Earlier this year we were lucky to catch Saosin on the Bangkok date of their South East Asia tour, where we also got to chat to frontman Cove Reber.

Well, we are back with them again ahead of both their appearance at Rock Alarm Festival but also their huge Self-Titled Anniversary Australian Tour with Senses Fail.

This time, we got to chat to Chris Sorenson to talk about the band’s special connection with Australia (especially Perth), self-titled as an album and some of the lore of Saosin.

This Australian tour, you’re celebrating 20 years of self-titled. Did you ever envisage when you were writing this album, back in the day that it would be so loved decades later? 

Chris: No, you know, how do we put it? At the time when we made the record, we were young, we’re very young in the grand scheme of where we are now. So we were like very, I think I was 22 or 23, maybe 22, 23. And the way that we kind of operated was we had a very blind, a very outspoken confidence, but that was just more of a joke that we had. That, like every song was the best song. Every riff was the best riff. This is gonna be huge, so on, so forth. But I think the way that it rolled out, and obviously when it rolled out, it took a second. It took a little bit of time. Actually, the first place that we played after it came out, we had played very few shows, with AFI in the States. And then actually we flew straight to Australia. So our first shows on that record were actually in Australia on the Taste of Chaos International Tour.

So that was in the beginning of October of 20 of 2006. And that was our first time in Australia too. We were playing on the side stage of this bigger stage. And  I remember our first show there was Perth and we met the guys from Parkway Drive right when they started. I remember just watching Ben, the drummer and being like, [shakes head]…

But I was in Perth and I just wanted to go see the Indian Ocean or something crazy, you know?

That’s brilliant. 

And so for me, that was like a big, that was enough for me. Like just, I got the record, we got the record done, and we got to go fly to Australia, to Perth to the farthest place from anything. And I got to ride like the train and go swim in the Indian Ocean. And it took, like I said, about a year for us to actually catch on for that record. And I think it had a lot to do with just kind of the nature of the music business at the time. But it never really fully occurred to us till I think, like, honestly 2020/2021 when we actually realised like maybe we had made something that could stick around for a long time.

I think it really had to take some time for us to realise that, just because when you’re caught up in it, and especially, you know the way the band works with, our band is you know, we put that record out in 2006, and then in 2010 we had, well historically we had in 2004, we had to find a new singer.

2006, we put this record out, 2010, we have to find a new singer, and then we get our old singer back, and then all of a sudden it’s 2016, 10 years after, and it’s the last thing on our mind is that record. You know? 

Then, like I said, about 2020 is where we started to really realise like, oh, like maybe we did make something that was, around the time, not timeless or anything like that, but just like had the legs of music that we grew up listening to and we liked. And maybe that was, that music was like that for other people. Honestly, just the fact that we’re able to come back to Australia and Australia will be the first place that we play on the anniversary tour, which I think is somewhat…

Symbolic a little bit.

Yeah. It’s a little bit symbolic. The first place we played when the record came out and the first place we get to play when we’re celebrating 20 years of it, I think it was a big deal. Ironically, off topic but it, ironically, I think we’ve, we’ve learned to accept the lore of the band, but Cove’s last show ironically was in Perth before we let let him go the first time, like in 2011, or I’m sorry, 2010. We decided it would be smart to, you know, in hindsight maybe it wasn’t, but we decided it would be a good and that was Cove’s last show, and it was, and even more ironically and even more into the lore of the band- it was seven years to the date of our first show ever. 

You know, we have a song called Seven Years. So it was like seven years after the first show. Seven years to the day it was Cove’s last show in Perth. Craziness. 

So you got so many, so many like little synchronicities. 

So it’s, it’s insane. The whole thing is, I think when you’re part of something, especially a part of something that involves a group and a thing that transcends you, which is music, it’s hard to associate the things you can only watch as a, as an innocent bystander as things happen to you and you’re part of ’em. And  this record is definitely one of those.

Wow. You’ve definitely answered a lot of my questions that I had coming up, which is amazing. So you were last here in 2023, wasn’t it?

Mm-hmmm. 

So since you guys were here last, Cove’s actually back. I was lucky enough to catch you guys in Bangkok. Which was a great show. And it was awesome to see him back with the band. Does it feel like now he’s been back for a while and you’ve been doing all these festivals and these other tours and everything like that, that you’’ve reached kind of a point of stability again?

Uh, yeah. I think we miss this, we miss some stability. There’s a term that happens sometimes in relationships, like when you date somebody, you have a one night stand with somebody, and then you, maybe you see ’em a few years later and you’re like, oh, maybe there was something there that we missed out on when we had that Wild Night at fricking Full Moon party in Thailand, you know? And I think what we were kind of involved in, in both ends, which is with Anthony and from Anthony’s point of view and our point of view with Anthony- we love Anthony. There’s no ill will, but I think, at least from my standpoint, the only band that I knew creatively was the band that Cove was in. I didn’t write the first EP, Translating The Name. I wasn’t part of the writing process, the recording process. I literally joined like a month before the first show because the bass player Zach quit. So my experience limited experience with Anthony for the year was literally just touring for less than seven months. So we just toured and kind of got to know each other, and then he split and did, went and did his thing. So my experience was always more comfortable with Cove. My songwriting came about in the band, like the first song that we had, the first song that we released with Cove on it, that we wrote with Cove was a song called ‘Bury Your Head’. And that was a song I wrote. So it wasn’t a thing that was an element of the band when Anthony was in it. 

