Interview with Taylor Guarisco and Kirby Campbell from GIVERS

When: April 23, 2012

Paula Tesoriero: What do you like most about touring?

Taylor Guarisco: First thing that comes to mind is just being with my best friends and making each other laugh, you know? It’s beyond the glory of being in a band and beyond the excitement of seeing the world. It’s just being with people you love. It’s a very simple pleasure of life. It’s just like having a second childhood in a way. You know, I had my first family with my older brother, my older sister, my younger sister and we just got to love each other unconditionally and accept each other for who we are and now I have a second chance to do that with these people so I’m really grateful for that.

Kirby Campbell: My favorite part of touring is meeting people, and getting to see all of these crazy national parks, beaches, and wonders of the world that I would otherwise never see.

PT: What do you think of the ceiling of plankton video?

TG: I think it’s really cool. Mimi Cave was the director that came in and she just went her own direction with this idea and we thought she filmed it really beautifully and we went back and forth with some ideas. Music videos can be a weird thing, we’re learning a lot.

PT: Do you find you write more songs in rehearsal or on the road?

TG: It’s a weird thing being in this band, it’s like we’re on the road so much that we don’t really rehearse. We haven’t had a rehearsal in a while. Whenever we do acoustic shows we approach the music differently, so we rehearsed for that recently but we write songs on our own, we write songs together. It’s been hard because in a way I feel exhausted right now being on the road for so long. I have bags under my eyes and my voice is kind of strained. So we’re about to take a good break for the first time in two years. We haven’t taken a break longer than two weeks in the past two years. It’ll be our first month break and we’re excited for that.

PT: What do you miss most about your home?

TG: First off, without thinking about it, is sleep. My first thing is sleep. I miss sleeping 8 hours, I like sleeping. Second is my family. My younger sister is the coolest chick ever and she’s my best friend and I just like hanging out with her. You know just simple things. Being in my own bed, showering in my own shower, little things.

KC: I miss a lot of things that I get to do at home. Like cooking, biking everyday, recording, writing music. Those things rarely happen on the road really.

PT: What has changed the most in the past year?

TG: I think in a year our relationship as a band has changed the most. Whenever you go through so much as we have as a band you kind of come to understand each other better more and more as people and you get to new levels of respect and love for each other. I can’t stress enough it’s like a second childhood. I had all these people as a kid who were there and loving me unconditionally, but they’re the first to tell you you’re an asshole. This band is the same way too. They love me unconditionally, but they’re able to help me be a better person and I hope I offer the same to them. So in a year, a lot has changed as far as all of us just kind of like seeing the same vision for this band and being together.

KC: Well I guess in the past year the main thing that changed was actually releasing the songs we’d been touring and recording for the past 3 years. So finally putting that out into the world and having people know the songs at shows is a totally new experience within the past year.