The members of The Weekend Classic are no strangers to life on the road, having spent the past couple years criss-crossing the country to build a fan base one show at a time. They make their return to New York State on November 13 with a show at Stamps in Buffalo. The quartet from Madison, Indiana is Chris Webster (vocals/guitar), Christian Richards (drums), Matt White (guitar/vocals), and Ryan Wells (bass/vocals). NYS Music caught up with them backstage at a recent show to talk about what it was like to win last year’s Ernie Ball Play Warped Tour challenge, what keeps drawing them back to New York, and what’s on the horizon.
Paula Cummings: I saw you guys last year in June, and you said that your band goal was to play Warped Tour. Then you won the Ernie Ball Warped Tour Challenge. What was that like?
Chris Webster: It was pretty crazy. We didn’t think ever in a million years that we’d win a competition like that. Two years prior, we got on the competition and we played the Cincinnati Warped Tour date. Then we decided to go for it again. We posted about it and we had a lot of support from people. It was really cool.
PC: As a result, you got to go into the studio with some famous people.
CW: Chad Gilbert (New Found Glory) and Ryan Key (Yellowcard). That was honestly really cool, too. Just getting to meet them and working with them. It was a little stressful, but it was really good for us. It pushed us to step out of our comfort zone.
Christian Richards: I feel like he (Chad) re-taught us how to write a song.
CW: He showed us things that someone who is a professional would know, and us, being us, are not going to know off the bat.
PC: You guys have toured pretty extensively over the past couple years. You’ve come through New York a few times.
CR: We’ve been to Long Island once before, twice now, and Buffalo, Rochester, and Poughkeepsie.
PC: What keeps you coming back to New York?
Matt White: Its a huge market. You can play a lot of places in New York.
CR: And a lot of great bands, too, all spread out through New York.
PC: What’s up next?
CW: We have some more touring that we know we’re going to be doing.
CR: Write a record. And release some songs we haven’t put out yet. They’re a lot better than anything else we’ve done. But they’re not there just yet, not fully ready.
PC: What can we look forward to with the new music?
CW: There’s a more mature sound to it, more in the direction we want to go.
CR: I feel like we wrote it for ourselves.
MW: We think its sick.
Catch The Weekend Classic on tour this month. They are joined on select dates by In Good Nature, Young Culture, and Chris Swartz. Tickets are on sale now. Their music is available on iTunes, Spotify, and Bandcamp. Follow on Facebook for updates on shows and new music.
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