Angie: So you have a new EP coming out Feb.11th…
Adam: Yes, our tour for that starts on the 11th our first show, which is a Tuesday and we’re getting copies the weekend before but we’re not going to start selling them till the tour. I don’t know much about this distro stuff but there’s a label in Saskatchewan that’s putting it out called ‘Lonely Tree’ it’s some new label but they’re paying for pretty much everything yada yada, we’re not signing to them or anything they’re just helping us out. We’re friends with Dwayne, the guy who started the label and he’s been helping us out for a long time when we go to Saskatchewan. He was just like ‘I’ll put out your CD’ and we were like ‘okay’…
A: So this EP isn’t on Fast Music at all?
Adam: No, we’re actually not on Fast Music anymore?
A: Is this the big announcement you’ve been telling me about?
Adam: No, that’s not the big announcement. That’s kind of not big to us cause the stuff that happened between now with us and them was so long ago and it’s just we’re over that, so that’s not really the big announcement.
A: What happened?
Adam: blaaa, umm, just stuff I guess we… weren’t suited for them in the way that, in the way we were changing. I don’t want to get in detail just because for the bands that are on the label now they’re doing good stuff for. They still support the CD, which is one of the best CD’s we put out, and they helped us out a lot but now it’s time to move into a new direction.
A: Who produced your new EP?
Adam: We actually recorded with Greg Taylor from a band called Jersey and Brad Casarin from Somehow Hollow and both of those guys used to be in Grade, Brad was in Grade for like 4yrs until they broke up and they both were there in the studio everyday, I don’t know if they really produced it but they had a lot of really good ideas with all the sounds and stuff, we told them we wanted to sound totally different than we have before, it was like just record us how you want to record us we’re just going to play and sing our asses off and hopefully it turns out sounding different and if not this isn’t what we should be doing but I think it sounds pretty ripping compared to our older stuff, they did a really good job and I feel a huge amount of gratitude for what they’ve done for us.
A: So a full cross-Canadian tour after the release.
Adam: Yes, we leave Feb 11th and we’re back March 16th we’re going out to BC to meet up with our friends in a band called Deville and we’re with them for two and a half weeks.
A: I heard you’ll be doing some dates with Near Miss too on that tour too?
Adam: Yes, they’re on a for I think a week of it, then it’s just us when we get back here and we’re doing a big Ontario and Quebec thing which is like just in case people hate us out west we know people are our friends here and won’t hate us here or get mad, so if we feel like crap when we get back at least we know we’re playing for friends for the last couple of weeks.
A: SWN played Warped Tour this year I heard rumors you guys just showed up and asked about cancellation?
Adam: Well the original thing was Fast Music actually got us on two East-Coast dates. What happened was we were in BC and we just showed up at the Vancouver Warped cause we didn’t have a show that date, like why play a show on Warped tour we might as well just take the ferry and show up with our equipment and see if we can get on this date too while we’re in Victoria. We got there and found out there were lots of spots cause lots of bands didn’t make it over the border. So we went and talked to the people in production and at noon when we got the schedule we were on it, fucking right! From that we were pretty much safe on the other 2 dates and more so also in August we played in Charlotte and Virginia Beach and then from there it was like okay well you can do the rest of the States with us cause that stage was on till Boston and then when we were in New York, punkrocks.net said we could play they’re stage in Boston, Montreal and Toronto if we wanted, we were exited too cause that was a bigger stage.
A: You guys recently headed out on tour in the States, obviously first time on tour in a new country, it isn’t always easy how, was it for you guys?
Adam: Yes I like the U.S but you got to hook up with the right people though, if you hook up with sketchy people you’re just going to have a bad and crappy time.
A: Yeah, I heard you guys had quite a few problems with promoters and stuff?
Adam: Oh yes, I mean any other time we go, we’re friends with this band in Indiana and they’re called ‘Chronic Chaos’ if we go there it’s like hey let’s do a week tour or something and let them book it, in the mid-west it’s amazing shows but it all depends on who’s doing your stuff and if they’re sketchy or not.
