The Fight Interview - 02.17.2005
Interview with Kate "K8" Turley (vocals)
Interview by Rob Todd | 02.17.2005 | Detroit, MI | The Shelter
How does it feel to be finally touring in the United States since the release of your latest record? Actually, have you done US tours before?
Yeah, this is like the seventh time we’ve been through. It’s the first one since [Nothing New Since Rock 'N' Roll came] out – it’s great to finally have the album finally out. We love coming back here and every time we come back I just know that I can get away from everything at home for six weeks straight and, no matter what goes on, I can’t get the blame for it ‘cause I’m here, on tour. Everytime we come back we know, even if the shows are shotty or whatever, that we’re all gonna have a rad time ‘cause we always do.
Do you think not being able to tour in the States until three months after the release has hurt its inception or acceptance here?
I don’t really know. I never really thought about it but we couldn’t come straight here anyway ‘cause we had to do stuff in England. ‘Cause it came out the same time in England we couldn’t come straight here right away. I guess I never really thought about it that way, whether it effected it or not, but I guess it’s just been put out and people find out about it. And now that we’re touring, hopefully more people will know about it.
What brought about the idea to play with local bands at each of your stops instead of getting another act to come on the road with you?
Every time we’ve been on the road we’ve done proper tours with a full-on package with three other bands or whatever. We’ve done the last few tours in England with just local bands and we thought we’d just do it a bit different this time…I guess for an English band to come out here and just play with locals – I don’t think anyone’s done that much before. We just wanted to something a bit different and I guess, for us, it’s more varied ‘cause we get to see different bands every night. We get to see local bands, to see what’s goin’ on in every city.
Is it hard not getting to know the bands you’re playing with?
That is kinda hard ‘cause on a lot of tours you get to know people and you come away with it with new friends and also on those tours when you get to venues you don’t just have to hang out with your own band, you can hang out with all your other friends that you make on the road. On this tour it’s definitely a tour bubble, but the bubble is just us guys. It’s not harder, it’s just a bit weird. I like it I think, it’s kinda cool.
Even though you have to reintroduce yourself every night?
The thing that’s good about it, even though this may sound sad, is that at the end of every tour – ‘cause you make friends real close with people when you’re on tour with a band. Then you have to go away and you have to miss them and you don’t get to see them for so long. We know, by the end of this tour, we’re not going to have anyone to miss. It’s really hard to have to part with everyone after getting to know everyone so close so quick it’s so hard to just have to be like, “We’ll see ya…whenever.”
Do you ever feel that having a female fronted band gets you more attention than if you had a guy as a lead singer? On the opposite end, has this aspect hurt you guys since some people just hate seeing females as lead singers particularly your genre?
I think it’s sad but people do pay more attention which, to me, is unfair to other bands. I don’t know why it’s like that, maybe because there’s not many girl-fronted bands in the scene. I definitely think it has brought more attention just because of that, which is weird for me.
What about those who dismiss girl-fronted bands?
I think a lot of people who watch us don’t usually like girl-fronted bands. I’ve had a lot people say, ‘I don’t usually like girl-fronted bands but you guys are different,’ or, ‘—you guys are cool.’ I don’t think people generally…maybe some people do just not bother come see us ‘cause we’re girl-fronted.
Is there a special goal you guys want to accomplish being in the band, or what are your goals for the future for The Fight?
First and foremostly is to keep on touring for as long as possible. That in itself is fuckin’ amazing. We have lots of stupid ambitions like we want to sell a million records and be as big as possible and all these things but you never know if those things are gonna happen. I think our next goal is to really concentrate on the next album. Try to really improve on the one we’ve just done. Really make, to us, what we think is an album that is 20 times better or a thousand times better. We’re concentrating on trying to write better songs. That’s a definitely goal for the next album.
Do you ever feel that your band gets misinterpreted as being a political band because of the name ‘The Fight?’
I think some people do think that but it was never intended that way. I guess ‘The Fight’ just means that we want to fight for what we believe in. We want to fight for the music we love. It’s not a political fight or anything like that.
Are there any plans to release another single from Nothing New Since Rock 'N' Roll along with a video?
There will be a video for the next single, definitely, but I don’t know what it will be. To us it doesn’t really matter but ‘cause they’re all equal to us but we’re having great difficulty picking…us and the label picking which one is gonna be next. A lot of people have said that there’s like four or five songs that are just as strong as each other so it’s really hard to pick singles. But, there will definitely be a video.
What's up next for you guys after the current U.S. tour?
We get back home on the 16th of March and we have two weeks straight promotion in England and then we go straight back on tour in England. Then we come back to the States like end of April for Bamboozle and then we do like a two week East Coast tour. Then we go back to England and come back over at the end of July for like three weeks of Warped Tour. We’re booked ‘til the end of August, that’s as far as I know.
What are your thoughts about being on the Warped Tour this coming summer? How do you plan to make it through the hardships of being on such a large tour?
We did five days on it, not last year but the year before, and they were my favorite five days ever. Number one, I love [unintelligible band name]. Number two, about an hour of your day is taken up by your actual setting up, playing, taking shit down, the rest of the day you can watch whatever bands you want. It’s like a dream. My part of the day is like an hour and the rest of the day I can do whatever I want. On this tour we’re bringing a dance mat with us, this year we’re gonna have a little soccer league on tour and get as many people to play as possible. My birthday’s on Warped Tour, I’m 21 on Warped Tour. I fucking can’t wait. It’s mine and Jak, our drummer, my brother, it’s our birthday on the same day on Warped Tour.
You’re twins then?
Nah, he’s two years younger than me.
On the same day? That’s weird.
Yeah, it’s fucked up.
Any last comments for your fans or to tell us something we didn't ask?
I want to tell people to check out Not Katies at www.notkaties.com. Buy our album! Please!
