Exclusive Interview with ARROWS IN ACTION
by Amanda Towery
Currently on tour supporting Magnolia Park, I was able to sit and chat with Arrows In Action. The band consists of three members from Gainesville, Florida. Jesse who plays the drums, Matt playing the guitar, and Victor as the singer. This trio met in college with one big dream. Jesse is the only original member of the band who started in 2012, then Victor joined in 2014, then Matthew in 2017. Since then the band has released many singles and EPs and collaborated with other artists Taylor Acorn and Magnolia Park.
MSM: Hey guys how are you doing?
AIA: Great. Doing good. You?
MSM: It’s a sunny day here, but it’s still a little chilly.
AIA: Yeah, I don’t know what it’s like outside yet, but I assume it’s going to be a cold one in Chicago.
MSM: oh, that’s brutal. First off I want to thank you guys for the time out of your tour to have a chat. I recently got to see you guys out in Charlotte a couple weeks ago.
AIA: Yeah that was a really great show. I say it seemed like it went pretty well. Yeah, it was a great show. We had a great time. We’ve never played North Carolina before.
MSM: Victor I see you’re still drinking coffee. You must still be waking up.
AIA: Ha. We’re still waking up. Yeah, since the start of this morning. But it’s because we’re like three weeks into the tour. Yeah, it’s been jam packed. And we’ve been a little under the weather as well. Between the sniffles and a little bit of food poisoning.
MSM: That has to be rough. You guys were just on tour not too long ago correct?
AIA: We were on tour in November. For 11 days. That was on the West Coast. That was our first time doing any headlining shows out there. It was really nice. A very, very good tour.
MSM: When it comes to West Coast and East Coast is there a preference?
AIA: Not really. I mean Denver was our biggest show. There’s a lot of big pockets. All around I remember thinking that the West Coast was going to be harder to crack just because we’re from Florida, but once we got out there it was…it was great! You know, pretty much on par with the East Coast shows. But yes we have our favorites.
MSM: Is there a significant show that sticks out the most so far?
AIA: Definitely, like…New York City was incredible. Boston’s been phenomenal. Philadelphia was great. Plenty of good ones on this one! Chicago is about to be the biggest show of the tour. I think they all stick out for different reasons that the areas are really cool. It really is hard to pick just one. But I do think New York has kind of been a bucket list sort of spot.
MSM: Are there any horror stories from the tour?
AIA: Apart from being sick? I mean, this whole tour has been phenomenal. Like all the people have been amazing. Every band on tour has been so sweet, and again the shows have been poppin off. It’s been very easy going. Honestly.
MSM: I am glad to see you doing better today! I know you have another show tonight!
AIA: Yes. And we had one yesterday. It gets to be quite a bit. We are on the easier side of it now. A couple days between because we gotta go so far. Gotta get out to Texas and Florida.
MSM: Do you guys have a pre show ritual?
AIA: You know, we haven’t really done anything like that. Well, we do have to get changed now. It makes sure we’re good to go. I kind of like that we have to get changed, because then we all end up in the same room actually kind of talking. And can see where we are at. Know who’s not changed yet. So I kind of like that. So I guess you could say that is our pre show ritual.
MSM: You guys have coordinated outfits for this tour?
AIA: Oh Yeah!
MSM: So what was the inspiration for having coordinated outfits instead of just randomly wearing whatever you want?
AIA: So there are colors that go with the album. So the purple and orange. That’s a big part of it. We talked about it for months about doing some sort of visual aspect of our live show that wasn’t specifically lights. We were trying to figure out how to do it without coming off as the Wiggles. We wanted to do white outfits with accents of our colors. At that point it almost became a Backstreet Boys kind of deal. It’s funny but we look great! But yeah, with how hard it was to find white clothes with the specific colors. I was like, this is gonna look good. No one else is gonna be wearing it. Yeah, cuz like, we didn’t want to necessarily be like, you know, Slipknot, but with white jumpsuits. We each have our own different aspects of our outfits. Like sometimes Matt’s going to go full jumpsuit. Sometimes there’s a tank top so there’s a little bit of variety. Yeah.
