Photo credit: rocksound.tv
Every year, Warped Tour welcomed several rising stars into its family for the first time. This year, some of those rising stars were the boys of Story Untold. The Canadian pop punk quintet started out as the project of YouTuber Janick Thibault and has expanded over the years. After signing to Hopeless Records in 2016, the band got the chance to tour with Simple Plan, one of the most iconic bands in the genre. Then, a few months ago, they released their debut LP, Waves, which fans across America have been shouting the lyrics to all summer.
Backstage at Warped Tour Columbia, I had the chance to chat with Story Untold’s entire touring band—Thibault, Jessy Bergy, Jonathan Landry, Diego Stanger, and Aiden Von Rose. We laughed a lot as we chatted about Warped memories, Waves, movies, and more.
TYF: You guys have been on Warped Tour for a little while now at this point. What would you say are your favorite memories from the tour so far?
Aiden Von Rose: My favorite memories have to be playing shows obviously, and then meet-and-greets because so many people will come up to us and say how they feel about our band or how it impacted their lives or their day or whatnot. And the new friends we’ve made with crew members and other bands, the connections we’ve made and all that… I know [when Warped Tour is over], most of them, I won’t ever see again in my entire life. But I’ve had great memories from them.
Janick Thibault: I think my favorite one would have to be when the Diego drove over a sidewalk and woke up everyone in the van. That was pretty interesting.
Diego Stanger: It was okay. It wasn’t that bad.
Von Rose: Also, he left the gas pump in the gas thing when he drove off.
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Stanger: That’s not only my fault. They woke me up and they were like, “Okay, you have to drive.” So I just started driving and well, boom. I didn’t see it.
Thibault: It’s normal. Whenever you wake up, you’ve got to take out a gas pump.
Jesse Bergy: To anyone listening, don’t worry. The thing is made to disengage. So there wasn’t any petrol spilling over.
TYF: I relate to that. During my first driving test, I drove straight over a curb. It happens.
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Von Rose: Sounds like Diego.
Stanger: You’re ready to drive with us.
TYF: (Laughs) Exactly. Did you guys ever go to Warped Tour as fans?
Von Rose: Yeah. My first concert ever was actually Warped Tour 2011. I’ve been three or four afterwards. The last one I went to was with Janick in 2016. It’s 50/50 now. I’m here as a fan and as an artist.
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Thibault: Like what [Aiden] said, we went to the 2016 one, where there was Sum 41 and Good Charlotte. And Good Charlotte’s playing today, which is awesome.
TYF: I’m so hyped about that—especially coming from Maryland, because they’re a Maryland band.
Thibault: I didn’t know that they’re from Maryland. That’s cool. But yeah, I think this [year] is when I fell in love with the festival and how it works and the people that are attending. It’s just an overall amazing place to be in. I’m very stoked to be on the last one.
TYF: For sure. What are those bands that you guys were super hyped about when you were going to Warped Tour in your earlier days?
Von Rose: It’s changed a little bit, but my first Warped Tour, I was really excited to see Attack Attack, Asking Alexandria, Black Veil Brides. There was one year when Bring Me The Horizon was there. Obviously Good Charlotte. Sum 41 in 2016 was sick. Mostly Mayday Parade, though. That’s my all time favorite.
Thibault: Pretty much every band that inspired me. I watched Simple Plan, like I said, Sum 41, Good Charlotte. But also up and coming bands like With Confidence, As It Is, Don Broco. I think it’s amazing [how there are] so many good bands that get started here.
TYF: Janick, you started out using YouTube as a platform for your music. What are your earliest memories of discovering YouTube? Like, in the genesis of Youtube, when it was still this new and mysterious thing?
Thibault: It was bad, to be honest. I would film videos with my mom’s camera and you wouldn’t even see my face. It was just me playing guitar over the original track. But I think it helped me improve a lot. Just by posting videos, you learn. You’re still practicing music and all that stuff. I would try to get better every time I would post a new video. It really helped me try to push myself to the next level every time I would post another video. You know, back in the day, there were not as many cover bands and cover artists on YouTube. Nowadays, there’s so many of them, and it’s harder, I feel to be different. And it’s so much easier to record music at home, and a lot of people are starting to have home studios and stuff like that. So I would say in a way, there’s way more people that do that now than there was when I first started.
TYF: Now I have some questions about the songs on your album. You guys have a song titled “Dreams That We Don’t Share.” What are some of the most memorable or weirdest dreams that you’ve had?
Bergy: Funny that you’re asking this question because I had sleep paralysis last night. I was pretty much thinking that someone was choking me, so I woke up, punching the walls in the van.
Stanger: I heard it and it was scary, but at the same time it was like, “It’s Jesse. He’ll manage.”
Bergy: I have a bunch of sleep disorders. I sleepwalk and shit.
TYF: In your song “Chasing Feelings,” you say, “I’ve been awake for three whole days and I don’t mind.” Is this based on a real experience where you were actually awake for three days? Because that’s a long time.
Thibault: It was based on Warped Tour. I predicted the future. (Laughs) No, for real, it’s a song about addiction, in a way. It’s not true for me, but I wrote it about some of my friends who have been dealing with some issues. I wanted to write a song that would be kind of dark and deep, and it just came out like that. I wanted it to be about drugs. I don’t know why I wanted to write a song about drugs… It’s weird.
TYF: It’s been done many times, with great results.
Thibault: Yeah. It feels true to me because I have many friends that have been dealing with issues like that.
TYF: For sure. Earlier this year, you guys released a video for your song “All the Same.” What was it like filming that?
