Boys Night Out

14.11.2007 | KYS-Cam | 0 Comments

Trainwreck's, murder, severed limbs and... Nintendo?!?! Boys Night Out have done it all!

With their debut Australian tour on the horizon, vocalist and lyricist Connor Lovat-Fraser was kind enough to answer these questions for us.

Interview with Connor Lovat-Fraser of Boys Night Out

By Cameron Chambers  

For the record, your name and what you do in Boys Night Out?

My name is Connor and I sweat too much while singing into a microphone. 

When a band releases a self titled record 6 years into their career it usually represents something quite significant. What kind of statement were you aiming to make with your latest record? 

We were really just trying to say "Here we are. These are the songs that we like to write." Musically, we tried to incorporate as many of our influences as possible while still writing tunes that were very much "BNO songs". Lyrically, the songs are all about us (as individuals and as a band) and whatever we had been thinking about lately. Calling the album "Boys Night Out" just seemed apt.

The guitar work on “Boys Night Out” is more dynamic than your previous albums but you've still been able to retain your more poppy elements – was there a noticeable change in the way you guys approached the song writing on this record? 

Not really. We generally approach the writing of an album the same way every time. First we focus on getting the songs written and ready to go instrumentally and then we write the vocal lines and lyrics. The only big difference between the writing of this record verses "Trainwreck" was that this record didn't have to cater to a defined story line and could be written on a song-by-song basis.

Did Brian's departure from the band (in late 2006) have much of an impact on the writing for the record? 

Of course. Brian was present for the writing of some of the first songs we had completed for the new record. After he left we knew that we would have to rework those songs in order to cater to a new drummer's style.  

Your original drummer Ben rejoined the band shortly after Brian left. Do you think having that familiarity and existing chemistry as a unit contributed to the more focused sound of the self titled album? 

I think so. Having Ben rejoin the band was a kind of family reunion for us. Since we had already played with him for years, we knew that we could set right down to writing without having to feel out the way he played - like we would have with any other drummer.

Your sophomore record “Trainwreck” was a rather elaborate concept album. Did you feel the songs on the self titled album warranted a more traditional lyrical approach to get your point across? 

I'm not sure what you mean. Are they more traditional? 

Over the last 2 years Boys Night Out have toured with everyone from Fall Out Boy to Panic! At The Disco, which has obviously opened your band up to a much larger audience. Did that influence (in any way) how you approached your most recent record?

Not really. We've always written for ourselves first and foremost. I don't think we could ever really do it differently. It was great being able to play for such large audiences, but I've always felt that it's better to write honest and unique songs which people MAY be able to connect to rather than writing in order to cater to what's popular at the moment just because you know it'll sell more tickets or ship more cds. We just do what we do and hope that people will dig it...and if they don't, hell, that's cool, too.

“Boys Night Out” was released in June of this year, are you happy with how the record has been received? 

The response has been great. We've met some people who have been able to connect with this album in a way that we never could have imagined. I mean, there will always be kids that talk a lot of shit because we are no longer anywhere close to being a hardcore band, but they are the exception that proves the rule.

You've had a few months to road test the newer material, how's it holding up live compared to your older songs?

Actually, much to our surprise some of the newer songs seem to get a bigger response than the older ones. It was very strange to see that. When we released "Trainwreck", the audience was hell bent of only hearing songs from "Make Yourself Sick" or "Broken Bones And Bloody Kisses".  

It's been a long time coming but you're finally booked to come to Australia. Are you familiar with much Australian music? 

I don't really know many of the newer Australian bands that are playing these days, but Aussie bands that I've listened to in the past include anything from Midnight Oil to Bodyjar...Men At Work to Frenzal Rhomb.  

What can Australian audiences expect from a Boys Night Out live show?

We're constantly told that we sound a lot heavier live. We like to play loud and we like to play aggressively. Anybody who comes out  can expect a very up close and personal experience. We love to bring people on stage to sing along and we'll try to do whatever we can to make sure that everybody enjoys themselves. That being said, if I see people being idiots or fighting then I will centre them out and embarrass the hell out of them.

Taking into account that you've got fairly substantial back catalogue, are you going to be focusing on the self titled record or will your set include a healthy mix of old and new? 

We'll definitely be playing something from each album. We may focus on the newer material, but there will be a little of everything.

Once the Australian tour is all wrapped up, what's on the agenda for Boys Night Out? 

We're going to head home for about a few days and then play just over a weeks worth of shows on the East coast of Canada. That will pretty much bring us to the end of the year. After we spend some time with our families for the holidays we'll be heading right back out on the road.

A lot of music DVD's are released these days but “Dude, You Need To Stop Dancing” is the most original band documentary I've seen. Who's idea was it to run with what was effectively a “mockumentary” rather than making a more traditional DVD? 

We knew from the get-go that we didn't want to make a "typical" band DVD. It was actually a lot of fun to pretend that we hated each other. We didn't even tell the bands we were touring with that we were making a "mockumentary". A lot of people genuinely believed that we were constantly fighting since we tried our best to stay in character all of the time. The reality of the situation is that we're a bunch of jack-asses who really like to fuck around and have a good time. Thusly, we felt that the DVD should focus on said jack-assery. 

Any parting words? 

Come out to the shows and party. That is all.