Band Interview: PUBLIC

The day after the Band of Brothers Road Show wrapped, we got to sit down and talk with PUBLIC about the tour, their music, and what’s coming next.

CROWDSURFER: First of all, I loved the show last night!

PUBLIC: Thanks! Thanks for coming out!

CS: It was the final show of the tour. Was it a different energy, or was it bittersweet? How were you feeling?

John: I would say both of those things, as some of the things you didn’t know you cared about on the tour hits you on the last show.

Matt: I think bittersweet because you spent so much time with the same people. And at the same time it’s like, this is the moment to really crank and move on to bigger and better things. Exciting things like writing new music.

John: Saying I was ready to move on sounds negative towards the tour, but it’s not at all. That was a great thing to go through, but now I’m ready for the stuff we have coming up ahead. I feel energized and tired at the same time.

CS: What’s it been like being on tour with American Authors and Magic Giant?

John: We felt very taken care of by the AA guys, they just were always asking how were doing and encouraging us. They are also on Island Records as well, so they were always just encouraging us a new band like “We’ve been through it before, you guys are crushing it.”

Matt: They’re very aware of what we’re going through right now so they give advice if they feel like they can.

CS: I love it, so much support. So you recently released a sequel music video for your hit single Make You Mine. It’s got a different vibe from the original, and I absolutely loved it. How did the idea to follow up the first video come about?

John: So our team that put together the first one, we had a great time with them, we just had a great time and it did so well. And they pitched us an idea for a sequel and at first I was like that seems gratuitous and people are gonna hate that. But when they were pitching it, and also with the zombie route, that’s when we were kind of like –

Matt: That actually sounds fun.

John: Because it starts off the way you’d maybe expect with a romantic proposal, but then stuff goes really wrong.

Matt: And John bites a dude in the face…

John: Yeah, I just get that bloodlust you know? [laughter] I think for me in this one, I was more like, let’s just have fun. We had a blast, we love this production team, let’s make a movie.

CS: There are a few different versions of Make You Mine out. Do you have a favorite?

John: I think mine is the Rino Sambo remix. It’s got kind of a beachy vibe to it, it’s got some MIDI horn stuff going on.

Ben: I like the acoustic version. The acoustic version is really nice.

John: Honestly, my favorite is the original.

Ben: Yeah, as it should be. It’s the way we wanted it and originally imagined.

CS: So, as we said, tour is over. What’s next for you?

John: We’re going to be doing some really exciting writing sessions with some people that we’ve looked up to for a while. I think we have some TV stuff coming up…

Matt: [whispers] We can’t talk about it though.

John: We’re gonna do MTV Cribs.

Ben: But it’s of our van. Pimp My Ride.

[laughter]

John: So those are fictional things, we’re gonna write.

Ben: Because there are more songs to be made that aren’t Make You Mine.

CS: On that note, it’s been a few years since Sweet Lemonade–

John: Thank you, nobody talks about that EP!

Matt: It’s so underrated! We think all of those songs are fantastic songs.

John: We play two of those songs live almost every show. They’re great songs. I think that EP is a very good representation of how our music has evolved. It’s more poppy, there’s disco stuff going on in there, too. It’s just good.

CS: How would you say your sound has changed since then?

John: We’ve got some unreleased stuff that’s really interesting, I think.

Matt: Yeah, and I don’t think we’re scared to go outside of what we would be labeled as. We’ve always kind of geared our sound to whatever we found interesting at the time. I think we write music because we love writing music, and it kind of comes out in different shades sometimes. I think recently it’s been a lot more disco funk, pop disco funk, than anything else. A year from now it could be alt rock, but it’s still gonna be PUBLIC.

John: I think it’s more common for bands and artists to be multi-genre right now. I’m hoping that it’s a little more accepted that we do stuff that’s not – like oh they’re a pop rock band but this song is pretty funky. So I think that’s what we do because that’s what we love.

CS: You’ve been friends since grade school. How have you grown as friends throughout all these years of being a band?

Matt: I think being friends has really helped with the growth of the band. I think specifically, on tour, when things kind of get really stressful we’ve always had a mindset of bringing it to the table. It’s always kept us closer than ever rather than pull us apart.

John: I feel like the enemy of, not just band but anyone doing something intensive for a long time, is repressing stuff. It’s like a relationship. If you keep something inside it’s eventually just going to poison you with resenting that person. People hear why certain bands break up, and like, it gets really hard. But we laugh really really hard still, and I think that keeps us together and keeps us fresh. We see a goal and we wanna get there and we believe in each other.

CS: Well thank you for taking the time to talk! Can’t wait to see you at your next concert.

Matt: Make You Mine 3?

CS: Exactly.

Photos by Lauren Hayes.