Thibault: It was good. It was just a bit awkward, because when we did that, I had a girlfriend and I had to kiss two different girls for the video.
Stanger: Yeah, I bet it was so hard.
Thibault: (Laughs) I think it was a good experience because it pushed myself to some other experiences I never really did. I had to take some acting classes to do it.
Stanger: To kiss those girls?
Thibault: Overall, I think it was a pretty good deal because it was the first time we had a video that had a story. I’m in it and people seem to really like it, so I’m very happy with how it turned out.
TYF: In your Facebook bio, you guys say that your band interests are road trips and scaring people. So…
Thibault: Does it say that for real?
TYF: It does.
Thibault: I didn’t know that.
TYF: Surprise!
(Band begins to murmur)
TYF: Wait, who wrote this?
Thibault (to Bergy): Did you do it?
Bergy: No, I didn’t. That wasn’t me.
Thibault: You know what? In two days is going to say, “Yeah, I wrote it,” because he does this thing where he denies everything, but then two days after he’s just like, “Yeah, yeah, I did that.”
Bergy: Not this time, Janick. I’m sorry.
Von Rose: I feel like that might have been our manager. If it would’ve been me, I would’ve put, like, “farts and poop and shit.” We do road trips as in touring, I guess, and since we’re French and we speak a lot of French, some people, I guess, get scared?
TYF: Well, do you guys have any memorable instances of scaring people?
Bergy: I tend to scare people for no reason. Like, they’ll be talking and I’ll be right behind their back, and they’ll be like, “Oh shit!” I scare them for no reason. I can scare them just by being silent.
Thibault: Well, I tend to put myself in lots of awkward situations. I don’t know why. I feel like I just attract awkward situations. It’s like, my handshakes… Everything about my life is awkward.
TYF: You said “your handshakes.” Do you have, like, a weird handshake?
Thibault: I just never know which one to do. About three days ago, with Paul Marc from Silverstein, I did something like (mimes awkward hand movements) for like 10 seconds straight, just trying to figure out the way to do it. It was so embarrassing and I’d rather try to forget it, but I can’t because it happened and he’s going to remember that, I think, for the rest of his life, too.
Von Rose: I have a solution for that, and it’s just a fist bump.
Thibault: But sometimes you go for a fist, but the person is going to be like that (holds out hand for handshake). So you open your hand and then they put out a fist.
TYF: Have you guys seen the movie Get Out? There’s a scene in Get Out where they do that.
Von Rose: Actually, we watched that together into a hotel room. That’s a really good movie.
TYF: One of my favorites. What other movies do you guys really like?
Thibault: There’s this movie that’s going to be out in 2019. It’s called Jesse Bergy.
Story Untold: (Laughs)
Thibault: It’s the life of someone who vanishes without anyone ever knowing where this person goes.
Bergy: But no, honestly, The Nun is coming out this September and I can’t wait for it. I’ve been waiting. It’s going to be a really good movie. I also like The Lord of the Rings.
Von Rose: I like Tim Burton.
Story Untold (except for Von Rose): Of course.
Von Rose: I guess they would say of course because I’m “emo,” but Tim Burton and Johnny Depp and all that… They’re my favorite.
Bergy: If emos were like vampires, Aiden would be Dracula.
Von Rose: No. I feel like I would be… What’s the vampire in Dark Shadows? Barnabas or something like that.
TYF (to Jonathan Landry and Stanger): You guys have any favorite movies you’d like to talk about?
Landry: SpongeBob. SpongeBob SquarePants.
Stanger: Spun.
Thibault: Spun. It’s a good movie. It’s about drugs. I don’t want to seem like a drug addict, but I like things that are like dark and harsh.
Bergy: What’s that movie again? (Starts humming Requiem for a Dream theme)
Stanger: Requiem for a Dream.
TYF: Finally, you guys are called Story Untold. What’s a story that you guys have never told anybody in an interview before?
Von Rose: There are so many.
Thibault: Most of them are… not appropriate. I’ve got one in mind but I cannot re-say it here. Multiple. Let’s think about something that we can say… We get asked every interview, “Do you guys have any fun stories from tour? And it just sucks because we can’t say any of them.
Stanger: They’re so trashy.
Von Rose: I guess a fun fact is that I used to be in a very emo, goth band. And whenever we do meet and meet and greets and then we see someone in line is a little bit more goth or more emo, [the other band members will say,] “Oh, that one is waiting for you. They’re here for you.” And then whenever they come, they’re like, “Oh yeah, I know you from six years ago with your other band,” and [the guys will say,] “Obviously.”
Bergy: You guys should go see that. It’s called Chomp Chomp Attack. You can just search that on Google images.
Thibault: I actually have a very short story that happened yesterday. I was at the merch table and Chuck [Comeau] from Simple Plan came by the merch table. And he was like, “Hey, do you want your shirt? I’m gonna wear it on stage tonight.” And I was like, “All right.” So I gave it to him and I was like, “Yo guys, he’s going to have my shirt on tonight, it’s going to be awesome.” So we just wait for him to play, and he shows up and he has a different shirt on. I was like, “That was 25 bucks.”
TYF: Oh my gosh. (Laughs) All right; thank you so much. Is there anything else that you’d like to say to the readers and fans before we wrap up?
Von Rose: Thank you so much for your support. And uh, hopefully after this interview, you’ll still love us as a band and as human beings. But thank you so much. And there’s a week left on Warped Tour. Please come out and talk about Jesse Bergy’s hair.
Bergy: Yeah, that’s pretty much it. You can also watch the movie.
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