We Came As Romans To Ignite Stages Across Australia

‘I will say every time a fan shows up or says, ‘your music helped’, it always makes it worthwhile, and it always will keep bands coming back. Having this show fills my heart and makes me so happy that I still have the opportunity to be doing this. Some people aren’t fortunate enough to be in the same position. Some days I can’t believe that I’m doing this. You never know when you’re going to be here, when you’re going to be gone. So, I’m always super thankful, super appreciative. Thank you to whoever has bought a ticket, whoever’s coming out or whoever’s considering coming out or has played the streams or whatever. It just means so much because you could be doing so many other things with your time, but you chose to do this and that really means a lot.’

Andy Glass, bassist in metalcore heavyweights We Came As Romans, is eternally grateful for his life. Well, you would be too if your band dropped a stunning seventh album All Is Beautiful…Because We’re Doomed, then tour the world with your mates, curate your own whisky brand, design gear for epic musicians and have a pretty cool personal life to boot. This dude must have six fingers or something right?

‘Everyone in the band, me included, always has something extra going on and we’re always just hustling. For me, a graphic designer and then our drummer has his own digital marketing agency, so he handles all these other bands and the ads that you see about tours coming through. Our vocalist does almost all of the travel agency, he books all our flights, everything. Myself? Everything visually, music video wise or graphic design stuff, I am doing.’

‘As far as the touring goes, we’re staying busy. The record came out in August, and we’ve just been trucking away. We just did our headliner a couple of months ago, which was a great success. We played some of the biggest rooms we’ve ever played and took out the band Currents who were great. We have just gotten off the phone with our agent and our management team about some more exciting stuff. So, it’s always constantly going. To be as old as we are now doing this for so long, and just to be a band that’s survived so many things, we’re just beyond grateful. We’re super excited to head over to Australia too because most of the shows are low tickets left or sold out, and so I just couldn’t be happier.’

The Australian tour will feature five of their own headline shows before ending on Polaris’s own festival ‘Life’s A Beach’ on Valentines Day. However, it was only sixteen short months ago WCAR roamed this very country.

‘We were supporting Amity Affliction and Ice Nine Kills, and then the Heavensgate boys were opening. If you haven’t heard of ’em, Australian boys, check ’em out. That tour was so awesome and just felt like a rush. Huge shows and all the bands were so great, it felt like a festival tour. It was amazing. So, the difference between that kind of tour and this kind of tour is you have more time to plan out a set and something to say, more time to play some pieces of music. When we were doing the support tour in 2024 to Amity, strategically, this is a heavier-ish band, so let’s pack a punch. Let’s play some of our hits, but let’s play some heavy songs. You got thirty to forty-five minutes on stage just to knock him dead and then be like ‘peace!’ So that’s the plan of attack for that animal, that kind of tour.’

‘But for this headliner, this new run, things that you can expect are a couple new songs that we’ve never played before, ever! In between those songs, tailoring a story or a theme to bring feeling, a bit more intimate and connected to these songs. When you really get to hear what the band has to say and everything’s tailored, there’s nice interludes, there’s different pieces of music that are played through and certain things that have never been played live before. You get this new kind of fun experience. So we wanted to start doing that over here in Australia. So this will be the first time we played some of these songs. With the ticket selling and we were just like, oh, this is going to be perfect. So, more of a story, more unheard things and more intimate. More time to hear the songs breathe and come to life.’

Old stuff, bangers and new stuff all with a theme. It certainly seems there is quite a bit of thought in piecing together a setlist. So, I had to ask that as band who have a squillion streams, do they ever just look in there for setlist inspiration instead?

‘Yeah, it’s so funny you said that! You hit the nail on the head. Our drummer, who I was mentioning earlier, has his own digital marketing agency and he is the most type A person I’ve ever met in my life. So, he’s just so on it. Sometimes I’m like, oh my God, dude, sometimes I’m jealous. Like this is the most organised man on the planet. Other times I’m like, I’m so glad I’m whatever type I am, I can go meditate out in the field and be fine, be blessed out, whatever. The gears aren’t always running, but yeah, he will always be like, dude, this song crushes here. This song crushes there. So, a lot of it is that, and then sometimes it’s a lot of the same. Our best songs that stream, it’s like, oh, it’s pretty obvious. But it is really funny because sometimes we will pick up on our radar being like, why is this song played so crazy in Stockholm, you know what I mean? ‘

‘So, it is cool that we do live in a day and age where you can go look that thing up and you can actually tailor it to your audience. I just think it’s interesting. It’s also sometimes hit or miss because sometimes it can be, it’s awesome, a bunch of people listen to the song, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily come out to the shows. So, something to be mindful of as well, that we also take into consideration. Certain things look good on paper but may not always pace out the way you want them when you get there.’

So, on the upcoming Australian run, if there are any We Came As Romans songs you need to hear live before you die type thing, start streaming straight away.

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch We Came As Romans on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…

Also appearing at Life’s A Beach, tickets from Destroy All Lines…