Tonight Alive/Set it Off

"We were just teenagers when we started playing together in our parent's garages in the Sydney suburbs," smiles Tonight Alive front woman Jenna McDougall.

A little bit older and a whole world wiser, today Tonight Alive are a band brimming with energy onstage and off – bursting with stories from the road and with a lust for life that overflows into their lyrics, their music and their explosive live shows. Today they're a family so close-knit that it seems almost unthinkable that there was a time when the band didn't know each other, but as guitarist Jake Hardy explains, it was a mutual passion for music that caused the members to gravitate towards each other through their local scene, and ultimately brought the band that we know today together.

"Myself and our bassist Cam [Adler] were in a band together when we were at high school, we were mostly covering tunes from other bands that we were into," explains Jake. "Through mutual friends we met Whakaio and asked him to join the band on keys and guitar. That's when we started getting more serious. We started writing our own songs but we still needed a committed vocalist and drummer."

On the other side of town, Jenna McDougall was playing her own acoustic shows – inadvertently putting in the groundwork that would lead her to front Australia's most exciting young band.

"Jenna asked me to help her record some of her acoustic demos," explain Cam. "When we were done I said that my band didn't have a singer and I gave her a demo of a song we'd written and asked her to record her vocals over it …and that was it!"

"We had our first practice the day before my birthday, on May 31st 2008," grins Jenna, "We booked our first show at 'Hypefest' for August that year under the name 'Tonight Alive'. Hype would later become the place we cut our teeth, developed our live show and was ultimately our doorway into the local Sydney scene."

After the first year since Tonight Alive's inception, the band parted ways with their original drummer - at which point the lineup was completed by Matty Best who was originally travelling for four hours each way to practice. "We had one band practice with Matt. He was really tight and he already knew all the songs. That was the moment that we knew everything had clicked," Jenna explains.

Still too young to hangout in bars, the band found themselves at the heart of their local music scene, finding their sound and playing songs that would go on to form the band's first EP, All Shapes And Disguises.

"We saved all our money and took time off work to record and practice," says Cam. "Jenna was still at school at that point so it was difficult to find time, but we managed to get into the studio with Dave Petrovic who later went on to record our second album, The Other Side. We recorded our first and second EP's with him (All Shapes And Disguises and Consider This) in 2010, and with his help we knew that we'd finally found our sound."

The recordings began to generate a buzz that saw Tonight Alive picked up for a support slot on UK band Lost Prophets' Australian tour, venturing out on the road properly for the first time. They were soon spotted by major labels and invited to perform at a showcase, during which, both Whak and Jake snapped a string in the first song.

"We thought it had gone horribly wrong at first, but we did our thing and smashed through and ultimately the label were really impressed! We signed a deal shortly after and immediately pushed to travel overseas to record our first album," recalls Whak excitedly.

It was this drive to expand their horizons and to take their music outside of Australia that saw the band head to LA to record their first full-length album, What Are You So Scared Of? in 2011, working with producer Mark Trombino (Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World).

"We were just out of high school, and we were coming home after the studio every night and cooking and hanging out together in LA," laughs Jenna. "It was our first real taste of freedom and we had an amazing time. It brought us all closer together and helped us to define our message as a band."

That message, one of hope, positivity and determination, provided the backbone of What Are You So Scared Of? and lead their debut to be described by many fans as a life-saving record.

"A lot of people have said that we saved their lives and that our music got them through really difficult times," explains Jenna passionately. "To be that band for people is amazing because it was music that got us through difficult times ourselves. The band's message is about not living in the fear of other people's judgment, not being held back by other people's opinions, about having self-worth. That's something that's carried over to our latest album too from a different perspective; there's truly a silver lining to everything"

Initially touring across America in a van with no backseats on a rough'n'ready adventure-of-a-tour described by the band as "a right of passage", Tonight Alive returned home and embarked on several extensive and consecutive Australian tours to support the album's Australian release, which eventually drained even this most energetic of bands.

"By this point it felt like our feet hadn't touched the ground," says Jenna. "We were exhausted and burnt out by a year of solid touring. I had been really ill for about 9 months between mid 2011 and early 2012, spanning over 9 different tours both national and international. I was battling severe head-to-toe eczema, seeing handfuls of different doctors in between tours. So after Australia's Soundwave festival we made the decision to cancel all of our upcoming commitments to recover and insure the rest of 2012 would reach it's full potential."

Battered almost to breaking point, the band took time to rejuvenate and catch their breath, but with What Are You So Scared Of? being released around the rest of the world, they soon found themselves back on the road – but this time refreshed and with a renewed fire inside them. Their rapidly expanding global fan base saw Tonight Alive hit the shores of Asia, North America and Europe with the likes of Pierce The Veil, All Time Low, Yellowcard and Young Guns – embarking on the almost perpetual journey that still continues to this day, penning the tracks for album two, The Other Side, as they went.

"The first track that we wrote for The Other Side was 'Don't Wish' in a hotel room in Jakarta, Indonesia, while we were on tour in 2011. Every track on the album can be dated back to the tour it was written on as we were on the road consistently between the recording of our first full length at the end of 2010 to the recording of our second at the end of 2012." explains Jenna.

