—interview by Caitlin Carmody
The band Robbers on High Street is touring with Cake and Gomez in the Virgin College Megatour. We interviewed their bass guitarist, Morgan King.
What has the tour been like?
This is the first large tour that we’ve done, in the sense that it’s corporate and such. We’ve done West and East Coast [tours] and Europe, but this is the first really organized tour with a bunch of crew [we’ve done].
It’s been good, it’s been an experience because we’re used to small venues and this is a lot of people and very organized. We’ve gotten good feedback from kids. We’re geared towards 18-25 year-old university kids, so this is great because we want to do the college radio thing.
For the most part, probably 75% [of the tour] has been college campuses, and we’ve done other shows off the tour, that are not sponsored by Virgin Megatour. We’ll end the tour in L.A.
Did your band have a big breakthrough or has it been a gradual process of gaining publicity?
It’s been an ongoing gradual process. It helps to get out there and be seen on the West coast and hit major cities, but there’s a lot between New York and L.A. The best part is seeing all the country and the Midwest is good times.
How would you characterize your music?
There are a lot of influences which are hopefully present when you listen to it, honing in on some sort of rocky pop songs that people can enjoy.
We hope you can hear ties to influences like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones—all the classics.
What makes your band unique?
We were wanting to expand, and hopefully people will listen to our [music] and like it and try to listen to other stuff too, rather than the stuff that is being fed to people.
College kids are in the best situation [for music], between college radio and word of mouth, [they have the] most music going to them.
What inspires your songs?
Most of the writing is done by the lead singer Ben [Trokan], and I think it’s just day-to-day situations, [it’s] nothing really groundbreaking, or overly meaningful, it’s not dramatic or anything. It’s just about everyday things, from wandering around the city to riding the train.
Do you want this to be your career?
Yeah, we just want to be lazy and rock and roll for the rest of our lives.
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