Getting to Know… Count Me In | Interview

For Interview #17 of our ‘Getting to Know’ series, The Musical Hype gets the scoop about Canadian pop-punk band, Count Me In.

As 2018 nears a close, there’s still music to be made, and plenty of music to be heard.  Often, as a music blogger and critic, I find myself questioning how I missed so many new albums from mainstream, major-label musicians.  Perhaps the better question is, how did I miss so many rising, up-and-coming bands and solo artists? That’s one great thing about the Getting to Know interview series, which has focused on up-and-coming artists primarily.  The latest rising stars, pop-punk collective Count Me In, hails from Canada – specifically Kelowna, British Columbia.  Fresh off releasing their debut, full-length record, How’s Your Heart, Kid? (August 24, 2018), The Musical Hype gets the scoop regarding the band from guitarist/vocalist Jason Keeley.

Brent Faulkner, The Musical Hype (BF): Let’s get this started off right. For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Count Me In distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

Jason Keeley, Count Me In (JK): What makes us distinct or unique? Absolutely nothing. For real though – We aren’t here, trying to reinvent the wheel. We grew up listening to pop punk and we wanted to write music that was a love letter to our yesteryears. Our goal is to remind you of your old favorite band when you were an angsty, immature adolescent.

BF: “Angsty, immature adolescent,” huh? Love it! Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Count Me In form, and what were some of the goals or the visions the band early on?

JK: Alex [Thompson] and I started the band back in 2010ish. I think the year keeps changing every time somebody asks. We came together due to a passion for the pop punk genre, and a lack of those in our local scene representing that genre. Our goals and visions were lofty at first to say the least. We wanted to be like every band and put out a ton of records, tour the world and live out that rock star dream.

BF: Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

JK: Goals and perspectives definitely leveled out along the way. Being more realistic, the music business is a tough cookie to crack and there isn’t a lot of money to be made in it. We all would love to play music full-time, but we also have jobs, houses, and families. Some of us have kids or are about to be having kids so it’s not like we can just go tour 10 months of the year. Right now, all we want to do is make music we are proud of and see where that takes us. Maybe play a few shows along the way too.

BF: Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Who would you consider some of your/the band’s biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

JK: We are all influenced by different bands and artists which is why it’s so much fun to create together. As far as pop punk bands go, I’d say some of our biggest influences are blink-182, New Found Glory, All Time Low, The Starting Line, Mayday Parade and Eternal Boy just to name a few. Those bands all influenced us because they are just dudes, being dudes playing music and that’s all we ever wanted to do. They aren’t in it for the fame, or the money but to play music that inspires them with the hope that their art goes on to inspire others to do the same.

BF: Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

JK: When we did our first cross Canada tour, it was the same year that Tinder became huge. Alex and our merch guy Nick were dabbling with it and Nick ended up meeting up with a girl who had a viral video on the internet at the time. Some video of her in a classroom using the perspective of the camera to look like was picking this dude’s nose that was sitting a row or two behind her. He had no idea she was doing it but right as she was pretending to pick his nose, the dude sneezes and that’s the video. Anyway – Nick was super proud of himself for hooking up with her since she was basically famous for a day and a half. I hope you didn’t want this answer to actually be music related…

BF: Ha – that’s definitely one of the more unique stories I’ve heard yet! Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

JK: It’s hard to say – They are all our ‘babies.’ If I had to pick one song to forever define us, it would probably be “She’s Your Problem Now.”  It’s a song we’ve been playing for a long time now and I think is a shining example of all the things Count Me In has to offer.

BF: Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you or other members from the band? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

JK: Alex and I have this uncanny ability to trick really talented musicians into playing with us. I don’t know how we do it, but Dave and Ryan are easily the best guitar player and drummer that we know. Even before that, we would get people who were much better than us to play music with us despite us barely knowing how to play our own instruments. That’s our gift – get people who know what they’re doing so it looks like we do too.

BF: Sounds good to me! Closing this thing out, what is you/your band currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? The Musical Hype love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

JK: Right now, we are just promoting our latest full-length record, How’s Your Heart, Kid?  that came out a couple months ago. Other than that, we are just ‘sitting pretty’ while we all do our own thing until the stars realign and we’re together, ready to rock out with our… well, ‘you know what’s’ out.

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