I hung out with bassist Eric Halvorsen of A Rocket to the Moon before he took the stage on the Take Action tour. Find out who influences him and the most awkward moment he's encountered with a fan.

Brianna: So, what’s the best part about touring?
Eric: I mean, there’s a lot of good things about it, for sure. Playing shows every night, alone, is just amazing. Playing music and playing in front of kids, actually, is very cool. The fact that you don’t really have any responsibilities is kind of nice. We just basically hang out all day with our friends and kind of just do whatever is nice.

Brianna: What would you say is the worst part?
Eric: Just being away from home and not being very healthy, I guess. You know, ‘cause you’re always running on little sleep so I guess those two things for sure. Just not being around your friends and family all the time and stuff like that.

Brianna: Do you ever lose friendships because you’re not home enough?
Eric: Umm, I wouldn’t say I lose them, it’s just kind of, it’s hard to keep in touch with all of the friends that I have back home. But usually whenever I go home I reconnect with them and have lunch and stuff [laughs].

Brianna: What would be your dream tour to be apart of?
Eric: Jeez, umm, [short pause] I don’t know, I’d say something like just with our friends. I’d love to tour with bands that I admire, like it’d be cool to be like uh, Manchester Orchestra, Metric, Death Cab; a tour like that, it wouldn’t really make sense though, I think, so, just to be out with all of my friends’ bands would be awesome: The Maine, Eye Alaska, A Cursive Memory, This Providence, the list goes on.
Brianna: Some good bands in there.
Eric: A big super tour, it would be the ultimate friend tour.

Brianna: Now, how many record labels did you consider, or considered you, before you signed with Fueled By Ramen?
Eric: Umm, we considered a couple but there wasn’t really that many. Yeah, it was only a few, maybe like one or two other ones that considered us.

Brianna: Okay. What bands have you been listening to nonstop lately?
Eric: I really like this band called The Temper Trap right now.
Brianna: Oh, they’re good.
Eric: Umm, what else? I like The Talking Heads a lot right now, my throwback band right now. I always listen to Metric and I always listen to Manchester Orchestra. I’ve been getting bored with the music that I’ve been listening to so I’ve been trying to listen to the stuff that’s on my iPod that I haven’t listened to, or rarely listen to; just stuff like that.

Brianna: Have you ever been pushed to the point where you thought you couldn’t do this anymore or you just wanted to stop?
Eric: Umm, yeah, I mean, there’s days where we all hate each other and want to kill each other, so, days like that you’re like “God, I just want to be at home” or not have to worry about the other stuff but usually after we’re like fighting or something we always make up and then I realize like “I’m an idiot. This is probably the best thing that I could be doing right now over anything else.” Unless I was like a pro surfer or something like that [laughs]. Sometimes I get crazy thoughts but I realize I’m just being stupid.

Brianna: What’s your most bizarre fan encounter?
Eric: Umm [thinks about it a moment], I always hate when kids ask you to take a piggyback picture, I don’t know if you know what I’m talking about.
Brianna: Ohhh yeah.
Eric: But it’s like for me to jump on their back to take a picture.
Brianna: It’s just awkward.
Eric: I’ve done it once and it was one of the most uncomfortable experiences in my life so I’m not doing that again.
Brianna: [laughs]
Eric: But yeah, just weird things like that gets kind of, most kids are always awesome but there’s always those random kids… [gets distracted by someone in the hallway]. Hey! I saw that jacket yesterday; I like it. Nice! [apologizes for the random thought] There’s always one or two kids at every show that think, you know, for some reason you guys are like able to overstep that boundary of respect, not respect, but you know, that I’m in a band or anything but that I’m just a person.
Brianna: Yeah, they don’t even know you.
Eric: A stranger that I’ve just met that night, you know, and they’re asking me to do things or telling me things that are just like, “Would you say this to some random person on the street?” So, it’s just always, those kind of things are kind of weird to me and people just don’t realize that I’m just a dude…on tour…not better than anyone else.

Brianna: What is your favorite song off of On Your Side?
Eric: I don’t know, that’s hard. I like playing "Give A Damn" a lot. I like playing "Baby Blue Eyes". We’ve been playing like this kind of different version of "Sometimes" on this tour and we were in L.A. and Brandon from Eye Alaska came out and sang with us, like his part, I don’t know if you’ve noticed that he sings on the track; and he came out and sang that so that’s probably one of the coolest moments…ever. I don’t know why but it’s just so awesome for him to come and sing that with us live. Yeah, I kind of always change what songs I like.

Brianna: Do you ever get sick of them though because you have to play them so much?
Eric: Umm, I mean there’s nights where I’m just like “Ahh, I don’t want to play this song”; but not really.
Brianna: You just gotta get through it.
Eric: Yeah, it’s not like a terrible thing, you know?

Brianna: Yeah. Uhh, this is kind of random but who were you rooting for, for the Superbowl?
Eric: Umm, I didn’t really care. I was rooting for the Colts because I have a friend who actually plays for the Colts.
Brianna: Oh, really!?
Eric: Yeah, his name is Mike Pollak. He’s like my friend Max’s brother’s best friend.
Brianna: [laughs]
Eric: Maybe that makes sense, yeah. So I grew up with this dude, like he went to high school with me and now he plays for the Colts which is insane. I don’t think he played in the Superbowl ‘cause he wasn’t starting, I think he got injured or something. That’s why I was rooting for them.

Brianna: Who are your musical influences?
Eric: Oh God. Umm, that’s a hard question. Everything and anything that I like, like everything, I guess. Anything that I listen to somehow influences me, I don’t know [laughs]. Any of my favorite bands that I love, like I said, I love Metric, I love Death Cab, I love Manchester, I love Sigur Ros. So many different bands and each one of those bands definitely influences me in a different way.

Brianna: For my last question—What do you want to accomplish in your music career?
Eric: I guess to just always be happy with what I’m doing and be confident with what I’m doing and, I guess, to be able to do it for as long as I possibly can. You know, just be comfortable as far as living goes and stuff like that; to be able to sustain myself with my music which is ultimately the best thing that can happen.

Photo courtesy of Sara Feigin