One Step Closer On Tour With New Bloom Fest

‘Between going to Japan and then going to Australia, that was easily the best month of my entire life that I had, playing music and doing all that stuff. I’m excited to come back and do it again.’

Ryan Savitski, vocalist of Pennsylvania’s’ One Step Closer, reminisces about his last visit to Australia as another one looms around the corner as part of this years New Bloom Festival.

‘The shows were awesome. We played maybe five or six shows only, but the energy in the room every night was really stoked. Everybody was just super excited that we were there. The hangs were just absolutely incredible. We were swimming multiple times a day and playing shows at night, and the shows were fucking sick!’

Since the band’s last sojourn to our sunny climate, the band have been prolific in their work rate as they released an album in All You Embrace, toured America and dabbled across the pond too recently.

‘The UK tour was awesome. I knew it was going to be a pretty big tour just because Neck Deep is absolutely massive there, so it was really incredible. I didn’t expect the shows to be as big as they were, every single night was sold out and kids were there super early. We played to a full room every night, even though we only played 30 minutes after doors. It was really, really good! There’s a crowd of people that genuinely enjoy the music and always tend to come out and see us whenever we’re out there.’

The bands inclusion on the New Bloom Festival, which showcases bands that are more than a music entity – they influence a generation in positive ways – is quite the achievement. For a straight edge hardcore band that are on that lineup that features emo and shoe gaze, where do they position themselves?

‘The lineup is really cool because it’s pretty diverse in my opinion, with more kind of emo rock bands mixed with hardcore bands and then mixed with bands like Sweet Pill and all that kind of stuff. I think it’s really, really cool. I’m really excited to see Basement and I’m super excited to see Drain again. The lineup is cool because we’re a hardcore band, but we have a lot of melodic parts and more chorus kind of elements. So, I think we kind of fit perfectly in the middle of everything. We’re right dead centre on the spectrum of bands, it’s a little bit of everything.’

Talk turns to the latest album All You Embrace, which dropped in May last year and whether it has matured on stage during this time.

‘I love playing the songs off that record more than any other songs we’ve ever made. This most recent tour that we did, we played seven new songs out of the nine songs in our set. I feel way more connected to the songs that the songs are way more fun to play with cool parts that I just enjoy. Maybe for the festival we kind of have a little bit more of a free range to do whatever we want. For the sideshow with Drain, since they’re going to be hardcore shows, we’ll probably throw a few older tracks in there just for the vibe.’

And what of a One Step Closer show for those of us who will experience it for the first time?

‘I would say the baseline would just be very energetic, lots of stage diving. It’s just a fun setting in my opinion. We try to make the set feel fun for people because when we were growing up going to shows, the most exciting sets were the ones where people were just going nuts. That’s what was fun to us. So, we try to create that atmosphere at our shows as well for people coming to see us. It comes with the type of music that we play. We are not playing super heavy parts; we’re not having a lot of crowd killing at the shows. It’s more sing along, be upfront and be in our faces, stage diving and just having a good time. I feel like we try to create a safe environment where everybody feels like they could be themselves and just enjoy the moment. That’s the most important thing when you’re going to a show like ours or any hardcore show in general. You just want to feel comfortable and feel like you could be yourself.’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch One Step Closer at New Bloom Fest on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…

Also on tour with Drain with New Bloom Fest sideshows, tickets from Destroy All Lines…