You Me At Six To Rock Australia One Last Time

YOU ME AT SIX are one of the most beloved British rock bands of all time, having delivered multiple number one albums, dominating charts, racking up hundreds of millions of streams, selling out arenas and headlining festivals; and along the way crafting some of the catchiest pop-rock anthems of their generation. Bite My Tongue, Take on the World, Underdog, Beautiful Way, Room to Breathe… the list of classics seems almost endless. The band’s revival of infectious and spirited pop-rock earned them a mass of fans worldwide, seeing them sell out show after show across the globe.

Choosing to bring such a storied twenty-year career to an end cannot be easy. Doing so with your original line-up, on your own terms, and with the band members remaining best of friends is unheard of. But as the saying goes, go out at the top of your game and You Me At Six are certainly doing that. Front man Josh Franceschi talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour and the decision to go out on top.

How’s the feeling in the band knowing this is the final run of shows?
We’re feeling very grateful to be to be coming for our tenth time, twelfth time. I’m not sure, but we’ve been very lucky. Almost every album we’ve come at least once, if not twice, to Australia. Just to be able to come back given we were only there in July 2023, so we umming and ahing about whether it was it necessary for us to come as part of the farewell tour to Australia, would people want us to, would they care. It’s been a really beautiful reception and seeing how excited they are about us coming back. The shows are selling in a way that I don’t think we’ve sold tickets like this before in Australia, so that’s really exciting. We’re just buzzing, it’s. It’s a holiday in your summer. Getting to travel the world, that’s what it is about in Australia, you basically go on holiday and get to play some cool shows. It’s perfect, looking forward to it immensely.

Is the response overwhelming as well knowing how fans are reacting buying tickets and selling the shows really well?
Yeah, I think yes, it is. It’s a reminder of when you’re releasing an album or you’re announcing a tour, you revert back to infancy like you want that validation of I’m doing something good, we’re doing something good, getting that pat on the back or being told well done for that sort of thing. It’s kind of what this is. What was our worth? Was twenty years of our time an effort to people who enjoyed it and mean something to them that they want to come and say goodbye. As I’ve always said, You Me At Six is not the biggest band in the world and I doubt very much that will be spoken about in thirty to forty years time. But for right now, it’s a band that has meant something to a group of people and they’re coming out to enjoy it with us.

Was that a tough decision as a band to make that decision to say this time?
Yes and no. I think truthfully, some of us have been ready for a hot minute and I think nothing lasts forever. Saying goodbye is hard, but saying goodbye to no one would be harder. This is us being able to call time on something on our terms and not be about us getting tied up in anything else, it is about us making a decision as a family ultimately, we want to be able to call the shots for our career and end it in a certain way. So yeah, it’s not easy because there’s a obviously a school of thought of, well, this has been such an integral part of my existence since I was fifteen years of age that now not having that is going to be challenging. As I said, we’ve done some great things. We’ve got some beautiful memories and we’ve still got to go around and do it one more time, so it’s good stuff.

Is music still the passion and you’re looking to maybe do something in a solo capacity once you’ve had a chance to take a break and figure out what you want to do?
Yeah, I think music is always going to be very much at the forefront of me as a person. That’s what I love doing. I love being creative. I’m in the studio almost every week with different writers, artists and producers creating for lots of reasons. Honestly, I’ve made so many records, but can’t put that out, that’s not good or they won’t get that. That’s why nobody needs an R&B record from you mate! I guess, just trying to understand what it is because You Me At Six has always had quite a defensive identity, or at least it did for the large parts of our career. There’s been a couple of records we’ve done whatever. But for the most part, it’s like this is what you’re band is, you’re pop-punk, pop rock emo band. However, you want to label it. That’s what you do and you make those kind of songs. So, doing something completely from scratch is interesting in trying to establish what the identity and what the heart of that would be. For right now my ultimate focus is on the band and making sure that I enjoy every minute of that and also that nothing distracts from how important that is to us five. What will come, will come, and if we’re making music or make music in the future, hopefully there will be interest to hear it but if not that’s all good as well.

The tour set list must be a difficult task to work out working out what best represents the band over the journey plus all the fan favourites as well?
Yeah, working through that at the moment and it’s a lot of compromise, but we have our undroppable songs and songs we have to play. That informs us better of what the show looks like and we go from there. The show mirrors the lifespan of and the career of the band. It has a bit of everything in there versus just songs from one or two records. It is reflected across all eight and trying to do that has been challenging.

Do you get nostalgic going back over these songs remembering particular points in time from your career?
Absolutely, I think that’s one of music’s superpowers. There are so many records that I instantly go back to feeling how I did when I first heard it. I can very vividly picture what was going on in my life, where I would have been, friends I was with or whatever. It’s the same with the band, because honestly, it’s documented where we’ve all been at in our lives for the last twenty years. There’s times when I listen to songs, and ok that was 2012 and we were doing that then, this sort of stuff was going on in my life. That’s really special about music and it’s always there. I think music for people, more often than not is a really interesting component into their life. It can act as a crutch. It can be there to soundtrack the good moments and the bad moments.

When you look back on your career what are some of the things that you’re most proud of?
Truthfully, I’d say that being the same five cats, the same five dudes, keeping us somewhat healthy, both physically and mentally, and I’m proud of the fact we’ve done it you and we’ve survived it. We’ve also thrived in it as well. We’ve not let the environment dictate how we do things. Having number one records, selling out certain venues at different points in our career has been wicked, but I think the thing that we’re all collectively most proud of is that it’s us five and we’ve got through it and we’ve taken care of one another. I think that’s the most important thing really.

When you get to that final show, how do you think you’ll be feeling by the end?
Probably pretty tired! It’s a long tour in the UK, it’s thirty seven shows, so it’s going to be a lot, but it’s going to be incredible. I keep trying to visualise it so I can kind of prepare myself a little bit for what it’s going to feel like, but I won’t know until we’re there. I’m sure it’ll be very emotional. I’m sure there will be a feeling of fucking hell, wow, we did this and fuck I’m unemployed!

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch You Me At Six with Holding Absence on the following dates, tickets from The Phoenix…