Nicole Lemberg caught up with Californian metalcore titans Of Mice & Men to talk about their upcoming reissue of 'The Flood', the band's mascot Squidgy, Austin's clothing line Aspire And Create and the Warped Tour experience...

June 24, 2012 Vans Warped Tour Ventura, CA

Nicole Lemberg: We are here with Austin Carlile of Of Mice & Men at the 2012 Vans Warped Tour.
Austin Carlile: What up?!
Nicole Lemberg: You guys are re-releasing "The Flood" with some new tracks-
Austin Carlile: We are.
NL: So, why don't you just put those tracks on the new album?
AC: Um, the sound of the re-issue is kind of a different step than what we have taken in the past and it's a little different than the step that we want to take in the future; but it's also music that we really felt like writing and our fans deserve new music and so we just said, we'll throw out a re-release, throw out some new songs, we'll let em take it and if they love it, they love it and if they don't, sorry. But a third album will be coming out shortly, we're actually, we've been working on writing it and it's gonna blow peoples minds out. If you already like Of Mice & Men, you'll love the third album and-
NL: You'll love em even more!
AC: Yeah, you'll love us even more! And if you don't like us now, you might like us after the new album comes out!
NL: Do we have a possible release date?
AC: I do not. I know the re-release comes out on July 24, 2012
NL: Alright, so tell us a little about squidgy, how he came about.
AC: *Laughs* Squidgy is our mascot that we won in a claw machine in a Walmart in Connersville, Indiana; population like 2,000, we were living there for like a month and we won him and I made a song about him and he just kinda blew up on the internet. Then we lost him in New Zealand, we were touring there and I think he ran away because it's so beautiful there, he just got lost in himself but people make us little fake ones of him and stuff so, he's in our hearts.
NL: Did you ever get that tattoo of him?
AC: No, every-, I have to do it now. Next time a tattoo artist comes around I'm gonna one, I'm gonna get him on my thigh. squidgy.
NL: Squidgy!
AC: It's gonna happen, you're gonna hear it first!
NL: And you have a clothing line, Aspire and Create.
AC: I do, I do.
NL: When did you decide that you wanted to do a clothing line?
AC: I've always kinda wanted a clothing line; I worked at feeding the homeless and I saw a guy one night and he didn't have a shirt on and I said, "Why don't you have a shirt?" and he said "Ah, I can't afford it!", and I was like "You're telling me, you can't go to Good Will and buy a shirt?" and I was messing around with him, and he's like, "I don't like any of that stuff!" *Laughs* And I thought in my head, ah, thats hilarious and I thought in my head, I was like , why don't I have someone to make me a bunch of shirts that are cool and give them to him. I brought the idea to my friend and my friend said, "Why don't you just do a whole line and have your own stuff and whatever you wanna do," and I said, "Ok!" I just kinda rolled with it.
NL: And now we have Aspire and Create!
AC: Yeah, yeah!
NL: How does it feel for you, doing the vocals on the new album? Do you have like a lot of pressure?
AC: There was a lot of pressure but I think I'm, I'm very confident with my vocals and how, I guess how my sound has matured, I matured as a vocalist and I'm really excited thatI got to do it all, I got to do every part of the re-release and go for it and the guys, we just went to the studio and they said, "Austin, get it man." and I just, I just did it. I spent four or five days, you know, doing it and I'm really stoked on it.
NL: Ok. So we saw you a few times and you scream a LOT and so, do you ever lose your voice?
AC: I do, I do lose my voice. I go on vocal rest a lot. If you see me and I don't talk or I just go, *waves*
NL: Sign language?
AC: Well yeah, because I'm not talking. Some people, I've heard, it was on Warped Tour, I wouldn't talk for a whole day and people would be like, "Austin's this…" and I'd be like, "I'm not mean, I'm not bad, I just can't talk! I mean, my job is 45 minutes a day and I save my voice so I can do my job.
NL: And who are some bands you look forward to seeing on the Warped Tour?
AC: Most of them. I love, The Used, Taking Back Sunday, Yellowcard, We The Kings, all the way to, The It! Boys, Breathe Carolina to Tomorrows Bad Seeds; um… all of them. That's what Warped Tour is for, for seeing new music and seeing bands of different genres and all kinds of things like that.
NL: We got a few more. What the most embarrassing thing to happen to you while performing?
AC: *Sighs*
NL: Too many?
AC: *Smiles* Too many; I fall off stuff a lot, I get stuck a lot, I get hurt a lot, I don't know. I embarrass myself a lot.
NL: Get a guitar in the face?
AC: Yeah, I did that today. I went to go give my bassist a hug and he hit me in the eye with my bass.
NL: He didn't want a hug.
AC: Yeah, not anymore.
NL: And last one, if you were a spongebob character, which would you be and why?
AC: Some days I would be Squidward, *laughs*, leave me alone and let me play music, right! And then other days, I'd definitely be Spongebob. just so peppy and happy and… awesome! and holy *Shakes head*
NL: That's all I have, thank you!
AC: Awesome, thank you so much!

Of Mice & Men release the re-issue of 'The Flood' through Rise on 24th July.
Of Mice & Men tour the UK in October with support from Memphis May Fire