"After playing on the full Summer of the Vans Warped Tour 2012, trekking across Europe and The UK on a headline run and later supporting Pierce The Veil across America we decided after spending so much time away from home, that we would go back to Australia to record our second full length record, The Other Side. We found a big house out in the bush at Coffs Harbour (7 hours north of Sydney) and set up our own studio there to record once again with Dave Petrovic."

What the band emerged with is a definitive rock record – a bold advance that Jenna describes as having both "balls and bite".

"It talks about challenges and experiences that we've never been through or understood before. I think we found our lyrical and musical direction, and through that wrote a rockier and more confident version of What Are You So Scared Of?."

With the new album finished the band feel rejuvenated and reborn once again. Armed with new material and a world's worth of road experience, Tonight Alive are ready to continue their journey across the globe – one explosive show at a time – and look set to take their music farther and wider than ever before.

So has the adventure so far changed them? "Not a chance!" Jenna exclaims. "We're more experienced and wider travelled, but even when we're home we still hangout every day. We started as friends with a passion for music and in that regard nothing has changed. There's no ego and no ulterior motives, we just love making music and I think that's why we have such a strong and dedicated fan base."

"We've travelled a long way but we're still as passionate as ever. Tonight Alive is the strongest it's ever been as a band – we're the same five kids that set out on this journey, only now we're more in love with the music than ever before."

The Other Side will be released on September 6th through Sony Music Entertainment, Australia


Since their formation in 2008, Set It Off has already released three EPs, signed to Equal Vision Records, toured non-stop, and shared the stage with the impressive likes of My Chemical Romance, A Day To Remember, Say Anything, Against Me! and We Came As Romans.

And now they're ready for more.

The Tampa, FL-based quintet, comprised of Cody Carson [vocals], Dan Clermont [guitar], Zach DeWall [guitar], Austin Kerr [bass], and Maxx Danziger [drums], will release Cinematics, their debut full-length record on Equal Vision Records, on September 18, 2012. The 12-track album was recorded over the course of four weeks with Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount [All Time Low, Cartel, Mayday Parade] at Vintage Song Studios in Alpharetta, GA.

In a recent interview with Alternative Press, Carson explains that the new album features Set It Off's signature sound of orchestra-infused pop with a new sense of heaviness, diversity and intensity in the album, both lyrically and musically. He states, "What's really present on this album…we're very theatrical when we present our story. If it's a darker subject, there is a lot of angst and neurosis that goes into that song…In fact, in one song, Zack and Ken think I sound like the Joker from The Dark Knight. Not that I'm going for that, I just really try to get into character for each song as far as the mood goes. It has that diversity, but it still sounds like Set It Off."

In a separate interview, Carson further expounded on the band's experience in working with Zack and Kenneth recalling, "Our favorite phrase they would use is 'You can beat that.' They allowed us to become better musicians and individual writers…in the vocal booth, they helped drive my darker side out of me when it needed to show. Through bringing it out in the studio every day, it allowed me to bring "him" out on stage too. It's like therapy for me."

For their first full-length ever, Set It Off ambitiously set out to take their signature sound to the next level and pushed themselves further than ever before in every possible way – technically, musically, lyrically and emotionally in the writing and recording process. "Musically I feel like we are the strongest we've ever been. All the touring we've done in the past year has made us night and day tighter for our live performances and working and meeting other musicians on that next level has forced us to push our skills musically in all aspects from playing to writing," explains Clermont.

Danziger notes that, "Once we got in to the swing of things though, it started coming together very naturally…we liked what we did with Horrible Kids and you can definitely hear that sound in this new record." He continues, "But a lot has happened in the past year. We've made new

friends, faced new challenges, had new experiences, and from that we've all grown up a lot. I think the new album reflects how we've changed as people. It has a similar feel to our most recent EP, but is more mature and polished."

In August 2011, the young band made their label debut with the re-release of their third EP Horrible Kids, which garnered widespread praise in the press from the likes of mtvU, Alternative Press, Guitar World, Rock Sound, Outburn Magazine and more, launched them into countless tours around the US, and ultimately prepared them to write and record their first full-length record. Horrible Kids debuted at No. 63 in the 100 Alternative Albums on iTunes, with their music video for "@reply" featured as an iTunes "Hot Music Video" and the music video for "Breathe In, Breathe Out" receiving great accolade on its own, as it was added to rotation on mtvU after winning the station's The Freshmen challenge.

Horrible Kids was recorded at Red Sparrow Studios in Wilson, NC with Brandon "B-Real" Ham and John Harrell and mastered by Paul Leavitt [VersaEmerge, The Dangerous Summer]. The EP blends contagious, driving melodies and hard-hitting choruses with genuine sincerity and a powerful message, creating an emotional concept album referencing the troubles of being bullied growing up and importance of being yourself and embracing who you are no matter what.

The band's new album takes the same energetic and passionate approach, but strays from a specific theme, allowing the band to touch on a broader spectrum of topics. "Lyrically, Horrible Kids was me digging deep into my past. With the new album, you're getting to jump inside my head and think how I think, feel what I feel, and really understand how human we all are." Carson confesses openly. "We are human - we have good times, we have bad times, we think pure thoughts, and we think impure thoughts. As far as how I describe these situations, I want you to feel like you are sitting down for a short film…and if I'm not evoking any sort of emotion from you then I'm not doing my job."

"We are very proud of our last release, Horrible Kids EP, but this album is just on a different level, and we're very, very excited about it," concludes Danziger. "This is a new era of Set It Off, and we're ready for it. "