It’s Always Six O’Clock Somewhere

Some things are worth the wait—slow cooked pork, an intricate tattoo, You Me At Six at full strength. We were greatly anticipating the electricity of the British rock band touring around the United States but unfortunately lead singer Josh Franceschi is suffering from vocal exhaustion. After touring nonstop for more than a year, he is taking it easy, knowing that you can’t turn it up to 11 if you are only at 60%. The band was set to open today in LA but have postponed to September 15 through October 20, with new show dates and details released to be released within a week.

Yes, we interviewed a band member, but you can’t blame us, we chatted with lead guitarist Max Helyer. Once we got our hands (and ears) on their fourth studio album Cavalier Youth.

The album was produced by Neal Avron with Virgin Records in LA, recognizable for working with Fall Out Boy, Yellowcard, and Linkin Park.

“Neal was one of our number ones,” Helyer says. “We wanted to make the best record of this time and he inspired to get us to that point.”

Helyer describes this album as the most progressive the band has put out, attributing this in part to members maturing from the 16-17 year-old kids they started out as and “really finding our own sound” as the 25-26 year-old men they are now. For him, this meant building on and adding more intricate guitar riffs to songs.

Cavalier Youth is “a bit more rocky, gets the crowd jumping, singing, clapping,” he says. “It gets people vibin’ off each other.”

The first single Room to Breathe hit #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers and UK rock charts and Helyer hopes the band’s fan base will continue to spread in America, a goal of theirs. “There’s kind of a huge wave of English music coming to America,” he says. “It’s quite exciting.”

You Me At Six was scheduled to be back in Europe to play some music festivals after their US tour, while it is unclear whether this will also be cancelled, they include Reading and Leeds, T in the Park, and Frequency. The festivals showcase a wide variety of musical genres with big name acts such as Blink-182, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Queens of the Stone Age, and Snoop Dog or is it Snoop Lion now?

Helyer hopes playing with such a diversity of bands will open up the band’s fan base, adding different age groups and gaining the attention of people who may have only heard the name.His tattoos, along with his music, should gain the attention of fans worldwide.

“One arm is pretty tattooed, I’m half-way through the other arm,” he says. Helyer also rocks six or seven others, such as more notoriously a neck tattoo of the Illuminati symbol. He says his favorite tattoo is of a beggar playing the accordion, which he got while recording Cavalier Youth.

He gets his ink primarily done by Jim Sylvia at Unbreakable Tattoo in Studio City, California, and just as his body art grows, Helyer hopes his band will continue to do so, too.