The Worlds #1 Band

Laney: Do you guys want to introduce yourselves and your roles in the band?

Andrew: For sure, yeah, I'm Andrew. I play guitar and I sing.

Jake: I'm Jake. I play the bass.

Jackson: I'm Jackson and I riff.

Laney: Awesome. And then your drummer is…

Andrew: He's AWOL. Yeah, Zach is probably making a lot of money gambling right now. 

Laney: When we were chatting to put this together, you guys mentioned that you have K-UTE alum.

Andrew: That's Jake

Laney: Do you want to talk about that?

Jake: Dude, yeah. I was about to graduate from the U and I studied communication. And I was like, ‘Damn, I need to make my resume buffer.’ So I just applied for an internship at K-UTE and I would just play emo music. It got kind of cut short, though, because Covid happened.

Laney: I was wondering if you were pre-Covid.

Jake: Yeah, but we're kind of old heads now. We're about to be old … I'm 27 they’re 28 …

It's so insane with college radio.

Laney: Yeah. What was it like before? Right now, we don't have an actual radio, it's more on Spotify. and we have a website.

Jake: Dude! It was like that then. They weren't doing real radio broadcasts then, it was kind of loose. You would just get a time and go [into the studio] whenever and play whatever [music] you wanted. It was just no cussing, yeah, it was, like, super mellow, but it was fun. 

Laney: That's awesome, really good to know. Do you guys want to talk about how you all met? Did you all go to the U?

Andrew: I didn't go to the U, I went to Westminster. But we all met through skateboarding; me and Zach have been roommates forever. Through skateboarding, we met Jake and we weren't really playing in bands or anything, honestly. But we all shared similar taste in music. And then eventually me and Jake had been writing songs in our room, not really thinking about playing them live ever. And then we were like, ‘Oh, let's do it,’ and now we're stuck together. We've been doing it ever since. But yeah, skateboarding is the answer there for the most part.

Jake: Yeah, and me and Jackson grew up together in South Carolina. Jackson's our second guitar player. He kind of popped in and took the reins when we needed him. We were like, ‘Yeah, would you be interested in this?’

Andrew: Yeah. We toured with a band that Jackson was in down in the South, so we knew he could rock.

Jackson: I've been around. I've known the whole band ever since they started, and a little bit before. So, I've been a big supporter and friend by their side for a long time. So when they asked me to join it was very intuitive, and I knew exactly what they wanted.

Jake: Yeah, he gets the ethos. I feel like it's important that we were homies before. We all, lowkey spent so much— possibly too much— time together. We all just kick it and skate. These are the guys I like to hang out with, even outside music.

Andrew: Once we're back from tour, we still just hang out together. It doesn't really change much, you know.

Laney: So, when was your first show? 

Andrew: Late 2019. So we started the band, then probably played one or two shows, then Covid shut down live shows. But yeah, we played a house show and Kilby Court once for a local thing. And then, yeah, Covid happened. We got just enough of a taste of being a band. And then immediately it was like, ‘I don't know if this will ever happen again.’ 

It was an interesting time to start, I think. But I don't know, it was nice though, because then Covid gave us time to work on it and think about it. [We were able to] write songs that we were really stoked on. So it was cool. It let us breathe and actually look at it a little more and try a little harder, maybe try things differently than we had before.

Laney: You guys were actually named Salt Lake City's Best New Band in 2023.

Andrew: I didn't know that. We didn't know that. Whoever said that, thank you. That's all.

Jake: That's great. I do love to hear that, but, I mean, I agree. 

I guess we're late to the party, but now it's gonna get to our heads a full year later.

Laney: Then, because of that, you guys aren't necessarily the world's worst. So why the band name? 

Andrew: Honestly, it really wasn't that much thought I had my Instagram, it was just at, ‘Worlds Worst.’ And then when we started playing shows. I feel like we didn't even really think about, ‘What's the name of this band?’ It was just like, ‘Yeah, throw Worlds Worst on the flyer.’ … I kind of like it. It's kind of like The Replacements. It's a little tongue in cheek. I like the alliteration. I think it's a little catchy in that way. 

Jake: Okay, here's a caveat. If any flyer or venue puts the apostrophe in, you know they did not give a shit. No research. I feel like that's the joke. You have to remember there's a typo in the band's name. That's important. No apostrophe is important.

Laney: and that was purposeful?

Andrew: That’s how it was on Instagram. So it just felt like, ‘Alright, that's what it is.’ 

Laney: Yeah, I totally get that. So you guys have been traveling with Phony. How has that been for you?

Andrew: It's been a blast. They're so awesome. I think it's kind of funny, too. One of the first shows that we had played before Covid at Kilby, we opened for Pyle, and Chappy was playing in Pyle. And now Chappy plays in Phony so it's kind of one of those, ‘the world is always so much smaller.’ Like, years later you're playing with a different band, but then you’re still playing with the same guys you've been playing with. I like that a lot. It's a pretty small scene … the kind of music you play We've been trying to travel a bunch … but Phony. They're awesome. They're all great guys. Make it really fun. 

Laney: What has been your favorite set to play with them? What was your favorite place?

Jake: Dude, maybe Orange County.

