Columbus
Guitar/Vocals: Alex Moses
Bass/Vocals: Ben Paynter
Drums: Daniel Seymour
You just wrapped up your EP release tour, Home Remedy, on Saturday. How was the tour?
The tour was a pretty awesome. These were our first headline shows away from home, and our first playing the new EP songs, so it was really cool to get out of state and see how people were liking the new stuff.
Following on from that tour, you’re about to hit the road with Real Friends in June, any venues you’re most looking forward to play?
I’m personally pretty excited to get over to Perth in general, because I haven’t ever been. Specifically venue speaking however, I’m really keen to play the Factory Theatre in Sydney. I’ve heard a lot about the venue and it’s one of the biggest venue caps on the tour.
You recently joined forces with Chad from The Agency Group, is that a subtle hint you might be heading to the states soon?
Getting overseas is definitely a priority and goal of ours hopefully for the not-too-far-off future. While it’s not something we might do this year, with Chad and the Agency Group getting to the US is a real possibility for the future.
Columbus seems to me like a blend of Gnarwolves and The Smith Street Band, who are/were the influences for you guys?
Those two bands are definitely some of our favourites. We listen to so much different music between us all, so it’s pretty hard to define our influences within a reasonable number of words. Other notable mentions for me however would have to be Brand New, Turnover and Title Fight.
Still being considered a local band yourself, who are some other bands that you see as competition?
While I’d like to think of the Brisbane music scene as non-competitive, it has to be unfortunately I guess when it comes to things like show supports. Our competition in the scene I guess really is just any band who plays punk/emo/grunge/alt music, but I try not to think of the scene as a competition.
You were given the opportunity to play a set at Brisbane’s Soundwave this year, what was it like playing to a festival crowd?
It was a pretty phenomenal experience to say the least. The crowd was so much bigger than anything we’d ever played to before and the whole setup of the stage, the sound and everything was massive. It’s definitely something I won’t miss doing.
How and where do you see the band and music developing? Do you have a vision or is it more taking it as it comes?
Sometimes I’ll have a picture or direction in mind of the way I’d like the band to go musically. But so far everything has kind of naturally developed which is pretty cool. We were all 17/18 years old when we started this band, so I think the sound has matured and changed as we have over the past 3 or so years.
If you could go on a dream tour, what would it be?
For me, a dream tour would probably be with Blink 182, Turnover and Modern Baseball. They all seem like such fun bands to tour with, that I’d also love to see live every day.
Oreos or m&m’s?
Definitely Oreos.
Coffee or iced coffee?
Coffee in winter, and summer afternoons. Iced coffee for when it’s 45 degrees and a latte would probably burn your insides.
Beer or a glass of red?
Beer with the mates. Glass (cask) of red when I’m too poor for beer.
What should we expect to see from Columbus in the future?
We’re excited to play some more shows around Australia this year and see as much of the country as we can. We’ll probably start writing another release soon as well.