Point North: Unplugged
- Holly Bullard
- Feb 6, 2019
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 21, 2019
Point North is an LA-based alternative pop punk band. They are currently on tour with As It Is, Sharptooth and Hold Close for the second act of The Great Depression tour. We recently had the opportunity to catch up with them for an interview before one of the shows, so we asked a few questions about the band itself and upcoming projects.
AU: Where did y’all get the name Point North from? Were there other options that didn’t make the cut?
Brady: There's a funny story with that actually, so Point North's been a band for like 2 years now, we didn't really start doing anything until April but when we were naming the band we like had this groupchat that was just everyone would throw names out, like a lot of the times I'd see something on the street and just throw it in the chat just "I don't know if I like that but here." I don't remember who said Point North, it might've been Jon, I don't really know. We had one though that we made a Facebook page for, the funny story about it is that it actually became a movie. We had this name called "The Space Between Us" that's like some kid from mars.
Sage: I thought you said some kid from Mars took the name
Brady: No, no, no. That would've been tight! I would've been fine with that! So literally like we made the Facebook page like checked out and we added band to it and literally like a week later the movie got announced and all of us were like "What the fuck?!" Anyways I don't know how Point North happened, it just did. AU: When you first started the band, did you think you’d be where you are now? Sage: I don't know about you but for me when I joined the band, no offense to the band, I didn't really think anything of it. I was just kind of like, "This is something I like and the music is really good. I think my drive to music could be put in this and it could work out." And it did and it's great! I didn't think much about it, I kinda let life take it's thing and move with it. I just put faith in the universe. Brady: Like I said with us, the band died so we were like in Point North but it didn't mean anything then our record went away for a minute too until it got re-released. Right now we're like, "This is cool." AU: Sage what's it like being in two different bands? Sage: So Point North is the only band currently that I play with, well I also play with Blossum. I don't know, I grew up playing in many bands. As a drummer it works out in a sense, I'm not really in the front so not a lot of people remember me, but it's really easy. I think it's really easy when both bands have everything together, the music is there, the shows are there, it makes my job a lot easier. So I think that's the only saving grace about it. Brady: You also like fill in for everyone! Sage: Yeah I do, it's like a joke everyone's like "Who's Sage playing with tonight?" It's crazy, like before I joined Point North I was playing with these people off Disney and The X-Factor and I was also playing drums for this YouTuber named Dave Days. It was funny like me transitioning into the band just kind of worked but I remember that was the thing. It was cool, you learn to balance it and all that.
AU: Are there any moments that you’re working towards that’ll make you truly believe you’ve made it as an artist?
Brady: That's a great question, cause it's always like people, especially with any goals in life, they're always chasing something where they feel like satisfied with where they are. But I don't know if there's actually a point with that because I think the second that you're like, "Hell yeah," then you don't get better.
Sage: For me, I spend so much time focusing on the big goals, so when the little goals happen I don't really notice it. Like there's so many moments where it's like "We did this and this," you kind of appreciate it then in the moment. Brady: Headlining, there you go. Or bigger tours Sage: Maybe like a headlining tour or just more of this. AU: In 2018 your band’s songs were streamed 1 million times on Spotify, what did all of you think when you found that out? Was it shocking or did you expect the number to be so high?
Sage: I did not it expect it to be so high, I remember we all tripped out for sure. I don't remember the circumstances, we were probably all hanging out and like we checked the Spotify for artists and I'm like "Oh we're at, oh a million and a half streams that's cool." It wasn't that chill though, we freaked out. Brady: It's a weird thing, like I said man, we're coming from absolutely zero expectations, where it was nothing before like April 18th or whenever the fuck Hammer dropped. Like every day we wake up, it's funny, it's almost a running joke at this point we wake up everyday and look at Spotify for artists and we're like "Yesterday was the best day ever on Spotify," cause it was. Sage: It's crazy too, us and our crew, we'll wake up like "You see this shit? Look at these numbers! 10,000 monthly listeners last night?" We don't take it for granted though. It's really nice, like we appreciate it and we're super thankful for everything because it's a really cool dream to come true. We just gotta keep our eyes out for it.
AU: You guys seem to be good friends with Oh, Weatherly, is there a possibility of you guys touring together in the future?
