Eleven years is a long time for any band to stay together these days, but for the guys in Down With Webster (who have a combined average age of 24) those eleven years have culminated into a recipe for success. Their story is a success story not merely because of their recent signing to Universal Motown, but because they have been able to build up such a loyal following over those eleven years that it really feels like they were destined for stardom no matter what. The band consists of about ten “sometimes” members  and seven “constant” members who each have their own unique style and sound that they bring to the stage; which always results in a live show that cannot be beat! iheartthemusic caught up with four of their members: Tyler, Cam, Bucky and Pat right before their set at the PEACE DOT LOVE Music Festival- which was good timing for us as they have since been touring in the US on Warped Tour. Haven’t been to a show yet? You ARE missing out!

iheartthemusic:  We need to start by recognizing the fact that you have been together for SO long!

Tyler: Yeah, it was our eleventh anniversary last week.

iheartthemusic: Did you celebrate at all?

Tyler: We did! It was also Pat’s birthday.

Pat: It was my birthday and I was kind of overwhelmed with the birthday and the eleven year anniversary.

iheartthemusic: So fastforward eleven years and you have just recently signed to Universal Motown- congratulations!

Tyler: We did, thank you.

iheartthemusic: After hearing about your signing, I was really curious to find out what the process was like deciding to go the major route and why Universal Motown was your choice?

Tyler: The initial conversations that we had with them were really comfortable: we trusted them and they got the vision of the band. We talked to them a few times probably in the fall, they came to see a couple of our concerts and then just hanging with them in the studio we got a good feeling that if we are going to let someone on our team, that they would be good teammates.

iheartthemusic: Did you always know that you wanted to go with a major label?

Tyler: It’s definitely an unknown time in terms of whether that will be the right way to go and up until a month or so before we signed, we were still contemplating going independent and retaining more control of our career. That being said we were able to structure a deal where it wasn’t just sign a dotted line and let the big machine run your bed. We cut a deal that allowed us to keep control of our website and the relationship with our fans and our songs for that matter.

iheartthemusic: Well eleven years of having full creative control of your band would have been a huge shock for not only yourselves but your fans if you were to just give that all away.

Tyler: And if I were the guy at the label I would be pretty afraid of telling ten people at any given moment that he didn’t like what we were doing!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] Your numbers totally work to your advantage!

Tyler: It does!

iheartthemusic: I really feel like your live show is key to Down With Webster. From the props, to the clothing you wear- it is all uniquely “Webster”. So where did the whole live “act” originate from?

Cam: It originated from the idea of trying to make our shows more like parties than actual shows because from my experience kids want to party more than they want to just sit at a show. Our reasoning was why not try and fuse the two together and make it a great experience for you and the audience! I mean I want to party while I’m on stage.

Bucky: Exactly!

Tyler: Most concerts we go to, the band is off by eleven thirty and then everyone is wondering where they should go next. So we basically just tried to do a one stop shop and combine the music and the party.

Pat: It’s also fun for us! We think about what we want to be doing on stage which is not to just stand there and pour our heart out into the song and that is it. We can have Kap running around with a flag throwing stuff out into the crowd. It’s great!

iheartthemusic: Do you still get nervous at all when you go up on stage?

Tyler: I get nervous and our drummer gets butterflies pacing around half naked.

Bucky: That’s my home! That’s where I live.

Tyler: Part of being in a band is listening to your music so much during the recording process, so that by the time we are on stage we are so familiar with the material that we can totally have fun with it and not have to worry about the parts or the chords and all that stuff.

iheartthemusic: It must be a nice change to be recording new material. What has the recording process been like for this next album?

Tyler: To be honest we haven’t changed our recording process from before. We had a few meetings [with the label] and they asked us how we wanted to make this album: do we want to get a ranch by the lake or do we want to go to New York and do it there? We were like no we are going to keep doing this and at different moments if we want to step the recording process up a little bit we will go rent some better equipment. We were so happy when, the day after we signed, they came up to us and asked us how we wanted to do it and we told them and they gave us the thumbs up. They actually said we were the easiest band they had ever worked with because they didn’t need to rent out crazy studios or blow hundreds of thousands of dollars making music. So now we can spend more on touring and marketing and stuff.

Pat: And partying too!

Cam: We’ve always really been involved in the recording process. We’re not one of these bands who write a song, then rehearse it a bunch and then go into a studio and record it in one day.

iheartthemusic: Don’t you have your own studio?

