Voice of London

The Bottom Line are back in town to present the work they’re probably most proud of: No Vacation. the band are ready to prove that they’re ready to play the game. ‘No Vacation’ has received a lot of support especially from Kerrang! Radio and Magazine, Rock Sound Magazine and BBC Radio 1. Recent singles ‘Gone’ and ‘In Your Memory’ have received multiple plays across various radio station, and in The Bottom Line’s first video single ‘Reasons’ you can see cameos from Fever 333, Neck Deep, Mayday Parade, The Faim, Simple Plan and more which they filmed at Download Fest in 2018.

We met them backstage at Thousand Island in North London, on their last day of tour, the pressure is high but so is the energy.

“No Vacation” is out. What was the process behind it?

Max: We had actually a lot of time.

Tom: Yeah, we had the time to actually invest ourselves. We knew it was going to be a massive thing for us. We went on tour with Simple Plan, a few bad things happened across that whole world tour which gave us a little of inspiration in terms of the writing process. Cal’s built a a lot of the skeletons of the songs and then, when we went to the studio, everything started coming together. We had three weeks in the studio, but some of the songs, we’ve been working on them for the past two and a half years. They came together when we thought “ok, pressure is on, we want the song in there, how are we going to do it?”

How did you come up with the name of the album?

Matt: Someone said that touring is serious, it’s not a vacation. We just wanted to prove him wrong, that was a bad thing to say to us (laughs). We work very hard, we get things done, we like to have fun but we’re very professional. He gave us something to move forward.

Tom: We all have jobs outside of this, we spend a lot of time working to save enough money out to try do all these tours and stuff. For someone to say that we’re treating all this like a vacation, it’s not what we’re here for.

What is the track you like the most off the new album?

Matt: I think everyone would say “Doomed”. Everyone helped writing that song. It’s a story of our luck I guess. Always been doomed. The struggles we’ve had on tours.

Max: Yeah, in China we had a minor earthquake, not a big deal but still, it was our first time there. Then we hit that hurricane in the States and our van broke down.

Tom: It just sums up what happened really.

It’s been a few months since you signed with Marshall Records. What has changed?

Tom: Oh, we live in massive houses and own a few cars.

Wow! And you still have a job?

Tom: Yeah, we do it to keep us grounded (laughs). No, seriously. Having a label for the first time ever, really. It’s amazing. We have an awesome manager, we’ve got a team now. We’ve never had that before, so when we’re out doing our stuff. We needed somebody opening doors for you, talking about you. We have someone sorting out press for us, the coverage, a lot of the ideas, a lot of tour stuff, it all comes through this backroom of people working behind the scenes. It’s just been a massive lift

What do you remember from the first show you’ve ever played?

Matt: I remember really well actually. We played as a three piece.

Max: We were supporting Goldfinger.

Tom: We had one practice, we had all our songs ready. They asked if we wanted to play the gig, and I thought “what could possibly go wrong?” so with Max, we had one practice as a full band for like three hours, five days later we were playing the show and all of a sudden they decide to play this song which I haven’t been shown yet but I was like “no worries” so cal sends me a video to learn the song, which we played in soundcheck for the very first time and guess what? We nailed it actually.

Matt: I remember thinking “bloody hell, we nailed it, that was cool”.

Do you feel the pressure of playing a big city like London?

Max: Yeah, because there’s always friends, family and people from the label coming to see us. It’s a big thing. If you play London, the word spreads massively and quickly. London is the place we consider close to home.

Tom: We’re always in London. I feel like we’re always here.

How’s tour?

Max: We’ve been well behaved.

Tom: We have been really ill actually. Callum’s can barely speak. We’re lucky we have people who take care of us though.

What has been the best day on this tour so far?

Matt: I would say Leeds. The first show. Everyone was nuts. They were screaming so loud. We had earpieces and you could just ear them screaming. Everyone was jumping, everyone was having a good time.

“In Your Memory” is your latest video. Why this track?

Tom: It’s a fun song. Before we released the album. We tested a few other songs live just to see how they sounded like and this one got a mad reaction. So we thought that if people were enjoying it maybe it would’ve had sense to go with it. It’s worked out really well.

Max: It has such a strong riff as well as the chorus and the verses. We came up with the concept of the video, we thought it was going to be expensive and couldn’t afford it. But thanks to Tom actually …

Tom: … Yeah, a guy who works in Dorset, near where I live, he just helped us out!

No Vacation is out now!

Words: Sal Fasone
Photos: Federica Burelli