Alternative Emo Rockers Free Throw Kick Off Their Co-Headline Tour With Microwave This Week

Alternative emo rockers Free Throw (US) and Microwave (US) kick off their co-headline Australian tour this week. Both bands will alternate headline duties as the tour travels. Free Throw will travel to Australia for the second time ever this July to play more dates, new venues and a longer set. The Nashville quintet supported Hot Mulligan (US) around Australia last year, selling out multiple dates on the run and leaving a lasting impression on new fans throughout the country.

The band have released the special deluxe version of their popular debut album Those Days Are Gone via Wax Bodega, including live recordings, original songs and new versions featuring friends in Hot Mulligan, Microwave, Movements, Pool Kids and Covet, celebrating over a decade of friendship and hard work. The members, Cory Castro, Lawrence Warner, Justin Castro, Jake Hughes, and Kevin Garcia, have a fresh perspective on life as they continue to grow as artists and tick off countless performances worldwide. Cory Castro talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.

Second time touring Australia, you must be excited about coming back?
Yeah, I really am. I’m not excited about the flight, it’s long, but I’m very excited, I think we’re flying into Brisbane, so it’s going to be nice to touch ground in Brisbane. I like Brisbane a lot, actually. I got a tattoo there last time.

Does anything sort of prepare you for that long flight?
Yeah, usually when we’re taking flights like that long, my go-to, I’m already like a night owl. I stay up and play video games a lot when I’m at home. When I’m on tour, I try to get proper sleep, but when I’m at home, I’ll stay up and play video games at night. So, I try to keep myself up the night before just so I’m tired. I have a hard time sleeping on planes. I think it’s the low rumble of the engines and sitting up straight I’m sure doesn’t help either. I have a thing where if I’m on a flight longer than four hours, I’ll watch Interstellar. If it’s on the movie choices, I can’t count how many times I’ve watched that movie now. I think I know the dialogue in my heart at this point.

Do you have lots of good tour stories and things that stand out from last time here?
Oh, yeah. The first day we were in Melbourne, we flew in and were waiting on Hot Mulligan to arrive from New Zealand because they had done a small run there before the tour. So we had a day or two off in Melbourne, and we just started walking around and drinking beers, finding debauchery to get into, I guess. We ended up at a bar that had a free open mic comedy night. We decided to go, trying to hang out to the side and not be noticed. We knew we were American, it’s pretty obvious. If they hear us speak, we’re gonna get made fun of. It’s comedy, you know, so we were trying to hide in the shadows and the MC was like, “No, come here, come here. There’s a seat up front.” So we sit down and she’s like, “Where are you guys from?” We go, “Tennessee.” She goes, “Oh, they’re American.” We were like, “Fuck, here we go.”

She asked what we were doing in Australia and I told her we’re in a band here to tour. She asked the band name and I said, “Free Throw.” And she goes, “Well, I can’t make fun of them now. I’ve been listening to them since high school.” So, welcome guys. Now I got to make fun of someone else. Nice save. Being in our band actually saved us from being front row lambasted by comics all night. We ended up going out and hanging out with a bunch of the comics afterward and just had a good time. They were really nice. I’ve told a lot of people, everyone I’ve met in Australia is extremely nice.

The huge plus for this tour is longer sets, bigger shows, and obviously a co-headline tour with Microwave. It’s set up for a great tour.
Yeah, it’s actually our first tour with Microwave, even though we’ve been playing shows together for twelve years. They’re from Atlanta, we’re from Nashville. So, we’d play the different house and DIY venues along that corridor. We’ve known each other so long, but we’ve never toured together. I guess our first tour is Australia and it’s a co-headliner, which is wild. It’s been a long time. Longer sets too. I looked at ours prepping for rehearsal soon, and I was like, “Wow, that’s long.” But I’m looking forward to it.

I guess that makes it a lot easier when you’re touring with people you genuinely like and get along with well?
Oh yeah, of course. One of the best things about touring is getting to know people. Even if you don’t know them beforehand, it’s the camaraderie that builds as you travel around together. Luckily with Microwave, we’ve known them a long time, there’s no handshakes and formalities. We just get there and it’s like, “Hey, what’s up?” “How’re the kids?” “Nice to see you!” I’m really looking forward to it. The guys in Microwave are really fun and adventurous. They like to get out, see sights, they’re really into nature. I think they just did a trip to Peru, where my grandfather was from, actually. I’m kind of jealous. Australia’s one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever seen with my own eyes, so I’m excited to travel around with them and see the sights, and see what they think.