A: I noticed that there’s a lot of SWN songs readily available on mp3.com, has the internet been positive for you guys as a good way of distribution?
Adam: Oh fuck yes, the internet is huge it’s pretty much half of it. It’s says on the bottom of our disk, these songs are copyrighted but share them with whoever you wish, burn them, trade them, send them all over. We’re not on a level right now where we could be like we need this money, we’re snotty, support us. If people like you, they will come out and support you, come and see you, pay for the show. That’s what matters right now, not if you fucking spend ten dollars on our CD, the more the merrier right now. Right now I cook at a restaurant and that’s how I make money to pay my rent, this is just fun, now I’m just chilling, but it’s nice on tour to not have to pay for food but we’re not looking to make a career out of this, at this point. At this point it’s not realistic to say that the band is the only thing so I don’t care, go and play our CD for anybody.
A: I’ve always wondered cause of your name ‘Sewing With Nancy’, do you guys ever fear of running into legal issues over this?
Adam: I’ll tell you right now, this is kind of the big announcement because by the time that you print this it will be known as long as you don’t say this before we should be fine is that we are changing our name. And that’s what we are doing, because of a lot of legal issues with various things that we aren’t really associated with and things that we are associated with, we have to change our name.
A: Are you really literally put in the position that you have to?
Adam: We’re put in a position where we should do it. It’s like if we don’t do it… There’s a couple reasons for it…
A: Even though you guys put IE at the end of Nancy?
Adam: That’s what we originally did but it’s like if we put out another CD as SWN we could get hugely fucked over, there’s a couple reasons for it one being the obvious legal implications of having a name blatantly stolen from something, such as law suits etc The other thing being our style has completely changed, it is a new band and if we keep going as SWN, something that started when we were fourteen in grade nine. It lost it’s meaning to us after a week but we just kept going with it. The difference between our first ever tape and ‘The Same Three Chords’ album is like night and day. When that album came out, we were like we should change our name to The Same Three Chords because it’s totally different, we’re a punk band now we play faster stuff we should totally change our name. Now the difference is even bigger so if we don’t do it now, then we could pay for it down the road, it’s basically now or never.
A: What are you going to be called?
Adam: ‘The Reason’ and our CD is called ‘Problems Associated With Running’ and it’s a big jump and it’s a big change but we’re still going to play SWN songs, anything that wasn’t on ‘The Same Three Chords’ we’re playing. It’s just really a completely different band now, fuck we’re grown now we’re not dealing with High School, parent’s stupid stuff anymore. That’s so behind us and we can’t sit there and sing about it and feel it, it’s not fun and right now I don’t think that we’re at the level to worry what’s good for everybody else, we’re still at that level that we have to care about ourselves and what we feel. I’m sure the Red Hot Chili Peppers are sick of playing Under The Bridge, but they’ve reached a level that they still have to play it, that’s their thing. We’re not anywhere near that and I think when people do hear our new sound and are not be biased towards a name change, they’ll be interested in this I think it’s a lot better and a lot more mature, you can still get into it if you’re in High School, it’s not past anyone it’s still catchy shit just a lot heavier, we feel it now, which is different than stuff I felt before when I was in school and now it’s so different. So the name change is half trying to avoid stuff because we have a dumb name that we stole from a TV show and the other half is us just needing to do this now or never. A new EP, a new label, we just have to do this now, I’m sure we’ll be formerly SWN for awhile. If you have seen us live in the past year, you’ll notice a big change, I don’t even sing the same, I scream for all the old songs now, we’ve changed stuff, so it’s fun for us to play and I stand behind it.
A: Anything else before we wrap this up?
Adam: Umm so we are called ‘The Reason’ now but you guys don’t know that till the 24th of January all of our tour dates will be on our new website which is www.thereason.ca it’s all going to change that’s our big announcement, it’s not really that big just a shock I guess. Hopefully people like the new songs cause I do.