Days Away

This interview took place on May 18th, 2003 at the Scene before Days Away played their show with the Plain White T’s, F.O.N., Happy Hour, and Jenix. Singer/guitarist Keith Goodwin and Tim Arnold who plays the Keyboard joined me for a chat before their show.

LAPunk: Can you just say your name and role in the band.

Keith: I’m Keith and I sing and play guitar.

Tim: I’m Tim and I play the synthesizer

LAPunk: Could you tell us a little history of the band, like how you got together and stuff.

Keith: Well we’ve all been playing since like 7th grade probably since when we were like eleven or twelve. And we, Days Away, started taking this all seriously about two years ago or something like that. We all just met in high school and liked the same music and started covering songs and then just, ya know started makin our own songs. That’s really how we gradually came to where we are today.

LAPunk: That’s sick, so you guys all went to high school together?

Keith: Yea we all went to high school and we started in middle school, well we knew this guy (Tim) he went to a different middle school. He’s a Renaissance Man.

LAPunk: Ha Ha, oh really?

Keith: yeah he does everything.

LAPunk: have you guys gone through any line up changes or anything?

Keith: Well we have actually, we started out as the four guys that are in the band now, and Tim wasn’t in the band before. Then we added a guitar player and I stopped playing guitar and just sang. And then we uh got rid of that douche bag and uh.

LAPunk: Ha Ha, how sweet!

Keith: And then we uh added another guitar player, but that didn’t really work out. Then we...umm.

Tim: Then you got me.

Keith: Yea we got him playin the keyboards and I just picked up the guitar again. I mean our old guitar player wasn’t a douche bag. I was just kiddin, he’s a really good kid.

LAPunk: Now you guys are signed with We The People?

Keith: No

LAPunk: No? Ok well that changes that question.

Keith: We’ve done everything pretty much all on our own. Charlie, the guy who does We The People..I don’t know, we’re his heroes or something. I don’t know what his plans are with his label but we never really did sign contracts with them or anything, ya know...and uh...

Tim: Nice trail off there.

Keith: I know I do it constantly.

LAPunk: Now did you just finish touring with Finch or is that about to start?

Keith: We just finished, yea.

LAPunk: How was that?

Keith: Awesome.

Tim: Way sick.

Keith: Those guys are our boys. They’ll probably be here tonight.

LAPunk: Nice, what kind of toll does the constant touring take on you guys as a band or an individual, since you guys have been on the road for a while now?

Tim: I got really sick actually, for like 3 days I was like seriously ill, but other than that its cool.

Keith: Other than that its cool, like right now, I’m feeling better than I ever have.

Tim: It's freedom, it’s a big freedom

LAPunk: Can you tell us a little bit about the EP "The Feel of It," what do you want people to know about this album?

Tim: It's constantly changing and growing.

Keith: I mean with the EP, we’ve added stuff to different songs, but with that its like the first serious stuff that we did.

Tim: It’s the core.

Keith: And ya know everything is kinda branching off of that. Because we’ve had demoes for a long time, but nothing like that. We appreciate it and we hope everyone else does too.

LAPunk: Keith, this one’s for you. Didn’t you do some sort of vocal thing with The Starting Line?

Keith: Yeah, yeah...

LAPunk: Could you tell us a little about that deal?

Keith: Oh yea well, Kenny’s my boy, we’ve known those guys for a while. They’re actually from the same place where we’re from. We were in Los Angeles and he just called me up and asked me if I wanted to sing a part in one of the songs. So I was like ‘alright,’ so I sing in the song "left coast envy" on the album.

LAPunk: The newer one?

Keith: Yeah, not the acoustic one though.

LAPunk: Yeah, but that one’s gonna be good though.

Keith: Yeah.

LAPunk: What are some of your guys influences? Artist wise?

Keith: We have tons of influences!

Tim: Everything I’ve ever heard in my life.

Keith: Even if we listen to something horrible.

Tim: Even if its like a commercial

Keith: Yea, and like even if we listen to something horrible and we’re like ‘never wanna make a song like that!’

Tim: Yea definately. That’s a huge influence.

LAPunk: What’s one band that you'd love to go on tour with?

Keith: Umm, I don’t know, I mean...

Tim: Right now Recover.

Keith: Yeah, Recover might not be idealistic, but they’re our dawgs and they’re fuckin, oh sorry, cool as heck and we just love their music!

Tim: But like idealistic, I’d probably have to say Radiohead or like anyone...

Keith: Anyone of those bands that just blows you away. You gotta think like, we’re one of those bands that makes music piece by piece and like those bands like Radiohead master that, we love to play with. Even if its not the same type of music

Tim: Its like glorious pop music.

LAPunk: Ha!

Tim: That works for everyone.

LAPunk: Since you guys are from the East Coast originally, do you think that there’s a difference between the scene on the east coast versus the west coast?

Keith: It's weird, like when we come to the west coast, we’ve got some pretty amazing fans.

Tim: Yeah, like some dates we did on the east coast were really bad.

Keith: Yeah I know.

Tim: But that was probably more their doing.

Keith: Yea that was their doing.

Tim: If we did this tour on the East Coast, it probably wouldn’t be as crazy as over here.

Keith: I mean hopefully now it will be since we got to play in front of lots of people. I mean we’ve played a lot of shows on the east coast and it still hasn’t turned out the way that these shows have turned.

(Keith leaves for a minute to answer a cell phone call)

LAPunk: You guys just played in LA for a couple show right?

Tim: Yeah

LAPunk: What did you guys think about those shows? Did you like LA?

Tim: I thought it was great. I had never played there before with these guys. I thought it was really fun.

LAPunk: Alright, anything else you guys wanna say? Or just you actually?

Tim: uh...I guess just come with open minds. Just check it out, ya know.

LAPunk: Sounds good. Oh here’s Keith again.

Tim: Hey man do you wanna say anything else?

Keith: We want as many hot chicks at our shows as possible.

LAPunk: Ha ha ha. Look around you. Look at all the girls here.

Keith: As many as possible! This is not a joke.

Tim: It’s the God honest truth.

Keith: Yeah, were not kidding.

LAPunk: Ha Ha ha, well that sounds like a good note to end it, thanks you guys.

-Interview by Katie Plourd