Rockin' With... Forever Ends Here

Forever Ends Here, a four piece pop punk band, yep but what’s different? For starters, this band only started in late 2011 and has already supported acts such as Tonight Alive and Nine Sons of Dan, they’ve released their debut EP, toured most of the country and they’re still in school. I caught up with young front man, Luke McChesney, to get the low down on what’s happening in Forever Ends Here town.  

 

 

 

 

For someone who has never heard of you, how would you describe ‘Forever Ends Here’?

I guess we’re your usual pop punk band with a bit of a twist. We’ve basically mixed a few different sounds together and created a sound that is “us”. We try and interact with everyone and make everyone anyone feel welcome to come hang out at a show, our band is just a big party really, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

How did the band form and what’s the story behind the name?

Before Forever Ends Here, our members (minus Jackson) were in a 3 piece pop rock band I guess you could say. What we were doing got sort of out dated, and not even us ourselves were stoked on what we were doing anymore. We approached Jackson about joining the band and changing the name and genre a little for a fresh start, since then things seemed to piece together perfectly.
The name was one of a few we were tossing up between. The word ‘Forever’ came into it because we realised that we were stoked on what we had and really wanted it to last. But ‘Forever Starts Now’ sounded like shit, so we just swapped it around and agreed on ‘Forever Ends Here’. [Laughs]

For a band that only formed late last year, you’ve moved along rapidly playing alongside bands such as Tonight Alive, Some Time Soon, For Our Hero, Nine Sons of Dan etc. Who has been your favourite to play alongside so far and why? 

We’re stoked with how things have come along, and it’s so hard to choose favourite shows because every new fan that comes along to a show surprises us and we never know what to expect coming into the venue!
The opportunities have been rad though, in terms of the show, playing with The Never Ever at the lair was definitely a highlight. But at the same time, supporting Tonight Alive for our first official show was nuts. They’re the nicest people and they were a huge inspiration from the start, couldn’t have thought of a better way to kick it off.

In three words, how would you describe your live show?
Fun, party, idiotic.

I understand some of you would still be at school or just finishing up, do you think your age has affected anything with your music or how people perceive you? What do the other kids at school think of you? 

We were lucky with when we came into the scene. Older bands seem to be more acceptant of younger bands coming through the scene now. I guess always being around older people and hanging out at shows instead of school shit has helped us fit in without being seen as the “youngins”. In saying that, we avoid announcing our age straight off to make sure the first opinion is based on us as people and musicians, instead of stereotyping a maturity level as such.
School mates are mostly really supportive, although there’s times where you feel you’re always busy with band stuff and they come across as “second choice” as such. It’s hard to please everyone I guess, but I love all my friends, no matter how I meet them.

I also hear you used to be involved with musical theatre, can you tell us a bit about that? Why did you move away from it? And which was your favourite musical when you were younger? 

[Laughs] I was that typical “queer kid” who sang and danced from a young age. I started doing musicals in year 3 I think it was, had a few lead roles too. From memory I did the Wizard Of Oz, Suessical the Musical, Beauty and the Beast, and Sign of the Seahorse (I could be forgetting one or 2 [Laughs]). Constant rehearsing and performing just got too much I guess, I was still quite young when I stopped, at the time I felt as if I’d “grow up” a bit more if I wasn’t just that musical kid.
I always wanted to be in the lion king as Simba, that musical still goes the fuck off!

To view the whole gallery of Luke's Musical Theatre Photos, Click Here.

You’ve just released your debut EP, Your Happily Never After; tell us a bit about it? What were your inspirations writing and recording for this album? 

We actually wrote all the songs separately with no intentions of doing an EP straight off, simply because we’re just like any other “pop punk” band, that makes fuck all money to afford it [Laughs]. But just before we went on tour we hooked up a sweet deal with our mate Jack Newlyn from Some Time Soon who recorded and produced the EP from his home studio in Adelaide, so we just threw together our favourite and “most proud of tracks” for the record. A lot of the writing influence was from Tonight Alive’s debut album, a bit of Set Your Goals and You Me At Six as well. Around the time we recorded it I was really into We Are The In Crowd, which explains a lot of the sample effects that ad power and punch to the tracks I guess.

A debut EP is like a first impression when you meet someone, what first impression are you aiming with this EP? How would you like people to remember Forever Ends Here? 

I think we really just wanted to get our songs out there more than anything, we had made our first impression from our debut single ‘Head In The Clouds’ which we put a lot of money and time into. But the response we got was incredible; our fans really seemed to love the tracks, which means the world to us. We’ve already got people singing every word back at us at shows.

Who do you sight as your musical influences? And which musical acts do you personally enjoy listening to? 

I would have to say All Time Low, Mayday Parade, We Are The In Crowd, Set Your Goals, You Me At Six, Tonight Alive and Simple Plan have been the stand out influences to the music I write, but the list goes on forever. I listen to a bit of everything really, your pop punk bands like I mentioned then, as well as a lot of hardcore influenced bands like The Amity Affliction and A Day To Remember. Nothing stops me from enjoying the good old musical theatre session too; some typical slow shit too is always great. My music taste is pretty diverse; as long as a song doesn’t rely on auto tune and unnecessary programing bullshit then I’m sure I can enjoy it.

If a fan was tossing up buying your latest EP, or Justin Bieber’s newest album, how would you persuade them to choose yours? The fan can only buy one. 

I back Bieber’s new album, but it’s too easy to download that shit for free. Maybe your $10 could help us afford to tour again this year and hit up your home town?

What are your plans for the rest of the year? 

We’re just waiting for Kane and Jackson to get through the HSC and then hoping to tour again before 2012 is over. If you’re lucky, we might be releasing some new stuff too, so keep your eyes peeled!

Where would you like to be in 3 years? 

I think it’s every bands dream to be playing sold out shows all around the country or even the world, but it’s hard to predict that stuff, there’s so many bands out there doing what we do and there’s not room for all of us up there. I think just playing shows with mates to people who really care about our music as much as we do would be good enough for me.

What’s something that myself and the fans wouldn’t know about Forever Ends Here? 

We’re pretty open about everything really [Laughs], there’s not much we haven’t already said in an interview.
I think a lot of people assume we’re really organised and know what’s going on with everything we do, but really we end up posting in our private Facebook group a few hours before a show checking when we’re playing, how long we’re playing for, or even where the venue is.
We’ve also got a private Facebook group with our good friends in Some Time Soon, not many people know that, neither do they know that thanks to old mate “NickTimeSoon” every time we enter the group we’re left with a picture of a black dick and a joke about Jackson getting pissed on.

Any finishing words? 

I say the same thing every time but just the usual thankyou to everyone who’s bought our EP, told a friend about us, come to a show or even just liked our Facebook page. Everything we do in FEH is for you and because of you; I can’t express how much you all mean to us!

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/foreverendshere

http://foreverendshere.bigcartel.com/

Here’s To The Night

A massive Thank you to Luke for answering some questions, we wish Forever Ends Here all the best for the future. Particularly wishing Kane and Jackson with their HSC.

Tori Hyland