Tyler: We kind of have a bunch of studios amongst the band.

Cam: A lot of guys will produce the music as we write the song so they will start off the recording and then it will be brought to an acceptable level. We like to be hands on and don’t like people telling us what to do every step of the way.

Tyler: What we’ve realized is that its not the case where you sign a deal and you get hooked up with a superstar producer and all of a sudden they are operating at this different level than you are. We’ve realized that if anything we have to stay in more control now because that’s how stuff starts to deviate.

iheartthemusic: From your first EP to the new album yet to be released, have you noticed any difference in your sound or are you sticking to the “tried, tested and true”?

Tyler: I think everyone just keeps stepping it up. In terms of the lyrics, one guy will bring a new thing to the table and then all of a sudden the bar just gets put higher and higher.

Bucky: It’s still Down With Webster, its just what we are doing now.

Cam: It’s a matter of a lot of us coming into our own and what exactly it is that we do; what our strengths are. A lot of our older stuff was experimental. It was all of us getting together in Tyler’s garage and just going at it. People have now found what their strengths are and it’s much more of a piece now with guys doing what they do best constantly.

iheartthemusic:  So you are more of a unit now?

Tyler: Exactly.

Pat: I think if you had played some of the newer songs to us three or four years ago when we were playing, we would have been in awe that we were actually going to grow that much and become that type of a unit.

Tyler: I guess that’s why you don’t see many teenage bands out there who write their own music because it takes a while to form exactly what you are doing. It’s a lot of trial and error.

iheartthemusic: So being such a large band, how does the writing process work for you?

Tyler: It really changes a lot of the time. Everyone is extremely musical so one day it will be one guy bringing it and then everyone adds their part. It changes all the time.

iheartthemusic: What is your musical background?

Tyler: Some are more classically trained than others and some are self-taught. Myself, Marty, Bucky and Pat are more classically trained. Cam taught himself how to produce and make beats and rap. A few of us went to music school together. I studied music at University, Pat’s done a bunch of conservatory stuff.

Pat: I just kind of hung around music a lot and read a lot of books and enjoyed it.

iheartthemusic: You are definitely the most unique and fashionable group of guys that I have come across and it almost seems like you each have your own unique style that represents your personality, but it all works together cohesively. So how does fashion play a part in Down With Webster?

Bucky: From our own characters we wear what we like to wear.

Cam: Our stage clothes are our street clothes. We dress like this all the time; this isn’t a stage getup. Personally, I’ve always been into fashion. In high school I was obsessed with what was coming out and when. When you hang out a lot with a group of people then your taste, its not that it changes, sort of meshes together so that you look like you are from the same “team” but we are still able retain our individuality.

Tyler: We used to think that all that matters is the music, but that’s not the case. It’s the total package.

iheartthemusic: Well you seem to have that down to a tee!

Pat: A lot of time when you talk to A&R people they say “it’s great because they don’t look like they hang out together” but I think a lot of bands take that the wrong way and think that they all have to dress the same. You see a band and they all look the same and you can’t really tell the characters and we are very diverse characters and so we have to show that in the way we dress ourselves. If there is something that I don’t want to wear, but the rest of the band is wearing, why should I wear it. Everyone kind of respects each others styles.

Tyler: Sometimes if we don’t like  what someone is wearing we just steal it and hide it from them!

iheartthemusic: [laughs] That’s the best way to rectify that “problem”!

Tyler: Things disappear all the time in this band.

iheartthemusic: So only US dates for Warped Tour, was that done by choice?

Tyler: Basically it was kind of in alignment with our deal. We were the last minute addition and I guess Canada had already filled up all their Canadian dates with Canadian acts so that’s the only reason we aren’t on it. We are so excited to finally get south of the border and play in front of some different kids and see how it works down there because from our MySpace we know that we have a US fan base so it will be neat to see what the turnout will be like in different cities. We have a lot of disappointed fans in Canada unfortunately.

iheartthemusic: Well I am sure they will still all be in attendance at your next Canadian date! Anything else you want to add?

Pat: For all the fans that will miss us on the Canadian Warped Tour dates: we will probably put on a big Down With Webster show at some point this summer that is not in a parking lot at three in the afternoon!

There you have it guys- a group who look out for their fans no matter what! Make sure you keep an eye out for when their album drops this fall across Canada!

photography provided by Matt Vardy & Carl Heindl