Earlier this year, We Are The Ocean unleashed 'Go Now And Live' upon our ears; an album that shone as an example of great British alternative music, proving how accomplished and confident the band have become with their sound. Making a natural departure from the more aggressive screamed vocals of demos past, we see their second record allow for the exploration of a more mature tone, whilst still being as powerful as ever.

Back in May, we popped along to their show in Newcastle. With their five date UK tour drawing to a close, we caught up with Dan Brown and Jack Spence to have a chat about the new album, the growth of the band and what it's like to finally be playing Reading and Leeds Festivals.

OS: How're you guys doing today?
Dan Brown [vocals]: Very well!
Jack Spence [bass]: Very well. ...Well, we're feeling a bit lazy today, aren't we?
Dan: Just a bit lethargic.
Jack: It's only been five days and we're feeling tired already. We've got three weks to go!
Dan: I think it's because we know we've got such a long drive tonight, so we're kinda preparing ourselves for it by being really exhausted now.
OS: Are you excited for tonight's show?
Jack: Mmhmm! It is sold out. Newcastle's always good to us.
Dan: Yeah, Newcastle was one of the first shows on the tour to sell out. In the past, Newcastle took to use quite early, and it's always a really good show for us.
Jack: It's a good place to end the tour; the UK dates.

OS: This is your first time touring on 'Go Now And Live'. Have you been playing many songs during the live show? How have they been going down?
Dan: We're playing five.
OS: That's a quite a lot considering it's a ten-track album.
Dan: Yeah, it's like half the album, which is cool. We're obviously still playing a load of the older songs, but it;s been going down alright. The album's only been out six days.
Jack: We weren't really expecting everyone to be singing along so we had low expectations to start with, so the crowd have exceeded our expectations every night.
OS: And how has the reaction been to 'Go Now And Live' in general?
Dan: It's been good! Generally, we've had really, really positive feedback. In the media as well, we've had some really good write ups, so can't comaplain really. It's good that it's something we're really proud of, and everyone's warming to it.the so
Jack: Because it's a bit of a different direction from first album - it's not a huge jump - but a lot of people have said that they like it, they can see the progression. We weren't that worried about it, but when you're writing and you're trying new ideas out, you've also got to think about the older fans. Our older material was a lot heavier than what we do now, but a lot of people have said now, "I've liked you guys for so long, but I really like the progression" etc. So, I think generally it's gone down pretty well.

OS: In terms of the progression, was it a natural step? Obviously, a big talking point of the album is that Dan is singing more of his vocals, as opposed to screaming, but was that a conscious decision?
Jack: It's not like we sat down and said, "We need to be softer because of blah blah blah." We were writing and we liked what we wrote, so we went with it. It was definitely a natural progression: I can't imagine writing an album and forcing yourself to write in a particular way. This is just how [Go Now And Live] came out. The next album could come out really heavy or, who knows! It's just about how you're feeling when you're writing the songs. I guess with Dan, we would write the songs and the vocals just naturally came in a softer, more melodic way.

OS: Do you feel more comfortable on stage singing, rather than screaming?
Dan: No, not really. I think I had to change my stage presence a bit; I've had to tone it down on the newer songs because it's hard to sing and jump around at the same time. I still really enjoy it, but it gaves it a whole new dynamic really.

OS: You recorded 'Go Now And Live' in the UK, didn't you?
Jack: Yeah, we recorded in Devon with a guy named Pete Miles.
OS: How was it to go from recording your debut 'Cutting Our Teeth' in the US with a producer like Brian McTernan, to recording your second so close to home?
Dan: It was definitely a lot more relaxed. I think we felt a bit overwhelmed when we were with Brian. He's such an amazing producer, so far from home and it was out debut album as well. This was all just a bit more relaxed, a bit more chilled out.
OS: Was there anything in particular that you think Pete brought to the new album?
Dan: I think Pete knew that we didn't want to do the same album again. Where some other producers might listen to your previous work and learn a bit about the band, he knew that he didn't need to do that with us. He was like, "It doesn't matter about what you've done before because this is going to be a whole new sound." He helped us create that.
OS: With the new sound on 'Go Now And Live', do you feel like you might gain more opportunities in the wider world of music?
Dan: Maybe, yeah. We've already had a lot of daytime radio play, which is something that we've never experienced before.
Jack: I think generally too, heavier music is getting a new surge. Bands like Bring Me The Horizon are getting a lot of radio play as well, so I think it's not just us becoming more acceptable, but the whole genre is becoming more acceptable,
OS: Definitely. I mean, look to a few years back and there's no way a band like Bring Me The Horizon would ever have been played on Radio 1.
Jack: Or been featured on Main Stage at Reading and Leeds! We were talking about it, saying, "They might be too heavy for Main Stage; they won't do it." Then it got announced and there they were.
OS: That's a pretty heavy day in general.
Dan: Yeah, with Architects and The Blackout. It's a great line-up.

OS: How're you feeling about your first time playing at Reading and Leeds?
Dan: It's gonna be amazing!
Jack: I mean, we've always pushed to do Reading and Leeds, but we were pushing to maybe do a spot at Lock Up early on, or the Festival Republic stage or something. We just wanted to do it!
OS: It did always feel as though you guys were missing from the line-up in recent years.
Jack: There's a lot of bands that we knew that we have played it, so we were kinda like, "When's it going to be our turn?" So, we were hoping - especially with the album comng out in April - that it'd be a good time to add it to our festival run, but we never expected to be on the Main Stage. We're not trying to think about it too much.

OS: Finally, what've you got planned for the rest of the year?
Jack: After festival season, we're going to try and set our eyes abroad. Obviously, we're going to Europe tonight, but we want to focus on getting back out there again.It's the next real market we want to get into. And Australia as well! We're gonna head over to Australia near the end of the year. We went there about two years and we loved it, and I guess we went down better than we thought we would, so we got our name out there a little bit and wanna go back. And because you don't want to oversaturate the UK - it is a small island and so you can't do three, four, five tours a year.
Dan: That's what we did last year; we did four UK tours.
Jack: And it is great, up to a point. You get your name out there, especially if it's support tours. But, now that we've done a headline tour this year, we've got the festvals, then we wanna give the UK a bit of a break, so that people miss us! So, now is a good opportunity to go and explore some new territories before we come home.

We Are The Ocean will be supporting The Blackout in late October/ early November. 'Go Now And Live' is available now.