Pop punks Count Me In, have their debut album "How's Your Heart, Kid?" out and about currently. While this album has been out for a short amount of time, the band's state of being is a brief hiatus stance, as everything gets reformatted, for the next year coming up. The band talks about the album, state of being, and what they plan to do in the mean time.
1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members.
The band was started in 2011 by me (Jason) who plays guitar and sings and Alex who plays bass and sings. We did the three-piece thing for a while and had a few drummers come and go. Played lots of local shows, did a few tours including one that was cross country and drank all of the beers along the way. It wasn’t until Dave of Shreddy Kreuger and Secret & Whisper fame, who also happens to be one of my longest friends, hit me up about re-mixing one of our songs that things really started to heat up. From that initial proposition of mixing a song, it turned into re-recording it which then turned into writing an entire album. He drafted Ryan who has been a local drumming icon and played in both bands with Dave as well as Stutterfly before that. Now for the first time, Count Me In has a full band of dudes who all not only care about making pop punk music, but were just as passionate as Alex and I were.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name?
The name is derived from the song “Dear Maria, Count Me In” by All Time Low. They were a huge inspiration to us at the time when Alex and I started the band and we loved the idea that they got their name from the song “Head On Collision” by New Found Glory. We decided to follow suit as we were hoping to be the next generation in a long lineage of amazing pop punk bands. #goals
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
The band is mostly based out of Kelowna, BC, Canada although Dave recently moved to Iceland so he’s representing there as well. Admittedly, I’ve been out of the loop as far as the local scene as of late due to having my first child last year. Kelowna has always been a mix of many different styles from indie rock and bar bands to a very tight Hardcore scene with some pop punk sprinkled here and there but not as much as I would’ve hoped. Right now a couple bands killin’ it out there is a band called Bl00m who sound very much like Tonight Alive but heavier and more technical, and a cool Coheed & Cambria concept inspired metal band called Living Machines. They even have a sci-fi comic book tie in related to the story of their album which is super rad. Those dudes are hella creative. If you’re into hardcore then one of Dave and I’s childhood best friends sings in the band Putrid Brew and they’re just as awesome as their band name suggests. If you want your face exploded, check ‘em out!
4. How would you describe your style?
The goal has always been be pop punk AF. Growing up with that style of music it never had to be something we pushed, it just naturally comes out. Pop punk over the years became a sub-genre that spawned even more sub genres within itself and I’ve always thought of Count Me In as resting somewhere right in the middle. Not bubble-gum poppy, but not overly heavy either and I think that gives us the freedom to write songs that lean either way and still sound like “us”.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works?
We released an EP and a full length prior to Dave and Ryan joining the band but when they did, we ended up re-writing half of our previous full length anyway. Their input, inspiration and talent took this band to a whole new level so even though we had material before, it was almost like we were a new band entirely. We even thought about changing our name because of it but we couldn’t come up with anything we liked better.
6. Do you have any new music in the works?
I can’t speak for the other guys but I’m always writing. I like to write, just to write as I believe it’s like any skill and requires practice. Like the boxer who trains his jab, or a gamer trying to beat that high score – You’re never going to nail it first try. I’ll write songs just to try something new and then apply what I learned through that process on the next song and so forth.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out?
As mentioned earlier, our guitar player Dave moved to Iceland for an awesome job opportunity so we’re kind of on a “hiatus” now while he does that. He’ll be back one day though and then we’ll look into playing some shows.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band?
Same answer as the one above. Just waiting for Dave to make his cheddar and get sick of Iceland. We had a great time writing and recording this last record and I learned so much through that process that I can only imagine how much better the next one will be.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff?
Right now, you can grab our latest release “How’s Your Heart, Kid?” on any music platform that’s around in 2018. Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Google Play and probably other places too but those are the big ones.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time?
Just remember to be happy and have fun no matter what life throws at you. There’s always a bright side, you just have to look for it and hopefully our music can help show you the way.
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