Cole at Musso & Frank’s:
“I like old establishments like this
place. They become institutions.”
Gun to your head, if you HAD to move out of Atlanta,
where would you go?
COLE: One of my favorite cities is Istanbul, Turkey. To me that’s kind of the
bridge between the East and the West. You get a touch of Middle Eastern
culture, a touch of European culture. I like cities that have a duality like that.
JARED: Memphis. Maybe New Orleans. The only other place I’ve lived is LA.
I like it a lot, it’s just not home. I decided after I moved back I would never
live outside the South. Mostly because of family, but also just because I like it.
And I get to travel. Maybe if I was stuck here all the time I would want to move
somewhere for two years and get out. But when I am here I cherish it so much.
I’m fortunate enough to have four living grandparents, and my parents, and
nieces and nephews. I live with my little brother; my sister lives just down the
street. It’s nice to just have that, because I’m without my family for a lot of the
year so when I’m back I really appreciate that time here. Traveling, as much
as I do and as much as I love it, it makes me appreciate home so much more. I
think that’s real important.
Can you share some travel advice?
JARED: I think one of the most important things is traveling light and
traveling smart. If I leave for three months, I can carry my bag anywhere. It’s
just a canvas duffle bag. You really only need two or three pairs of pants, and a
bunch of white t-shirts that can easily be replaced. Don’t bring anything that’s
special to you at all. If you have a really sentimental jacket or an old friend’s
t-shirt, don ’t bring that. [Just bring] anything replaceable, stuff you can scrunch
up. Bring a jacket everywhere you go. Even if it’s summer, just because you’ll
get cold at some point. Socks and underwear are the main thing, that’s why I
have socks and underwear on our rider. And that’s what I care about the most
When you’re playing to new crowds in foreign places, how
on our rider.
do you connect to your audience?
COLE: There are two groups of audiences. Some kids are better off economically;
You have aspirations to play in seemingly dangerous
some of them had studied abroad in Europe and they come back and they’re very
places. Do you mainly go to change people’s (or your
educated. They seem to have the [same] understanding of the world [as] I do. With
own) notions of these places or is there a different
the internet it’s a small world, so that kind of felt like just playing to [an audience]
reason?
back home. But then there was another group of people; in Cairo we played in these
JARED: I remember when we were booking the Middle East thing, in a lot
community centers, and there were some young kids, and some of them seemed like
of interviews we did people would have their own narrative before they spoke
they had never seen a punk show or even a rock ‘n’ roll show. You could just tell, the
to us and would try to peg that on us. As far as a collective and how our music
way they would dance was totally different. I don’t know if they were making up moves
goes, it’s apolitical, and it’s just about having fun. With the Middle East, we
as they went along or if that was just how they danced to rock music. Members of the
were just going there because we could and we wanted to. For us, we like
audience [were] in Hijabs, stuff like that was really different. I had never seen that
traveling and we like to mix it up. Touring the states and Europe is great but
before so it was exciting. But there’s a universal feel with the audience. It’s fun, it’s rock
sometimes you want to change it up a little. And if you have the opportunity,
‘n’ roll and people dance and stuff, you know?
why not?
JARED: Our audiences tend to be pretty similar, like the world over. I don’t know if it’s
COLE: Most people like in Cairo and Iraq have a lot of stuff to do. People
like that with everyone. When you’re playing rock ‘n’ roll the people are drinking. Any
have jobs, they don’t have time to be like, “Oh my god there’s an American, let’s
place in the world you’ve ever been, when you step into a place where you’re playing it’s
go kill them.” Most people have families. It’s not so black and white.
never all that different from anywhere else.
70 . TRAVEL WITH PURPOSE