Interview: My Ticket Home

My Ticket Home, including vocalist Nick Giumenti, bassist Luke Fletcher, guitarists Sean Mackowski and Eli Ford and drummer Marshal Giumenti formed out of Columbus, OH about two years ago.  The guys are excited to say that their debut EP The Opportunity To Be will be available this Tuesday Nov. 9, 2010 through Rise Records.  The guys are looking to keep touring and work hard to create a full-length album in the near future.  I got to exchange some questions with vocalist Nick Giumenti and find out more about My Ticket Home and their future plans.


Angela: How did My Ticket Home get started?
Our band got started because about two years ago when [guitarist/vocals] Sean and myself [vocalist] Nick, we taking bass and guitar lessons from the same teacher. My brother [drummer] Marshal was taking drum lessons at the same shop and one day our teacher suggested that we have Marshal learn a song with us. So we did that and continued learning to cover other songs and then eventually one night we tried writing our own. We started getting more serious about it, found additional members and then recorded our first song.

Angela: How did you sign to Rise Records?
Well we grew up watching our friends in Attack Attack! as their band progressed and got signed and we had heard nothing but good things about Rise from them so naturally Rise was definitely the label we were most aware of. We played Attack Attacks! CD release show and at the show [Attack Attack!] introduced us to a lot of important people at Rise that had shown up to support the show. Since the show, we remained in contact with them and they started expressing interest in us as a band. We were in communication with a few other labels but no one showed us the same amount of attention as Rise. So we discusses numbers etc., and we feel very fortunate to have such a solid label supporting our band. 

Angela: Describe your sound.

Nowadays hardcore music is a genre that is grossly over populated and filled with too many bands all doing the same thing. Now I'm not going to claim that our band is some breakthrough new band that is amazingly unique or something. We just want to create music that we like to listen to, music that we are proud of. Our goal as a band is to create straightforward hardcore music that is tasteful and passionate, whether we accomplish that goal, as always, is for the listener to decide.

Angela: Who are your influences, as band?
That's a tough question. For me my influences are constantly changing depending on what I'm most excited about at the time. Right now my current ones would be, Underoath, The Chariot, Anberlin, and Stick To Your Guns

Angela: What plans do you have for touring this upcoming fall and spring?

Well unfortunately we kinda missed the train for the fall/winter tours because they are all booked so unless a band drops off a tour or something like that we might be looking at waiting until spring to get chance to tour. Which sucks because that's our bands main goal at the moment, so if anyone there can help us out let us know!

Angela: Will your EP be available in stores?

The Opportunity To Be is going to be released digitally on iTunes on Nov. 9th (which is in 2 days!), but the only way to get a physical copy will be to buy them from us on tour.

Angela: What has been your biggest highlight as a band thus far?

Well my personal highlight was playing shows and driving around with my friends in the van, but I suppose the highlight for our band would be getting signed and releasing our debut CD.

Angela: What do you see in My Ticket Home's future?

Well our goal would be to start touring a ton, release our first full length, which we have already started writing for, continue to tour, see the country, meet friends and fans, and continue to earn our success as a band.

Angela: Any crazy tour stories yet?

Well we weren't on tour, but we were at a venue in West Virginia, and Marshal and our friend Will Hash were messing around behind the stage, and they found a ladder that lead up to the top of the stage ceiling which was made of dry-wall. And Marshal being the sharp explorer that he is, managed to climb about five feet out on the ceiling before falling completely through it into the stage. There was debris everywhere it was really, really funny.

Angela: Anything else you want fans to know about you guys?
Not particularly, we are just a group of friends who love writing and performing music and we are very excited about the opportunities we've been given. So thanks for your interest and for reading this!


Make sure you check My Ticket Home out at http://www.myspace.com/mytickethome. Also make sure you get their EP The Opportunity To Be on Nov. 9 available through iTunes for $5.99 or if you catch them at a show you can buy a hard copy.
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