Taking the aggression of hardcore, the drive of metal, the melody and harmony of pop, the dance of EDM, Young Medicine combines them into a unique enjoyable listening experience. You’ve never heard anything like it, and it’s going to make you pay attention.
Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.
Bret - Sings, plays keys, does audio production, listens to 80s music.
Josh - Sings, plays guitar, does graphics and video production, watches cheesy 80s movies.
Mace - Drums, drinks, does live sound, was actually born in the 80s.
For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Young Medicine? How long has the band been around?
We’ve all been playing together since about 2008, we started Young Medicine last year because we knew we wanted a fresh start with a better image and better music. We took everything we’ve learned from being in a band so far and have put a lot of work into Young Medicine, it’s going well so far!
What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?
Young Medicine is what music has always been to us, it’s the therapy that gets us through our lives and whatever we might be going through, growing up we were always able to turn to the music we love that speaks to us, we hope someday our music will be able to do the same for others.
Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?
Josh and Bret write the songs, our topics are generally focused around one moment or emotion, it’s easier for us to write a lot of stuff around something like that than to tell a whole story in 3 minutes.
What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?
At the moment we’re listening to Enter Shikari, The 1975, and AFI. We try to include a lot of our influences in the music we write, which ends up becoming a strange conglomeration of genres. It’s neat that way and we’re happy to create music that a lot of different people can identify with.
Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?
Bret: I remember my freshman year of high school I went to an annual charity concert called Rock for Hope with a bunch of local bands, I thought it was awesome and spent the next four years trying to form a band and play the show. Once I finally got a band together we tried out for Rock for Hope and got turned down, but luckily I’ve still stuck with it and we doing better than ever!
What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …
Bret has to warm up his vocals to stretch his natural bassy tone, Josh likes to consume a pack of Trolli Sour Eggs, and Mace has to call his girlfriend 5 times a day so she won’t get upset and ruin his vibe for performing.
What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?
We just got off of the Make It Or Break It tour with our friends City of the Weak and we had a blast, it’s the farthest and longest we’ve been away from home and we made a lot of friends along the way. At the same time, we just won an award from Project Backstage here in our hometown of Kansas City for Best Alternative Band of the Year, the past month has been a whirlwind and we’re hoping to keep it up with more releases and touring coming up very soon.
If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?
We would tour with George Michael and guest perform with him on “Careless Whisper”, it would be a world renowned collaboration and our lives would then be complete.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Thanks for the interview! Be sure to hook up with us at facebook.com/youngmedicine, twitter.com/young_medicine, and instagram.com/youngmedicine!