Interview with Plain White T's

Interviewer: Laura Schriefer w/ De'Mar Hamilton (drums), Tom Higgenson (vocals) in Hamburg @ The Docks . Germany . 2008

Punk76: May you introduce yourself, please?
Tom: Hi I'm Tom and I sing in The Plain White T's.
De'Mar: I'm De'Mar and I play the drums in Plain White T's.

Punk76:: How did TPWT became a band? And where do you know each other from?
Tom: Uhm, the band started when Dave and I were guitar player. We were in highschool together and played in various little bands and stuff and when I started writing songs we started the Plain White T's. De'Mar was in a band from Chicago, that we actually played with called "Knockout" and when his band broke up we got him in our band.

Punk76:: You recently finished the "Young Wild Things" Tour with Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes and Cute is what we aim for. Did you enjoy the tour?
Tom: (enthusiastic): Yeah! We love all of those guys, you know, we've known Fall Out Boy for a while especially De'Mar and we got to tour with them one time before but it was before they got really succesfull, so to go out with them again, on a big arena tour was amazing and especially after our year, last year, with Hey There Delilah being a big song in america. It was just a really good tour and Gym Class Heroes we've know for a while.. so lots of fun.

Punk76:: Pete Wentz is building his own little empire. He runs his own clothing line "Clandestine" and he owns a label – "Decaydance". Furthermore he runs an own bar, "Angels and Kings". Could you imagine to realize similar projects, if you raise enough money with your band?
Tom: De'Mar is gonna have the clothing line, I'm gonna have the label.
De'Mar: Funny, Pete Wentz might help me invest in my first store, you never know.
Tom: And he might help me with the label. (laughing) Pete Wentz – the center of the music industry!

Punk76:: What does your band name stand for and what does it means? Please explain.
Tom: A lot of people don't get that. In America it's more obvious I guess but in other countries… but it's like a T-shirt like a plain white T-shirt. Like back in the 50's, you can picture James Dean and Elvis wearing a plain white T-shirt. That's kind of what we are, our music is always kind of influenced by the 50's and 60's music and a plain white T-shirt is just a symbol that everyone can see and I think it's cool and everyone can wear them, feel comfortable in them. So we just want to make music that anyone can listen to and enjoy.

Punk76:: Have you ever thought on selling plain white T-shirts as merchandise? (both laughing)
De'Mar: People ask that all the time.. but we.. I mean.. no. I guess we haven't really thought about that. Funny thing although is that the shirts which are selling best are white or yellow. Yellow is kinda close, a light colour, really, white and yellow shirts are selling the best. But we had an idea to make a t-shirt with like white on white.
Tom: White ink on a white shirt, so it looks white. Cause why would someone come to a concert and buy a plain white T-shirt for like 20 Dollars.
De'Mar: I think everyone has the idea that it would be cool but I guarantee if we did it noone would buy it.

Punk76:: You released "Hey There Delilah" in 2005 on Fearless Records and noone really showed interest…
Tom: (interrupting me): That's not true at all. It actually was our biggest song and sold us almost 100.000 albums on an independent label which is very big. On Myspace it put us in the top ten of independent bands for over a year. So I think people definitely cared but Fearless was a very small label, so they couldn't put the song on the radio, they couldn't put the song on MTV because they didn't have the money and the power. And then by selling so many albums, that got us onto a major label, Hollywood Records and then we put out an album with them and included Hey There Delilah as a bonus track in america. I think over here it's track one but in america it was track 13 and you know they finally got a chance to put it on the radio and everyone loved it.

Punk76:: If you retrospect your career, is there anything, that you would like to change?
Tom: I don't know, I don't think so. I feel like we're here now and this is a better place than most bands will ever get to see and ever get to be at so whatever we did it worked out. So you can't really feel too bad about anything. Don't want to change anything, we're here.

