Welsh pop punkers Neck Deep we will be back in Australia May 2017 supporting All Time Low. We caught up with Neck Deep vocalist Ben Barlow to talk about the tour, get an update on new music and he gives us some valentines day advice.

SCENEzine
How’s 2017 going for you and how were the shows with A Day To Remember?

Ben Barlow
Yeah great man we kicked off 2017 with the A Day To Remember tour and it’s been going very well we just played Wembley. It’s all been pretty positive thus far.

SCENEzine
Looking back on last year do you have any tour highlights?

Ben Barlow
Well we did pretty much an entire world tour last year so getting to travel and see parts of the world I’ve never gotten to see was a particular highlight. Our world tour in general last year was a big highlight for me really enjoyable.

SCENEzine
Was it cool to receive the APMA’s best live band award last year?

Ben Barlow
Yeah man we received that award just after Baby Metal had performed how anyone could justify giving us best live band after that is pretty beyond me. But the fact that people consider us a great live band is insane. We do pride ourselves on our live show it was something that we always had to work really hard on. It’s a quick rise to province and your expected to be very good very quickly and because we didn’t have so much time to define ourselves. At first we were a little sketchy but now we have fully transcended that and are in a place where I think our live show kills it. It’s an honour and any sort of recognition is always a good thing.

SCENEzine
It must be surreal to think how far you guys have come in a short space of time?

Ben Barlow
Oh yeah for sure man. We always say to people the shit that happened to us and the way that it happened is very rare circumstances. Not as quickly does it happen to everyone as it happened to us. I’m very thankful for the amount of success we’ve experienced in a short amount of time. At the same time you can’t let that get to your head you’ve got to stay grounded. You’ve got to focus on what’s next. As far as we are concerned we feel like we haven’t quite got there yet. There’s still a lot more to come.

SCENEzine
Congrats on your 2015 album Life’s Not Out To Get You. Living with it for a little while now are you stoked with how it’s standing the test of time?

Ben Barlow
For sure man. We had a lot of confidence in the album and thought that it would do very well even just recording and as it was on it’s way. It’s succeed the test of time people are still tweeting about it and loving it. It’s still very fresh in peoples minds people still listen to it a lot. It’s great to make and album that lives on from it’s own merits. We are very, very happy with the album It was and did everything we wanted it be.

SCENEzine
A big crowd favourite from the album is “can’t kick up the roots”. Do you remember how that song came about?

Ben Barlow
Yeah funnily enough it was quite a strange one. Before the lyrics were put on it was one that we were all kind of humming. We always thought it sounded like this song that went “we’re all going on a summer holiday”. Me and Sammy were both like it fucking reminds me of that it’s fucking stupid I don’t like this song. Then when I finally put vocals on and came up with the concept for the song I was like holy shit this is pretty cool. We didn’t expect it to be as much of a banger as it is. When you’re writing about your home town, growing up and all the people you love it flows out of you very naturally.

SCENEzine
The video for “gold steps” is awesome. Was that as fun to make as it looked?

Ben Barlow
It was a very long and tiring day. It was quite dangerous as well riding on the back of that fucking truck. There’s nothing like a bit of sketchiness to get the blood pumping. It was a lot of fun man it was a long day we were literally shooting from 7am to 3am very long but it was so fun. So many kids turned up. One of many favourite things to do is to jump off very high things into water and we had plenty of that. It was a good day and was as fun making it as it looked.

SCENEzine
Was having Mark Hoppus feature on “December just as simple as asking him?

Ben Barlow
Yeah it was actually (laughs). He’s very aware of the band anyway we supported Blink 182 in Brixton in London. He had made his love for the band pretty well known. It really was just as simple as asking him. Luckily he was nice enough to oblige.

SCENEzine
Do you have any early memories of first getting into Blink 182 when you were younger?

Ben Barlow
Oh yeah of course absolutely man. Those early memories of Blink, New Found Glory, Green Day, Sum 41, Good Charlotte and all that shit are some of my best memories. Watching Kerrang as a kid and flicking through the channels and loving all of it but the songs that always stuck out to me were punk pop bands. It was catchy and had melody and you could relate to it. As a kid at the time Take Off Your Pants and Jacket came out when I was seven years old so to me just hearing a bunch of dudes play fun happy fast melodic music appealed to me. From then on I’ve loved Blink’s whole discography and never put it down.

SCENEzine
You’ll be back touring Australia in May 2017 with All Time Low. Have you toured with them much before?

Ben Barlow
Yeah we’ve played with All Time Low a bunch of times. We’ve pretty much toured with them on three different continents at this point. In America UK Europe and we are about to tour Australia with them . We know those guys pretty well and they know we are always down for a good time. Having the opportunity to play for new fans is always a big goal of ours. To play to as many people as we can so hopefully we can go and fall on some fresh ears. All Time Low are doing us a solid they have always been very supportive of us and shown a lot of love to us. We know them as people and know it’s going to be a good time. If you’re touring with bands your not too familiar with it’s a case of what are they going to be like but we already know All Time Low so it’s going to be smooth sailing. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

SCENEzine
Do you have any favourite memories of your last Australian tour?

Ben Barlow
One of my favourite things to do is to jump from high into water. We spent a day last time in Australia at a huge jump rock it’s beautiful where the river meets the ocean. That was particularly memorable for me.

SCENEzine
Have you had much time to work on new music?

Ben Barlow
We just had a fair bit of time off from touring. We’ve been off since October and before that we’ve been off touring for a little while. So we’ve had a lot of spare time to be writing. The album is coming along very nicely we have a good chunk of it there already but we just need to find time to get in the studio and refine all that. To pull it all together and make it a coherent thing.
It’s very much on it’s way. You can be expecting a lot more buzz about it in the next couple of months.

SCENEzine
With valentines day around the corner do you have any advice for all the fellas out there?

Ben Barlow
If you’ve had your eyes on a lady for a long time you’re never going to get anywhere if your just hoping and wishing the whole time. If you’ve got your eye on a lady don’t be scared to make that first move. Be a gentleman about it don’t be fucking weird and creepy about it. If there’s a nice girl you’ve got your eye on then let her know and who knows what will happen.
I’ve been with my girlfriend nearly five years now and it all came from just saying in a around about way I like you I’m attracted to you, lets talk. Just be cool, be calm, be genuine and be a gentleman.

SCENEzine
Lastly can you leave us a message for your Australian fans?

Ben Barlow
We look forward to seeing you with All Time Low. Thank you very much for supporting us and showing love you make us want to keep coming out there. As long as you guys keep listening we will come out as much as we can. Sit tight wait for the tour and new album we love all of you thank you very much.

(Interview by Christian Ross)