With Confidence talk new album and the music they listen to on the tour bus

WITH CONFIDENCE just released their self-titled album on August 27th via Hopeless Records. We caught up with Josh and Scott from the band to talk about the record, how the pandemic has affected their touring plans and what music they listen to while on the road.

“For album 3, we are just excited for people to hear some new music from us. It’ll be 3 years when this album finally lands. There’s nothing better than pulling back that curtain and letting everybody in….like opening a new section of our own amusement park. We recorded it all here at home in Australia with our friend Stevie Knight who we worked on ‘Better Weather’ with. There’ll be new sounds, new rides, new appetites and hopefully, sometime soon, you’ll be standing in line to see a show. Love all day, love all the way etc, etc.,” says the band.

Josh & Scott have been in lockdown for the last nine weeks. “I feel like Australia was the envy of the world for a little while last year. And then this year we’ve kind of like dropped the ball,” says Josh who has taken the time to indulge in some new hobbies. “I’ve been playing guitar and bass, and I’m a drummer. So obviously that’s really, really fun for me and really terrible for everyone else in the house. Collecting plants. I’ve been trying to do whatever I can do to pass time.”

Right now With Confidence should have been in the UK playing Slam Dunk festival but instead, their new album came out with no shows booked to promote the release. “I think it’s kind of nice to just know that it’s finally coming out. It was finished as of about mid-last year, so we’ve just been sitting on it and waiting to share it. So, you know, it might not be exactly how we want it to put it out, but I mean, it’s nice to put it out. I’m not upset.”

Josh says there’s a marked difference in the new album for several reasons, although it’s still sure to please existing fans. “When we started the band, we were all like 19 years old and I’m 28 now. So I think that the content that we’re talking about in the lyrics, I think that’s just obviously from being a teenager to being late twenties, approaching 30, it’s such a change in your life and everything. I think a lot of that will come across especially from the first album to the third. And I think we’ve got new influences. Scotty is actually a new member. So he’s been touring with us for like maybe the last two and a half years and this was the first album where he’s been an active writing member and he was in the studio every day. So that gives us a fresh perspective and sound. Not only in guitars, you know, he was writing songs as well and helping with vocals, melodies, drums, everything. He’s a multi-instrumentalist.”

Scott’s involvement in this record has certainly added a new dimension to the band’s sound and he says he’s enjoyed being more involved in the songs’ creation. And some of the biggest tracks came late in the recording process. “I remember we were getting towards the end of the recording and we had pretty much all that we needed, but we knew that we didn’t quite have enough, like maybe another fun song or two, like we needed something uplifting. And I went and wrote Big Cat Judgment Day in the kitchen while they were working on something else. And that song is about being in the kitchen, it’s very specific to where I was sitting, it was the only place I could sit and work.”

What about their own listening habits? What music do they turn to when they’re on those long drives between shows?

“When we’re on tour, it’s definitely more album-friendly,” says Josh. “Cause I think those late-night drives where you have eight hours, it’s just a lot easier to put an album on, otherwise you’re trying to queue up eight hours worth of individual songs every night. You’d go crazy.”

“My go-to is for a certain time of day,” Scott explains. “So I do geographically pick my music. So if we’re in England driving around at night, it will be different to what we’re listening to driving around in France during the day, you know. I spend a lot of my time if I’m the driver or DJ and I’ve got Josh out with me, I might try and spend that 10 hours teaching a lesson on 1973, you know, like here’s everything that happened that year. And that can also keep us active and alive and awake during those times. But I’ve definitely got my favourite albums that if I’m driving across the plains, I know I want to listen to one of those albums. I think it was somewhere in California or one of the states just bordering it and we were listening to Bon Iver and I remember that was a really good one. It was late at night, a little bit sleepy, half the van was asleep and that’s always nice. I feel like the guy had definitely tried to capture natural landscapes. So when you’re going through a really remote area in the middle of nowhere, that’s a nice one.”

With no immediate tour plans due to the situation in Australia, Scott & Josh are still optimistic With Confidence will be out on the road as soon as circumstances allow.

“I think we kind of have our sights set on next year. We’ve definitely got feelers out and we want to go play the songs as soon as we can. So we’re trying to just make sure that as things open up and it becomes a possibility that we’re right there at the front of the queue to start playing some shows. It’s unfortunate that Australia has taken a minute to catch up at the moment, but everybody’s still dealing with it and we’re just waiting patiently. And as soon as it’s safe we’re going to just go and not stop for a little while.”

You can watch the full interview below: