2011 has been an incredible year for music and shining brightly as one of the best albums thus far is Touché Amoré's second full-length 'Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me'. Capturing the volatile and aggressive nature of the band's brand of post-hardcore, whilst remaining entirely genuine and heart-wrenching, the nineteen-minute record is entirely stunning.

Whilst visiting the UK with longtime friends and split EP collaborators La Dispute, we were lucky enough to talk to Touché frontman Jeremy Bolm about pretty much everything. From touring the world, to the inspiration behind his lyrics; from recording 'Parting The Sea...' to how good La Dispute's new album is going to be, here is all thirty three minutes of our conversation. Yes, that's way longer than their actual album, but yes, it's worth the read.

OS: How're you doing today?
Jeremy Bolm [vocals]: I'm doing okay! How are you?
OS: We're good, we're excited.
Jeremy: Yeah, it should be fun. It's just been a long day so far.
OS: You've just come to Leeds direct from London, didn't you?
Jeremy: Yeah, we did four songs on the BBC this morning.
OS: How was that?
Jeremy: It was incredible! It was for the punk show. Us and La Dispute both did four songs; we did three new songs and then a split EP song, and they did the same thing.

OS: Is it strange to be in the UK doing stuff with such a mainstream radio channel?
Jeremy: It's insane to be in the UK and getting to play on the BBC in general. So many of my favourite bands all have had BBC sessions, so knowing that I was in the same room as Belle & Sebastian, The Smiths, The Beatles is insane. It's pretty overwhelming; it's pretty crazy.

OS: You played your first UK show of the tour in Brighton last night and you played at Hevy Fest this past weekend; how were those shows?
Jeremy: Both were awesome. Hevy Fest was a little interesting because of the huge stage, and the barrier and stuff...
OS: I think you coped with that quite well though!
Jeremy: Thank you.
OS: As someone who was in the crowd for that show, it was mindblowing to hear how many people were singing along, so we can't even imagine what it was like for you.
Jeremy: It was crazy. It was insane. When I know there's going to be a stage and barrier situation, you have to go in there with a different mindset.
OS: Especially considering the barrier wasn't even close to the stage - the pit was huge.
Jeremy: Oh no, it was far! And also, the second we walked out and we're like, "Okay, I guess we're about to play," then they brought out the row of photographers and then the row of security. So, there's a moat of human beings between us that you have to dodge. So it was interesting! But we do our best to make it feel as intimate as possible.
OS: Apparently there was a bit of trouble during Title Fight's set when it came to security interfering with the crowd too, so it must've been difficult for anyone playing that stage to interact.
Jeremy: Yeah, it was what it was, but we still had a good time. Then, Brighton last night was really, really awesome, It was a lot of fun, and tonight's looking like it'll be awesome too.

OS: You've just finished up a leg of the tour in Europe. How were those shows? We've just talked about singalongs over here, so it must be something totally different to have people who don't even speak English singing along to your songs.
Jeremy: Our first time out here was in Eastern Europe, which was really, really out there. Playing Poland where no one speaks English, but they're singing your words is just like... and trying to have a conversation after the show and you just can't! You physically can't. So, that was insane. But anywhere that English isn't their first language, it's gnarly. We played in Budapest and it was sold out, and then a sold out show in Paris..
OS: It's quite strange to hear kids sing the words to songs but with their own language's accents.
Jeremy: Yeah! Something that's always interesting and fun to listen to is if we watch a YouTube video, because we're guilty of having a lot of parts where the music stops and it's just vocals, and you can hear the crowd and the accent of the crowd; whether it's German or whatever, it's so good! But yeah, Europe was great. The last show in Germany was the craziest show we've ever played in Europe. It was in Koln, and since it was quite a lot of the same kids that came to every show, we decided to play a totally different set, So, we opened with 'Honest Sleep'; it was in a squat and there was over 500 people there, and it was so sweaty and hot and just disgusting, but so fun. And Defeater had just played down the street! So, Defeater and Soul Control came to hang out, and it was such a good hang out night. A good way to end the tour!

OS: Do you think it's better to constantly mix up the set - add in demos etc - or do you prefer sticking to the same one every night?
Jeremy: Well, with Europe, it's such a different place; in the US, you might see a kid twice on a tour, maybe if you're playing within three hours... But, in Europe, people travel for hours and hours and hours. So, you kinda feel bad! You've rehearsed this set and you try to make it as smooth possible and then, you feel bad because you're like, "Man, we're doing the same thing every night. These kids are gonna get bored." But right now, the set has six songs from '[...To The Beat Of A] Dead Horse', five songs from the new record ['Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me'] and then the split songs ['Searching For A Pulse/ The Worth of the World'] or something like that. We try to mix it up! The demo stuff has been pretty much shelved - two of the songs from 'Dead Horse' are on the demo too, so that's our get out! [laughs] We're like, "Welllllllll! Honest Sleep and Broken Records were on the demo too, so...!"
OS: Is it nice to have the freedom to choose from so many songs, including those from the new album?
Jeremy: I can't even express how nice it feels to be able to play new songs. We toured so hard off 'Dead Horses'; we were pretty much on tour for two years straight,playing the same songs.
OS: Plus, because your songs are so short, you have to play almost the entire album just to fill your set slot.
Jeremy: Yeah, I mean, right now I think our set is twenty five minutes, twenty six minutes? And we're playing sixteen songs. So it's hard writing a setlist! But the most overwhelming thing that we've noticed is that now - at least in Europe, hopefully it'll be the same way in the States - there's almost a bigger reaction to the new songs than the old songs, which does not happen! Usually people are like, "Ahh, I only like the first record; I only know these songs." But as soon as we go into a new song...
OS: Just from your performance at Hevy Festival, the crowd reaction to your opener '~' was the same as something like 'Honest Sleep' and it just seems crazy that new songs would get such huge reactions already!
Jeremy: It's overwhelming. I mean like, obviously we still like a lot of the older songs, but it is nice to know that you can have that kind of reaction to newer songs.

OS: It must also give you confidence for the writing of future material...
Jeremy: In a way, yeah.
OS: In terms of actual albums though, it does feel like '...To The Beat Of A Dead Horse' and 'Parting The Sea...' are entirely different, with such a huge departure.
Jeremy: Well, from a very literal standpoint, it's three new people playing on the record. We have a new drummer, a new bass player and our then bass player now plays guitar. So that right off the bat is like, two and a half new people playing. Then, there was so much time between touring, so we just got a lot better; we got a lot tighter as a band, all that kind of stuff. We had written four songs before we did the tour with Envy, and before we came out here for the first time. We wrote '~' (pronounced 'Tildé'), 'Pathfinder', 'The Great Repetition' and half of 'Sesame', and demoed those songs before we left for tour. Then, we came back and in a month and a half, wrote the whole rest of the record. It all just came pretty naturally. We thought, "Oh man, it's gonna take us so long to write this record," because we usually only practice like, once a week or something, but we started getting together three times a week and it ended up going a lot faster than we expected.

OS: It terms of the running order of the album, every song seems so separate and stands out on its own and in its own way, but each track seems perfectly placed to compliment the next. The whole thing just flows so well, and very few albums do that so successfully.
Jeremy: When we did 'Dead Horse'... Well, one of my favourite things about putting a record together is having smooth transitions; so if you're not paying attention, you're like, "How the hell am I on track six already?!" That's one of my favourite creative processes of doing a record: finding out the perfect track order, presenting it to the other guys and then, explaining why this is gonna work. It's the same with mixed tapes! I'll be sat with my iTunes, listening to the last five seconds of a song just to make sure the transition is smooth.

