Interview With Scream It Like You Mean It Tour Owners

HM Magazine is pleased to be co-sponsoring this year’s Scream It Like You Mean It Tour. Following is an interview with the tour owners, Matthew Stewart and Yogi Allgood.

Tour owners – Matthew Stewart and Yogi Allgood

How, when and why did you start this tour?

MS: In early 2010 I was looking for a summer tour opportunity for We Came As Romans (who I manage). Also, Dave Shapiro just picked up Silverstein and was looking to create an opportunity for them too. I discussed with Dave about a Silverstein/WCAR tour and that’s when Scott from our office brought up Emery being a good fit. Shortly after Yogi brought up a cool idea of always wanting to brand a tour, so we all planned it out and rolled with it. Yogi and I spent months in the office working until late night just to make sure this was done the right way. After the first year the bands seemed to be happy, the fans seemed to enjoy it, and Silverstein had one of their best headliners of their career.

How is it unique from other tour packages?

MS: Well, this year in particular we decided to add fifty cities and hit majors and secondaries. We were discussing an Attack Attack!/WCAR tour and knew we couldn’t put them all in the same markets they just played in March/April. Both We Came As Romans and Attack Attack! did headliners in the spring and having them go out again in the summer playing the same cities wasn’t the best move for everyone. We decided to have them hit a lot of new markets they haven’t hit as much instead. Also, we didn’t want to alienate our fan base so we still had Acacia Strain headline major cities and be sure kids were still getting SILYMI in their city. A few people are upset that not all the bands are coming to their city, but this way they are at least getting a show. SILYMI is hitting 50 cities this summer. That’s more than any other tour summer tour in this genre.

How/why did you choose the bands on this one?

MS: We just went with our gut. All of us involved in the tour have years of experience from booking or managing bands. We understand you have to add the big headliner type bands, the experienced established bands, and some baby bands. If you mix it well and add bands people want to see – people will come see them!

Any unique stories on why you chose to work with some of these specific sponsors?

YA: Well we have always had a strong relationship with the guys at Merch Now. At this point in our careers we have done A LOT of business with them, so we consider them family at this point. Merch Now has been a primary sponsor of the tour now for three years. We went with LA GEAR to co-sponsor the tour this year because they are really starting to resonate with a lot of the same audience as this tour. They are also collaborating with a lot of unique artists such as LMFAO, Hypercrush, and many others in the club scene. We wanted to have a unique sponsor for this tour that would set it apart from all the other summer festival tours out there already.

Where are some surprises that attendees can expect at this year’s tour dates?

YA: A lot of chaos honestly, especially with 18 bands performing on the GOLD dates. Maybe some special guest appearances? I guess you will have to go to the show to find out.

Anything else you’d like to add?

YA: I am personal fan of this magazine and I remember going to Christian bookstores reading it and getting stoked on the band interviews. I am excited to be apart of this. Matthew and I hope to see you most of reading this at the shows this year!