Australian natives With Confidence have just completed their second run on the Vans Warped Tour and are gearing up to the release of their sophomore album. At the Wantagh date of the tour, the three of them caught up with GoldenPlec to talk all things second album and approaching releasing music in 2018.

In the lead up to the release of 'Love And Loathing', the group are feeling nothing but positive, as singer Jayden Seeley explains, "We're excited to get it out. It’s come by really quickly, I’m just excited to see how people respond to it.”

We often hear about the difficulties of the dreaded second album, but With Confidence explain that they didn't really face this curse. They did, however, approach things differently. As Brozzesi explains, “there was a lot more writing on our computer in the past, we’ve always just jammed out in my parents shed. Then, the last two years we’ve pretty much been touring and there was really no time to jam and take our time. It was a different way of writing. It’s more demo based and it was a different producer. We’ve done everything else in Australia previously but we worked with Mike Green in LA for this one and it was just different, drums were last, we were writing on the fly...”

Mike Green is a household name for anyone in the alternative music scene. He has worked with a vast array of big names, including the likes of All Time Low, Sum 41 and New Found Glory. Speaking of the experience of now being added to that list, With Confidence are clearly excited. “It was sick,” Brozzesi explains, “like, that first Paramore record, 'All We Know Is Falling', my sister bought that on CD and it was one of the first alternative bands I listened to after Blink and Green Day, so it was cool to talk to him about that.”

Although the change in producer also brought on its own challenges, most notably a different approach than the band were used to. “He’s very efficient and makes snap decisions,” Brozzesi laughs “and I’m the kind of guy that's indecisive for a year."

“We dwell on things so much,” says guitarist Inigo Del Carmen “so it was a change.”

Brozzesi explains that it took some adjusting to get used to. “All three of us are pretty loud with our opinions so to have a fourth person who was also loud… It was chaos, but everyone wants the best product, everyone is passionate because they care.”

Having been touring pretty consistently for the last two years, it might seem that With Confidence couldn’t have written a new record, however Seeley explains that he likes writing on the road. “I think it brings a more emotional side out. When you’re on the road you have a lot of time to think and get inside your head a bit more. I feel personally more connected to a song I write on the road.”

Whereas Carmen isn't as sure whether he prefers it or not, “like if you’re on the road you can channel whatever you’re feeling, but if you’re at home and you have nothing going on or something has happened it’s easier to carve it out. I think jamming is how I love to do things.”

Ahead of the release, With Confidence have released three singles. First one up was That Something and they explain that the song was a special one as soon as they wrote it. Seeley says, "I wrote it in the back of the bus, we jammed it for the first time in the shed, and I remember after we played it we were like "fuck, that was really easy." If something comes together so quickly and it’s effortless I think that’s a good sign.”

Then, the three felt that they wanted to put out a song that older fans would connect to. “Jaded to me sounds like it could've been off the last record,” Brozzesi points out, “so the reasoning for us was for the older fans who have been with us for a few years to show that there’s some familiarity and something similar.”

Then two days ago they released Moving Boxes. When we were catching up with them, the band were excited about this video, “It's probably my favourite video we've done” says Brozzesi. “The actors we got were amazing, it's hard to convey emotion without speech, really natural. The crew were super amazing.” Impressively, they filmed this video while they were on the Vans Warped Tour, they had two off days after the California date and they used those days to film the video as quick as they could.

Speaking of giving older fans something to enjoy, With Confidence talk about the difficulties of navigating the relationship between trying to be free artistically and keep old fans happy. Seeley reassures fans that this album will not alienate them. “It’s not a leap but it’s a step, I feel like it’s so important for a band not to stay still.”

“I think bands should write whatever they’re feeling," Brozzesi says, “even if it doesn’t sound like your band. We’ve worried about that before and then they’ve been our biggest songs.”

Although they clearly feel passionately about this, they are not naive to the fact that there are certain hurdles in the way. “It is a hard thing to navigate,” Brozzesi admits, “because you also have a label and ultimately their job is to sell records. However cool your label is, they want a single, they want a song for radio and these are factors that every band deals with. It just depends how you act on it. So I feel like if you make something honest and real people will like it, without even knowing that’s why… If you go in saying, we need to write a song that will sell a million copies, you’re already fucking up because you’re doing it for the wrong reasons.”

They also feel that releasing an album in 2018 has its own responsibilities, such as having an online presence. Carmen points out that he is not particularly fond of the social media side of being in a band. “I didn’t have a twitter but Josh was like, ‘bro, you have to get one, it will help the band.’ It’s the evolution of music now, you need to use technology.”

And social media isn’t the only technological challenge. As Brozzesi explains, “even the way streaming works now – our label were like, the first four track listed songs should be the four singles and that’s interesting because years ago the big songs would’ve been like track three and seven. Now, because of streaming someone checks out the record and they only check out the first few songs you want them to be the singles. It’s nuts, it’s totally a different way.”

Even when it comes to recording the album, the new ways people are listening to music has a bearing. “I remember when we were mastering our first record,” Seeley reminisces, “we were listening to it in our cars and on speakers and the guy was like ‘yeah, it sounds sick in our car but have you listened to it with crappy Apple earphones? Because that's what everyone is listening to it on now.’” Thus the way the group approach recording has evolved over the last few years.

If the reception for the first three singles is anything to go by, fans are in for a treat with 'Love and Loathing' and the future of With Confidence is looking very, very bright.

‘Love and Loathing’ is out now.