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THE MORNING OF

For anyone who may not know, tell us who you are and what you do in the band.
Abir: My name's Abir and I play bass in a band called The Morning Of.

What are some of your must haves while being on the road?
Abir: Um, I got my uhh laptop, my Apple, ya know… macbook pro I think it's called… yeah … I have to have the laptop and I got my phone and umm… I'm trying to think. There's other things I need on tour. And uhh cereal. Cereal's a big thing for me. Cereal…

Any specific….
Abir: Cereal. Uh I've been trying to eat healthy so Special K Red Berries - I've been a big fan.

Really? I've never had Special K
Abir: Really? It's pretty good. It's alright ya know? Cinnamon Toast Crunch, that's my favorite cereal but it's really high in sugar and stuff so I'm trying to be healthy.

What do you like to do on your days off… while on tour?
Abir: Well actually we just had 2 days off and we uh went to see the Dark Knight in IMAX and then we went to Six Flags the other day so…. Usually we don't do crazy stuff like that but I guess we all got lucky and had a little bit of money so it worked out. Usually on days off, like I go to school online so days off are used to catch up on homework kuz you fall back like really far on tour kuz you're always hanging out and stuff so other than that, that's pretty much it. Everyone rests a lot kuz you get about 3 hours of sleep every night

Well I did online courses and stayed at home and I still fell behind (laughs)
Abir: Yeah it sucks, it's really bad. I'll just take like one day and I'll knock out all the stuff I have to do otherwise it just doesn't happen. If I try to spread it out like I do at home it just doesn't happen.

What are some of your favorite venues, or just cities, to play?
Abir: Well actually before this, like before this tour we always liked Chicago but no one every really knew who we were in Chicago but this last tour when we played Chicago a lot of people came out and actually sang along so it was actually really cool kuz usually in the Midwest like not too many people come out like to see us so it was really cool. Chicago's definitely a good place. And definitely at home is like our favorite place to play and Raleigh, NC is always a good place too kuz we have a lot of good friends there too so it works out really well.

Isn't Tragic Hero (their label) based out of Raleigh?
Abir: Yeah Tragic Hero is based out of Raleigh so it always works out really well for us kuz like we've played a lot of big shows there so just a lot of people come out there and visit Tragic Hero so it works out.

So what are your guys' plans for the rest of the year?
Abir: Right now we're about to go on tour with The Secret Handshake and Breathe Carolina and then after that two other tours we're doing. We're doing a tour with Breathe Carolina and Every Avenue and then we're doing a tour with The Higher and Just Surrender and then in between that we have to do like um… we're recording new songs and stuff like that so we're trying to get ready… we wanna, we're hoping to record a new record over winter time kuz touring in the winter definitely sucks so we're hoping that we can avoid touring in the winter and just write and record a new album. We'll see if we're lucky enough to bypass that.

Amanda: Well, you basically already answered it but you're last album came out in January but are there plans for another one?
Abir: Well hopefully… realistically nothing works to plan, like the band's plan… so like I would love to have the album out by summer of next year so then I wouldn't feel like we're spending too much time on one album but I have no idea because it's not really up to us so….

So at TragicEndings we support causes like Skate 4 Cancer and 11:11 A.M., are there any causes you want to make people more aware of?
Abir: I'm really bad at this… when I was in high school I spent a lot of time with Big Brothers Big Sisters and that's definitely something I think people should definitely get involved in kuz I had a lot of fun doing that. It was definitely one of the more rewarding experiences that I had. I feel like sometimes a lot of charities you have to have money to give to a charity but I feel like with Big Brothers Big Sisters and soup kitchens and stuff were just a lot of the stuff I did when I had time when I wasn't touring all the time - you can give your time and like… no matter how little money you have you can always give time. Stuff like that's always good to do.

If you were a piñata, what shape would you be and what would you be filled with?
Abir: I would be bat shaped and I'd be filled with batman DVDs.

Suppose you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have one album with you, what album would you choose?
Abir: Wow, that's really hard. I don't know (long pause). Crap. One album, hmm (long pause). I don't know kuz I guess like one album would get really tiring, I'm gonna be real cheesy and pick like Now 7 that way I'd have a random variety of pop music.

(laughs) Aren't they on like Now 24?
Abir: I'm pretty sure they're on like Now 40. They're way up there in the numbers but I think Now 7 is like when I was 10 years old so I'm sure music then was awesome, way better than it is now so I'll take Now 7, I think that's a safe bet. I guess I could pick a Beatles cd but I feel like everyone would say that.

I'm sure Now 7's a good one. I'm actually going to go home and look to see what's on that one.
Abir: It's probably going to be the worst songs on the planet and I'm going to be stuck with it for the rest of my life.

Any final words?
Abir: If everyone wants to check us out on myspace, it's just myspace.com/themorningof and that's about it - Thank you.

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