Ever since they burst into our lives with their brand of deliciously addictive pop punk, it's been difficult to get Set Your Goals out of our heads. Releasing their debut album 'Mutiny!' back in 2006, they single-handedly seemed to redefine the standards of the current alternative music scene, before doing it all again with their hardcore-tinged effort 'This Will Be The Death Of Us' in 2009.

Headlining the Vans Music Stage at Slam Dunk Festival 2011, we got to chat to vocalist Jordan Brown and guitarist Audelio Flores Jr - who is introduced to Organised-Sound as quite simply 'Junior' - before their performance took place.

OS: How're you guys doing today?
Jordan Brown [vocals]: We're really good.
OS: Apart from the fact that we're all ready to fall asleep.
Audelio Flores 'Junior' [guitars]: Haha! No, we're good.We're just really excited to play. It's rad that they have us headlining; we were just like, "Yeah, okay, let's do it!"

OS: How is it feeling to be apart of Slam Dunk Festival again? You did quite a few of last year's dates...
Junior: Yeah, we did all the sideshows last year. It's rad! Last year was our first year doing it and it was a lot of fun, so when they asked us if we wanted to be apart of it again for the second time, we didn't even think twice, just said, "Let's do it." It's fun and we have a lot of friends that fly out just to do the festival, so it's a chance for us to see each other too.

OS: You've also managed to do a UK tour based around the dates this time around. How has that been going?
Jordan: Good! I don't know if we've... we didn't headline until the tour with Fireworks [in December 2009] so it's been like a year and a half since then. And also, we got to take out This Time Next Year and A Loss For Words, and it's the first time that we've gotten to do a longer tour with them. All the shows have been good!
Junior: We got to go to Europe; we did two Italy shows, a day off in Straulsberg, Austria, A Vienna show, a Bruges show and a day off in Bruges.
OS: How was it to hang out there?
Junior: Great! The days off were the best.
OS: Because you'll have actually gotten to see some things for once!
Jordan: Yeah, I think that's what we wanted to do most of all. We were like, "Let's make sure we do things when we're not playing."

OS: You're also about to release your new album! Are you excited for it, or is that a stupid question?
Jordan: Yeah! It's not stupid because, well, we could be nervous! But, I think, at first, the nervousness is whether people will like it or not. But with this CD, we're so stoked on it ourselves that... not to say that we don't care what people think, but it's not going to affect how we feel about the music. We really like the songs, and it's very different. I feel that, as the last CD was very different from the first, this is very different from our last. So yeah, I'm excited to see a physical copy of it and things like that.
OS: It must feel pretty satisfying.
Junior: I mean, it's gratifying because it's not easy to write music, let alone do a full-length. I feel like every time we finish a record, it's a big accomplishment. Especially for us because we're like, we're a very dysfunctional band... [laughter] And we hate each other and we just go back and forth, bickering and fighting, and then when it's done, we're like, "Dude, finally we have a story to tell!" you know?

OS: How do you think 'Burning At Both Ends' differs from an album like 'This Will Be The Death Of Us', seeing as that became such a big album in the current pop punk wave?
Jordan: It's so weird to think about it like that! Because obviously, when you're making the CDs, you don't think about it like that. Then it gets put out and you're like, "wow." I think what I liked about 'This Will The Death Of Us' is that every song sounded different from one another, but overall, there were a lot of darker tones on it. There were a few more upbeat songs on there too, which sound like something we'd maybe have had on our first album. The first CD was almost like one giant song; just a playlist all the way through, and 'This Will Be The Death...' was a venture into new sounds. This CD is a venture into complete songs. We have thirteen songs on the album - we tracked fourteen, so the fourteenth song will be a B-Side for Japan. I think what's cool is, all the songs are three minutes: it's the first time we've recorded a batch of songs without having little interludes, or things that count as a track number, but it's not really a song. It's cool just to have full songs,and as the last CD, each song is very different to one another and stands out a little bit on its own.

