Diamond In The Rough With JESSE BARNETT From STICK TO YOUR GUNS

Interview by Kris Peters
Since first making their way to Australia in 2009 Orange County
hardcore outfit Stick To Your Guns have almost made it their
mission statement to return back as often as possible.
Their music for some reason resonates well with Australian music
lovers, and despite a five-year gap between visits, this time the
band has vowed to make up for lost time when they hit our shores
from January 24 for a run of shows.
The tour will see Stick To Your Guns celebrate one of their most
popular albums, Diamond, with the gang from California offering up
the whole album live by way of thanks for sustained support.
With the tour just over a week away, vocalist Jesse Barnett took
some time out to speak to HEAVY about the tour and what coming to
this country means to the band.
We start by asking if he is all packed and ready to go.
"No," he laughed. "I pack light. I'm a light packer, so I'm not
stressed about the packing. The travel stresses me out. I'm not a
good plane guy. Flying scares me, so that 15 hour flight is a
brutal one."
We bring up the album Diamond and ask why the band chose that
particular album to perform.
"We knew we always wanted to do a ten-year thing for that album
specifically," he began. "I think in terms of our career or
whatever term you wanna use, that was a pretty path-changing album
that we put out. A lot of things started happening for us after
that, and I think people started connecting with the band in a
different way than they were before, maybe. So we wanted to make
sure that we were able to celebrate that. I say it in every
interview, but I want to reiterate the point that Stick To Your
Guns never set out to do anything profound. We just wanted to speak
our truths and do our thing as a band. It's not the band that
creates a meaningful album. It's the receiver, the listener, who
gives the albums any sort of meaning whatsoever. I just feel
grateful that we have people from all over the world engage with
this album."
In the full interview Jesse talks more about the album Diamond, his
memories of making it, what made it so special, the musical
direction taken on that album and if it was planned, if he thinks
the songs have stood the test of time, bringing SeeYouSpaceCowboy
as supports and why, how Stick To Your Guns have changed since
their first visit to Australia in 2009 and now, what we can expect
from their shows, what they expect from us and more.