Interview: Warped Tour (Video Interviews)

Warped Tour

I went out and talked to a variety of people and bands at Warped Tour this year. I also had some fun with some of the artists and had them respond to YouTube comments and, for fun, sing some public domain songs as well. I’ve broken up all of these interviews for your viewing pleasure.

Regular Interviews

Bands Respond to YouTube Comments

Bands Sing Public Domain Songs

GoFundMe Started for Warped Tour Medic

Warped Tour

A GoFundMe for Warped Tour’s medic, Travis, has been started:

In the course of his job as a music tour medic, Travis is usually the one to be helping others, keeping them safe and healthy while they are away from home. While on tour in Spring of 2018, he went to the nearest hospital because he was not feeling right. That hospital sent him on his way, telling him he was fine. Unfortunately they missed the cancer that had developed and Travis wasn’t diagnosed until he returned home in the summer. Because of this, he missed valuable treatment time.

It will never not depress me that we live in the richest nation in the history of the world … and people have to crowd fund for medical expenses.

Warped Tour is over. Will the culture it created reckon with its demons?

Warped Tour

Taylor Telford, writing at The Washington Post:

Overlooking the sins of powerful artists has felt intolerable in the era of #MeToo, but at Warped, taste is tethered to identity, and what comes next for its audience is complicated. The tour has flourished because much of its music is confessional and intimate. It fosters a devotion in the young, marginalized and vulnerable that rarely fades with age. Now fans are wrestling with whether the culture can adapt and evolve, or whether its worst roots run too deep. […]

Until I got to college, I actively disliked female musicians. I was enamored with the myth of the tortured artist; I chased it not only in my taste but also in my personal relationships. Now I wonder if some of these failures can be traced back to the music that shaped me. In part, I want to scrub myself of its influence. The problem is that I wouldn’t know myself without it.

This entire piece is really good. I hope this music scene can learn from the mistakes of the past. Sometimes I see signs of progress, and sometimes I am at a loss for words.

Oral History of the 2005 Warped Tour

Warped Tour

Chris Payne, writing over at Billboard:

Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance played Warped in ‘04 and after drawing fervent crowds, were signed on for the next year early; by the time June ‘05 rolled around, “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Helena” were MTV staples, improbably climbing the Hot 100. 700,000 kids came out that summer, more than any Warped before or since (for context, last year pulled 300,000). Individual bands regularly sold over $30,000 of merch per day. Bodyguards were needed for the first time. At summer’s end, the tour’s profits hit seven figures. But Warped’s summer-long slog paid another price; across 48 shows in 59 days, musicians and personnel grappled with oversized egos, volatile — if not occasionally hostile — environments, and a sideshow’s worth of distractions far from home, with a massive mainstream audience suddenly watching.

Women on the Warped Tour

Warped Tour

Steve Knopper, writing at The New York Times:

The New York Times spoke to 75 women and nonbinary musicians who have performed on the tour, many of whom echoed NPR Music’s Ann Powers, who recently criticized Warped as a “wild boys’ paradise.” Some divulged #MeToo stories; others ripped bands known for making misogynistic remarks onstage.

The Death of the Compilation CD: How the Industry Has Changed Since 1996

Records

I’m sure all of us can remember where we were when we either purchased, or were given from a friend, one of the annual Warped Tour compilation soundtracks. It signified the beginning of the Summer concert season, and another year to look forward to the annual Warped Tour. Now that the Warped Tour is on its last legs, with its final installment coming this Summer, one has to wonder about what will happen to the compilation CD that we have been expecting ever year since 1996.

The history of the compilation CD is a complicated one, much like the changing music industry over the past three decades. During the CD “boom” of the 90’s, it seemed like a ton of music buyers were looking for inexpensive ways to find out about new bands, or to sample tracks from their favorite artists’ upcoming album. The compilation CD was a great way to not only save money by not investing fully in a ton of individual albums, but also to discover artists that you may not have ever considered checking out otherwise.

Read More “The Death of the Compilation CD: How the Industry Has Changed Since 1996”

Warped Tour’s Final Run to Be Filmed for Four-Part Series

Warped Tour

Variety is reporting that Warped Tour’s final run will be filmed for a four-part series on the tour:

“The documentary that we’re putting together is really about the legacy of the tour,” director DJay Brawner tells Variety. “Of course, this year being the final year it’s important for us to capture moments from the culmination, but what we’re really trying to put together is a story about how the tour started and grew over the last 24 years, with all of it culminating with the final day and what that means for this team of people, the future of the brand and everything in between.