MSM: In a video several months ago you mentioned not having a label.
AIA: Haha, we don’t have a label.
MSM: So you guys are still independent. That’s fantastic. Are there any plans to ever sign with a label or do you want to always keep it independent?
AIA: I mean, if it makes sense, maybe, but like, right now, it’s just been working. So well. There hasn’t been any reason to sign to a label. We’ve managed to make this work really well. On our own. I always like to say Never say never. But like, if it doesn’t make sense, there’s no reason to do it. I think labels are great, I think for the right situations. Great. I think we just make it work really well doing what we’re doing right now. Yeah. And we’ve learned a lot having to do it ourselves. So just very fulfilling in a lot of ways, I think. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. There could come a time where it makes sense, but just like you said, it just hasn’t yet. So far, so good. Yeah. And the fact that we’re rolling in CR first LP release, still independent. It certainly bodes well, you know, for the future that we could keep being independent.
MSM: So I saw you guys initially last year on Tik Tok. How has social media helped your success?
AIA: I mean, tick tock is the reason that a lot of people found us. I feel like that’s the case for a lot of people. TikTok is basically the reason we’re able to play shows in the West Coast. All we have is our social media accounts to get out to those people. So when we go places, like California, or Denver or something like that, it’s a huge show. It’s in a large part, thanks to TIkTok, or just like, you know, previous tours that we’ve done, but they’ve found us from social media. Like when we played Richmond for the first time on this tour. And it was crazy, because we had never been there and like our online presence had made it that far.
I mean, it allowed us to stay active during quarantine, and build an audience to then go on tour. Instead of just sort of, like grinding it out and playing, you know, empty rooms.
MSM: Your upcoming album comes out on May 26th. Is there any inspiration or influences that you had while writing/creating it?
AIA: We wrote the album over the course of over a year. It’s crazy to think about. I mean, there were definitely influences like Five Seconds of Summer to the Foo Fighters to, I mean, how there’s even a track that we joke around is like our Limp Biscuit, Demi Lovato track. So like, there’s a lot of influence. I mean, there’s even inspiration from Radiohead, Scott Ellis, John Mayer, Charlie Puth, like Maroon Five sort of vibes. I mean, so there’s a little bit of influence from everything on this record. Very excited. There is some returning to our older sound. Like if you listen to some of our older EPS where it’s a little more like, more pop punk or like rock centric. There are tastes of that throughout the record so it’s nice to kind of be able to explore new sounds that’s true to us.
MSM: So far you have released 4 songs off the album. During your setlist in Charlotte I got to hear two of them. Are there any songs in particular that are your favorite to play?
AIA:I mean the credit has been really fun because we’ve got Josh come out every night yeah, new and it’s the first time we’re playing it live.So that’s a lot of a lot of fun to play and see people like singing along even though the songs are really new. Put You Through me is also a fun one since that is one of our TikTok viral songs. (Victor) I would say in the setlist This Time is always fun because it is a bit older, I kind of forget that people know that one, even if they found it late and so it’s always like a really a pleasant surprise and they kick into This Time and the same people who found us through Uncomfortable Numb really went back and listen to that one. It’s kind of an exciting thing. It’s like we’ve played that song to very few people who didn’t know it and now play it to a room full of people who do. It’s very, very satisfying. Very fun.
MSM: With the album coming out can fans expect that you will be doing a headliner tour or is that too soon to speculate?
AIA: It’s a little too soon to speculate. We will definitely be doing more than just this tour this year. Yes. So that is absolutely in the books. So we’ll be back around. No doubt. We could say to keep your eyes peeled or something because we’re going to be touring a lot. As of right now that’s the plan for the foreseeable future.
MSM: I don’t want to keep you guys too much longer since you have a busy day ahead of you. Do you have any words for your new and older fans?
AIA: Thank you for caring about our band. This last year has been a dream come true. It’s still surreal. We have a small team so it means a lot for your support!