The ten-year anniversary of Those Days Are Gone, can you believe how fast ten years have flown?
Oh, it feels like yesterday. I was twenty four or twenty five making that record. I mean, when I think about it I remember all that’s happened since, but I still see us recording that album like it was yesterday. Time really has flown. When we made it, we were just some friends making a record. I didn’t expect it to be popular enough for anyone to care about a ten-year anniversary. But I’m glad people do. Honestly, it ended up changing our lives. We have had the chance to travel the world because of it. Before that, we’d only toured a bit around the East Coast. Now I think we’ve been to twenty two countries and it’s all because of that dumb record we made in Larry’s basement ten years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long. Makes me feel insane.

It must be humbling when you look at the impact that record has had and being able to tour twenty two countries, that’s nothing to sneeze at?
Yeah, sometimes I think about it and see people talking about how much it’s influenced their own bands or lives, how much they relate to it. Those are crazy moments, I think, wow, I can’t believe we made something that resonated like that and then I remember we were just in a basement drinking moonshine, being young hooligans making a breakup record. But I’m glad people connected to it that much and honestly, I still enjoy playing those songs. They’re some of my favorite to play live. It’s been really cool doing the ten-year anniversary and getting to play more of them.

The deluxe version of Those Days Are Gone is really awesome. Was it clear which songs you wanted your friends to sing on?
We had an idea of the ones we wanted to do a new and improved version of. We tried to stay close to the same tones as the original recording, we just wanted to re-record them. It sounded like a good idea. At first we tossed around a bunch of different names. We knew we wanted Tades from Hot Mulligan to do Hey Ken and Nathan from Microwave was the perfect fit for Let’s Get Invisible.

It was really cool to have Christine from Pool Kids come on and do Kim Tastie. I’ve always thought of that song as a dialogue between two people, I call it “the divorce song.” In my head, it’s always felt like two people falling out of love. I told Christine to just do what she wanted, have fun with it, and she brought that dynamic to life. It was like realising the idea I had for that song ten years ago. Having Yvette Young do a full outro for How I Got My Shrunken Head was incredible. She’s one of my favorite guitar players in the world and then Pat from Movements, he’s just a great vocalist. I was just happy he wanted to do Tongue Tied. It all came together way too easily, honestly. I was kind of worried because it felt too smooth. Usually, there’s more back and forth, but this just worked.

Does that get you thinking more about collaborations for the next album?
Oh yeah, we just finished recording the next album, actually. There’s at least one collaboration on it, maybe more. I’ll save those details for later. But yeah, we always enjoy collaboration. It’s always a nice surprise when someone from another band or another artist just jumps in. I did a collab for Hot Mulligan’s new record too, so I guess I’m just paying Tades back. But seriously, I love collaborating. I think the genre, especially the Midwest emo/pop punk scene is rooted in DIY and collaboration. You help each other book shows, run house venues, open for each other. That spirit has always made me comfortable working with others. I’d love to do more.

Even with the live recordings, did it take a bit of rummaging to find the right ones for the deluxe version?
Isaiah who does front of house for Hot Mulligan was doing that for us on the tour in the States, and we asked him, “Do you want to record some shows?” He was down. He actually did a lot of the searching so we didn’t have to. He sent us a few versions of each track and said, “Pick the one you like.” He used to run front of house at House of Blues in Anaheim, and we all liked those ones because it’s like his home venue. He really knew how to make it sound great. Obviously I’m not pitch perfect!

With this tour, are you playing Those Days Are Gone start to finish, or mixing it up?
I think we’re mixing it up. We’re doing a lot of Those Days Are Gone, but we’re also adding in stuff we didn’t get to play last time. I’ve seen a couple set lists now, so I’m still not sure which one we’re going with. We’ve got a big rehearsal and we’ll lock things in then. Honestly, we’ve toured so much this year I feel like we could just jump in and play anything. Whatever song they want, I’d be like, “Yeah, we got that.” I think we’re throwing in some stuff that we haven’t played on tour in a while as well. But yeah, we’ll be playing quite a bit from Those Days Are Gone, and also mixing in stuff from Piecing It Together and What’s Past Is Prologue, our third and fourth albums.

You might have to go Bruce Springsteen-style and play for three or four hours straight! Just play everything, then you don’t have to choose!
Just keep going! Yeah, I mean, hey, if I lose my voice… it’s happened before. I can handle it.

About the new album, are you exploring sonically new territory?
A little bit. It’s kind of a weird mix, some of it harkens back. Doing the ten-year for Those Days Are Gone brought those vibes back fresh. So there’s a bit of that throwback energy. We definitely experimented too. We played around with a Mellotron at one point! There are some songs that are a bit different. But we also know who we are as a band. We’ve kind of honed our sound and know what we love to play. So it’s still Free Throw. This is album six now. We’ve branched out here and there, but we always come back to what feels right for us. We just enjoy playing it.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Free Throw and Microwave on the following tour dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…