Interview: Bad Omens talk Warped Tour, instruments, and more

Concert Crap: You guys are currently on Warped Tour. How’s the experience been so far?

Joakim “Jolly” Karlsson: It’s hard work, battling with strict schedules and poor weather conditions but our first experience has been absolutely great thus far. Warped tour management runs a tight ship. It’s a “we are all in this together” kind of vibe and I personally like a good challenge, battling storms and rain sometimes, although of course it bums me out if it’s bad enough to shut down sets.

CC: What’s your favorite part about being on Warped Tour?

JK: The size of it. Being on the same tour as all of these sick bands and musicians, being able to hang out with musically likeminded people, making new friends, watching them play etc etc. It would have been very hard to get to see all the bands you want to see if it was just a one day thing, having to play and work yourself, but since we are on the tour for a while it’s totally possible to get to see the bands you want to see.. multiple time even. The catering is superb, and the staff is absolutely killing it overall.

CC: How is touring on Warped Tour different from your previous tour experiences?

JK: In every way pretty much.

It’s a mobile festival, which is crazy to think about in itself… but it works, and it blows my mind.

Playing outdoors everyday, in blazing sun or pouring rain. loading gear trough thousands of hyped music lovers is also a challenge we don’t usually have to deal with touring, but it’s all just a part of the “thing” and I love every part of it.

This is an opportunity I wouldn’t have missed for anything, let alone some extra hustle. It feels like every member of this tour is on the same page with that, and that’s sick.

CC: If you guys all switched around instruments for one gig, what would everyone’s new job be?

JK: Noah – Guitar, because he’s a guitarist at heart and a great one at that. Noah and me wrote and tracked all guitars on our album. We’ve got 2 different styles of playing/riffing that blended tastefully.

Vincent – Synth if we had one live… we might add that in the future, he’s a good pianist. The song Crawl is his masterpiece on our Album.

He wrote that over 7 years ago!

Nick Ruffilo – I think it would be between me and Ruffilo to either do bass or vocals. Half set each?

Nick folio – this guy lives and breathes drums. I wouldn’t care to suggest to him to do anything else, He can noodle a guitar though, so maybe that… if he had to.

CC: If you could visit a fictional world, where would you go?

JK: Middle earth, hands down.

CC: What can we look forward to seeing from you guys after Warped Tour?

JK: We have some offers lined up for the fall that we have yet do decide upon, so nothing I can talk further about unfortunately. We are however very eager to get some time to just sit down and work on new material. We’ve had a busy year, which has been amazing, but it’s time to dive into writing. We have some new cool stuff written and ready to be perfected and we are very stoked to get to it!

CC: Is there anything else you’d like to add to this interview?

JK: Come out and enjoy Warped Tour with us until the 24th!

All questions answered by guitarist Joakim “Jolly” Karlsson

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