Artist V Artist: Caskets & The Home Team Talk Touring Australia

Leeds-based post-hardcore groovers Caskets have officially kicked off their debut Australian headline tour with Seattle alt rockers and first time visitors The Home Team. Five of seven shows have sold out, with Wollongong on limited tickets!

Celebrating their sophomore album Reflections released last August via SharpTone Records, Caskets have brought together one stacked lineup for a collection of shows presented by Destroy All Lines that will continue this week through Wollongong, Sydney, Newcastle and Brisbane, with local legends Stepson and Bad/Love join the fun.

Music Feeds caught up vocalists Matt Flood from Caskets and Brian Butcher from The Home Team to chat thongs, quokkas, shoeys and coffee. Check it out below!

CASKETS – ‘Believe’

Music Feeds: How excited are you to tour Australia with The Home Team?

Matt Flood: We are ridiculously excited to tour with The Home Team. It’s the first time they will have been to Australia, so we feel really lucky that we’re gonna be the headlining band that gets to share that experience with them. And hopefully, it’ll be one of many more tours we’ll get to do with them because I’ve heard they’re also really super sweet guys. And we love touring with super sweet guys!

MF: How excited are you to tour Australia with Caskets?

Brian Butcher: Very, we’ve never been to Australia so honestly the fact that we were able to secure it with a dope band and a dope lineup was really really rad. For us, going to Australia is such a huge commitment, so to know that we have a great lineup waiting for us is really, really reassuring.

MF: What was your first introduction to The Home Team?

Matt Flood: So I heard about them in passing maybe like a year ago or something like that. And then, I shit you not, probably just before we got this tour, our sound guy sent me a message from Scotland. And it was the music video to ‘Right Through Me’. And he was just like dude… you’ve got to listen to this band. They’re like American Don Broco, but better. I’ve been hooked since then to be fair. His voice is so good, he’s just got a flavor in his voice that’s really soulful. So yeah, I can’t I can’t wait to tour with them. It’s gonna be special.

MF: What was your introduction to Caskets?

Brian Butcher: This tour! I wasn’t aware of their music before, but to be fair, I don’t listen to heavier music very much anymore – I used to when I was growing up but lately, I’ve been trying to branch away from rock. And so unfortunately, that has led me to not have my ear to the ground quite as well. The rest of my band knew who they were. My guitarist and bassist met them like a week ago, because they were here in the US playing with Set It Off and Crown The Empire so they rolled out to that show. They said they were really cool dudes!

MF: Do you have a favourite song by the band? And all which are you looking forward to seeing live

Matt Flood: I’d say their song ‘Loud’ is my favorite. I think it has one of the best chorus’ I’ve heard in probably the last few years. Like it’s so bouncy and it’s so enjoyable to listen to. They also recently released a new song ‘Hell’ and that would come a close second – insanely good.

MF: Do you have a favourite song by the band? And if you do, are you looking forward to seeing a particular one live?

Brian Butcher: I ran through their music when we announced the tour and I really liked ‘Lost in Echoes’. Hopefully we’ll catch that one!

MF: Last year was your first time to Australia, the Reflections tour will be The Home Team’s first time. What are three things you feel the band need to do here in Aus to get truly acquainted?

Matt Flood: Hold a koala, and see the Opera House. I think that was an experience in itself. And drink a shoey, that’s what they’re called right? Shoey, yeah. I got in trouble last year because I was meant to do it and I totally forgot. I was like so in the zone and by the time I remembered the gig was done. And I’ll be making sure that they do it as well.

MF: This will be your first time in Australia. What are three things on your to do list?

Brian Butcher: First, I want to go to Proud Mary’s coffee shop in Melbourne. It’s the type of place that’s going to give you a card with the backstory of the beans that you’re drinking and it just feels like very fancy coffee. We have one in Portland and we have one in Austin. There’s only three in the world, and Melbourne is the original! The food up here is phenomenal, so I have a feeling it’s phenomenal down there too. I’m also really excited to explore Sydney and try a lot of the vegan food there. Because I’ve heard that it’s really good. And then third, I’m going to try and hit the beach. That would be really nice… I know we’re going on a quokka excursion with Caskets on the first day that we’re in Australia, and I’m really excited for that!

MF: What is the one thing that you would tell The Home Team is important to bring When touring Australia?

Matt Flood: What do you guys call it? thongs? I pissed my pants when I first got told that.

MF: Do you have a favourite Australian artist and why?

Brian Butcher: I listened to a lot of The Amity Affliction a long time ago and I really liked them. But Northlane was another one that I grew up listening to a lot of. I listened to that genre quite a bit in my formative songwriting years which definitely helped me discover a lot about production and electronic production, and Northlane have always been so good at that. I remember one time they were playing Vancouver BC but not Seattle, so my friends and I drove to see them and it was so worth it, because it was one of the best shows I’d ever seen at that point. And it was right after the new singer had just joined. Yeah, they rock, their live show is insane.

MF: Based on your music, what video game do you feel Caskets could beat The Home Team at?

Matt Flood: It’ll either be Mario Kart – it’s a bit of fun and we are very competitive with Mario Kart, we all play on the Nintendo switch. Or it’d be FIFA. I’m very competitive on FIFA. And if you beat me on that, then…I don’t know. You won’t beat me on FIFA. You won’t. It’s impossible, I’m too good at it. Mario Kart is the only game that we all play together. They won’t play FIFA with me because I just beat them. So I need a new FIFA companion. If anyone’s really, lets go.

MF: Based on your music, what video game do you feel The Home Team could beat Caskets at?

Brian Butcher: I want to say like Dark Souls, but we’re not medieval or dark enough. Based on our music alone, I’m gonna say Halo. Halo was always a special game to me. And I play Destiny now, which is the successor of Halo. I love that it’s not quite Call of Duty in that it’s not just guns and/or getting blown up, shot up or whatever. It has those elements, but it also has its own really, really epic, great story. So it has digestible elements, and it has deep lore elements. And that is something that I think is indicative of The Home Team in that we try to do both of those things. I think we could beat Caskets at Halo.