Armor For Sleep On Tour With Hawthorne Heights
It’s all happening for Armor For Sleep who are riding high with the release of last year’s brand new studio album There Is No Memory and are on tour with Hawthorne Heights. There Is No Memory is a collection of songs that force the listener to question the very nature of their existence, of what makes us the people we are. Formed in 2001, Armor For Sleep became a cornerstone of early 2000s emo with their concept-driven albums Dream to Make Believe (2003) and What to Do When You Are Dead (2005), influencing countless artists that followed. After a lengthy hiatus, the band triumphantly returned with The Rain Museum in 2022, and are now walking a new creative path that blends their classic emotional storytelling with fresh perspective. Vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter Ben Jorgensen talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.
It must be a really exciting time for the band, it just seems like everything’s happening at the moment?
Yeah, it’s been awesome. There was a period of time where we were pretty inactive. So to be back out there on tour, putting out new music has just been a blessing really.
Has it been mind‑blowing, the feedback you’ve received so far on the new album from fans?
It’s been pretty cool. I’m at a point now where I just want to write songs that mean a lot to me. I know it’s dangerous to put a lot on what the audience response is going to be, so I just made an album that means a lot to me personally. I honestly had a lot to get off my chest. Any reaction from an audience was going to be secondary, but the fact that our fans have immediately responded is such a bonus. It’s made me appreciate our fans so much because so many of them have taken the time to listen to it. In 2025 with Spotify and so much music out there, I know how hard it is for me to listen to my favourite band’s new album. So the fact that so many of our fans have already done that, we don’t take it for granted. I’m just very grateful.
Given the ups and downs with the band in recent times, when you get to a point where you’re able to put out a new album, does it feel like a moment of triumph personally and something to celebrate as a band?
You know, when we put out new music, I don’t really view it as triumphant. In some ways I just had to put out this bunch of songs. I don’t view it in that larger scope of things. I’m not like, “Yeah, we did something cool.” I just knew I had to write these songs. I was going through a lot in my life and really wanted to do this album. So it’s almost something that had to come out, I guess.
Was it as cathartic as you thought, given how much of yourself you put into the lyrics?
Yeah, it’s definitely a really interesting process. Everybody says it can be like therapy, writing songs. For me, it’s more like a chapter marker of where I am in my life. Every five years people are completely different. What’s interesting about my job and being in the band is that every few years when I do a new album, hopefully many more times in the future, it makes a chapter marker for me. It’s been interesting to look back at this point in my life now. This album will forever be a bookmark for this chapter. I’ve been through a lot, and it’s cool that now I have this little piece of my own history.
When you started putting all the pieces together, did you have an idea of what you wanted to do sonically? Did that part come easily?
The idea was just to do an EP, five songs. I had this idea that I wanted to do five songs tapping into tough memories from my life that I think I was sweeping under the rug, things I needed to address to move forward. I wanted to make a five‑song experimental concept thing. Once we recorded those five songs, I was like, “You know what, this idea is bigger than just an EP.” I wanted to expand it to a full‑length album. So it kept growing. But from the beginning I was pretty dead set on this vision of making an album that brought these memories to the surface.
Is the concept of an album still important to you, given how music is consumed now with Spotify and playlists?
It is really important to me. It was important back when people still bought CD’s. A lot of people now adjust their song writing for Spotify, like starting songs really fast so the algorithm picks it up. That’s something I’ve fought back against, whether to my detriment or not. I still love an album being a collection of songs that’s its own little beast, not just a playlist. In 2025 we’re in a time where people release albums that are just playlists of songs, and that’s cool for some bands. But I think Armor for Sleep will always be a band that puts out a specific album, a group of songs that all tell some kind of story.
Did the whole process of making the album challenge you and the band? Did it go smoothly or were there things that came up along the way?
Every band is different. A lot of bands are four people sitting in a room and chiming in for every lyric. The way this band has always done things is I sit in a room and write all the songs and all the parts. Nash, our drummer, comes in and does the drums, but I write everything, that’s how it’s always been. It’s a blessing and a curse. I don’t have people to bounce ideas off of, and I have to sit there and finish all the songs. It can be a really isolating process, but that’s just what it is. I always come out excited that I did it, and I always come out saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to write another song,” feeling completely tapped out. But I love it.
What was your reaction when you played it for the first time?
To hear everything all together… obviously I get to listen to our albums a year, sometimes a little less, sometimes more before it comes out to the world, because I have it on my phone, sometimes before it’s even mixed or mastered. This one in particular, I’ve been super proud of. I tell all my friends, what I’ve been telling them since I’ve had this album, is that this is not going to be the last Armor for Sleep album, I don’t think, but let’s say something happens, let’s say I get hit by a car and this is the last thing Armor for Sleep ever puts out… I would be happy with this. Because this has done everything I’ve ever wanted an Armor for Sleep album to do. I feel really proud of it and I feel like I was really honest with myself the whole time. I never listen back and think, “I was kind of lying in that song,” or “I was doing this to be a crowd pleaser.” This all comes from my heart, and ultimately I’m gonna be happy with it.
Signing to the label as well, that must help elevate the album and give it a little more attention?
Equal Vision is an amazing label, but one of the reasons we partner so well with them is because they trust me to do what I want to do. They never listen to a demo and say, “That song’s good, that song’s not good.” They’re like, “You want to make an album? Here’s the money to make an album. Do what you think. Make the artwork you want to make.” They totally facilitate it and help me achieve my vision, but they never get in the way. Even if they wanted to, I’m sure I would welcome their feedback, but they just trust me.
Heading out to Australia with Hawthorne Heights, that’s shaping up to be an awesome tour.
We love Hawthorne Heights. We’ve toured with them in the States a bunch. We have twenty years of history with that band. I remember seeing them play in New York before they were even signed to Victory Records, when they were just a bunch of kids. We just have a ton of history with them in the scene, back before the scene was the monster it is now. We as a band have never played in Australia, so this is going to be our first time and we couldn’t be happier than to do it with some of our best friends in the world in Hawthorne Heights. They’ve been there a bunch of times, so they’re going to show us the ropes. We’re just really excited.
With five albums worth of material to draw on, it must make it tough working out a setlist for Australia?
Yeah. It’ll be fun figuring out what to play. Obviously we don’t want to let people down by not playing their favourite songs. So yeah, maybe we’ll do a poll and see what people in Australia want to hear.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Armor For Sleep On Tour with Hawthorne Heights on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…
