Straight Up Random

Warped Tour ‘09 Best Hustlers: Hotspur, Hollywood Lies, & Sparks Will Fly

Every year at Warped Tour there are always bands working the line outside the venue before doors open. Well this year, Straight Up Random decided to shine the spotlight on three bands hustlin’ their CDs to fans - Hotspur, Hollywood Lies, & Sparks Will Fly. If they didn’t have a chance to win you over in line at Warped Tour, then be sure to check them out and pick up a CD!

Band 1: Hotspur

Hometown: Rockville, DC

LINKS: MySpace | Purevolume | Twitter

INTERVIEW:

All questions answered by Evan Anderson, guitarist for Hotspur

Have you been following the tour, or are you just promoting at this tour date?

No, we’ve been following since Maryland.

How is it promoting at Warped Tour? Is it working out for you?

Yeah, it’s great. You know, we meet a lot of people, and a lot of people already know who we are. We have a new record out called You Should Know Better By Now, and they’ve been picking it up because they have the first record, and we’re finding that it sells itself because we believe in it, and people seem to really like it so, it’s been really good.

What was your first Warped Tour experience like?

Actually, this is my first Warped Tour experience. I’ve never been to Warped Tour before this year believe it or not.

How would you describe your music for people who haven’t heard it before?

Fancy rock. It’s fun and dancy.

Can you give me one good reason why people should check out your band?

They should check us out because we’re doing something a little different than everyone else. We’ve got a lot of like keyboards and rockin’ guitars, and we’re trying to break the mold a little bit from the whole like Warped Tour scene, and you know all the scene bands and stuff like that. So I think we have something a little bit different to offer and I think people are really going to like it.

Band 2: Hollywood Lies

Hometown: Boston, MA

LINKS: MySpace | Purevolume | Twitter

INTERVIEW:

All questions answered by Marc Verity, vocalist for Hollywood Lies

Have you been following the tour, or are you just promoting at this tour date?

We’ve been following for about a week and a half now.

How has promoting at Warped Tour been?

 It’s been fun. It’s been tiring like the 10 hour drives – the routing up east was ridiculous.

What was your first Warped Tour experience like?

 As a child…oh my god, it was like years ago. It was actually one of my first concerts with my cousin. I couldn’t really do much, I wasn’t that big into music at the time, but it was fun.

How would you describe your music for people who haven’t heard it yet?

The way I like to think about it is it’s nothing new really, but, I feel like if you listen to it real hard and deep, you’ll hear different things that other bands don’t do, like more thought out parts.

Can you give me one good reason why people should check out your band?

Because we work hard and we love touring, we love meeting people, and we’re a bunch of fun guys.

Band 3: Sparks Will Fly

Hometown: Richmond, RI

LINKS: MySpace | Purevolume | Twitter

INTERVIEW:

Have you been following warped tour or have you just been promoting at this tour date?

We’ve been following the entire tour around country.

How’s it been? Has it been working out for you guys?

Its been exhausting. We were hoping sales figures would be a little bit higher. We traveled to Arizaona, New Mexico, and now Florida. We’ve been to a lot of hot places and were all exhausted, but I mean, its been fun at the same time seeing the entire country.

What’s was your first Warped Tour experience like?

1st:* It was great. I’ve never seen so many bands in one place before, and I just love the environment - all the people. And all the bands; everybody just having a good time all day. That’s what its all about.

2nd:* It was actually my first concert too. It was a great choice actually. So many different bands and they’re all good. It was just an amazing experience.

How would you describe your music for people who have never heard it?

We usually use the term awesomecore. Were a pop punk band along the lines Hit The Lights, New Found Glory, All Time Low, bands like that.

Can you give me one good reason why people should check out your band?

Id give the same reason why you should check out any new bands - just because your favorite band can be one listen awat. You never know.

*After I did the interview with them, I forgot to ask for their names, hence “1st and 2nd” but they know who they are so if they read this, and tell me their names, I’ll change it!