CheekyChicago

Scars on 45 graced Chicago in early February with a show at Schubas. We sat down with the band to talk about their headlining tour and upcoming plans with The Fray! Check out our first interview with Scars on 45 when they played Park West with Marc Broussard.

Cheeky: How has this most recent tour been? You’re headlining this time around.

Nova: It’s a traveling circus.

Danny: We just wish the tour were going on a little bit longer. We’ve got another week. It’s still pretty weird for us going out and doing our own tour. We didn’t know that people were going to come. We’ve done five or six gigs so far and a couple of them have sold out. So, it’s all been pretty amazing for us. If we’d have known, we’d have gone twice as long.

Cheeky: So, where do you go after Chicago?

DB: We go to New York, Boston, Annapolis, Charlotte and Florida. Then we’re going on tour with The Fray.

Cheeky: How did touring with The Fray come about?

Nova: Aimee had to sleep with every member of the band to get us on tour. So, we finally got it. It was a lot of hard work but we finally got it.

[Aimee laughs]

Stu: We played with them at Christmas down in Florida—a Christmas concert for a radio station—and we kind of hit it off with Isaac.

Nova: We had a good laugh doing a Bono impression.

DB: We had a really good time with them. Our agent let us know that they were going on tour. It’s going to be a really good match. Kind of like it was a good match with Matt Nathanson.

Cheeky: How was it opening for him on the All Night Noise tour?

DB: It was a lesson in how to do it. Not that we needed guidance in work ethic, but he’s probably the hardest working guy we’ve ever met. He’s really focused and knows what he wants to do. It made us realize that it’s alright to be ambitious and strive for what you want.

Nova: They’re a really good live band, too. When you’re watching a live band as good as that, even though they’re bigger than you, you want to be better than them.

DB: I think it also gave us the confidence that we can do some of the slower songs as well. When you’ve got your own audience there, you can pretty much do what you want. I think we’ve all surprised ourselves.

Cheeky: Since your Marc Broussard and Matt Nathanson tours, what have you learned on the road?

DB: It’s been really surprising seeing other bands tour, and how they work and how they put on a show for people. It kind of tees you up for your own tour—wanting to really leave people going away from the show saying, “That’s the best thing I’ve seen.” The Matt Nathanson tour really made us realize the kind of acts that we want to be supporting. And the Marc Broussard tour—I’m so thankful we did the Marc tour. It was such an amazing experience to do a proper tour. You learn to cut your teeth. Marc and his crew… it was the best tour we could have ever started with. It was just a huge family. It was amazing.

Cheeky: Did you play any shows when you were back in England?

DB: We played a show back home in Leeds. We sold out in the first week. There were about 600 people there. We’ll probably play a few gigs over there again.

Cheeky: If each one of you were a member of the Spice Girls, which one would you be?

Aimee: I would be Sporty Spice.

Nova: I’d be Scary.

DB: Stu would definitely be Posh. 

Stu:  [Danny] Bemrose would be Ginger. She was the sexy one.

Cheeky: What’s next for Scars on 45?

DB: Touring with the Fray and then there’s a new album coming out.

Nova: And by that time we may have toured some in Europe. The album will be all new songs. It’s been done for about a year. It does include “Heart on Fire” and “Give Me Something” but the rest is all new stuff that you haven’t heard yet. We’re excited for you to hear it.