Pack Your Bags Australia Story Of The Year Are Heading Down Under For Camp Screamo

Pack your bags Australia, Camp Screamo is headed our way in 2027! Hot off selling out their Camp Screamo co-headline run across North America, Missouri stalwarts STORY OF THE YEAR and Canadian legends SILVERSTEIN will bring this huge tour down under next February, joined by special guests POINT NORTH (USA). Few records helped build the post hardcore scene more than STORY OF THE YEAR’s 2003 debut album Page Avenue. An evergreen favourite, a masterpiece of the genre, and also one of the first of its kind to sell one million copies, Page Avenue ultimately set the scene for STORY OF THE YEAR’s 30+ year career, with the band since going on to release seven studio albums to date against ongoing commercial success and global adoration.

Most recently releasing their latest studio album A.R.S.O.N. earlier this year, STORY OF THE YEAR once again showcased their signature brand of intense, passionate and confessional compositions that simultaneously inspire and empower, with KERRANG! noting of the record, “seven albums in, Story Of The Year are still breaking new ground with the energy of a band that is just getting started. Now that’s a story worth telling”. And the band’s back catalogue is equally stacked, with anthems like Until the Day I Die, Anthem of Our Dying Day and And the Hero Will Drown joining forces with other earlier favourites to define the early 2000s post hardcore explosion, championing triumph over adversity in the process. Josh Wills talks to Rob Lyon about the tour.

This is really shaping up to be one incredible tour, Story of the Year, Silverstein and Point North.
Yeah, it’s going to be fun.

What is it about Silverstein that made you think, “Hey, let’s bring them down to Australia”? Does that friendship go back a long way?
Oh yeah. We’ve been friends with them for twenty plus years now. We had never really toured together, we’d played festivals and maybe a couple shows in Canada years ago, but never a proper tour. Doing the two legs of that tour here in the States this year finally made it fall into place. We’d heard from fans for years, “You guys should tour with Silverstein,” and they’d heard the same thing. While we were doing the States version of this, we knew we were coming back down there at some point, and since it was going so well here, we were like, “Let’s see if they wanna do the same thing down there.” So that’s kind of what it was.

What is it about Australia that keeps you coming back? It must be one of your favourite places in the world to tour?
Top two for me outside of the States. You guys and Japan are my two favourite places to be. There’s not much I don’t love about Australia. The people, fans, they’ve always been great to us. Even people who aren’t fans, everyone’s awesome. Everyone just seems happy, stoked on life. The energy down there is amazing every time we come. I’ll always come down there if people will have us.

Is there always an Australian experience you must have every time you come down? Particular restaurants, coffee, places to go?
Not really. The places I’d like to go are usually places you see on food channels that aren’t near where we are, and I probably can’t afford to eat there, Michelin star kind of restaurants. I’m a big food person, I love cooking shows. But mostly I just like to wander. I don’t have a particular place I need to go to. I just like finding cool cafes and restaurants, walking in and seeing if it’s cool or not. I don’t drink as much as I used to, so finding bars isn’t something I seek out anymore. As I’ve aged, the hangover is worse and worse. If I can find good coffee and food, I’m happy.

With this tour, are you focusing predominantly on A.R.S.O.N.?
Yeah, in the sense that we’re playing multiple songs off it. As you have more and more records, it’s hard to make a show and balance everything. But we’ve been playing four to five songs from the record, which is a lot for us. We generally fall back on Page Avenue stuff and earlier things, but since the last two records were received so well, we’ve been able to have more of that instead of relying on old staples. We’re focusing on it because we have a new record to promote, so we’re going to play songs and talk about it more.

Have you been blown away by how fans have embraced the new album?
Absolutely. It kind of started happening with Tear Me to Pieces. This has been the first time in our career where we put out a new record and by the time we get in front of people, they’re singing the new songs as loud as the Page Avenue songs. It’s amazing to see and hear and feel. It makes you go, “Okay, this is why I do this.” People are having a connection with these songs that we love, and we’re seeing them love them as much as we do. It’s awesome.

Even going back to Page Avenue, what does that milestone mean to you? Has the way you feel about that album changed over the years?
Yeah, it’s gone through different things. In the beginning it was, “Oh my God, we have a record.” We got signed, we put out a record, and you have that excitement. Then the way that one was received and how big it got for us, I don’t think we realised until a couple years after it. You don’t realise the impact while you’re in the middle of all the touring. Years go by and you see people still love that record. It’s a seminal record for a lot of people, it got them through high school, and they’re still coming to shows and singing them like they were when they were sixteen or seventeen. Their perception of certain songs has changed, what it means to them has changed. I feel incredibly fortunate and grateful that something we created as friends from St. Louis who skateboarded together became something that impacts people’s lives in a positive way. It makes you feel very grateful for what we have and what we can do.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Catch Story Of The Year and Silverstein on Camp Screamo on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…