So The White Tie Affair formed after A Perfect Gentleman and Made In Hollywood ended. Does something magical happen when two bands merge?
Chris: Yeah, it’s a whole new atmosphere. We just took the best of both bands and put them together.
Before those bands saw their last days, did you know The White Tie Affair was going to happen, or was it something that came about more organically?
Chris: The White Tie Affair was like a side project. A Perfect Gentleman and Made In Hollywood were more rock-based bands, and The White Tie Affair was just Sean and I wanting to do more pop-based music.
Are you guys living a dream you’ve had for years, going around America on a tour bus? Is this the life you’ve always wanted?
Chris: It’s hard to take it in as it all happens. A lot of time you kind of take a step back and go, ‘Wow, is this really happening?’ and it is. We’re just trying to make the most of it. We keep writing songs, and we keep working on new stuff as we go along, just to keep it going, the momentum. If you would have asked me five or 10 years ago if I would be doing this right now I would have said, ‘Probably not, it’s never going to happen,’ you know? But we just worked and worked and worked, and we’re fortunate.
Since you were signed last year, what’s come as the biggest shock to you about the way the music industry works?
Sean: One of the biggest things I’ve noticed, first off, is that it’s a lot more work than I thought it was going to be, as far as a lot more sacrifice. I’ve got no complaints as far as what I would rather be doing though, but it’s more work than we thought. And it’s not truly a business in my opinion. In a true business, if you make the right decisions and a proper investment, then you’ll succeed. In this field I would call it more of a hustle because you could make all the right moves, all the right decisions, and write all the right songs but if something as small as timing isn’t right, it might not work in your favour. You just have to work as hard as you can, and hope for the best.
Since you guys were signed, you’ve been touring quite incessantly, haven’t you?
Chris: Yeah, we’re at about 250 shows now.
Have you developed pretty solid fan bases? After 250 shows you probably would.
Chris: Some of the first shows we played there weren’t any people there. So it was hard to develop a fan base when nobody was in the audience. But that has such changed, especially since the last tour we did with Metro Station. There were a lot of people there, and our fan base is really growing and we’re excited about it.
