Friday, March 5, 2010

A sitdown with Saosin

By Ashley Campbell

Back in November, the Pactour came through Philadelphia and gave attendees a night of diverse performances. Before the show, Barricade Buzz took some time to chat with Saosin’s bass player Chris Sorenson and talked about Thanksgiving, the current tour and having one of their songs featured on CBS’s NCIS.


Barricade Buzz: The Pactour kicked off a little less than a month ago, how has the tour been for you guys so far?

Chris Sorenson: It’s pretty standard for a tour. But I mean, we’re headlining so there’s a lot more stress involved to not only put on a good show, but playing late and showing up early and everything included. But it’s been pretty standard, we’re really excited. The bill is very diverse and I think that’s really important to us, having a diverse bill, it’s not the same band throughout the night.

BB: How do you feel about the other bands? Are you fans of any of them?

CS: Uh, yea. Innerpartysystem, we’re fans of them and POS is the only hip-hop artist that I think is good. I don’t really like rap or hip-hop.

BB: Are there any specific shows that have stuck out in your mind on the tour so far or any that you’re looking forward to?

CS: Last night in New York was really good. We’re looking forward to getting back to the East Coast because the East Coast is a home away from home for us. I’m sure tonight in Philly will be great.

BB: While you guys are on tour, how do you keep yourselves busy when you’re not playing?

CS: Sleep. I don’t know, there’s a multitude of things. Sometimes we’re always helping set up. Ya know, just standard normal time-killing things.
BB: Do you guys ever sight-see?

CS: Not anymore.
BB: Yea, ‘cause you guys have seen everything at this point, right?

CS: Yea, we’ve been touring for a while so when you go to New York or Philly it’s not like, ‘Hey, you wanna go to Pat’s and get a cheesesteak? Again?’
BB: Haha, alright. Well, you guys released your latest album a few months ago. How did you guys decide what songs to incorporate into your set list?

CS: I don’t really think it’s a conscious effort, I think it just depends on the energy of the song. ‘Cause you can’t really say like, ‘Oh, I want to play all of the heavy songs’ or ‘I want to play all of the popular song.’ So we just kind of decided that we were going to play this many songs and these are the songs that we want to play, so, it’s really just what we wanted to play.

BB: Have the fans seemed happy with the choices you made? Whether they’re older songs or new songs?

CS: Yea, I think so. I haven’t heard any complaints. So, I think that’s a good sign. But, ya know, the set flows really well and for all of the times there’s new songs that maybe people don’t know, there’s a song that they’re familiar with before or after it.

BB: You guys had one of your songs used on an episode of NCIS. How did it feel to have your song used on such a popular show?

CS: I don’t know. It’s really not that big of a deal to us because it’s not really one of our goals as a band. I mean, it’s awesome to think that potentially 25 million people heard your music all at one time, ya know? I’m more stoked about being on the soundtrack with Bob Dillon and a bunch of other artists.

BB: This year is coming to its close, is there anything that you guys are looking forward to before it’s over, whether it’s concerning music or just life in general?

CS: No. Getting this tour done and getting it under our belts, I guess.
BB: Do you guys have any plans yet for next year?

CS: Yea, we’re going overseas for quite some time. We’ve kind of built a really good fan base internationally, especially in places like Asia so we’re going to go explore. And we’re going to go down to South Africa and South America and some other places and just get out of the States. I mean, there’s 50 bands playing every night in every city here in the States so it’s like, time to go away somewhere else for a little bit.
BB: Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I know you have the day off, but you’ll still be on the road. Do you guys have any plans for the holiday?

CS: For all of the times we’ve been away for Thanksgiving, which has pretty much been every year, we’ve done something. I think the only year we didn’t do something was, no, I’ve got to think about this. Well, to answer the question, we’re going to our drum techs house. He lives in Cherry Hill, NJ so we’re gonna go eat some Thanksgiving dinner with his family. We’re going to pile all 12 of us in there so it’s gonna be hectic but yea. They invited us over, so. Last year we were down in Florida and were at Aaron [Gillespie] of underOATH’s house so he and I cooked dinner and then the year before that we were, I don’t remember where we were. Actually we were in the U.K. so we didn’t even celebrate it. And then the year before that, we were in Boston. And the year before that we were in Portland and ate Thanksgiving dinner in a hotel from a big buffet.
BB: Alright, well I know you guys have been here before so, what do you guys think of Philly?

CS: As a city in general, I think it kind of smells like fish. Sorry. Well, this area does. But it’s a cool city. It’s very, um, it’s a more industrial New York. The weather has never actually been nice. I feel bad for you guys. Every single time we’ve been here, it hasn’t been nice.
BB: Maybe it’s just you guys.

CS: Yea, we’re bad luck chucks. But we’ve played a lot of weird venues here. We played the North Star Bar, that was very ghetto. They have these hip hop chips, like, with Lil’ Bow Wow on them and there was a message on the wrapper. Master P had one. But we also shot a DVD the last time we were here, at the TLA, which is now called the Filmore which I hate.
BB: It’s not called the Filmore anymore, they changed it back.

CS: They switched it back?

BB: Yes they did.

CS: Yea, but the crowds were great. We’ve played here at the Troc before and it was great.

BB: Alright, well that’s pretty much all I’ve got.

CS: Well, thank you.