Before catching the AMAZING live performance of Set Your Goals at the Relentless Garage (check out my review), I managed to catch vocalist Jordan Brown and guitarist Audelio Flores Junior pre-show to talk about their new album, the plethora of guest vocalists featured on it, their first Reading experience and we put to bed the nasty rumours of bad blood regarding their hasty departure from Eulogy to Epitaph once and for all.
Altsounds: First things first, you've just signed to Epitaph, after leaving Eulogy, yep?
Audelio: Yep
Altsounds: ...and your manager bought you out?
Audelio: Nooo.
Altsounds: He bought out the contract though, right?
Audelio: No, that was an option
Jordan: That was taken from Wikipedia?
Altsounds: Yes.
Audelio: Yeah, that needs to be corrected.
Altsounds: Ah well now this is your chance to get the facts straight!
Audelio: OK, pretty much the whole buy out thing to do with our manager was an option we had if we didn't get another label to come through for us. When Epitaph showed interest in the band they were like, 'Yo, we want you guys on our label, let's make it happen', and they pretty much just didn't stop until it happened.
Altsounds: So why didn't Epitaph buy your contract out then?
Audelio: Epitaph did!
Altsounds: So your manager never bought your contract out at all, it was completely a rumour?
Audelio: Yeah.
Jordan: It wasn't a rumour per se, it was that one time it was being discussed but it just hasn't been updated I guess because we've been working with Epitaph for about half a year now. Actually almost a year.
Audelio: Yeah
Jordan: Next month will be a year!
Audelio: We just recently signed, but we've been working with them for over a year trying to get stuff out. When the rumour came out about our manager wanting to buy us out, that was before there was any label interest for us.
Altsounds: Your new album, how do you think it's gonna be a follow up to the somewhat unexpected success of the previous album?
Jordan: I think it's gonna be good, just based on how the summer tour went in the US. People are really getting into the songs and I'm very happy 'cause we love playing them and we had so much fun writing them. I was the first one in the band to think we could never do what we did with 'Mutiny', because it was so place in time when we worked on that album. This was the exact same thing except times by a hundred. I'd say about half way through this recording was when I started to realize we were in a much.....
Audelio: .....better place
Jordan: Yeah! A much bigger position than I ever realized. I think it's gonna do good, I really have faith.
Altsounds: The album was produced by Mike Green, the guy that does Paramore albums as well?
Jordan: Yeah, was cool we worked with Mike Green, he's done Over It, Paramore, Rufio, and then we got to mix with David Bendeth who has done Paramore, Good Charlotte etc.
Altsounds: So was that an intentional decision to maybe go more commercial?
Jordan: No, he's like (points to Audelio) known Mike for ages.
Audelio: Yeah I know Mike Green, the producer, because I worked with him on one of my previous bands when I was younger. And it was weird because we never really had any producer in mind and our manager was like, 'Hey would guys like to work with Mike Green?'. Jordan didn't know who he was at the time, and I was like, 'oh he's a good dude'. All he knew about him is the recording, the work that he's done and he's always talked about, oh I wanna get certain sounds like Over It. We're fans of Over It, (Jordan: - yeah yeah yeah!) and Jordan and the rest of the band met Mike Green and we all clicked with him, almost as if he was the seventh member of the band during the whole process. He kept the band together, you know?
Jordan: He got sick with us when we'd get sick (laughs).
Altsounds: And then you have Hayley from Paramore that guests on one of the songs.
Jordan: (Laughs) as we do three other people on the record!
Altsounds: (Laughs) Who else do you have on the record?
Jordan: We have a lot of people. We have our friend Vinnie from I Am The Avalanche and The Movielife on the record, we have Chad from New Found Glory and our Friend Jon who sings for a metal hardcore band called Turmoil from Philadelphia so.....
Audelio: .....and Jordan
Jordan: Yeah and Jordon from New Found Glory actually sings on a secret B-side track that's on the Japanese release.
Altsounds: I suppose you're going to say 'I liked them all equally' but out of all of them, who was your favourite?
Jordan: Even if I wanted to do that whole, be mutually fair, but like honestly, every song was so fun to work with because we thought very seriously about it all.
Audelio: Who will fit for the songs and who were perfect for the songs that the guest vocals were selected for. Like I like all of them equally. We liked Vinnie because we were all fans of The Movielife, Jon Gula because he is one of our favourite hardcore vocalists out there, and Chad and Jordan from New Found Glory have always been good friends and we've always looked up to their band. He's just like, a friend of ours, a real friend, it's not like, 'Oh let's try and get street cred'.
Altsounds: So you've just done Reading festival – how was that, was it your first time?
Audelio: Yes it was, It was fun as it's different. We've never done anything like that in the UK and the shows were awesome. The kids were awesome, they received the new songs very well, they were circle pitting, just having a good time.
Altsounds: So what about the general atmosphere compared to US Festivals?
Jordan: I think Reading was definitely my favourite. I had a great time at Bamboozle, not to discredit other festivals but Reading is definitely probably the most fun I've had at an outdoor, open air festival. It was just a good vibe, with good people, the sound was great and it was just overall so fun.
Audelio: We don't have these type of festivals back home really.
Altsounds: Really?
Audelio: Like we have Bamboozle and Hoodwink which is more of like a secret festival and we have Coachella which is more of like the mainstream stuff. But Reading and Leeds has like, mainstream music, metal to hardcore all the way up to brand new up and coming pop bands. It has everything under one roof. You can go and watch both Faith no More and Radiohead on the same bill for example which is awesome.
Altsounds: So did you get to see Radiohead then?
Jordan: No we missed all the headliners we wanted see, but it's cool.
Audelio: I saw videos on Youtube today and I was like, 'Oh my God, it looked so good'.
Altsounds: Is there anything you'd like to promote or add to this interview?
Audelio: We have got our new record out and we will be on tour this December with Fireworks and Broadway Calls.
Check out Set Your Goals here: 
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The Lowdown: Evan Dando of The Lemonheads
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The Lowdown: Jordan and Audelia from Set Your Goals
Re: Altsounds.com Q&A Interview: Jordan and Audelia from Set Your Goals