OS: Alongside your album was the release of same many other great bands - Balance and Composure, Title Fight, Defeater...
Jeremy: We listened to the new La Dispute record in the van earlier.
OS: And there's that later this year!
Jeremy: Their new record is going to kick everyone's ass. We're all thankful that our records are already out, because as soon as that is out, everyone's gonna forget about our records. There are some parts where - we're all listening to it in the van - just instant hairs on the back of your neck. It's like, "Damn you guys! Damn you guys." They recorded the new songs that they've been playing live, and the first song from the record, at the BBC. Just, arghhh, it's so good!
But, I mean, in a couple different interviews, there's been talk of this whole weird world that's going on, and I think it's something very special. We did a US tour with Title Fight maybe a month and a half ago, and I was sitting with Jamie [Rhoden, guitarist of Title Fight] outside one of our shows in Alberquerque, New Mexico. We're just talking about this thing between... I feel dumb saying "special" with us, because I'm part of it, but TA, La Dispute, Balance and Composure, Make Do And Mend, Tigers Jaw, Title Fight. Even Former Thieves. Just in this space, there's just this tight-knit group of people and it's not one of those things where, "Oh, we just happen to know each other." Everybody really knows each other and is such great friends and supports each other, and we all met on our own.
OS: We were just discussing how strange it is that, without music, you and La Dispute wouldn't have even met, let alone recorded your split together. With you guys being from California and them being from Michigan, you just couldn't have even come close to meeting.
Jeremy: We met them in 2008, or was it 2009? Now I'm being a bad friend! It was their first time over on the West Coast and I booked their show in LA. It was like, Comadre, Ghostlimb, La Dispute and us - I think we played second, or something like that. Then we booked them a house show a couple days later with our other band called DeadHead: it was Rotting Out, La Dispute and DeadHead, which is the funniest show if you think about it nowadays. But just instantly, specifically Jordan and I were just...
OS: Yeah, you can ever see how close your relationship is from just stage presences.
Jeremy: I mean, we've all become such incredibly close friends. [Adam] Vass has played bass for us before on tours. Now, every single time we come to Michigan when we're on tour - it's like an ongoing joke - and they're home, we kidnap Vass. We get him the same way every time too! We just look at him like, "You won't," and he's like, "You can't do that to me!" Next thing you know, he has a backpack and his roommates will get all mad at us, like, "You can't kidnap him again!" Then, we always end up staying at his parents' house in Indiana which is super nice. But they're seriously, some of the best people in the entire world; the most kind-hearted, welcoming, honest people. So getting to tour with them - especially getting to come overseas - is the coolest thing.
OS: It's awesome that you get to tour with so many of those bands too. For example, with the Australia tour, if you were out with a band you didn't know, it might be a little awkward. But, this way, you'll always get to have a little piece of home with you, even when you're on the opposite side of the world.
Jeremy: Yeah, that's totally true. And the Australia thing... Going anywhere new is always kinda hectic, just on a personal level. But the fact that I know we're going to be over there with Title Fight is great. Then also, in the States there's a book agency called the Kenmore Agency, and it's just on it. In the sense of, our guy, his name is Merrick; he's one of the band's best friends. But he alone books us, Title Fight, Tigers Jaw, Balance and Composure, Defeater. They book La Dispute - all of us bands, they just got on it. They saw the world way before anybody else and said, "Every one of these bands has something very special about them." So, he's coming with us; he'll be on the tour with us, so we all can't wait to just hang. It's gonna be awesome.

OS: One of the great things about this collection of bands though, is that, whilst you're all such close friends, you all definitely possess your own sound. Even though you have the split EP with La Dispute, you are both definitely your own band, even on that.
Jeremy: The amount of people who say we sound the same is...
OS: No way!
Jeremy: I mean, we love each other, and there's minor similarities, like melody. Melody and hard-hitting drums, stuff like that. But Jordan and I could not be further different.
OS: As soon as your vocals come in, vs Jordan's vocals, there are huge differences.
Jeremy: And it's not even just how we sing. He writes a book for a song! I write a small paragraph.
OS: La Dispute lyrics are almost just poetry to music.
Jeremy: Yeah! And Jordan is one of the most gifted people I have ever met in my entire life, and the way his brain operates is the most fascinating thing to me. He's got such an incredible gift and music is one thing, but I know that gift is gonna take him somewhere else. He's... I wanna punch him! [laughs] Listening to the new record, I kept leaning over, saying, "Fuck you. Fuck you."

OS: Even in terms of the split EP itself though: your appearances on La Dispute songs sound like Touché Amoré, whilst Jordan's sound distinctly like La Dispute. It just works so well.
Jeremy: That was the way it was written.
OS: It's true that he wrote your parts, just with your voice and style in mind?
Jeremy: Yeah yeah yeah!
OS: Listening to it is just like, "How did they do this?!"
Jeremy: [laughs] I think we just knew each other so well to where it was like, "This is how he would." When I wrote Jordan's part, knowing how his cadence always rolls, I was just really excited to present it to him and be like, "Did I get this right? Does this make sense?" and it just worked.

OS: Returning to the subject of 'Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me', how do think it differs lyrically to your earlier records? Thinking of 'Dead Horse', it seems a lot less angry...
Jeremy: Truth! I mean, if you wanna go back further, the demo was the most... the demo is anxiety and the songs are just like... We didn't know what the band was yet. We wanted to be a band that ripped off bands like Orchid; all they wrote about were the minor things that piss them off, and stupid shit. So, i cuss throughout the entire thing. I said the word "fuck" on that thing seven or eight times. Whilst on the new record, I don't even cuss at all, which wasn't something I thought about at the time; I just realised afterwards. So, I was all super angsty and I didn't really give a shit. Then I realised, "okay, we're gonna do a full-length." Then our band actually broke up for two weeks before we did the full-length, because we lost our original drummer and we didn't think we could do without him. So he recorded the record but then we had a bunch of replacements for a while.
So, I was like, "If I'm taking the responsibility of holding a microphone and yelling into it, I don't want to be robbing anyone of anything, so I'm going to be as honest [as I can be] and actually write stuff that matters to me." As opposed to just, "Fuck this!" So, '...To The Beat of a Dead Horse' is me sort of, realising all these things that I felt were going wrong within myself, but not doing anything about it; that's kinda what I felt a lot of people do. So, now all I'm doing is yelling about it, but I'm not doing anything to fix it: that's why it's called '...To The Beat of a Dead Horse', because I was just beating a dead horse. Everybody feels like that and everybody can relate to these things that I'm upset about.
'Parting The Sea Between Brightness and Me' is more me trying to fix those situations for myself, or remedy them in some way or another, by music or whatever. Whether it's working or not, I don't know, but it was a great release. That's sort of the transition with that; it's more hopeful.

OS: The songs on 'Parting The Sea' are also the kind of songs that people can entirely relate to as well, despite how different their situations are to yours.
Jeremy: I think one of the coolest ones is that a lot of people have approached me about 'Home Away From Here', which is clearly about being on tour all the time. But, you can hear that song and relate it to anything: if you need to get out of your hometown, if you want to go to college somewhere else but you're afraid to leave your family at home, just any sort of inner feeling of needing to get or be somewhere else but not having the ways to do it. So that's cool to have.

OS: You've also said that when recording 'Parting The Sea', you wanted it to sound as live as possible. Do you think that's something that will remain an important thing for the band?
Jeremy: This was our first time ever doing it live, and that was Ed Rose [their producer] forcing it. Working with him was just the best thing in the entire world. We're all such fanboys of his and he was our number one choice of who we wanted to work with, so the fact that it worked out was [insane].
So, when we originally sent him the demo tracks of those songs, he wrote back and said, "I wanna do this live" and - then he said the best quote that I'll never forget ever - "I wanna focus on passionate takes as opposed to perfect takes." It was like, "You understand our band and you've not even met us!" The coolest thing was - usually producers make you play with a metronome so you keep on beat - he had no interest in working with a metronome; he was just like, "Play how you play." Then, he would push Elliot [Babin, drummer] to play faster. He was like, "That was good. Play it faster."
OS: The drumming on 'Wants/ Needs' is ridiculous!
Jeremy: It's crazy! There's a video I was gonna post online of a soundcheck we did in Germany when we practiced 'Wants/ Needs' and 'Art Official' which are the two songs we never play live, so we were like, "Let's just do it just for fun." But yeah, 'Wants/ Needs' took a couple of rounds to get it just right!
But man, now we listen to 'Dead Horse' and we're like, "This is the slowest record ever" because we play slow! It's like, we could play this so much faster! But I get so excited when I put on the new record because it's the same tempo as playing live, because he pushed us. He was like, "You're gonna play these songs faster live, so play them faster now." We were just like, "You are such a badass!" He's the best dude! Just this middle-aged, skinny, glasses guy, but he just knows what he's doing! He did all of The Get Up Kids records, Coalesce, Appleseed Cast, just tons of bands we're all nerds for. So, we were like, "We're going to take everything you say and do everything that you want us to do completely."
Man, the demo version of 'Home Away From Here' is so short. Sooo short! It's a minute long. You'd be like, "What the f-!" because there's an entire verse and chorus that aren't in it. But he sent it back after that and said, "Look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do, but..." and he took the song and cut it up and said, "Do this," and made it longer. "It's a pop song! Say whatever you want, it's a fucking pop song." It's definitely the poppiest song we've ever written, but I feel like it still makes sense for our band, so we were open to it. Actually, 'Wants/ Needs' was a lot shorter too, and he added to that as well.
OS: At least the songs are progressively getting longer! I don't even want to think about how long 'Cadence' is...
Jeremy: Yeah, well I think 'Nine' is fourty seven seconds or something.
OS: I like that most bands have fourty seven second interludes, but that's a full song for you guys.
Jeremy: As an entire song, yeah! I mean, the first record is eleven songs and nineteen minutes, and the new record is thirteen songs, twenty minutes... so!

OS: 'Condolences' is one of the stand out songs from 'Parting The Sea...' because it's a totally different style of song for Touché, even down to the way you sing it, which I'm guessing was in a very big room?
Jeremy: Yeah, and I also had zero voice at that time. Zero voice! It was also the last song we recorded and it was like, "Hey, we can do it tomorrow morning" when it was the last day of recording. He told me to rest up a bit, but I was like, "I am not gonna sound any better tomorrow." I had done the entire record in a day and my voice was completely gone, my head wasjust swelled, but we decided to try it. It was an idea that I had a long time ago; I just wanted to do a piano-vocal song that was actually inspired by Coalesce. They did a split with Boysetsfire, and there's a voice that's just piano and Sean Ingram's voice. Sean Ingram's voice is the most [makes low growling sound] so I knew it would be much different of that vibe. But knowing that I'm doing it in the same room as they did that, just for myself, I think would be really cool. So, Elliot plays piano and I'd hit him up about it a month before the record, saying what I'd really like to do, but I don't know anything aout piano. So I said, "Try to come up with something moody," and that's the one thing he came up with. So, he recorded it on his iPhone and I came over to his house a week later where we worked out how many rounds or whatever. Then, I could not come up with anything to actually sing. I think I wrote the song the night before we did the vocals, but I just wanted it to have a kind of big, eery, dark room feel to it. He had three different pianos in that room too, so Ed Rose said, "Try this one. No, that sounds too pretty. This one? Sounds too pretty. That one's out of tune, go play that one." So, he did it and Ed was like, "Okay, we're mic-ing this one." It was... We didn't know if it was going to work, and I didn't know if I was going to feel comfortable with it, but we rolled the dice and were really happy with how it came out.

OS: Final words, as our recorder runs out?
Jeremy: Listen to Joyce Manor!

'Parting The Sea Between Brightness And Me is out now on Deathwish Inc.