Punk76:: All the touring means less time for practising and writing new songs. Where do you take you inspiration from?
Tom: Everywhere. Life. Even though we're on tour a lot we still meet a lot of crazy people. There are still girls in our lifes that sometimes are the best and sometimes aren't. You Know? Sometimes they're crazy, sometimes they're great, so there's still plenty of inspiration. People, friends we see go through stuff, Tim is going through a really bad break up right now, Mike just went trough a break up, he's single now. I see stuff like that and that sticks with me and I can pull stuff out of that. There's plenty of inspiration going around.

Punk76:: Please describe your latest album "Every Second Counts". Can you proclaim, that every song turned out exactly the way you wanted it to sound?
Tom: It's great! It's one of those albums, when you pop it in, from start to finish, I think you can listen to the whole thing. It's not one of those albums where's that one good song and the whole rest of the album is disappointing. We've always been a band to try to make a song as good as every other one. So I think if you like one song, you'll like them all.

Punk76:: If you could choose one band to do a worldtour with, which band would it be and why? (both thinking about that for a while)
De'Mar: For me it would be Panic at the Disco.
Tom:(very enthusiastic): Oh my God! Me Too, they're my favourite! And I just saw the new "Nine in the afternoon" video last night, oh man, how good is that.

Punk76:: So, you liked it?
Tom:(again, very enthusiastic): Of course!

Punk76:: But I think it's a little different from their past ones?
De'Mar: They always have really weird videos though. I think Panic usually has weird but awesome videos.
Tom: Panic is the band, like I was thinking about this, I think Panic fills a part of me that I always wish to be. Like on Plain White T's, im always so afraid, like not really afraid but we always ty to make.. to be.. I don't know. (starts over) Like I said, to be perfect and we want everyone to like us and play it safe sometimes and PATD is that band for me that just comes across and does things that I can only dream of, doing things like you know, god, I wish I had the balls to do that. And so, they're constantly kind of impressing me.

Punk76:: Do you like shows in huge halls or the ones in little venues/clubs more?
Tom: Both is cool, I mean when we played for Fall Out Boy those were abviously big arenas, like 10.000 people every night and that was good because we got to play in front of a lot new people, new faces. But then we come over here and the shows are in front of 2000 people but they're all there to see US, it's our show. So I mean either way is fun and we've played shows in placed lots smaller than this. For a few years we were touring and playing in front of like 200 people, you know? So we've been from the smallest shows to the biggest shows, as long as people are there enjoying themselves it doesn't matter how many they are.

Punk76:: If you wouldn't be in a band what would your profession be?
De'mar: I've personally always been playing music since like right out of highschool. I went to college for one semester but it was for music so it's like.. what would I be doing.. I've probably would have finished school and I would just still be playing music somehow but I think from joining the band I've realized that I've gained interest in other aspects of the music business like maybe I would do something else, like with bands or whatever.
Tom: I don't know what I would do. If it wasn't music related I'd probably be a teacher or something.

Punk76:: Really? A teacher?
Tom: Yeah, like a film or music teacher.

Punk76:: Okay, but it still would have to be connected with music somehow?
Tom: Yeah, of course, that's all I care about.

Punk76:: If you could solve problems, what would you change on earth? (thinking about the question for a while)
Tom: I guess war. I mean, war sucks. Peace, worldpeace. I mean, that's the ultimate goal and I think with peace it includes racism, it includes all that kind of things. For everyone just to get along and appreciate eachother I think that would be the best.

Punk76:: What are your plans for the future?
Tom: Well, after this tour, we're gonna go home and we're gonna record a new record that's gonna hopefully come out in september. And you know, we will be touring and touring the whole time.

Punk76:: Is it very hard for you? Like touring so much, being away from home?
Tom: It is. You know, the only bad part is that you can't see your family and your friends. Other than that we're used to it and we love playing music every night so it's a little sacrifice. When you do go home and do get to see those people it's even better because you want to see them so much, you haven't seem them in a while so, it works out.

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