Gym Class Heroes, a four-man hip-hop group from Geneva, NY, will be stopping at Douglass during their “The Daryl Hall for President Tour ’07.” This 42 date national tour is the group’s first headlining tour, and they will be bringing along RX Bandits, P.O.S. and k-os as well.
The band, as well as its unlikely name, got its start when lead singer Travis McCoy and drummer Matt McGinley became friends in gym class. Since then, the group has appeared on MTV and the Warped Tour and have toured with the All-American Rejects.
In 2004, they were signed to Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz’s label, Decaydance Records. The band plays live instruments and often references other groups, songs and people in their lyrics.In an interview with CT, McGinley offered some remarks on the band’s new found fame, the naming of the new tour and being on the road.
What made you decide to call this tour “The Daryl Hall for President Tour ’07?”
Daryl Hall, as we all know, is an iconic musician from the late ’70’s, producing songs such as “Maneater” and “Rich Girl.” A lot of us in the band are into to late ’80’s music and Travis is a huge Hall and Oates fan, so we just thought it’d be some funny shit to call our tour.
How has the band reacted to this national tour with mostly sold out dates?
It is really, really, cool when people come to your show, and it is even cooler when your show sells out. The first week of the tour is sold out and it’s a really good feeling. I remember not that long ago being concerned about getting a hundred people to come to a show, so it’s cool to see how far we’ve come in this amount of time.
Every track on “As Cruel as School Children” has a certain school period title (“10th Period: Biters Block,” “Intramurals: Cupid’s Chokehold.”) How did you come up with this theme?
Before “The Papercut Chronicles,” we had the idea to name the album “The Never Ending Trip to the Principal’s Office,” so it’s always been a running theme that we’ve wanted to use. Then, when the latest album started materializing and we were looking at all the songs, they all had a certain theme about them and Travis called me up and suggested “As Cruel As School Children.”
The new album has a polished sound. How did you adjust to large scale production since you signed with Atlantic Records?
When we first thought about writing songs, we were always interested in hip-hop, rock, punk and jazz. But when we started writing songs, we had a rock song, then a jazz song. As we developed our sound and we did more recordings, we were able to mesh those genres into one sound. Even “Paper Cut Chronicles” was out on a label, but we did that before we were signed. That copy of the album was kind of a rare thing, to do something in four days, on our own budget, using borrowed money from friends and then having it become successful.
You’re coming to Rochester with three great artists, The RX Bandits, P.O.S. and k-os. How do you feel about going on tour with these great acts?
When we go on tour, we love to watch all the bands, but we’ve been on some tours where we haven’t felt that connection with the other groups. On this tour, our first headline tour, we picked artists with whom we could play. But they’re awesome bands, and it’s cool to watch our favorite groups night after night. When it came to making the bill for it, we knew we had to get some serious artists.
Are there any surprises for the sold out show next Friday?
My answer to that is definitely.
Harris is a member ofthe class of 2008.