Brady: I hope! I love those boys, so Blake's at my house right now, he's like dogsitting, him and Susy have been hanging out everyday. But I love those boys, I've toured with them already.
Sage: For sure! They're like our closest band friends. Brady: We don't have any plans right now cause they're doing their own thing. But more than likely. Sage: In the future it will happen, even if it's like 3 days it'll probably happen. We'll come to Texas to play those shows. Brady: I don't know if I wanna hint at it. There is a possibility but I don't know.
AU: Speaking of touring, how’s it been so far touring with As It Is? Did you ever expect to be touring with them?
Brady: It's been really dope!
Sage: Yeah, they're the nicest people in the entire world. Patty and I like watch Sharptooth almost every night together. But I didn't expect to get this tour, we literally didn't know.
Brady: They hit us up like out of the blue, I think it was in July me and Timmy were just downstairs making coffee and we both have the band Gmail notifications on our phone. We both looked at our phones and I look at him and I'm like, "What the- We're going on tour!"
Sage: I was in class and I looked at it and they were like, "Hey we're going on tour!"
Brady: And the night before Ben and Foley had tweeted about the band and we were like "That's really cool." And then the next morning we got the email. AU: Just over a week ago you guys released your new single “Gasoline” what was the writing process like for the song, and what made you guys decide to have Timmy and Andy sing on it?
Brady: I guess we'd have to kinda break down the whole writing process, which is we kinda just write a lot, we write a lot of instrumentals and then Jon kinda does these melodies over it, then we kinda refine from there, write lyrics and everything. When Timmy joined we wanted to start incorporating him singing cause he was the singer in 7 Minutes In Heaven. Andy was the singer of a band that Jon and him were in years ago called Lesser, it sounded like Movements kinda. I don't know if I was awake when they did that. Sage: I showed up the next day and his part was there! I was like, "Yeah I like it!" Brady: Yeah it sounds cool! A lot of people think he sounds like the dude from Rise Against Sage: I think he sounds like Benji Madden. Brady: I've had a couple people text me like, "Is that the fuckin Madden brother?!," so I'm like, "No that's my goofy ass guitarist!" Sage: Andy came up with intro part and I remember for the drums at least we had come up with these ideas for what the parts should be, but when we went in to track I kinda changed like everything. I did my own thing with it and it just became a song. It came together so easily, just like this EP we're putting out next week. AU: If you could pick any song of yours, which one would you want to be remembered by?
Sage: Godspeed! Brady: I literally was gonna say that's my favorite song! Dude it's our most like underrated song! AU: I was so mad y'all weren't playing it live!
Sage: Can I tell you a secret? That was originally the first song on the set for the show.
Brady: Oh yeah we dropped it!
Sage: It was originally like, "Intro: Godspeed," but we had to cut time.
AU: You should've kept it!
Sage: I tried, I tried so hard!
Brady: We had to go by what had the highest streams, cause people would probably know that. Except for fucking Hammer.
AU: Everyone was so mad that you didn't put Hammer on the setlist!
Brady: Everyone was so mad!
Sage: It'll get it's justice.
Brady: People online have been so fucking funny, the one chick that was doing the Fortnite dance!
AU: Nico!!
Brady: Yeah she's hilarious! She posted one last night that was like "Doing nothing until Point North does nothing."
Sage: She came up to us for a photo and I was like "You're the girl that eats the photo of Awsten!," like I watched that whole thing go down.
Brady: She literally came up to us and like taught Sage how to whip.
AU: Are there any tours, projects, etc. in the works that fans should keep an eye out for?
Sage: I don't wanna say anything.
Brady: I wish we could.
AU: Can you at least hint at something?
Brady: We're gonna be touring all year.
Sage: Expect us to be touring a lot and expect a bunch of music. I wish I could say but I can't just expect us to be back. This won't be the last time you see us here.
Point North just released their second EP "Retrograde" on February 1, 2019. Check it out on Spotify, Apple Music, or any streaming service. Catch them on one of the upcoming dates of The Great Depression: Act II tour and be sure to keep an eye out for upcoming projects the future! All social medias will be linked below.
Follow Point North on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pointnorthband/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/PointNorthBand
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pointnorthband
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