So now I think, we played a show and we had done a few shows where Cove come out and sang, when Anthony was in the band from 2015, Anthony was back in the band from 2014 to to 2023, so 10 years. And there was a few times Cove come out and sang a couple songs and it was cool. It was a little nostalgic, but again, we didn’t really realise that what was going on with those songs. And then we did a show where we kind of celebrated the 20 year anniversary of the band, which is 2023. We had Anthony and Cove. Cove did a set and then Anthony did a set.

And I think what we realised that day was just that there was a little bit of something that we were longing for, that we had forgotten that did exist. That kind of temperament and the kind of, and honestly, just the way Cove sings. Cove’s voice, that resonates kind of with the way that I personally write music.

So when we did another tour with Cove kind of back in the band, which was 2023, we did an Asian run actually with Defying Decay and it took me a second actually because it was something that was…there was a… there was something… it was to that same sentiment where I didn’t realise I missed something until it was happening again. And it was a little bit of a jarring experience for me. I tend to be the more emotional person in the band. So it was a little bit jarring and sentimental, but a little bit jarring for me. But as soon as we really started to focus on reconciling, if you will, with Cove and obviously there, and to be honest, there wasn’t like a huge amount of, we didn’t need to go, it wasn’t like some kind of monster Metallica or some group therapy session or anything like that. It was literally just setting up an intention and being honest with that intention and being like, look, you know, this sounds like a great idea. If you want to do it, let’s do it.

Then we got an offer for, like we had done When We Were Young with Anthony in 2022, a big festival in Las Vegas, and we got an offer to do it exclusively with Cove. And so for us, that was a sign that we should, we should reconsider the, the fourth, the fourth chapter of the band, which was what we call sales in 4.0. And then from there things just kind of started to pour in- in a lot of ways. It’s a lot of stuff that we’re just used to doing, like going to Australia, you know, it’s like something that we used to do every two years. Um, and here we are, well obviously be three years at this point, but here will be back in three years on the normal US band in Australia [tour]. And we’re treating it as a normal band would, come and do a normal show. And that we still have to show up and we definitely know what Australian crowds are gonna need. They require the band to to fulfil their investment. Right.

I think that of Australian fans, and I actually respect…I appreciate that. I’m a stickler when it comes to shows. If I pay for a ticket and the show isn’t worth the time and the money, then I’m gonna be pissed. And I think that there’s a level of accountability that comes with the Australian fan base, and I think there’s a level of, that we in the states, we tend to take for granted. If a show sucks, like if I went to a Morrissey concert and he cut the set after three songs, I’d want him skinned. You know, I don’t… I never want to be in that position. Obviously things can happen, but I think what we’re really looking forward to is that we have to be on our A-game for this record and whatever else we end up playing, which is, you know, will probably be another batch of the most well-known songs after the record. But we have to be on our A game. And then we’ll also have to be on our A game from the first show to the last show because this will be the first time we’re back demonstrating, or trying to prove, that it’s worth it to come see this 20 year anniversary of this record.

Well you guys have never really treated us like a faraway fanbase, because you’ve come back so regularly and you’ve been here so many times. Recently I was talking to Armor for Sleep, who are coming for the first time, whereas you guys aren’t going to be this emo nostalgia act- you’ve already created this relationship with the Australian fans.

It’s insane that some bands have not been to Australia. It’s crazy to me.

I was so surprised when I found that out. Because we have a similar relationship with Silverstein, who were here recently as well. So how does it feel to be able to bring Senses Fail, kind of bring this what is sort of being painted as almost an emo nostalgia tour here? Do you kind of look at that and go, ah, that’s not what this is? Or what’s your relationship with that kind of title?

Well, I mean, I’m pretty realistic about that. We’re kind of riding the nostalgia wave a little bit. The bands that we played with, I mean, we’re old, we’re in our forties and so [laughs] but I, you know, and do I think that when Coldplay comes through every time? Coldplay’s been around for 30 years, are they trying to feel like a nostalgic band or are they trying to feel like a current band? I don’t know if that’s the way things are in the music industry. There’s not as much room to be just ‘hey, take us for who we are right now’. And I agree because it’s just like, I don’t necessarily want to hear a band come and play a whole new record only or something like that, you know. But I will say is that we, I can say with confidence that, I think in our ear, probably in the first times that we played Australia, we weren’t as good as we are now. And that’s the totality of it. 

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It’s not only just like, well how good do the guitars and the drums sound and how well do they play ’em? But I think the show that we bring…I think the show that we bring is better than it would’ve been 20 years ago because we were just kind of young and scrappy and didn’t really, and couldn’t hear that well, and so on, so forth. And I think the same goes for Senses Fail too. I think that they’re at the best. They’re at the best level as far as energy and craft and all that good…like the show is gonna be a real show. It’s gonna be a real, I call it hardcore show, but, you know, whatever, whoever they call it now these days. You know, it’s gonna be a real show. You know, like I might…jump into the crowd. I might be jumping into the crowd or something like that. Something that would not be something typical of, I think of other people in, of our age group, in other types of genres, you know? So I’m not scared or anything like that. I think the hardest selling point for us is just realising that we’re gonna bring something that isn’t diluted and there’s no guessing as far as what you’re gonna get. And there’s not gonna be any age related slowdown or that like, you know, which happens. I mean, there’s some bands out there that I’m just like, hang it up.

Australian fans.
You can catch Saosin touring with Senses Fail in April next year.

Dates below and you can find tickets here.

And Thailand, (and people willing to make their way over) don’t forget, Saosin will be appearing at Rock Alarm Festival in February.

Tickets on sale now, check out our guide for more information.