OS: With this latest album, it seems as though you've been really inspired by the actual act of being a band.
Jordan: Yeah.
OS: I've always thought, with a first album, it's the accumulation of everything in your life up until that point in time where you begin writing. Then with a second record, there's a whole new set of inspirations and pressures because it's the dreaded "second album". But, at this stage in time, now this band is your life completely, so it must seem inevitable that you'd begin to write songs about it.
Jordan: Yeah, I'd say that one song we've put out called 'Exit Summer' is definitely about that. The last CD also; the majority of it was about that. Then, with the new songs, say 'Exit Summer's about the band, but then all the songs are still about things that you go through in life, but they're all things that have happened as a result of being on tour. We have a song called 'London Heathrow' on the record, and that was a story that happened when we stuck here last year in December, but that was an experience that wouldn't have happened if we hadn't been on tour. So, yeah, everything kinda just... You live every day by the seat of your pants, it's just so super fast.
Junior: Now that we're in a band, we never really think about it as our livelihood, and that we need to treat it as - quote end quote - a job, or whatever. I think that's been the hardest thing for our band; to realise that if we want to make a living off it, we have to do certain things a certain way. Sometimes we try to do it, but we forget about it or something.
Jordan: Because we're not used to it.
Junior: We're not used to it, and we've never been huge to the point where we'd have to realise over night, you know? It's been gradual steps.
OS: For example, in the UK, you began playing small shows, then the tour in 2008 supporting Gallows, and you've just gathered steam from there.
Junior: We were just excited to be here then! But it's true, starting to do bigger and bigger tours, we're like, "Oh, we're becoming a real band," and so somtimes, we need to step back and say, "Okay, we're playing big venues. We need to be professional."
Jordan: But it's hard.
Junior: It's hard because it takes the fun away from it almost.
OS: And that's one of the essences of being in a band, in some ways.
Junior: Yeah, but some people don't look at it that way.
Jordan: Some bands kinda forget that.
Junior: But to us, we've been able to survive, we've been able to tell our stories. Sometimes we love it and sometimes we hate it, but I feel like we're always going to be doing this.
Jordan: And I think that, it's almost felt to me - not much as [being in] a band - but like, you know when you graduate from high school and you can go on a European road trip? It's been more like a road trip!
OS: Just a slightly extended one...
Jordan: Yeah! Like saying, "Let's go do this! Let's go see that!" and just being active in as many ways as possible. Then, somewhere along the way, music was the...
OS: The thing that made it all possible?
Jordan: Yeah.
Junior: Whether we question it sometimes, or whatever, you look back and we would've never done this if it wasn't for music. brp>OS: Sometimes, music is just the thing that makes sense of everything when nothing else will.
Jordan: Yeah, and all the music that you get from other artists on the way too.

OS: Will you be back in the UK before this year is out?
Junior: We would love to!
Jordan: What we'd like to do - if it works out - is be back here in the Winter.
OS: But not too Winter, or else you'll get stuck here again.
Jordan: Exactly! We don't wanna get stuck here.
Junior: Oh, we won't be here for December! We did a pact never to tour in December! We wanna come back over as soon as we can, but with the record being out, we have things like Warped tour. Then, a lot of overseas stuff like Soundwave, Japan and Southeast Asia hopefully. We're trying to do South America - a lot of countries that we've never done. Then, we have a support tour in Fall, and by then it's already the holidays. So, hopefully, maybe February/ March...
Jordan: Yeah, like the later Winter months,
Junior: For a headline tour here, and then head back to the US to do a headliner there too.
Jordan: So, it's probably more likely that we'll be headlining the album here, before the US.
OS: Well, that's good for us!
Jordan: Yeah! It's cool though, we seem to keep coming over here every six months or so, so it's cool to have it on the agenda already.

Set Your Goals' third full-length album 'Burning At Both Ends' is available now on Epitaph Records.