Warped Tour: Gym Class Heroes
Written by Lisa Rahman
Photos by Francesca Wahking
Date: Sept 30, 2008
Decaydance Records produced some of the most noted artists this year including Tyga, Panic at the Disco and Gym Class Heroes. Gym Class Heroes uses an eclectic mix of hip hop and rock to create a new genre that has never been heard of before. The group consists of Travis McCoy, Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo, Eric Roberts and Matt McGinley. Their two singles this year, Cupid’s Chokehold and Clothes Off! has taken over radio airwaves all year. They’ve appeared three times at Warped Tour and has worked with many artists like Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy, Lil’ Wayne and Busta Rhymes. Their new EP, the Quilt, released on September the 9th and are on tour this fall with the Roots and Estelle.

Mutedmag writer, Lisa Rahman, discusses the new CD with Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and Matt McGinley at this year’s Warped Tour.

Band's website: Gymclassheroes.com



GCH: Oh my god, what is this? It's massive!

Muted Magazine: It's a mp3 player, it's like a brick.

GCH: [yelling into it] Check check, right, left… mic check. We're easily amused.

MM: Everybody's pretty amused by that thing. So your band has a really rock and hip hop sound, but for each genre there's generally a different fanbase, so what do you think makes you guys succesful combining rock and hip hop?

GCH: It's natural like it's come out in a very natural way... it's not like rap-rock, like Limp Bizkit or Korn. It's kind of like, I dunno, I do respect those bands but ours is more of a kind of natural integration for all of our influences. We didn't set out to go and say, 'Oh we're combine those genres with our music,' we're just playing music that we like and it just happened to come out that way.

MM: Cool. I read that you guys started out playing birthday parties and festivals and stuff like that. So how did you make the transition from smaller things to huge events like Warped Tour?

GCH: DiSashi and I aren't original members but I'd say we both had our fair share of playing basement parties and small-ass bars and clubs. We were both asked to be in the band under the same circumstances too - being asked to play shows with other bands, so it was a pretty steady transition with a lot of touring, a whole lot of touring. Put it this way - last year we did a little over 300 shows.

MM: Wow.

GCH: And it's been that way for pretty much three or four years now. If you have something people like or that will appeal to people if you put it out there as much as possible, eventually it'll catch on. Persistence and patience I guess. And a little bit of luck, as long as it doesn't suck. If you're going out there and trying to make people like something, that's a whole different story. We just had a clique and made our clique a little bit bigger.

MM: Alright. You guys also recently collaborated with Kelly Rowland - are there any other bands or singers you want to join forces with?

GCH: It's been awesome on this last album we just recorded. We collaborated with Derryl Hall and Busta Rhymes. I mean, those were pretty huge. Busta Rhymes was one of the first people I ever listened to, so it's kind of exciting for me. For the VMAs we did a collaboration with Neo and that went over so well, and you know he's a songwriter too, so if he would do a song with us that would be pretty amazingly awesome. Neo was like, a choice, as far as coming up with a listenable song, but if I really had a choice to collaborate I'd probably choose Dethklock. That would be a really good collaboration.

MM: You guys were also on Radio One's Live Lounge recently, and you said you're fans of the Arctic Monkeys. How have they influenced your music?

GCH: I would say we're fans of them but I would say we're fans of a lot of other music too. And so all the music we listen to kind of influences our sound similarly, and that we take piece by piece whatever feeling and put it in to our music or our shows. We did a cover of one of their songs for a long time, Leave Before the Lights Come On, and we did a whole tour playing that one set. By the end of the song the crowd was like, 'Awesome!' 'cause they get it.

MM: As you know, lately there've been reports of an incident at Warped Tour. Have you guys have any other unpleasant experiences on the road so far?

GCH: [nervous laughter] Well we were in Detroit yesterday and our bike got stolen, and one of our friends got punched in the face by a random hooligan. That was just unnecessary but other than that it's been really pleasant. The thing that sucks is that we were having a great day and an awesome show and when one of our friends get punched in the face it really puts a damper on the entire experience, but I don't want that to overshadow 'cause overall it's been an amazing experience. As a band I would say we get over things pretty easily. We never really dwell on anything. We've just been conditioned that way because we were in a bad accident at the show the next day, you know what I mean? And our tour manager was seriously injured and things like that just happen and it's just another day on the road. We just gotta learn from it and keep going. I just call it rock n roll! [laughter]

MM: So what can we expect out of the new album?

GCH: September 9th. Basically it's more what we were talking about. We listen to a billion different bands, these bands that are awesome, these bands that represent the iPod generation. You can just go on there and make a mix of whatever kind of music you like, and this album is kind of like a mix tape basically. So if you're the kind of person who loves rock, you'll have a rock song on there. There's reggae influence songs, there's club songs, so. All of our influences are kind of pretty much in it. It's just altogether a music lover's album. If anybody's into music on any level, they're going like at least one song. That's a bold statement.

MM: How do you guys feel about people downloading your music? What do you think about the whole piracy issue right now?

GCH: Well here's the thing about that: it's definitely a catch 22. Any sort of exposure is good exposure whether it be free or not. I think there are more fair ways to get music from artists nowadays. It does hurt our pockets. Anybody who denies that is just a fool. But I think we're coming to the age where there will be more fair ways to get music from artists. There are bands that just tour because they don't make money and that's all there is to it. So if you like your band, support your band and don't be a dummy.

It's a good point it being a catch 22. The more people who download our music, the more people like our music, so it's kind of hard to hate on it. At the same time we could be waaay richer.

Waaay richer, man. Waaaay richer.

MM: Alright, well, thanks for the interview guys.

GCH: No problem, thank you.