As they played two sets each day at Reading & Leeds festival, we caught up with West and Matt from Neck Deep to talk live shows and their upcoming plans.
RS: Tell us about preparing to play the two different sets on the same day?
WEST: Yeah, lots more songs – there is not a repeat song. So, yeah, lots of practice.
MATT: Lots of, ‘Oh shit. How do you play the bit?’ Half the prep was picking the fucking setlist.
WEST: It’s hard, especially when people are like ‘Oh, why aren’t you playing that one? Why aren’t you playing this one?’ We literally can’t. We’re not doing a third set.
MATT: Honestly, it was so sick to play ‘The Beach Is For Lovers’ and ‘I Hope This Comes Back To Haunt You’ and ‘Serpents’ and just hear everybody singing those bits loud. This was the first time we’d ever played ‘The Beach Is For Lovers’ at a proper show.
WEST: It’s the first time we’ve played ‘Haunt You’ in the UK and that opening riff to that song has been haunting my life for the past three months.
RS: It has got to feel extra special this weekend playing the same day as Blink-182, a band that have always been such an important inspiration to you.
WEST: They shouted us out on main stage last night, and we went ballistic. It was like we were four again. I’m surprised you couldn’t hear us over the PA, we were going insane. So yeah, it’s still cool to just even be on the same bill as them. I think we’ve waxed poetic about blink so much in the past 13 years that everyone knows how we feel about that band. To see them last night like in full force was just insane.
RS: You played your biggest ever headliner at London’s Alexandra Palace earlier this year. How are you reflecting now on that very special show?
WEST: It’s been a goal of ours for years and years and we were meant to do it before the pandemic and then it got pushed back, and we didn’t feel like we were in a position to maybe go into it at the time. It’s always been this white whale,the big Moby Dick of the Neck Deep world. So to get it done, and get it done in our way as well – all of us collectively put so much effort into that show across the board, more than maybe even some people realise. We were all so hands on with every single aspect of it. So to see it all come into fruition was kind of crazy.
RS: And now you have just announced the UK tour with The Wonder Years and One Step Closer joining you too. A great lineup and a really nice mix of venues.
WEST: We’re stoked on it. It’s strange, our first real, big venue tour that we ever did was with The Wonder Years. We got on to some of the dates for ‘The Greatest Generation’ anniversary shows. So to have done that and then them come back and wanna support us is crazy. I’m just blown away by that. And then One Step Closer we’ve become quite friendly with. We wanted to take them out on a tour for a while but have been holding off. We want wanted to give them a big tour for everyone.
RS: At When We Were Young Festival in October you will playing ‘Life’s Not Out To Get You’ in full. How is the prep going for those shows?
MATT: We beat the curve with it. We’ve been swapping in and out all the songs that never get played live across festivals or the B-shows that we’ve been doing on the festival run. I think ‘Rock Bottom’ is the only one that we haven’t played, and is the only one that will be playing that hasn’t been in the set. We’re getting older, we’ve got to be prepared.
Catch Neck Deep at the tour dates below:
JANUARY 2025
24 – BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
25 – MANCHESTER O2 Victoria Warehouse
26 – GLASGOW O2 Academy Glasgow
28 – NEWCASTLE NX
29 – NOTTINGHAM Rock CIty
30 – BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
31 – SWANSEA Swansea Arena