He Is Legend On Tour This May…
‘It was wild! Three hundred musicians jumping on planes every morning, and everyone is at the airport, going to other cities. It was wild to see, I’ve never seen anything like it and to just be given the opportunity to do it! We had no money while we were there, there was a big week of downtime in between the festivals eating Vegemite packets and bread, drinking wine cause it’s cheaper than water! We had a blast and we were lucky to come over. I heard about some of the controversy, it is unfortunate it happened but at the same time we were very lucky and treated amazingly.’
Schuylar Croom, front man of North Carolina rockers He Is Legend recounts his bands last adventure down under during the soon to be doomed Soundwave Festival as his band prepares to return after eight years.
‘It’s not unlike what we are doing on this run – we are not going to get rich – we just wanna rock! If it seems a good opportunity to play and the positives outweigh the risks then why not do it?’
Why not indeed? The band dropped yet another banger of an album last year in Endless Hallway which is a little faster than normal and conceived during the time the world stopped. So to be back out is quite the adventure.
‘The team from Beats Cartel have done so much and exciting things, it’s been seamless to get this organised to come over and that takes a lot of pressure off this situation because we know other people are handling it. As a DIY band we normally do all this ourselves. It’s really nice and we’re just itching to get there! We’ve been rehearsing – in fact we’re a little early on our rehearsals as we usually start a month and half out from a headlining tour but we itching to figure out what to play for you guys’
While this is a tour for the new album, rest assured old school He Is Legend fans, the whole story will be presented.
‘I think we’re gonna cover all the bases you know, cause you just don’t know whether we will get the opportunity to come back. I’d hate to just focus on ‘Endless Hallway’ specifically and not allow fans who have been with us for 20 years the opportunity to dig into the older albums . Our set list will be a good one and run the full gambit’
Croom hasn’t been without his own health issues recently and a strict regime that involved removing dairy and going on a plant based diet has worked wonders for him and certainly fits in with image of the worldly front man.
‘If I go too long without eating, it’s triggers an attack and can last a week. We played a show in Florida and we got stuck in traffic, so an nine hour drive turned into a fourteen hours and I played a terrible show and it’s awful cause I presume people think I’m drunk. I don’t even drink anymore! I didn’t even think I could make it through the set.
One thing we’ve gained as a band is instead of a hotel we will stay out at a campsite and grill out. There’s a way of life in campgrounds and drive through national park sites, there’s no anonymity! You meet your neighbour with his wife and kids and dogs. There’s a travelling community and for us on the road, hotel rooms can be kinda scary, it can be so anonymous you can lose yourself in that darkness. So my advice is stay outside sometimes and take your shoes off and walk in the grass, eat some decent food.’
He Is legend will do a run of six shows across our great land and if the shows are as exciting as Croom is to be here, we are in for something magical.
Interview By Iain McCallum
Catch He Is Legend with Hammers on the following tour dates, tickets from Beats Cartel…