Andrew: Orange County as well. I mean, we played a skate shop,  and kind of like I said, we all met through skateboarding. So it was one of those things that made sense for us. 

Jake: Yeah, it was packed, sold out. It was just a tiny skate shop filled with a bunch of kids. And it just perfectly fit our vibe. Bad sound, a bunch of stupid kids, and a bunch of stupid guys playing music. It was sick. I had never been to Orange County. I had no real expectations, but I had known about the venue, and I always thought it was really cool. It's kind of like a bucket list place to play, just because of the sheer notion, ‘We're playing this Skate Shop.’ It was fully lit up. It's not like any other venue. It doesn't have all the frills of real music venues. But it was great. It was so much fun.

Jackson: Yeah, we also got to stay with this guy who looks like Anakin Skywalker and his name is also Hayden. Shout out, Hayden.

Jake: Yeah, big ups Hayden in Orange County, the Fresh Prince of Anaheim.

Jackson: It was a nice-ass house, and we were just blasting six inside the house. But it was nice. It was insane.

Laney: Wow, that's awesome. That’s the perfect story to reminisce about for sure. 

You guys have been in Vegas all weekend, and you mentioned that your drummer is probably gambling right now. What have you guys been up to?

Andrew: just watching a lot of bands. Yeah, honestly, here a lot. This lineup is stacked with so many bands I've always wanted to see. So even if I’m super tired, I can't justify going home. It's like, I'm tired, but when will I get to see Unwound again? You know what I mean? 

Laney: Yeah totally. It’s everyone's anniversaries. The lineup is so good. 

Andrew: Exactly. I can't really justify not being here. It's all been really awesome.

We did some gambling and we went swimming in pools. I was just swimming with Shepard from Everyone Asked About You, the band’s lead male singer. It was awesome. Yeah, our buddy Claire, her hotel has a pool, so we've just been bombarding it. Pulling up with like, 20 homies. Pool, gambling, and rock and roll.

Laney: Honestly, sounds like the life for sure. 

So you guys have a show tomorrow night as well with Boyfriend Sushi Town, do you have any other shows after that? Or is that going to be the end of this tour?

Jake: Yeah, that's gonna be the end of this tour for sure. We might get an offer we can't say no to, but right now, the plan is to not play until 2025. We'd like to just take some time and record. We have an album written, so we're gonna go and start recording the record.

Me and Jackson play in another band, so we're gonna take some time for that. Give ourselves time to breathe, because we've been on the road moderately hard this year. We've toured like, four times.

Laney: That's crazy. That's insane.

Jake: It's cool. It's a blessing. We're so stoked to get cool opportunities. 

Laney: That was actually gonna be my next question because you played a new song yesterday. I was wondering if there was a new album in the works?

Jake: Yeah, yeah. We’ve got 10 songs written and we're gonna track them in Salt Lake. LP number two. very excited to record with this dude. 

Jackson: Rocky Maldonado. Shout out The Rock 

Andrew: Yeah, he’s in one of my favorite bands ever from Salt Lake, for sure. He's a really good guy to record with. He gets the idea really well.

Laney: Super stoked about that.

You guys seemed to have some technical difficulties yesterday on stage as well, which I noticed throughout the entire weekend. That stage just constantly had issues. I met with Boyfriend Sushi Town after their set, and they had terrible difficulties. How do you handle things like that and continue playing? Because you guys just went straight through. 

Andrew: I mean, that's kind of the only option. Just keep moving. If you want to continue playing live, you’ve got to try to not let it [ruin the set.] You have a decision: either stop, freeze, and freak out and make a fool out of yourself, or you keep going.

Jake: Yeah, it's live music, you know. If you want it perfect, listen to the record. I was a bit down about it afterward. But getting down about it will break your confidence. Which will affect your next set. 

Jackson: I didn't need anything. I had no difficulties. 

Jake: Yeah, Jackson, you got unplugged. 

Jackson: I did have two difficulties, but it was no difficulty to me.

Laney: Yeah, I guess it’s just how you look at it.

Andrew: Nobody knows who we are or what we're supposed to sound like, so you just gotta keep strumming.

Laney: It's like, ‘How are they gonna know?’

Andrew: Yeah, exactly.

Jake: If you sell it well, no one will notice.

Andrew: Part of being a professional musician is knowing how to deal with that. And I mean, you can't practice for something breaking, but you can practice the set and play it as best as you can. So, focus on that.

You can't just walk off stage unless you're Doug from Built to Spill.

Jake: Dude, I was concerned about that. I thought he was angry or decided to quit, because he

was like, ‘Yo, give me my keys,’ to someone else. He grabbed his keys, went to his car, and grabbed the guitar. 

Laney: Yeah, I think he said that they lost their roadie or something.

Andrew: Slot machines.

Laney: Probably, honestly.

Those were all my questions. But do you guys have anything else you want to shout out or talk about?

Andrew: Shout out, Best Friends Forever Fest. Shout out, Faye.

Shout out, smoking room. Shout out, J war, yeah. 

Jake: Shout out K-UTE Big ups, bug bath. Big ups, Phony.

Jackson: My buddy Austin in the Bay Area. 

Jake: Oh yeah, big up Austin. 

Jackson: Austin's great. He hosted us and showed us a great time.