to college. So if I had followed that advice I wouldn’t be where I am today, so I think that is bad advice.
Pierce The Veil 2016 Australian Tour
w/ Silverstein, Beartooth & Storm The Sky
TUES 16 AUG
Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane
WED 17 AUG
Big Top at Luna Park, Sydney
THURS 18 AUG
Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
SAT 20 AUG
170 Russell, Melbourne
TUES 23 AUG
Astor Theatre, Perth
Get Tickets HERE
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