The members of Miss May I have spent this past summer promoting their upcoming album Deathless (Rise Records) on the Vans Warped Tour, giving the crowd a taste of new music. While the previous summer had also taken part on the Rockstar Mayhem Energy Drink Festival to promote their previous album Rise of the Lion, both frontman Levi Benton and bassist Ryan Neff both shared their experiences on both tours and how they each view the differences between the audiences who are seeing their band.
“I think age is obviously one piece, but when you divide the crowd by age, the genre that they like changes a lot as well,” says Neff, explaining the differences between the two festival demographics. “You won’t find DJ stuff at Mayhem, where as here they’re younger kids. There’s a lot more people discovering new music at Warped Tour than at Mayhem.”
“If you show up as an Avenged Sevenfold fan and with an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, you leave with a couple more on your shoulder and you might pick up a few new bands. But here, it’s almost guaranteed you’re going to learn about five new bands before you leave.”
“There’s so many more bands. There’s five times more bands. It’s crazy,” added Benton, about the Warped Tour experience.
While being on the Warped Tour, they have easily become the modern metal act playing amongst the roster of acts ranging from singer-songwriter acts to metalcore to electronic acts to hip hop (and even some pop punk, believe it or not).
“That’s the best part about this tour, especially from our point of view watching,” said Benton. “You can see people watching a ska band or a punk band from afar and see them walk by and sort of stop and listen. That’s awesome. We get a lot of people that aren’t metal fans and they leave Warped Tour as a metal fan. That’s one of the best feelings ever. I remember when I was a metal fan and I got into metal bands and was like ‘that’s cool we could be the band for you.’ “
“Mayhem’s not like that. Everyone comes there and it’s like ‘I’m metal and I’m ready for the pit.’ “
Neff explained that despite it being Miss May I’s third time on this tour, age turnover with the constant changes within the scene helps attract new fans who are unfamiliar with them. He has found that the open mindedness of the attendees on this tour has worked in their favor into winning over new fans.
“With it being there’s a turnover in the fan base at this tour, it’s always the same age kids. It’s obvious you don’t stay the same age forever so for it to be 14 or 15 years old kids to be at this tour every year, you’ve got to have a complete new group of kids every year. So a band like us who haven’t done this tour in three years, there’s a good chance that a third or more of the people who buy tickets today have never heard of our band. That’s why it’s such a beneficial tour for bands to hop on because with the turnover and the new group of fans every year, there are so many people who are going to hear about you for the first time, just because you are on the tour.”